When you’re stressed or in the midst of a painful crisis, it’s harder to connect to your higher self and have confidence in that connection. How do you connect within and develop confidence in that deeper part of yourself, in your intuition, when you’re experiencing self-doubt, when you feel stuck or when your life seems to be falling apart?

To empower you to utilize the “how-to” steps below most effectively, I will first touch upon viewing life from a deeper-level perspective. Consider for a moment that your higher self is ultimately in charge of your life, has always been in charge, and that your higher self’s primary purpose is to grow and to come to know who you are through firsthand experience. Since personal growth is bliss to the soul, you will sometimes find yourself in challenging and painful situations that encourage such growth. Because even though it may seem easier to connect to your higher self when you are relatively comfortable with your life, when you are lying on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean sipping margaritas, it’s probably not very likely you’ll actually follow through on its guidance (in other words, take action) if doing so causes you to step even slightly outside your comfort zone. Remember that your soul would find the stagnation that results from remaining within your comfort zone completely unbearable.

Because pain and suffering (also known as “learning through contrast,” or “duality”) was traditionally the fastest way to spiritual growth and evolution, your higher self had planned plenty of it in your life. From your soul’s point of view, stepping into the creativity that takes you beyond your ordinary life makes the often relatively short-lived crisis well worth it. In times of crisis, people are much more likely to search for creative and inspiring solutions to their problems. Historically, incredible technological as well as social advances resulted from experiences that were painful to the collective human body and psyche. And contrary to what we have been led to believe, separating from our higher selves was something our higher selves actually engineered, for some highly noble purposes, too: for the learning experiences that will benefit the whole of humanity.

Currently, we are in the midst of what some call the “end times,” the beginning of a “new earth.” My understanding is that the higher self will lead us there. By reconnecting to the higher self, we are heading in the direction of the “Golden Age.” By reconnecting to the higher self, we are also shifting the learning experience from one of “learning through pain” to one of “learning through joy.” This is wonderful news, of course, and what I feel will change on a fundamental level.

So how do you reconnect as easily and as gracefully as possible when you’re going through stressful life changes? The first thing to remember is that since your higher self had planned your life, including your biggest problems, you have the knowing and the capacity within to resolve all those problems successfully. All you have to do is to connect and to gain enough confidence in that connection so that you follow through on your inner guidance promptly and consistently. By following through, your higher self will take you into your own “Golden Age.” Understanding this will reduce your fear and anxiety, which will in turn facilitate your reconnection. For a more thorough discussion of these concepts, please read the article The Truth about Awakening: Reconnection with the Higher Self.

Let’s now go to the “steps” of the reconnection process. NOTE: I use the term “steps” loosely because this process isn’t quite linear.

Ask Your Higher Self To Help You

This is important because your higher self will respond to your intention and your willingness to reconnect. Your higher self also knows what works best for you and how to get your attention. Remember that your goal is to develop a stronger, deeper, clearer relationship with your higher self. Indicating your readiness will help the process.

Meditate and Pay Attention To Your Sacred Space

The next step is to pay attention to your “sacred space.” Your sacred space is your center, the area that’s defined by the heart, the “soul seed,” and the solar plexus. The soul seed is located at the center of the breastbone where your ribs meet, and the solar plexus is below the sternum about an inch or two above the navel. You don’t have to pinpoint the sacred space exactly, only to have an idea of its general location. From here, you will do two things: you will meditate with your attention on this area, and you will “check in” to this area several times a day.

Meditation

Checking In

Paying attention to your sacred space and the feelings associated with it will help you recognize and discern your inner guidance from the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that come from outer influences and mental conditionings.

Follow Through On Your Guidance Promptly and Consistently

Make the commitment and build up the courage to follow through on the inner guidance promptly and consistently. In the beginning, when you are building up trust in your higher self, you will be asked to do some things that shouldn’t be all that difficult to do. For example, you may receive guidance (in the form of a feeling or a thought) to call an old friend, to write down an insight, or to do something in a particular order that isn’t your normal way of doing things. Go ahead and follow your guidance as soon as you can. Notice what happens as a result. When something favorable happens as a result of following through, your trust in your intuition and in your connection will grow. Keep this up and it will continue to grow until you get to the point where you begin to trust your inner self more than anyone or anything outside of yourself. This is an important milestone, as things will get really interesting from here on. I call this milestone “critical mass.” (The concept of critical mass is often misunderstood in the New Age community.) Critical mass is when the relationship with your higher self becomes at least as important and as real to you as any of your other relationships. My understanding is that this is the point where you tap into the magic of interconnectedness – synchronicities, amazing insights, signs from the universe, and universal cooperation.

Ask For Clear Guidance When You Feel Stuck

When you need immediate guidance but don’t trust yourself to interpret your inner thoughts and feelings correctly because you’re stressed-out or afraid, you can ask your higher self to send you guidance so plain and clear it can’t be misinterpreted. I have received such “signs from the universe” on a number of occasions and they came rather quickly after I asked for them, too. (At that point, I was already gaining trust in my intuition and was pretty confident that I would follow through with the guidance when I received it. It’s just that my choices were rather difficult to make.) For more information on these “signs,” you may want to read my article Is it Coincidence, or a Sign from the Universe?

Be Prepared To Let Go Of Old Beliefs and Conditionings

Sometimes, old beliefs and conditionings (about yourself, about other people, and about the world) seem to get in the way of your progress and will need to be released. Again, this will get easier as you get further into the process because you will reach a point where your trust in your inner guidance will simply override your beliefs. The heart and soul can override false beliefs held by the mind. Remember, many of your beliefs didn’t come from you in the first place but from society’s misinterpretations and misunderstandings.

Connecting to your higher self and letting go of outdated, false beliefs go hand in hand. I know it isn’t always an easy thing to do. It helps, of course, to have examples of others who did this and how they did this. It also helps to understand that your beliefs had an important purpose for humanity’s growth and evolution. They allowed for an enormous range of experiences for the collective consciousness to grow through. It was the perfect and right thing for you to have them; it happened for the greater good of the whole. It’s just that it’s time for a whole new paradigm now, it’s time to let go of what no longer serves us because we have outgrown the old.

When you let go of cherished beliefs that you suspect may be false (your suspicion just may be your higher self whispering to you) you enable insights and new possibilities to come through that previously were blocked by those beliefs. The flow of creativity and abundance in your life is thus unblocked, making it easier to achieve your heart’s desires in the end.

Continue the Process To Find Your Life Purpose

Sometimes you will need to recommit to your higher self more than once. It’s almost like you’ll be tested; you’ll come across an obstacle and you’ll have a choice about how to continue. Will you recommit to your higher purpose no matter what it takes? It’s much easier to do this when you can see the bigger picture – which is why I’ve been explaining the bigger picture rather than just giving “how-to” tips. I found that I had breakthroughs (in creativity, productivity, insights, connections, etc.) soon after I recommitted to my higher purpose. These breakthroughs and the feelings of triumph they fostered motivated me to keep going even further.

The breakthroughs in creativity, wisdom and insights are the “hidden gifts” that are part of the “inner repertoire” of your soul. (Remember that your higher self is your connection to the wisdom of your infinite life, your connection to the larger universe, and the gateway to the abundance and the unexpected blessings of the universe.) In other words, when you reconnect to your higher self, you are consciously activating your “super-conscious” mind.

Continue on this process and you will be able to make sense of your life which will give you not only confidence in your inner self but ultimately the success and the inner peace that your deepest heart longs for. Contrary to popular opinion, when you find that you’re making more sense of your life, when you are beginning to understand the bigger picture of life, your intuition and your logical reasoning will begin to go hand in hand and you will no longer feel that you’re fighting the inner battle (between your mind and your heart). And when you stop the inner battle, the outer battles will also stop.

The process above will not only reconnect you to your higher self for guidance, but it will be exactly what you need to do to find your higher life purpose – your soul’s blueprint for success. Furthermore, this process will be your entry key, your initiation into, and your contribution towards the Golden Age. The source of your creativity, of your highest potential, of the experience of flow, and of abundance is your higher self. Relax, and allow it to unfold within you!