Inner Guidance Training

Finding your life's purpose

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Introduction

The program is simple to do and takes place over a 6 day period with follow up. It is designed to be part of your daily experience, rather than separate from it. If you lead a busy life from Monday to Friday, consider doing the program over 3 weekends.

Alternatively you could do it during a week's holiday.

The lessons learned from the program will last a lifetime. Very possibly it will change the way you think about the nature of work and the means used to earn a living.

Expected benefits include:

• Finding a direction for your life that feels right
• Discovering a powerful sense of purpose
• Becoming engaged in work that you were born to do
• Developing your character
• Increasing your creativity
• Uncovering within yourself a deep all pervading joy

D = DO Nothing
I = INTEGRATE Values with Feelings
R = RECEIVE Your Calling
E = EXPRESS Your Calling
C = COME to Conclusions
T = TEST the Waters
I = INVITE Inspiration
O = ORGANIZE People and Resources
N = NEVER Give Up

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to carry out the 6 day DIRECTION program in the order it is presented including the follow up, and then to take what you have learned and allow yourself to be transformed by it - let these 6 days be your hive and let yourself emerge at the end transformed into a busy bee.

Wallace Huey and Peter Shepherd wish you every success as you embark on this program of personal transformation.

Inner Guidance Training

Day 1: DO Nothing

Starting Point

Holding your intention to let go of the current direction your life is taking and to seek a new direction.
Before we start to learn about the wonders of working with inner guidance we need to have a focus. Inner guidance only works when we focus it – to achieve that we need to set our intention.

So today's first task is to set your intention - to let go of your current direction and seek a new one – then to hold your intention.
To hold an intention, simply hold the issue and your intention to address it, in your awareness. If you feel it will help, write your intention down and carry it with you at all times until your intention has been fulfilled to your satisfaction. Now move on to Lesson 1 below.

Lesson 1 of DIRECTION

D = DO Nothing

Learning to let go of your current direction and create an empty space out of which your new direction and Life Purpose will evolve.

Before we learn to dream dreams and envision visions of incomparable clarity and value, we need to do some groundwork. This first day is a day with lots of empty space. I need you to appreciate the value of empty space in helping you make major breakthroughs in your sense of Life Purpose and in your creativity. Today you are going to do nothing, and if you can get away from your normal environment while you do nothing, so much the better. What is the purpose of this do nothing get away day? Today I want you to let go of your attachment to your previous occupation. If you are in a demanding job which brings in a steady income on which you and your family are dependant don't worry - there is no need to let go of your job at this point – what I am asking you to do is to let go of your attachment to your job!

If you feel nervous at the prospect of letting go don't be - you are in control at all times. Today is a day for solitary reflection, contemplation and letting go. You may wish to go on a long walk and bring a picnic, sit on a beach and watch the waves or stay at home by a log fire – whatever you choose to do I want you to lovingly contemplate the role your current occupation has had in your life, appreciate all the good things that occupation gave you, mentally thank everyone who has been a part of that working experience and say goodbye – let it all go. If you find you shed a few tears as you do this so much the better. Do not skip this lesson – it is absolutely vital that you take some time to yourself to let go of your attachment to your current occupation before moving to day 2 - lesson 2.

Example
David was in his 40's and worked as a project manager on a busy construction site in San Francisco. He commuted in to work every day from their country home. David's mother had died suddenly a few months earlier. This blunt reminder of his own mortality had prompted him to re-evaluate his working life. On the first day of the program he went for a walk in the hills of Marin County on his own. At one point on the walk he sat alone in the woods and looked out over San Rafael and thought about his current occupation – it gave him and his family a good income and he enjoyed the work but since his mother's death he felt a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction. He just knew he didn't want to spend his whole life just doing this job. So he began to think of all the benefits the job had given him, thanked all the people he worked with, shed a few tears and let his attachment to the job go.

Today's Lesson

I want you to have a Do Nothing day in which you let go of your attachment to your current occupation.

Day 2: INTEGRATE

Starting Point

Continue with:

• Holding your intention to let go of your existing direction and find a new one
• Working with Lesson 1 – DO Nothing – letting go

and add lesson 2 to today's activities - see below.

Lesson 2 of DIRECTION

I = INTEGRATE Values with Feelings

To become aware of the many different feelings, intuitions, and imaginings you have about finding a new direction. To become clear about the values that matter most to you.

Today I invite you to draw on your inner guidance to bring to the surface the many different feelings, intuitions and imaginings you have about your new direction and dream occupation. So the first task is to create the optimum environment for your inner guidance to reveal its suggestions. To help with this I have created the following drawing that will help focus inner guidance. If you download the PDF version of this Training, print out this STAR DIAGRAM (on page 4) and place it somewhere prominent where you can have instant access to write on it as and when needed.

What are the values I wish to express through my Life Purpose?
What are my natural skills, talents, strengths and weaknesses?

Above the STAR DIAGRAM are two questions. First - "What are the values that I wish to express through my Life Purpose?" Values are principles you consider important in your life, e.g. honesty, caring about the environment/the homeless/natural medicine, doing what you say, being a good leader/employee/marriage partner etc. Secondly - "What are my natural skills, talents, strengths and weaknesses?"

I want you to "live with these questions" as you go about your daily activities. Living with questions helps prompt your inner guidance. To live with these two questions, hold them gently in your awareness and remember them occasionally as you go about your day. As you do this you need to maintain a particular kind of alertness – a type of inner listening – and be ready to note down along each radiating arm of the drawing, each piece of information as it comes through. It is vital that you continue with Lesson 1 as you do this so that you have times in your day where you do nothing – these may be the most productive times for sensing inner guidance, and that you continue to let go of your attachment to your current occupation as you do this. When everything has "come through", take the completed page and display it in a prominent position in your home/workplace.

Example
David was feeling refreshed but also a little anxious as to where these lessons might be leading. He felt that it might be a while before he could let go of his attachment to his job completely because he was very aware of the income it generated. "If I go off on some tangent will it work out?" was what he was thinking that morning. However David printed out the STAR DIAGRAM and kept it where he could write on it. He remembered these two questions and got on with his Sunday activities, remembering to take times to do nothing. He wondered what it meant that inner guidance "came through." "Surely I initiate my own thoughts," he mused.

Then in the middle of watering the garden while under the tree he had sudden memories of building tree houses when he was young and then going on to build a gazebo in the garden, eventually finding his way into the construction industry as a project manager. So he went inside and wrote down building on his drawing. When he was there he also realised that he liked a challenge, was good at leading a team of people but felt intuitively that he was weak on administration so he wrote the key words, like a challenge, poor administrator and good team leader along the lines of the drawing. He remembered how, when he was a student, he loved to travel, so he added travel to his STAR DIAGRAM. David was getting the hang of inner guidance now and by the end of the day the diagram was full of what had "come through" – he even had to draw a few extra lines. On those extra lines he wrote his values, which included serving the poor.

Today's Lesson

To "live with" your questions and write down what "comes through."

Day 3: RECEIVE

Starting Point

Continue with:

• Holding your intention to let go of your existing direction and find a new one
• Working with Lesson 1 – DO Nothing – letting go
• Working with Lesson 2 – INTEGRATE Values with Feelings – becoming aware

and add lesson 3 to today's activities - see below.

Lesson 3 of DIRECTION

R = RECEIVE Your Calling

To tune in to your inner guidance, so that you receive subtle suggestions as to the new direction you need to take.

Today I want you to dream dreams and envision visions that will take you from the world as it is now into the world as you want it to be. However these are not going to be any old dreams or visions. What you are going to dream today are visions that will meet the most urgent and pressing needs of humankind. This is what distinguishes Life Purpose from everyday work. It is the urgency of The Calling, the power of The Intent and the clarity of The Vision to meet the most Pressing Needs of Our Age. This is a wonderful age we are living in so why not consent to live it fully. A new more wonderful age is soon to be upon us. You are going to help in that transition.

I want you to contemplate the STAR DIAGRAM so that you feel drawn toward a particular human need to which you can begin to devote your life. Do not fret and strain for an answer. Play with ideas on a separate piece of paper as they come through. Take longer than today for this process if necessary. Great visions can happen in an instant or they can form slowly over time. Give yourself to the spontaneity of the moment.

You may receive a strong powerful leading as to the need you are going to serve, however your inner guidance will more likely be faint and delicate in these early stages. When you sense that you have identified a need that feels right, however tentative, write it in pencil in the centre of the circle STAR DIAGRAM. Write it in pencil so you can rub it out if necessary. When you have written it in the centre of the page revisit the diagram and continue to contemplate the need written in the centre. Does it continue to feel right? Does serving this need use the talents, skills and strengths in the STAR DIAGRAM? Does it avoid your weaknesses? Would serving this need express the values you hold dear? If thoughts of serving this need creates a sense of excitement, that is good. If you feel nervous at the thoughts of serving this need, don't worry – soon the whole world will be joining in the dance to support your efforts.

If after today you cannot sense what need is to be written in the centre of the circle, then take an extra day/days to contemplate the STAR DIAGRAM. If after a number of days and weeks you are no further forward then this means you are not ready to discover your life's purpose and you need to continue on your present path, learning the lessons that are their for you. Keep the diagram and someday it may speak to you about your purpose and mission in life.

Example
David decided to do this lesson on a Saturday when he could have a relaxing day pottering in the garden. He posted his STAR DIAGRAM on the door of his garden shed. That day he pottered in his garden and every now and then would sit under the eucalyptus tree and contemplate his STAR DIAGRAM posted onto his shed wall. Then suddenly from nowhere he realised he wanted to use his interest in building to serve the homeless. After considering this for a while he wrote serve the homeless as the need to which he wanted to start and devote his life.

Today's Lesson

Learn to Catch the Inner Voice by asking inner guidance questions that will enable you to express the strong emotions you are experiencing and to become increasingly sensitive to its subtle promptings.

Day 4: EXPRESS

Starting Point

Continue with:

• Holding your intention to let go of your existing direction and find a new one
• Working with Lesson 1 – DO Nothing – letting go
• Working with Lesson 2 – INTEGRATE Values with Feelings –
• Working with Lesson 3 - RECEIVE Your Calling – becoming intuitive

and add lesson 4 to today's activities - see below.

Lesson 4 of DIRECTION

E = EXPRESS Your Calling

To illustrate and /or write about your calling in whatever way seems natural so that it gradually becomes clearer.

Now that you have a tentative sense of the need you feel drawn to serve, I am inviting you to use today to express how you might serve that need. The "how" is your Life Purpose. Get lots of paper and write about your purpose. Do not structure the writing – it is not for publication – write in whatever way comes naturally. I want you to create a vision of yourself working to achieve your dream. If you are a visual person and you like drawing, then draw. Use this as an opportunity to escape from the world as it is into the world as it could be. Let your imagination roam and let your writing and drawing devour the pages. Today is a day for fun and make believe. Who says you cannot do so and so and such and such. In your imagination you can do anything. Do not be concerned at what is going onto the page or how it will all work – let it flow in all its rampant abundance. Pay particular attention to information that seems to come to you unaided, as if from a place unknown. When you receive intuitions from that source, open up this channel for the ideas, thoughts, impressions images and sensations to flow through you straight onto the page. What a joy to receive from your inner guidance what you have always longed to do. As you let your imagination flow, pin up your drawings and musings where they can be seen. At the end of today you will have a lot more material on which to contemplate - the STAR DIAGRAM and all your drawings, writings and musings.

Example
David had doubts about how he could serve the homeless. "Trying to serve the homeless in the bay area is fraught with problems," he said to himself. So he wrote that down. Then his mind wandered to where he knew there were lots of homeless – over the border in Mexico. "The planning laws are not as strict there – he thought – and land values are a lot lower. Hmmm." So he wrote all that down as well. By the end of the day David had a vision. In his holiday time he was going to gather together a team of tradesmen from the various construction sites in San Francisco and take them over the border to Mexico and build 20 homes for the homeless. "That's a great vision", he thought, "That sits right with me."

Today's Lesson

To begin to form your Life Purpose by writing and illustrating how you are going to serve your chosen need.

Day 5: COME

Starting Point

Continue with:

• Holding your intention to let go of your existing direction and find a new one
• Working with Lesson 1 – DO Nothing – letting go
• Working with Lesson 2 – INTEGRATE Values with Feelings –
• Working with Lesson 3 - RECEIVE Your Calling – becoming intuitive
• Working with Lesson 4 – EXPRESS Your Calling – becoming clearer

and add lesson 5 to today's activities - see below.

Lesson 5 of DIRECTION

C = COME To Conclusions

To take time out to contemplate all that has gone before so that you gain clarity about your new direction and Life Purpose.

All the drawings, writings and musings that you have pinned up together represent your Life Purpose. Today I want to invite you to fall in love with your Life Purpose. You've experienced the courtship, now is the time to consider marriage. As with choosing your soul mate or spiritual teacher, there has to be a love connection, heart to heart and soul to soul. Your soul needs to reach out and recognise in your vision a pale shadow of itself. Your soul will want to commit to your vision if it recognises this love match – for this vision, if correct, is none other than your soul's perfect training ground for enlightenment.

To assist with this, pin up the STAR DIAGRAM and all your musings in the one place, where you can contemplate them. Today is a day for falling in love with your STAR DIAGRAM and musings. In your Do Nothing times, meditate on what you have written. Appreciate these pages. See if you are falling in love with what they represent – your heart's desire, your soul's longing for release. If you are this is a good sign. You are recognizing something – your Life Purpose and your destiny.

Example
When David pinned up all his writings and the STAR DIAGRAM, his first thought was, "Who am I to house the homeless in Mexico?" Then he remembered that he liked a challenge and he thought "Why can't I?" When he asked this question in came a flood of problems – "Where am I going to get the trades people, money and land to do this task?" he thought. Then he decided to put these issues to one side and focus on whether this really was the project for him. "Do I love this project?" he asked himself. The answer came back clearly – "Yes I love this project – there is nothing else I would rather do". He was quite clear about his. At the end of the day David felt a mixture of apprehension and excitement. He did not know what he was getting into, but he could feel it calling him.

Today's Lesson

To come to conclusions as to whether you have found your Life Purpose.

Day 6: TEST

Starting Point

Continue with:

• Holding your intention to let go of your existing direction and find a new one
• Working with Lesson 1 – DO Nothing – letting go
• Working with Lesson 2 – INTEGRATE Values with Feelings –
• Working with Lesson 3 - RECEIVE Your Calling – becoming intuitive
• Working with Lesson 4 – EXPRESS Your Calling – becoming clearer
• Working with Lesson 5 – COME To Conclusions – becoming clear

and add lesson 6 to today's activities - see below.

Lesson 6 of DIRECTION

T = TEST the Waters

To test this new direction and see if it feels right, so that your confidence will begin to grow.

Today is a day for sharing. I want you to take your Life Purpose as expressed on your various pages and share it with people close to you who are positive, life-affirming and supportive. Your Life Purpose is like a delicate flower, do not expose it to the harsh winds of negativity and criticism. Choose carefully who you share it with. Invite feedback from these positive, life- affirming people who know you well. Ask them if they think this purpose suits you. Ask them for help in beginning to travel in this new direction. Do they have resources, contacts or leads that could support you in getting started?

Example
David decided to share his vision with his wife and with some colleagues on the construction site in town. He was pleasantly surprised at their response. "That's a great project Dave," the site foreman said. One of the men on the site, whose parents were Mexican, offered to join up – which surprised him. Most importantly his wife was supportive. "Some of the people over the border are dirt poor. If you could build 20 homes for homeless Mexicans I'd be really proud of you", she said.

Today's Lesson

To test out your vision with life-affirming people, and see if they are supportive.

Follow up

Continue with:

• Holding your intention to let go of your existing direction and find a new one
• Working with Lesson 1 – DO Nothing – letting go
• Working with Lesson 2 – INTEGRATE Values with Feelings –
• Working with Lesson 3 - RECEIVE Your Calling – becoming intuitive
• Working with Lesson 4 – EXPRESS Your Calling – becoming clearer
• Working with Lesson 5 – COME To Conclusions – becoming clear
• Working with Lesson 6 – TEST the Waters – sensing rightness

and add lessons 7, 8 & 9 to the following months activities - see below.

Lessons 7, 8 and 9 are follow up lessons to the first 6 "find your new direction" lessons. They are to be carried out over the coming months and even years as you become more committed to your Life Purpose. These are the more practical lessons designed to help you ground your imagination into the real world and make it concrete. Taking on these lessons marks a turning point, moving from imagination to reality. Following them will elicit commitment to the new direction and the protracted expenditure of time, energy and money.

These lessons also represent the fulfilment of a dream, new challenges and great joy in the work undertaken, as your skills, talents and strengths line up with your most deeply held values and are expressed in your working life to serve one of the most pressing needs of humankind. Living your dream will bring you more joy than any other aspect of your life. Serving your chosen need will take you beyond the narrow confines of your ego and into a more expansive consciousness where you will experience a greater connectedness with life and with Spirit. Living your dream will reveal the true nature of love and heal your heart and soul.

Follow up 1: INVITE

Lesson 7 of DIRECTION

I = INVITE Inspiration

To invite inspiration and let it supply you with energy to undertake your mission.

Now that you have settled on your Life Purpose, are clear about it and have tested the waters, how do you feel? Do you feel excited, energised, uplifted and positive? In short do you feel inspired? If not work on the previous 6 lessons until you do. It is essential for the creative person to return to their vision and polish, enhance, refine and renew it on regular occasions. It is the clarity of your vision, the extent to which it meets the needs of your time and the way in which it expresses what you value that, taken together, will provide the inspiration for your journey.

From now on keep your vision ever in front of your mind's eye and hold it deep in your heart. Attend to it regularly like you would a new born child. Frame your vision in a new more concrete set of intentions that will continue to focus your inner guidance and your actions, as you begin to work to ground your vision, taking it down from the world of imagination into the everyday world of time, material and space. Every time you loose direction or momentum go back and re-polish your vision and inspiration will arise once again. It is a great work you are about to do – let your body, mind and Spirit, rise to the occasion and sing aloud together in harmony as you launch yourself into action.

Example In the coming months David felt increasingly excited about his vision. He noticed that the everyday tasks like rising in the morning and going into work were easier. He seemed to have more zip in his step. He had started to do some serious research into his plans and was beginning to see how his vision could be polished and refined and that it actually could work. As he felt it becoming realistic and practical his enthusiasm rose even more. David had always tried to motivate himself through creating challenging deadlines that would force him to perform. But this was different. Now he felt buoyed up on an ocean of energy that came not only from him but from others as well. "So this must be what it feels like to be inspired", he thought.

Today's Lesson

To work on and fine tune your vision so that you become increasingly inspired.

Follow up 2: ORGANIZE

Lesson 8 of DIRECTION

O = ORGANIZE People and Resources

To gather together the people and resources that are needed for your project to become viable.

People and resources will become available to you if you have worked through the 7 previous lessons. How can I be so sure? Because it is spiritual law that when someone is engaged in a project that uses their talents, skills and strengths, that is in line with their values and is meeting one of the most pressing needs of humankind, that people and resources become available. But first you will need to do some groundwork to attract those resources. The groundwork involves sharing your vision with others who you feel may be interested. It is through that process of sharing your vision that you will attract the people and resources you need to start your project.

If possible start your new project while still engaged in your present occupation. Then as your project develops you may be able to scale back your current occupation and put more energy into your Life Purpose.

If your Life Purpose involves learning new skills, become clear about the kind of people you need to teach you these skills and create an intention to find them. If your Life Purpose involves areas where you are unskilled and untalented invite others into your project who have those talents.

Example One of David's most surprising discoveries as he embarked on his project was that resources began to become available as and when they were needed. David discovered that as long as his vision was practical and clear then, when he shared it with others, resources and people were forthcoming. "It's like Alladin's lamp, whenever I need something it arrives!" he chortled. Through sharing his project the developer on his construction site had got involved and was talking about linking in with some other developers in a tax break that could buy the land for 20 houses in Mexico. A number of tradesmen had volunteered and were going to donate two weeks of their holidays to the project. He had been introduced to a Mexican charity for the homeless and was thinking of having them as partners on the project. Things were happening so fast that he needed to recruit others to help him plan the project. David was buoyed up on an ocean of inspirational energy and was enjoying the work immensely.

Today's Lesson

To share your increasingly polished and practical vision and through that sharing attract the resources and people the project needs.

Follow up 3: NEVER

Lesson 7 of DIRECTION

N = NEVER Give Up

To develop your character by surmounting every hurdle with increasing confidence.

Tending to your Life Purpose is a bit like sailing, you may need to tack and trim the sails once in a while to ensure you are going in the optimum direction. As you embark on your Life Purpose you will attract spiritual lessons. The reason you embarked on your Life Purpose is because it contains precisely those lessons you need to learn most. So do not despair if you stumble, or need to trim the sails, learn the lessons that are being presented and move forward. Always remember that inner guidance is ever present to assist you in times of difficulty.

As you learn your lessons you are developing your character. Through your Life Purpose you will become the person you always longed to be, a person if integrity who is living the values he espouses and who is inwardly strong and of sound character. So resolve to see your Life Purpose through and never give up, for to let go of your Life Purpose is to let go of the Source of Life Itself.

Example
As he got into his project David began to encounter problems. One of the developers pulled out, which left a big hole in the finances. Some tradesmen also pulled out which left a hole in the labour force. David got a bit stressed about this, but the people around him were wonderful. "It'll be alright in the end Dave – wait till you see," the foreman on his site said. And he was right. As if guided by an unseen hand, all the problems eventually were resolved and the project to build twenty houses went on site in October. The day the first houses were handed over was a very emotional day for David. "It's like all my birthday's rolled into one," he exclaimed. "This is your true birthday," his wife said, "The day love was born in your heart."

Today's Lesson

To stick with the task, no matter how many problems appear and how many difficulties arise until you have seen it through to completion.

Addendum

Through following your Life Purpose you will open a channel for love to flow through your heart and into the material world. As this channel opens you will experience an ever increasing blossoming of inner love, which will glow in your heart like a piece of radium, eventually filling your whole body with light and bringing a sparkle to your eyes.

You will discover that when engaged in your Life Purpose an unseen hand will be guiding and protecting you and that you will always have exactly the resources you need to complete your vision. The word work will then mean something entirely different, because you will feel it similar to the play time you remember from childhood. You will always have an abundance of energy and your soul you will radiate love, peace, power and creativity.

You will be unaffected by praise or blame because you will have transcended the ego and the need to compare yourself with others. Although you will not seek it, others will increasingly recognise your actions. To them you will say – "I did it when I was nothing!"

Example
David found that once he got his Life Purpose up and running and got over the initial problems, he settled into something that seemed to have a life of its own. As he worked on his Life Purpose he felt a beautiful delicate love grow within. Whenever he needed support it soon arrived and with a bit of creativity he found he could attract just enough resources to fill the needs of his building programme.

Before long he began to receive recognition for his work and there was talk of accolades and awards. David felt embarrassed at this however because he knew that a higher power was at work through him and it was this higher power that was making everything possible. Then at that point where David was putting all his spare energy into the work and the task was still increasing, one of the developers backing the project offered to pay him to work at his building project full time.

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