How to recognize divine guidance

Discernment when listening to inside voices

I know I’m not the only one who hears voices inside her head. But how can we tell which voice it is? There is a bit of a trick to this. How to discern between fierce devotion and forceful determination. How to tell apart soul guidance from ego drive. When are we surfing a healthy learning edge? And when does our willpower become a battering ram against a wall of divine redirection? It’s not always easy to know the difference.

Doing hard things is character building. If we don’t want to devolve into in a morass of self-involved hedonists, we need to have the ability to confront difficulties, take measured risks, make mistakes and push through resistance. The down side is that we sometimes try to blast mountains with our ego because we’re set on a goal. But at the other extreme, if we only go with the flow, it can turn into avoidance of challenge and growth.

Here are three ways that I have learned how to tell which voice I’m hearing — and whether I am moving in alignment with the divine plan.

1. Check the source of resistance

If the wrenches being thrown into your plans are coming from external factors, it might mean you need to slow down or change direction. A severe weather system is moving in. Key people are falling ill. Needed materials are not available. The booked venue cancels. One of these inconveniences might be incidental. But if you see a pile of circumstantial difficulties stacking up, that might be the Universe’s way of telling you: this is the wrong time or the wrong path. When we move in alignment, the general theme is ease.

On the other hand, if obstacles are reinforced by internal factors, you might be misled. What’s in the way? Are you staring down the stickiness of your belief system, loyalty to an old identity, attachment to the familiar, or avoidance of discomfort? That might be a sign that there’s inner work to do. Our highest path almost always asks us to do something that feels edgy to us: whether it’s growing our visibility, taking on greater financial risk, or releasing control over details. These kinds of ego death duels are actually confirmation that we’re on the right path; they are not an indication to turn back.

2. Listen to what comes after the message

When we get delivered divine directions, the messenger doesn’t give explanations or provide evidence. At least, that’s true in my experience. If your inner child pouts, “Why?” to put up resistance, the voice of higher guidance will usually respond with deep silence. It’s the energetic equivalent of a parent saying, “Because.” When truth speaks, it doesn’t need to defend itself against your ego’s line of questioning. It just is. It rests in its own is-ness. It is a felt knowing, which is not beholden to offer a logical reason that the mind can grasp.

If the message comes from an egoic impulse however, it often has a push-pull dynamic. It likes to get you enrolled in circular arguments. It will offer opinions for and against. It will move you backwards and forwards. Yes, and then no. Maybe, possibly. But not sure. The ground of reality shakes with every next thought. Your mind changes depending on the person that you talked to last. You can question without end.

3. Learn the language of your body wisdom

Slow down and get quiet. Stop walking and texting. Stop driving and scrolling. Take a moment to ponder alone, beyond the reaches of anyone else’s influence. What is your body saying underneath all the mind chatter? Are there butterflies in your stomach? Is there a lightness as if a cloud has lifted? Do you feel unstable and irritated? Do you feel grounded and peaceful? There is valuable information in these body sensations.

The way body wisdom speaks is different for each body. For me, divine direction feels tingly, like static electricity in my auric field. I sense lightness or spaciousness around my head, while the energy in my belly is relatively still. My body feels anchored by the gravity of a mountain in my womb area. It feels weighty, rooted, settled. But when I am being pushed and pulled by egoic patterns, the sensations are exactly the opposite. My head feels clouded, and crowded. And the fluttering in my belly feels like slight nausea.

There’s no universal guide for interpreting these signals. Each of us has to do the research for our own handbook, and learn the vocabulary of our signal receiver. This comes from practice. The handbook is built, chapter by chapter, only as we become awake and aware as the operators of our human vehicles. You write the manual in the course of living your life – simply by noticing, making a decision, then noticing again. Tracking this over time allows us to understand how our body speaks wisdom to us.

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