Many people struggle with how to parse the difference between a voice that is coming from their ego and a voice that is coming from their soul.
There is a way to simplify it. You may have observed an inner dialogue in your head between two voices, the ego and the soul.
The voice that's coming from the voice, is trying to feel safe and get love.
The voice that is coming from the soul, already knows that is safe and is loved.
With ego, I am referring to the set of beliefs about who you need to be in order to be safe, loved, accepted, and okay. This is primarily developed from 0 to 7 years old and it's important to get our human needs met.
When I say soul's voice, I'm referring to the part of you that does not need validation, protection, and praise to feel enough, complete, worthy and loved. The soul is already free. It doesn't need money, resources, or fame. And therefore by living in alignment with it, we are taken further into wholeness, love, and freedom.
When we live our lives with stress, distractions, and always running behind time and tasks, it is difficult to distinguish intuitive guidance (soul voice) from the protective patterns of conditioning and survival (ego voice). We mostly live in survival mode, which is ego-based. And the ego can never feel complete, it always makes us feel not enough, not worthy, always chasing for more.
Our soul's voice is always there, inside us, with us. We learn to mistrust our soul voice to please the ego but we can build the awareness of both voices, make friends with both voices, and choose the one that feels well and safe in our body and heart.
How do we associate with the soul's voice?
First observe when you feel safe, loved, at ease, relaxed, and have a sense of inner peace daily in your life:
- What are you doing or being?
- Where are you?
- How does it feel in your body?
It can be when you are in nature, meditating, practicing yoga, simply being in silence and stillness, when you are in the flow or are creative.
Watch how the mind orients in those moments, what it thinks about, what it dreams, your body sensations, where the attention goes - that comes from a place aligned with your soul.
Then, notice when you are caught up in fear and stress, feeling not good enough. What happens there for you? How does it feel in your body? Where does the attention go? What happens in your mind? That comes from your ego place.
By doing that on a regular basis and with consistency and genuine curiosity, you will start slowly connecting with your soul's voice and build better awareness of your ego and soul. The magic happens when you are free to choose which voice to listen to.
Try it out...it's such a beautiful self-discovery journey. You are your soul, not your ego.