Frequently we are starting an endeavor and from the start we encounter strong resistance to our efforts,

An Obstacle

not even from people but from circumstances around us.

Are those Obstacles the Sign from Above that we are on a wrong path and should use our resources differently?

or, may be otherwise, those obstacles are simply an opposition to holiness and should be fought tooth and nail until they are overcome ?

The answer depends on where the opposition comes from.

If the source of the opposition is our own soul, then we are on the wrong path and need to quickly re-route our efforts into other channels.

If however the source of the opposition is the Other side, one definitely needs to add more efforts to break through the obstacles no matter the cost!

The question is: how to distinguish between the two?

Simple but fool-proof answer is Tefilla, tefilla that is properly directed and not highjacked by the ego.

We need to divest ourselves from ego to the maximum and direct our prayer to empower our soul, asking to clarify the situation.

Our current goal in question should become completely irrelevant for us during this Tefillah, as our only desire should be to submit our will to One Above and channel our energy for our Soul’s disposal.

If after that we see the obstacles weaken or disappear, we know to add more efforts to achieve our goal and break the opposition.

If however, our soul  was the source of the blockage, we will see clearly that the  endeavor is to be abandoned.

To arrive to this clarity however the Tefillah has to be structured  properly – under no circumstances we should pray for the obstacles to disappear on that first stage -

not even a hint of this desire should be in our Tefillah, or it can lead to  misleading results.

After we had confirmed that our goal is positive from Hashem’s perspective, we can and should use Tefillah to achieve it with all our energy, with both physical and spiritual effort.

This principle is simple enough, however to actually apply it on a daily basis, we need to start seeing the situation in perspective.

We need to learn to stop before we throw all our resources against any opposition we meet,

being that people or circumstances, and check: do we really fight the right party ?

Do we have a hard time because our ego is having major fun here? Do we battle our own soul?

The above might look a bit simplistic since it doesn’t address the subconscious blocks and programs,

this topic however is for another post.

Connection · Divine Providence · HASHEM · Ish Tam · Meditation · obstacle · Prayer · Soul · Tefillah

Establishing the successful communication with the soul also requires overcoming erroneous expectations that literally close from us the real paths of connection.

One of those myths is that once soul communication is functioning, you have a video stream of information filling your mind with amazing revelations, or voice resolving your dilemmas, or …. you fill the blanks.

This would be nice but most of us simply don’t have the minds and souls developed enough for the intensity of communication like that. In reality our soul communicates in much more subtle ways. The blessing and the issue at the same time is that many people already do hear their soul, they, just don’t realize that. The barrier in this case is simply self-made. We are constantly receiving a lot of information beyond our five senses; however most of us simple learned to tune it out from conscious awareness.

With this in mind, carefully examine and re-evaluate the input you are receiving:

Body signals:

Body Signals are another way our soul communicates to us – we need to develop sensitivity to this non-verbal language our Neshama uses. Examples might include throat tightening or choking when saying something inappropriate at the moment, eye or hand lightly twitching (frequently right one signifies “Yes” and the left one “No” to the thought that is currently passing through your mind), or feeling of warmth lighting up in your heart. Whatever the physical signal is, it’s only important in the context of what is happening at he moment.

Synchronicity:

Frequently the sigh or indication comes as “synchronicity” – meaningful “coincidence” of events in our life, for example turning on the radio and having talk-show host to answer the question you just asked in your mind.

It’s important to distinguish those events from the superstitions they told you. Actually those superstitions might have been a part of someone’s “communication system” – it’s just they loose any meaning once they are out of context. So unless you are sure your soul picked up one of those superstitions to really consistently communicate something to you – take them easy.

I remember many years ago I had a “three-times rule” – if I get three seemingly unconnected events point to something, I’d give it a thought. Gradually I started to see if it’s meaningful with less prompting, the a “three-times rule” become a “two-times rule” and afterwards one can learn to view events as they happen with deeper realization what they mean – the repetition becomes unnecessary.

Connection · Divine Providence · Ish Tam · Neshamah · Soul · Superstitions · Synchronicity · Unconscious

Why do we want to connect to our Soul?

Most people use one or another approach for a guidance system to navigate though life.

Some use a mentor, frequently in the context of an ideology.

Still others use the internal connection, again often combined with a form of ideology.

However, no believe system can give us a GPS-like directions through life, and no mentor can do it for you either.

The question: “What do I do in this particular situation?” Is usually resolved by people either by following purely rational logical train of thought (heavily influenced by subconscious mind, which most have no idea about) or by trying to see the situation though the lenses of particular ideology, which hopefully takes more accurate picture of the reality.

The logical pathway usually doesn’t work too well, because people tend to take into account very negligible number of factors leaving out most real “situation makers” and also because the subconscious bias frequently makes a joke out of this “logic”.

Following a form of ideology that has developed solution templates might work better,

Especially if this ideology survived a few thousand years and helped it’s adherents to survive as well.

Still, too often those pathways leave us grasping for the ultimate answer to the question:

“How do I really know which decision is right?”

The great news is that we all have our own GPS with complete map of our life and almost unlimited (compare to our constricted feelings) visibility.

Our soul provides us with Divine Providence in our lives, however extent of this guidance depends on us: our actions, emotions, speech and thoughts.

How do we “turn on” the system and make it work? How do we make the connection to our soul?

We will continue in the next post.

Connection · Divine Providence · GPS · Ish Tam · Neshamah · Soul