Developing Your Internal Guidance System (IGS)

Guest Blog by Lisa Kramer~

We each have an internal guidance system, an inner GPS or road map, that has our best interest at heart and guides us toward greater joy and fulfillment in our lives.

Over the past 10 years, I have learned to access my IGS, not only with making big decisions like ending a 23 year marriage, selling my home, and making a career transition, but also with smaller day-to-day choices like how to best schedule my work day or what foods to eat. Regardless of what’s in front of me, I trust that my IGS will guide me in the right direction….as long as I am willing to listen to it!

Here are two examples, one when I listened to my IGS and one when I didn’t:

In the fall of 2007, I received a phone call ‘out of the blue’ from a local business owner who had been referred to me for coaching. He wanted to bring an executive coach into his company to coach him and his senior leadership team. Up until that point I had been doing life coaching, and I was interested in  transitioning to leadership and executive coaching. Despite the uncertainty I felt about whether I was qualified for this opportunity, I knew it was time to take a risk and say yes to this opportunity. As a result my business broke six figures for the first time, and I gained the confidence I needed to shift my focus to coaching leaders.

On the flip side, in 2009 I was newly divorced and ready to venture into the world of online dating. I met a man on Match.com who swept me off my feet! He wined me and dined me and took me on an exotic trip to India. All along I knew that something wasn’t quite right. I wasn’t sure what it was…that is, until I learned he was in a relationship with another woman at the same time he was with me! I ended that relationship and was left with a broken heart.

How did I know my IGS was speaking to me in these situations? And what caused me to listen in the first example and turn a deaf ear in the second?

This is what I’ve learned during the past 10 years about how my IGS speaks to me:

  1. The ‘voice’ of the IGS is loving and clear, never judgmental or critical. Even when the message isn’t one that I want to hear, it comes across in a way that feels direct and supportive.
  2. I have a practice of quieting my mind through a variety of ways including journaling, meditation, walking in nature and yoga. I do my best to make at least one of these a daily practice, even if it’s for 15-20 minutes. Quieting the chatter of the mind is critical for hearing the softer signals  of the IGS.
  3. My IGS ‘speaks’ to me in different ways. Sometimes it’s a message I hear, other times it’s a gut feeling, and other times it’s something in the environment like a license plate in front of me on the road when I’m driving.
  4. When I am aligned with my IGS, there is a flow of energy through my body that lets me know there is alignment. I feel it in my heart and in my solar plexus. And when I’m not in alignment, it feels like there is a kink in the hose and the energy cannot flow freely.

The challenge is when our mind wants to override the heart. We may know that something isn’t right, as I did in the situation of Mr Not Right, but we find ways to convince ourselves otherwise. Fortunately for me, I learned a great lesson about listening to and trusting my IGS after going through that painful heartbreak.

This is a critical time in our country for women to reclaim their power and their voices. It is my deep desire to participate by helping other women learn to access, trust and listen to their IGS.

If you’d like to learn more about my workshops and coaching services, please email me at lisa@leadingwithintention.com I’d love to connect with you!

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