One of the challenging aspects of Inner Bonding is learning to trust your guidance. I often hear my clients say, "I hear my guidance but I don't believe it’s my guidance," or "I hear my guidance, but I don't trust that what I'm hearing is true or right."

I understand this issue well, as it took me years after starting to practice Inner Bonding to fully trust my guidance. I tested it over and over again until I finally had enough positive experiences to stop questioning it.

My guidance never gives me thoughts that create anxiety.

Now, if I have a thought that creates anxiety, I immediately know that the thought is being made up by my wounded self. I also know that definitive thoughts about the future - about what will or won't happen - are generally made-up thoughts from my wounded self. The wounded self loves to predict the future, while the loving adult stays in this present moment, connected with the truth of the moment.

However, my guidance often tells me what to do in the present that will greatly affect the future - like when she told me to slow down on the freeway. I didn't know why she told me to slow down, but seconds later a drunk driver careened across the freeway inches in front of me. If I had not listened my guidance, I would have been broadsided. Or when she told me to get everything of value out of my house a week before the house closed escrow in 2001 - a week before I was supposed to move. I didn't know why she told me this, but I'm grateful that I listened, because the day after I moved everything that was important to me out of the house, construction workers working on termite damage burned down my house. What a lesson that was in listening to my guidance!

My guidance often tells me little things, too - such as something I am forgetting to take on a trip. It's reassuring to experience her watching out for me. I'm constantly thanking her for all the guidance, love, and wisdom she offers me, but I know that she keeps doing this because I listen to her.

It's amazing to me how often our arrogant ego wounded self believes that it knows better than our guidance does.

Often, when I'm working with a client, they tell me what their wounded self is saying. Then I ask them to go to their guidance and ask for the truth about that. Even though the truth they receive from their guidance makes them feel much better than what their wounded self is telling them, they frequently don't trust it, saying, "But how can I be sure this is true?"

"How does it make you feel?"

"Great! But maybe I'm just making it up."

"How do you know you are not making up what your wounded self is telling you, that is making you feel bad?"

Half of trusting your guidance is trusting your feelings - your inner guidance. Remember, your guidance speaks to you through your feelings - your soul within - and through thoughts and images that pop into your mind from your soul that is all around you.

"The fact that it makes you feel great is letting you know that it is the truth," I tell my clients.

When you trust that your wounded feelings are telling you that you are off track in your thinking and behavior, and that the thoughts and images from your guidance that make you feel peaceful within, are telling you that you are on track, then you will begin to feel so much safer and empowered in your life!

Throughout the day, I thank my feelings - my Inner child - for keeping me on track, and I thank my guidance for all the wonderful love and wisdom she gives to me. Staying in gratitude for my guidance keeps me open to the truth and wisdom that is always here.

Learn to connect with your spiritual Guidance with Unlocking Your Inner Wisdom, A 30-Day at-home Experience with Dr. Margaret Paul.