Soul Dialogue ~ a personal exercise in self-coaching
A sample dialogue for finding the light in the dark.
Your soul voice is available to you, always.
to learn more about soul dialogues, click here

It Starts with Me:
I ask that you talk through me, here and now.
I feel like shit. I am too tired to fight the fight to feel good. Today is a down day, and I am allowing it to be.

Good.

So that’s it? That’s your divine wisdom?

You have to allow me in order to hear me. Are you open to guidance? Truly? Or are you so adamant about feeling as you feel that you will block my wisdom as it pours in?

I am willing, yes. There is space for light here.

Okay, then. Let’s talk. Forget the medium of the medium... get your hands dirty with me.

Okay.
Where do I start?

With the truth. There is no greater light than the truth. Especially when you are poking around in the dark, as you are now.

Alright. Well, the truth is, I feel like crying. I feel a familiar frustration and powerlessness that comes and goes. It’s been a long time since I have felt it, but it is here now.

What does it say?

It says, that I am so blessed and yet I...

Stop making it pretty. What does it say?

It says that I am afraid. It says that I am lost again. What if all the spiritual mumbo-jumbo is bullshit? How is it that I could be flying so high for months, and then fall with such force?

Ah, well... the impact of a fall is always relative to the height from which you came. You felt higher than ever, so that much more painful is the fall.

Okay. Well that sucks.

Perhaps. Or perhaps the pain is there to paradoxically remind you how far you have ascended in your journey. And let me remind you that you never fall as far as you think. Remember the Spiral Model? {more on this soon}

I guess. But I am angry that I am still working on this piece around my livelihood. I have invited everything I have ever wanted into being. I have so much of what I want. And today, I am angry. What the hell does life want from me?

There is only one way to find out... What do you want from life?

I just want to be me. Isn’t that enough?

If it were, then wouldn’t you just do that?

It’s harder than it sounds. I suppose I really just want to feel good, to be happy.

Okay, that feels closer to the truth. And what feels good to you?

Being creative, being real to the moment, uninhibited self-expression, loving and being loved, laughing, play, adding value, smiling and dancing. So much feels good to me!

Yes, there you go. Shift your focus there.
These are the actions that you must take. Anything that aligns you with these. Let go of worry, doubt, and frustration. Become obsessed instead with joy, possibility, and fascination. You are good at this. You were born knowing how to do this. Reignite the soul through choices that align you with the sensation listed above.

But isn’t it naive to behave in such a way... when there are clearly things that aren’t working.

And so what are you proposing? That somehow focusing your attention on what is not working will help somehow? Do tell... how will worry help to mend what is tattered in your thinking, and thus in your experience?

It won’t.

Right. The only thing that will free you from the hamster wheel of self-defeating thoughts is shifting your attention in another direction. One that feels good.

So...?

So it’s just like they taught you in grade school. Should you catch fire... stop, drop, and roll. In this case... STOP by pausing and witnessing yourself, DROP the story that feels defeating (just let it go!), and ROLL into alignment with what brings you joy by no longer resisting it.

It’s that easy, huh?

Indeed. It can be. If you are willing to let go to the joy that is flowing all around you.

Thanks for the chat. I feel very loved.

Oh, and you are!!

Dialogues with Brilliance - My Own
How I Became A SHiNE Coach

For years I have been carrying on conversations with a voice that speaks through me. Inspired by the courageous wonder of inspired writers such as Neale Donald Walsh, I dared one day to use my journal to ask a Higher Voice for answers. Since then, guidance arrives with greater and greater clarity. Now it is quite effortless to connect to insights in this way. I only need begin the dialogue, and something else takes over.

And so my method of prayer is in written meditation. I sit quietly with my journal and spill forth. At times, I ask specifically for guidance. Other times I am interrupted by it. My pen then moves across the page, carrying a wisdom that far exceeds my own. Over the years, insights revealed in these exchanges have brought me tremendous clarity in times of crisis... complete peace in the midst of total chaos... and the light of hope in the black holes of depression. And the availability of this voice is without condition. It responds equally to cries of joyous passion and moments of bitter desperation.

It is an experience that I have kept private until about a year ago when I shared it in a close circle of friends. Part of the secrecy is that I didn't want my experience to be misconstrued as some mystical, out-of-body experience. To say that, through pen and paper, I have access to information outside of my own knowing - as if from a voice that is not my own - it may sound like I claim to be hosting a channelled entity. Perhaps it is of me, perhaps not. I may never know for sure. Yet, when it happens, my mind and body are in a total state of me-ness. I am not overtaken by anything but a Silence that reveals one word after the next in a seamless flow of perfect insight. I am very much present when this clarity emerges. It's like talking to a trusted guide from within who is able to deliver the truth of the moment without hesitation.

In fact, I learned HOW to become an agent of inspiration (a life coach passionate about bringing out the brilliance in others) through these dialogues. This objective, yet heart-centered and loving voice is a trusted vehicle for each and every interaction that I have with a client. And more and more in my practice, I work in conjunction with this Inner SHiNE Agent to deliver insights when I could not possibly manufacture them in the moment.

I know the most powerful medicine is emerging when I open my mouth to speak, having no idea what I am about to say. This is why I am the student and the guide. SHiNE teaches me, through me. Often, the words I hear come forth as I speak to others are exactly the perspective that I have been needing in my own life. My own hunger is satiated through guiding others.

Dialogues with Brilliance - Yours
Becoming Your Own SHiNE Coach

It is my belief that we all have access to brilliant wisdom from within, at all times. So why don't so many of us hear it? I see two things that act as a buffer to detecting the sound of this voice from within:

One obstacle is the belief that an omniscient force could not possibly interact with us so intimately. Regardless of your spiritual or religious beliefs, I invite you to entertain the idea that you are worth talking to - it's just a matter of how you frame it. If you feel lost and you ask a question that seems so far out of the scope of your understanding, and suddenly the insight emerges from thin air (onto paper or into your heart)... that is brilliance showing itself to you. So what is happening?... From where does this illumination emerge? Is a literal force - we might call it "God" - speaking through you? Is it a Spirit Guide or other force outside you that you are hearing? Is it you, your Higher Self, offering dictation? Or is it just your own mind playing tricks on you, in an effort to make you feel better?

I say... who really cares?! DO you feel better? ARE you more inspired to move through life with a more positive and constructive attitude as a result of these insights? Then, go for it. Why should a healthy dose of skepticism (or the fact that you aren't sure why or how it's happening) keep you from benefiting? You can call it divine guidance... you can call it your hidden genius ... or you can call your therapist! Just realize that you don't have to know how it works to put it to good use.

The second obstacle to hearing is not listening! In order to listen, we simply must be quiet enough to hear. The mind can be over-active, especially in times of confusion or depression. The ability to pause in the potent space of Silence can be the key to receiving insight. Stilling the inner dialogue long enough to penetrate the space just beneath it. This takes practice. I personally find writing a powerful means to the development of silence within. Spilling the energy that bounces around the mind can be just the liberation that is needed to create space for greater insights.

Another method is awakening the senses. Often your Inner Wisdom will speak to you through your environment and/or relationships with others. Are you paying attention? Did you see the book calling out to you to read it? Did you sign up for the class? Did you take the walk in the forest and listen to the trees and the message that they have for you?... The avenues through which illumination can travel are infinite.

Begin The Dialogue Now
Journaling for Illumination

Practice with me. Take out a piece of paper now. Ask the questions that you most long to know the answers to... and dictate the unexpected reply. Purge the pain that you most desire to be free of... and be soothed by the light of perspective that lies just beneath. Be patient if the voice isn't ready. It will come, when you are ready and able to receive its gifts.

I will begin to share some of these dialogues with you throughout this blog. Keep in mind, I have spent much time investing in private communion with this voice prior to revealing it. I suggest that you do the same... get to know your own Inner Wisdom intimately before sharing it with others. Intimacy lends to potency in any relationship.

Examples to serve as inspiration coming soon. Stay tuned!

Tags: journaling, shine coaching, life coaching