Inner Guidance Training

Coping with and learning from a major loss in your life

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“The lessons are very good. When I worked with them emotions came to the surface and I think that is healthy. It's a new beginning and I see how I can actually be grateful for this loss. Doing the program has opened up a whole new direction that I have learned from the lessons and I can see and identify a real positive future ahead of me. Doing the program made me realise how much inner resource was there that had remained untapped. I realised I had too many eggs in one basket and discovered that I had an unhealthy dependence on the outside factor that I had lost. I got in touch with my strengths and talents and I am now catching the inner voice and tapping into areas that will bear more fruit.” - Paul

Introduction

The program is simple to do and takes place over a 6 day period. It is designed to be part of your daily experience, rather than separate from it.

The lessons learnt from the program will last a lifetime. Very possibly it will change the way you look at life, the approach you use to understand things and the value you place on the things of this world.

Expected benefits include:

• Coming to terms with the strong emotions you are feeling
• Experiencing a great weight being lifted off your shoulders
• Developing a relationship with a new “friend” or “helper”
• Getting in touch with your inner strength
• Being empowered to make a fresh start and a new beginning

A = ACCESS Inner Guidance
C = CLEAR the Space
C = CATCH the Inner Voice
E = EXPRESS Your Emotions
P = PICK UP the Lessons
T = TRAVEL the Journey

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

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

Inner Guidance Training

Day 1: ACCESS

Starting Point

Holding your intention to accept your loss and make a fresh start.
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 accept your loss and make a fresh start- 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 ACCEPT

A = ACCESS Inner Guidance

Learning to connect with intuitive awareness so that it can to begin to guide you through your grief and recovery process.

We often hear stories of how people “found God” after receiving a major set back in life. But what does this mean and how can it help you? The true meaning of finding God is to live rooted in love and in a life guided from within. Paradoxically suffering a great loss can be the very thing that prompts us to discover our inner connection to Divine Power the source of love. The first step is to learn to access inner guidance. You may be feeling hurt, sad, aggrieved, and hard done by. You may be experiencing tumultuous emotions brought on, you feel, by this terrible loss. You may even be lost in depression. But I want you to know that there is a power that can, and will, come to your aid at this time of great loss. This power is your inner guidance. If you discover it, listen to it and follow it, you will be led out of the depths of despair, into a bright new beginning.

To access inner guidance I want you to sense those subtle promptings coming from deep within your heart, that are guiding you in different ways you can take care of yourself. These impressions may be different from your most prominent thoughts, which may be of anger toward someone who has hurt you or toward your fate, and other unloving thoughts. If you only pay attention to the unloving thoughts your heart will close and you will not benefit from the power of inner guidance to bring about healing. To prompt your inner guidance to “speak” to you, hold a question deep in your heart during this first day - a question like, how can I best take care of myself today?

Example
Michael had recently lost his wife in a car crash that was caused by a drunk driver. Michael was devastated - his wife was the love of his life. Michael wondered how he could ever find another love. Michael began to do the ACCEPT program and noticed, when doing the first day's training, how many thoughts of bitterness and resentment he had towards the drunk driver. He admitted to himself, even though the realisation troubled him, that he even had thoughts of killing the driver. Michael realised these thoughts were very prominent and were closing his heart, cutting him off from his inner guidance. Michael asked to be guided on, “How can I best take care of myself today?” When he did this Michael noticed that he had gentle subtle feelings, much less prominent than his vengeful thoughts, that were guiding him to take small actions of self care, like running a hot bath in the evening, going for a brisk walk and contacting a close friend and asking for his support. In his first day of training, Michael began to notice, listen to and act upon these subtle promptings. At the end of the day he sensed a new beginning.

Today's Lesson

Today's lesson is to Access Inner Guidance by sensing quiet subtle promptings suggesting ways you can care for yourself and to follow these subtle suggestions with actions of self love.

Day 2: CLEAR

Starting Point

Continue with:

• Holding your Intention to accept your loss and make a fresh start
• Working with Lesson 1 - ACCESS Inner Guidance - for self love

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

Lesson 2 of ACCEPT

C = CLEAR the Space

To open a space in your life for yourself and for healing

Today I want you to open up some empty space. If you have a regular routine that keeps you busy all day long, cut it back to the essentials. If you have a job and are struggling with it, take some time off. Open up empty space for non doing - for being. If this feels difficult stay with the feelings of difficulty but don't let them take you away from experiencing empty space. Let go.

Example
Up until today Michael had coped with the loss of his wife by keeping busy. He felt somewhat restless - feelings engendered by the anger inside. He had kept going because he didn't know what else to do. Today Michael was learning to Clear the Space by taking times out to Be. Not to be something, the worker, the cook, the parent, the golfer, not to read or listen to music - to Be. Michael found this strange and difficult.

When he was in a state of Being he became more aware of his thoughts. The negative ones that had troubled him before, came up strongly when he was in a state of Being. When in this state of Being he also found that his emotions, that had remained buried, began to come to the surface. “No wonder I didn't want to Clear the Space to take time to Be,” he thought. However he also found, that when he Cleared the Space so that he could enter the state of Being, he also was more aware of his inner guidance and its messages of how he could take care of himself.

So as well as Clearing The Space for Being, he spent more time following the guidance that was coming through on taking care of himself. He began to feel, at the end of the day, that he was getting the hang of discriminating between his negative, angry and vengeful thoughts and his inner guidance, which only wanted to guide him in how to take care of himself.

Today's Lesson

Reorganise and amend your schedule so that you Clear the space and have more time to Be. See if, at the end of the day, you can discriminate more clearly between your inner guidance and your other negative thoughts.

Day 3: CATCH

Starting Point

Continue with:

• Holding your Intention to accept your loss and make a fresh start
• Working with Lesson 1 - ACCESS Inner Guidance - for self love
• Working with Lesson 2 - CLEAR The Space - taking times to Be

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

Lesson 3 of ACCEPT

C = CATCH the Inner Voice

To open up more completely to what inner guidance is suggesting

Today's task is to become more sensitive to inner guidance and to ask it some important questions in relation to your feelings and emotions. Asking questions of your inner guidance helps stimulate its ability to communicate. You can ask inner guidance any questions that are meaningful but today, because your intention is to accept your loss and to make a fresh start, you are going to choose questions that will help you achieve your aim. I want you to ask inner guidance questions that will help you express what you are feeling inside.

How can I express the mixture of emotions I am experiencing?
How can I turn the strong difficult emotions I am experiencing into something beautiful?

To ask your inner guidance a question, hold that question gently in your awareness and revisit the question at different points as you go about your day. Don't demand an answer or be impatient for one as this impedes the process. Learn to love the question(s) and learn to Catch the Inner Voice when it “speaks” to you subtly and quietly in its own way. Your task is to remember to hold the question and to remain alert for subtle promptings, feelings, insights and suggestions.

Don't forget to continue with Lessons 1 and 2 from the previous two days as you do this.

Example
Michael was excited about today's lesson - he had so many questions he wanted to ask. But because he wanted to pursue his intention he decided to focus on two questions to help him know how to express his emotions. At first he got a bit impatient with his inner guidance and had all sorts of thoughts doubting that it would ever answer. Nothing seemed to be coming through. Eventually these irritating thoughts were replaced by feelings of trust and patience. That evening, when he was resting after having his bath, (activities he was engaged in because he was remembering to continue with Lessons 1 and 2) he began to Catch the Inner Voice “speaking” to him when he least expected it. His inner guidance began to suggest ways in which he could perhaps work with the intense emotions he was having.

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 accept your loss and make a fresh start
• Working with Lesson 1 - ACCESS Inner Guidance - for self love
• Working with Lesson 2 - CLEAR The Space - taking times to Be
• Working with Lesson 3 - CATCH The Inner Voice - becoming more sensitive

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

Lesson 4 of ACCEPT

E = EXPRESS Your Emotions

To get your emotions out through conversation, art, writing, music, etc.

When a person has experienced profound loss they can be overwhelmed with emotions like sadness, fear, anger, guilt, etc. These emotions can be so all consuming that for a time you may be in a state of shock and denial. However these emotions will rise to the surface eventually - if you let them. This is healthy and to be encouraged. Working with lessons 1, 2 and 3 will have stimulated this process. Yesterday you asked inner guidance to help you find ways to express the powerful emotions you are feeling. You asked it to find ways to turn your experience of these emotions into something beautiful. Today your task is to implement its suggestions. What did your inner guidance suggest? Do you feel drawn to paint, sculpt, write poetry, have an enlightening conversation with a friend, make music, or something else? If so create space to express your emotions and in doing so turn them into something beautiful!

Example
Yesterday Michael received powerful suggestions within that he needed to paint, so today he borrowed his son's paint set and began to put images on paper. At first he did not know what he was painting, but by now he was learning to trust his inner guidance and he let it move the brush in his hand. When he was finished he discovered that he had painted a huge explosion with a bird, like a phoenix, rising from the flames and smoke. He was surprised that he could create such a beautiful image and that evening he shared it with his friend who he had asked to support him through his loss.

Today's Lesson

To Express Your Emotions and to turn them into something beautiful.

Day 5: PICK UP

Starting Point

Continue with:

• Holding your Intention to accept your loss and make a fresh start
• Working with Lesson 1 - ACCESS Inner Guidance - for self love
• Working with Lesson 2 - CLEAR The Space - taking times to Be
• Working with Lesson 3 - CATCH The Inner Voice - becoming more sensitive
• Working with Lesson 4 - EXPRESS Your Feelings - creating something beautiful

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

Lesson 5 of ACCEPT

P = PICK Up the Lessons

To learn from your inner guidance what this loss in your life is intended to teach, that will advance your understanding and bring peace of mind.

Today you are going to work with a very important aspect of inner guidance - having insights. What are insights? Insights are sudden realisations that empower you to see your situation more clearly. Having insights often brings about feelings of great peace. Expressing Your Emotions and sharing them can help stimulate inner guidance to give you insights. To help you with this task I suggest you work with the Heart to Heart Coaching Service's meditative poem on Coping with and learning from a major loss in your life. This short discourse is designed to help stimulate insights from inner guidance. You will find it under Inspiration for Your Soul within the Life Coaching Service: http://www.trans4mind.com/life-coach/inspired7.html. At this page you can read about the poem on this subject and link to a printable poster. Click through to the poster, print it out and meditate upon it. By meditating on the poster and on what you are creating as you Express Your Emotions, you will be stimulating insights and discovering lessons you need to learn, from having experienced this loss. As you learned earlier, do not become impatient to receive insights, let inner guidance “speak” to you in its own time.

In addition to the meditative poem you will find it helpful to read, within Heart to Heart Coaching, the Quick Coach articles and Wallace Huey's past replies to questions readers have asked: http://www.trans4mind.com/life-coach/answersA.html#7. Like the poem, these are available at trans4mind.com and are about coping with and learning from a major loss in your life. Use all three of these services, or any of the other services offered at Begin Here today and in the coming days to give you the insights you need to learn.

Example
Michael looked at the painting he had created yesterday, and a poem he had written this morning. To stimulate his inner guidance he read articles and past questions on loss and the answers Wallace had given in the Heart to Heart Coaching service. He also printed out the poem poster and put it up in his kitchen. Then, that evening, when he was taking time to Be, he had the sudden realization that he needed to forgive the drunk driver who had killed his wife. He saw clearly that he needed to do this because without forgiving the man who killed his wife he would remain miserable and bitter for the rest of his life. When he saw this totally clearly he broke down and cried for 2 hours. At the end of the day he felt exhausted but renewed, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

Today's Lesson

To Pick Up the Lessons by stimulating insights from your grief experience, to be brought about through working with Expressing Your Emotions and other support services at Heart to Heart Coaching on the subject of - Coping with and learning from a major loss in your life.

Day 6: TRAVEL

Starting Point

Continue with:

• Holding your Intention to accept your loss and make a fresh start
• Working with Lesson 1 - ACCESS Inner Guidance - for self love
• Working with Lesson 2 - CLEAR The Space - taking times to Be
• Working with Lesson 3 - CATCH The Inner Voice - becoming more sensitive
• Working with Lesson 4 - EXPRESS Your Feelings - creating something beautiful
• Working with Lesson 5 - PICK Up the Lessons - gaining spiritual insight

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

Lesson 6 of ACCEPT

T = TRAVEL the Journey

To learn from your inner guidance what steps to take to for new beginnings to appear

By now you are learning to work with your grief and to learn lessons from it. Lesson 6 is about opening the first shoots of new beginnings - preparing for a fresh start. It's about beginning your life anew. If handled the right way working with your grief always leads to renewal and new beginnings. Often people who go through this process look back and feel grateful for their loss because, through the experience of loss and the lessons it contained, they became mature and wise and this added maturity empowered them to Travel the Journey in a new and different direction.

• The carpenter who had a brain haemorrhage and ended up as an accomplished wood carver
• The mother who lost her only child and opened a nursery
• The businessman who got multiple sclerosis and discovered how to relax and paint landscapes
• The wife who lost her husband and discovered, for the first time, how to be content on her own

The list is endless - for those people who worked through their grief, discovered inner guidance and learned valuable lessons in living. So today's task is to ask your inner guidance to suggest one small step you can take to open a new direction and a fresh beginning - then take that step, today, tomorrow or next week - but be sure and take it.

Example By this morning Michael was even more convinced that he had to forgive the drunk driver who killed his wife. He was also feeling more spiritual than he had in a long time, so for some reason this morning he decided to ask inner guidance for a first step to a new beginning while praying - something he hadn't done since he was a child. He “received” his answer almost immediately - he was “invited” to write a letter to the drunk driver forgiving him for his actions. Michael was surprised at the immediacy of the response and he knew his inner guidance was right - but he wanted to wait a few days before taking that step. In the meantime he resolved to continue practising all his 6 lessons in the days and weeks ahead until he had realised his intention of accepting his loss and making a fresh start. Before his 6 lessons had begun Michael wondered if he would ever find a love to replace the love he felt for his wife. As he continued to practise all 6 lessons together he began to sense a new type of love for something - he knew not what, exactly, but he knew he had found it and that it was real.

Today's Lesson

Ask inner guidance for a simple first step you can take to begin to Travel the Journey anew.

Follow on

Before you suffered your loss you revered whatever or whoever it was that you lost. In that sense you gave it too great a prominence and place in your life. To a certain extent, you had an unhealthy dependence on it, that is why, when it was no more, you suffered - you had lost that thing on which you had a degree of dependence.

Trust that by practising these 6 lessons, and by taking them forward from here into the future, you are developing a different kind of dependence - a dependence on something (or someone?) - who, once called upon, will never let you down. Ultimately this is the only healthy kind of dependence - a dependence on God, who will always be there to guide and enlighten.

Ultimately the only thing we take with us when we leave this earth is what we have learned - our spiritual lessons. This is what Christ meant when he said that the kingdom of heaven lies within. This is what the Budda taught with his doctrine of non attachment to the material world. All great spiritual teachers have taught us to value spiritual enlightenment, and its Source, above all else.

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Start a New Life! has been developed by Peter Shepherd, psychotherapist & psychologist.

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• Become a master of problems and their solution
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• Dramatically boost self-esteem
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