Doing the inner work

Yesterday morning I participated in a community visioning call with Centers for Spiritual Living, along with a couple dozen individuals from across the country.

If you’re not familiar with visioning, it’s a spiritual practice where you ask a set of powerful guided questions in order to tap into the highest vision for a specific situation, experience, project or area of life.

Visioning is one of my favorite and powerful spiritual practices.

Interestingly enough, as the facilitator of the visioning call reminded us, the power of the visioning process isn’t in the vision that emerges. 

One would think that in visioning, the purpose is all about getting clear on the vision, right?

You see, from a spiritual perspective, the vision already exists. You don’t create the vision. Part of the visioning practice is to “catch” the vision, so that it is revealed to you.

The real power in the visioning process is in the transformative part of the practice, where you uncover who you’re called to become in order for the vision to emerge in your life.

For example, say you hate your job, but you have a vision of having a fabulous career where you get to do what you want to do and you get richly paid to do it.

The vision is already there – the fabulous career. Through the visioning process, you’ve uncovered it.

But in order for this vision to become a reality for you, the central question before you now is, "Who do you have to become in order to be the person that is 'equal' to having this fabulous career?"

To be equal to this vision, there’s work you’ll need to do.

You’ll need to do to let go of beliefs and habits that say you can’t have this fabulous career. 

At the same time, you’ll need to embrace a personal journey to be the kind of person you’re called to be in your vision.

That’s what I mean when I say the power in the visioning process isn’t in the vision, but it’s in doing the inner work that needs to be done in order to allow the vision to emerge in your life.

As Tony Robbins says, “It’s not about the goal. It’s about growing to become the person that can accomplish that goal.”

You see, doing the inner work is built on this foundational spiritual principle:

Your outward experiences in life reflect your inner world.

In other words, the particular lens by which you view your life and the world around you shape how you experience the world.

For example, if you believe that life is a struggle and that only people who are lucky make it in this world, then most likely you will find yourself in situations where you’re struggling. You might also keenly observe other people who seem to be “making it” in life and you compare yourself to others, lamenting why you aren’t lucky just like them.

On the other hand, if you believe that life is full of opportunities and that the Universe fully supports you in living your highest and best life, you most likely will see wondrous opportunities constantly coming your way and you’ll notice the abundance of blessings showing up in your life.

Ernest Holmes, the founder of Centers for Spiritual Living and author of the seminal work The Science of Mind and Spirit, captures the essence of this teaching when he says:

“Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what (s)he thinks into it.”

The reason why you do the inner work is because if you’re not experiencing your life and the world around you in a way that you truly want, then you need to start shifting something.

And that something that you need to shift is your inner world.

So what does doing the inner work look like?

It can actually look like a lot of different things.

Doing the inner work can look like your intentionally bringing a greater awareness to your own thoughts, emotions and habits.

It can look like you getting clear on the things and activities in your life that bring your energy up and knowing what brings your energy down. That way, you can make the choices to welcome more of what brings you up and to lovingly release what brings you down.

Doing the inner work can look like taking time for spiritual practices that give you a greater, more expansive connection with Spirit in your life, and consistently fostering that connection.

When you think about it, doing the inner work is a lot like decluttering. 

But rather than cleaning out your clothes closet or the junk drawer, you’re clearing out your life and your soul.

Just as in decluttering, when you do the inner work, you create a sense of order and spaciousness inside your being that says “Welcome” to a greater experience of Good that is wanting to reveal in and as your life.

Let me be clear, too, that doing the inner work doesn’t mean that you sit in the comfort of your home waiting for all the world’s good to suddenly show up for you without any effort on your part.

When you really do the inner work, the process invites out-of-the-blue ideas and inspiration that “pull” you into joyous and purposeful action. 

Inner work uncovers a desire to experience more life fully. Something stirs inside of you. It moves you, and the next step becomes clear. 

When you do the inner work, any sense of confusion washes away, and you stand strong in your power.

Ultimately, as the visioning process demonstrates, doing the inner work is an exercise in letting go. 

It’s about shedding what no longer serves you so that you create the space to welcome a greater expression of joy and spirit in your life.

Where are you called to create more space so that you can bring more joy in your life?

Abundant Blessings and Namaste.

I’d love to hear if your thoughts about today's post. Let me know by leaving a comment below.

If you didn’t know, I’m publishing a book this summer on the topic and techniques of “Visioning and Visualizing Your Best Life.” If you have any input on what you’d like to see in the book, I’d love to hear from you. Please let me know by clicking here.

And if you’d like support in getting clear on your vision for your life, you can set up a complimentary life coaching consultation. Click here for more information.

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