For the most part when we get to the end of the day we’re not quite sure what happened. We’ve checked off a lot on our to-do list, tended to what needed our attention, and completed a million mundane tasks. But where are we in all of that? Tired, making another list, lost? The soul speaks to us everyday, but it’s hard to hear when we don’t know how to listen to it.

So how do we begin to listen? How do we pay more attention to the small voice inside that has a big message? We start by making room for the things that matter to us. We begin working on restoring what brings joy and meaning to our lives. I recently read something Alana Fairchild wrote about what it means to restore ourselves and our souls. It’s not about more rest and downtime or catching up, it’s about getting out of our regular routines. Shaking up the everyday order lets us listen more intently and feel differently.

This does not mean it has to be big, it just has to be out of our ordinary routine. We find a new favorite spot in the house to read, take a quiet walk outside before we get going with the day, have tea instead of coffee. It can be anything. We shift our habitual patterns and when we do we shift our thinking and that’s when we begin to hear what’s been buried under the daily monotony.

Then, and you know I have to throw this then in, we write it down! I think of it as cementing the shift. We notate the differences in how we feel or what we think and from here emerges a new way of listening to our voice. To have the ah-ha moment is amazing but to translate that moment into a different way of seeing and being changes our lives. You don’t have to write a tome, just a few words or a sentence to catch what comes to the surface. We lose these new threads if we don’t tend to them and weave them into the fabric of our daily living. Paying attention allows a new shape to take form. It’s the shape our soul wants to take.

It comes down to what we choose to nurture day in and day out. If we nurture the same old things that got us to a place we’re not excited about we will never get to the place that makes us feel whole and centered and right. To get to what matters most we have to step out of our comfort zone, be a little off balance, and open to what we find there. Then we write it into being. That’s how we pick up the new thread. Gently cultivating it and carefully weaving it into our lives until it is second nature.

The healing voice inside each of us knows what soothes, a cup of tea, a hot bath, a walk in the rain. It knows what heals, a painting class, running a marathon, learning to bake. Begin to listen and you’ll hear it. What matters will shake you, there’ll be tears and laughter, joy and sadness. Let it be what it is, say what it has to say. If you can stay with that day after day, line by line, you will see your life transform in front of your eyes. You may not believe at first, just keep following it down to its roots. Writing it down is the key.

Let living what you find there heal your everyday life.

kb