Inside Voices

As I write this my two dogs Romeo and Valentino are charging through the house 'playing' like they're going to tear each other's throats out and barking wildly while Ed is trying to get their attention by telling them they must use their 'inside voices'.  "Inside voices!  Inside voices!"

I'm wondering how the world would evolve and change if we all not only used our 'inside voices' but listened to them.  I can't tell you how many times I ignored my inner voice and then later thought about what it had told me and if I'd listened to it how my world would have been totally changed in a positive manner.  I can think of so many instances when a thought flew through my head so fast it absolutely couldn't have meant anything at all and then soon afterwards I thought of something else which wasn't the inside voice but my own thoughts.  Of course, I didn't follow the inside voice.  It couldn't have been right.  It was too hard or it was too easy or it just didn't make any sense at all to do it that way.  Must not have heard right.  What to do, what to do?  I know!  I'll just do this other thing instead.

Whatever. 

In later years I learned that my inside "inner" voice was actually a friend and not 'the enemy'.  At some point I learned to pay attention and then act upon what the voice was saying.  That's how I changed career paths.  I just knew that I no longer belonged in Customer Service/Secretarial.  How did I know?  Mainly because instead of being a secretary for someone else, I needed to hire a secretary for myself.  If anyone needed a secretary (and still does) it's me!  But long before I knew I was going to change my career path I 'felt' it was what I needed to do.  There was this little voice telling me so.  I sort of listened but went about business as usual.  It was when the voice was shouting at me that I began to actually DO something about it.  Instead of just thinking about it - I planned then took action.

Long before something happens I can feel it will happen and sometimes, if it is something that will affect me on an emotional level, I even see it happen in the dreamtime, sometimes years before the actual event.  There are times when it's not pleasant to go to sleep at night.  Dreaming is a whole other dimension where we live and move and have our being.  I remember Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha saying that the dreamtime is more real than the 3rd dimensional reality we live in.  In the dreamtime we are in heightened awareness.  We have to acknowledge what's happening in the dream because we are totally absorbed in the dream.  When we are frightened in a dream we feel it intensely.  When we are happy in a dream we feel that also.  Sensations in the dreamtime aren't denied or blocked.  If the dream is powerful enough, it can stay with us forever.

I remember something Don Juan told Carlos Casteneda, they were talking about dreaming and Don Juan told Carlos that it takes energy to dream and to remember a dream.  That makes so much sense because the more energy I put into an emotional relationship, the less I dream and have no recollection of what dreams I may have.  Emotional relationships usurp energy.  We also lose energy when we worry, gossip, are angry or resentful or become weighed down with the emotional drama.

Recently I've not been involved in any emotional dramas with anyone and my dreams have returned to the point where I could make popcorn and buy tickets because they are better than any movie.

Our 'inside voices' always give us what we need, when we need it.  All we have to do is listen and no matter how incredible it sounds, act on it.  (Just to be clear - I'm not talking about going "postal" or killing anyone - I'm talking about your own creativity and acting on it!)

Well, the dogs have gotten settled and are now quiet until the next time they liven things up.  Funny how things come up that make you think about something else.