HJ: Most people live from their mind… very few live from their soul consciousness, which is most in alignment with your true divine nature.
– Truth
Trusting Your Soul To Produce The Outcome That Is Most Beneficial To You
By Richard Barrett
Trusting your soul requires immense courage when you are operating as an ego. That is because the ego takes its job very seriously. It was given the task of keeping the body safe from harm, and it forgot that it was performing this service on behalf of the soul. It thought it was protecting itself. Your ego has to learn that to find true fulfillment it has to become the servant of your soul.
The time is now ripe for seriously testing how much you can trust your soul. There are many ways you can do this, but whatever way you choose it should not be half-hearted. You have reached the moment where you must let go of the shore and jump into the river. The Hopi saying, entitled the Wisdom of the Elders, captures this moment very well:
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
We must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river,
Keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate.
The time of the lone wolf is over.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
The time of the lone wolf is over because you have reached the point in your development when you are giving up your independence. You are ready to jump into the river and see who is in there with you and celebrate, because you are now going to work with these people who have also committed to their souls’ purposes. They are in the river with you for a reason. They are kindred souls; together you are going to shift into a state of interdependence so you can leverage your efforts in making a difference in the world.
Letting Your Soul Speak
I remember vividly, the day when I really let go of the shore and started trusting my soul. When I was a child I was very shy. I was so afraid of speaking in public that when I became a school prefect I would get into an extreme panic if I had to read the Bible at the school assembly. I developed a strategy for dealing with this: I traded duties with other prefects, or if that didn’t work, I would pretend I was sick and stay at home.
After I completed my university studies, I knew I had to face up to this issue if I wanted to advance my career, so I went to public speaking classes. I learned how to make a good speech, not necessarily an inspiring speech, but a speech that people could appreciate that enabled me to get my message across. Since I was always speaking about technical topics, I used overhead slides. I relied on my slides to support me in making my speeches.
Fast-forward thirty years. One evening I was invited to give a speech in a church in the Netherlands. I didn’t have much communication with the organisers, so I didn’t know why the audience was showing up. I asked myself,“Are they coming to hear a speech on organisational transformation or a speech on personal transformation?”
I decided to trust my soul, with whom by this time I had established a strong friendship. I attempted something that I later called “soul speak” — not delivering a prepared speech, but showing up, asking a few members of the audience why they had come, and then relying on my soul to address their concerns. Of course it worked.
From that time on, I relied more and more on this technique. Unless I needed slides to convey a particular message, I would not prepare; I would just show up and let my soul do the rest. About two minutes before speaking, I would close my eyes, go within and connect with my soul. I would say something like, “OK, soul now is the moment; time for you to give your message.” I still do this every time I give a speech.
Consciously Stepping Into Soul Consciousness
When I consciously step into soul consciousness, I know from the feedback I get that I am at my most inspirational. I also learn a lot. The words that I speak are sometimes things I have never heard myself say before. Now I enjoy giving speeches, because next to writing, this is when I feel closest to my soul.
When I am writing, I automatically step into soul consciousness and start typing. My soul guides me all the way. My soul not only tells me what books to write, it supports me in the process—it gives me the table of contents, and tells me how to structure each chapter. The messages come in different ways. Sometimes, I will wake in the middle of the night with a huge download of information and make notes. I keep a note pad by bed permanently, because I never know when the next message will come.
Sometimes, when I come to a new chapter and have no conscious idea of what to say, a thought in the form of a phrase or a sentence will come to me. I immediately write it down. That phrase is like the thread at the end of a ball of wool. Before I know what has happened, I have filled several pages with words that just flowed from that sentence. Then, I use three-dimensional logic to reorganize what I have written, and add some data.
Because of these experiences, I have learned that whenever I feel stuck and don’t know what to do, I simply ask for guidance from my soul. I explain the situation, which is a bit pointless because my soul already knows, and simply ask my soul to take charge; I ask my soul to give me the advice that will benefit its purposes. I always get an answer within twenty-four hours. The answers are clear and precise.
Getting Rid Of Any Ego Attachment
To operate in this way you have to get rid of any ego attachment you may have to things having to be the way your ego wants them. When your ego thinks it knows exactly what to do, beware! The ego is usually focused on satisfying one of its unmet needs. The mere thought of not being able to achieve these needs generates anxiety and fear.
Whenever you allow fear to enter your mind, you are sending a message to your soul that you do not trust it to produce the outcome that is most beneficial to you. Non-attachment sends a different message to your soul. It says I trust you, Soul, to organize the outcome so that it most perfectly fits with yourneeds.
What your ego is attempting to learn by trusting the soul is that the best possible outcomes always arise when you allow your doing to flow from your being.
Learning to Allow Rather Than Force
This technique of allowing, rather than forcing, is particularly powerful once you have committed to your soul’s purpose. Your soul begins to make things happen by using its four-dimensional energetic connections: These words which appear in William H. Murray’s book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (1951), capture the idea:
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.
To get more of the joy you want to experience, you must do away with any fears you may have about following your passion, and learn to trust your soul. This is a big step because it may mean throwing caution to the winds, and it may mean stepping out into your life without a parachute. To do this, you must be able to trust that you will be able to survive. This may force you to revisit your unresolved ego issues (conscious or subconscious fear-based beliefs) that you have about meeting your survival needs.
The ego has not yet realized that it is the servant of its soul, and that it owes its very existence to the soul. This is the next stage of development— becoming one with your soul.
Changing Your Identity
Trust is a two-way street. Not only do you have to learn to trust your soul, your soul has to learn to trust you. One of the ways you can gain the trust of your soul by identifying yourself as a soul—by assuming the characteristics of a soul. To do this, you must take all forms of separation out of the way you identify yourself. At the fourth dimension of consciousness, the soul is energetically connected to every other soul that comes into your life—there is no separation at the higher dimensions of consciousness.
The ego has four main ways of identifying itself — gender, religion, nationality and race. Before I began to identify as a soul, I used to describe myself as a white, male, British, Protestant. This form of identity separated me from all people of colour, all females, all other nationalities, and all non-Protestant religions. I realized that was a lot of separation that needed to be healed if I was going to earn the trust of your soul.
The way I removed nationality as a marker of separation, was to identify myself as citizen of the planet. The way I removed gender as a marker of separation, was to embrace my softer female energies. The way I removed race as a marker of separation, was to think of myself as a soul having a human experience. The way I removed religion as a marker of separation, was to think of myself as a member of all religions.
I am not willing to let any form of divisiveness into my life. I made up my mind nothing would stop me from identifying with what I believe is the core message of all religions—living a life of love.
When asked, “Where are you from?” I very often give the answer, “Heaven.” Most people I say this to see the humorous implication, and we get into a conversation about their spiritual beliefs — we immediately start to build connection. Others look at me quizzically, as if I am a bit deranged. That’s OK. I am not worried about what people think of me. Try it yourself and see what happens. You will have fun.
The point I am trying to make here is simple. By identifying yourself in the four ways I have described, you are sending a message to your soul, as well as to your ego, that you are fully onboard with the idea that everyone in a human body is essentially a soul having a human experience. We are all individuated aspects of a multi dimensional energy field. By identifying with this field, you are consciously bringing the four-dimensional reality of your soul into your three-dimensional world—exactly what your soul is trying to do. This is one of the most important strategies for gaining the trust of your soul.
Summary
Here are the main points of this chapter:
1. You have to let go of the shore and jump into the river if you are going to learn to trust your soul.
2. If you want to live in soul consciousness, you must learn how to let go of your ego’s attachment to specific outcomes.
3. Take all separation beliefs about your identity out of your life — you are a soul enjoying a human existence. That is your only reality.
Richard Barrett is an author, speaker and internationally recognised thought leader on the evolution of human values in business and society. He is the founder and chairman of the Barrett Values Centre, a Fellow of the World Business Academy, an Advisory Board Member of the Centre for Integral Wisdom, Honorary Board Member of the Spirit of Humanity Forum, and Former Values Coordinator at the World Bank. He is the creator of the Cultural Transformation Tools (CTT) which have been used to support more than 5,000 organizations in 60 different countries on their transformational journeys. Richard has been a visiting lecturer at the Consulting and Coaching for Change, Leadership Course run by the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and HEC in Paris. He has also been an Adjunct Professor at Royal Roads University, Institute for Values-based Leadership, and a visiting lecturer at the One Planet MBA at Exeter University. Richard Barrett is the author of numerous books. Visit his websites at valuescentre.com and newleadershipparadigm.com.
