Trusting the Force in Us

“A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of a branch breaking because its trust is not in the branch.” Author unknown.

There is a place in us. A safe place inside us we can go anytime to connect with something greater than us. It is a force we can trust. A force that is both personal and impersonal. Powerful and light.

It is our mental backbone, the center of who we are, the place where our creativity and joy come from but also where we find inner peace and calm in the most challenging circumstances, answers when we are stuck, the direction when we can’t see very far. It is an inner Force. The place in us where we are centered and clear, both soft and strong. Where everything is in balance, even when everything in our head looks upside down.

Nobody and nothing can take that away from us. It belongs to us; it goes nowhere. It is deeply connected to the essence of Life.

A place of Deep Knowing. A Knowing beyond and between our usual thoughts. A place that leads us through Life when we allow it. When our usual thinking switches off, and a deeper fresh new thinking kicks in. We have all experienced it in a way or another. We know how it feels. It has guided us in the most precious, and the most critical moments of our lives. It is in all of us. We don’t have to be in touch with it all the time or be aware of it every day to know, it is in us.

It takes all sorts of forms, but this force is, in essence, formless.

In nature, it enables birds to know they can fly, plants to grow in spring and rest in winter, flowers to turn to the sun to survive, and even find their way between stones in the tiniest holes. It helps trees “communicate” in the forest and build deeper roots when there is not enough water. It allows for the cycle of day and night, for the rivers to flow and for the air we breathe. They don’t need us for that. They just know how to do what they do.

And our body knows so much. It has its own logic of functioning and a built-in healing mechanism. Nobody has ever taught our digestive system to do what it does or our bodies how to create Life. They know. In business, it is the source of our most brilliant ideas, of our creativity and our common sense, of the decisions we make when we don’t have all information, the words we find when we want to connect, the individual and collective genius and so much more.

We can call it Mind, Wisdom, Intelligence behind Life, Force or whatever… Our experience of it is called Inner Voice, Deeper Knowing, sometimes Intuition or Clarity or Common Sense or Inner GPS or Silence.

It doesn’t matter really how we call all this. We always feel it communicating in and with us when we are in contact with it. It comes from us and from a place beyond us that is much greater than us. It talks to us also when we don’t know that it is “it”.

Our sense of self wants to take ownership of it and make it personal, but it is much more than what our small self can even grasp. It´s the energy behind Life that is greater than us. It is the deeper source of our sense of trust in Life.

I had the chance to be fully aware of its presence many times in my life at an early age, but for the first time, really consciously, seventeen years ago. I started to connect the dots at a different level when I had a stroke, and then a few years later again, when I had life-threatening health complications as an indirect effect of the stroke.

In those circumstances, I could observe in real-time how my body was fighting for my life in a way no doctor could explain. It was magical. And to my surprise, I was each time very clearly aware of what was going on in and around me. It was not a full intellectual understanding of what was happening. It was an intuitive clarity. I couldn’t put words on what I was experiencing at that time.

Now I know, what it was: wisdom in action. Sometimes I call “it” Force, sometimes Wisdom. Sometimes something else. The words can be different, but the feeling is the same.. a very deep feeling of inner guidance.

There were, of course, moments of panic, frustration, or tension, but I was surprisingly generally in peace with life despite the circumstances. Living day to day in a hospital and an intensive care environment for months. Navigating through the different options available to me moment to moment, depending on others for my survival, letting them and myself make crucial decisions not knowing which consequences they would have. Enjoying the deep connection with human beings around me and trusting wisdom along the way, with an intuitive sense of direction and common sense, step by step. Nothing else was possible, and at the same time with “it”, everything was possible. “It” was a source of trust and a source of hope.

I wouldn’t choose to go through that again if I was asked, but still, it was an amazing experience. Really.

It showed me that I had this connection with Life in me and that it was my friend all the time regardless of the circumstances.

It is not only there in difficult times, it is also in action in the most meaningful and beautiful moments, the smallest and the biggest moments. It helped me make many surprising and wonderful decisions!

I know that we all have access to it in our lives. That we have this force in us that guides us. I trust it for me, and I trust it for you. Because we all have it. In our most creative and inspired and joyful moments. And also in times when life looks heavy.

We don’t always know how to call it but we feel it. We forget it and then remember again that it is there inside us. We can reconnect with it anytime but we usually get there more easily when our mind settles down and we are present in the moment.

With a quiet mind, you’ll be able to connect with it more often.

And yes, we feel confused, tensed, angry, or even all of that sometimes, it is ok. Not because we are strong and smart, although we are. But because those feelings that we don’t like do not mean as much as we think. We have something in us that is much greater. It will not always do things the way we want; no, it’s not its job. If we allow it, it will send us exactly what we need… clarity, inner gps, a yes, a no, a pause, a new thought, an idea, a decision, an action, a direction.. or whatever is required in the moment.

When you don’t know, trust the Force, Wisdom, Intelligence behind Life… It knows.

With Love, Drissia

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If you would like to learn more about how to navigate the experience of Life and Leadership with more grace and wisdom contact me here for a first transformative conversation or attend one of the upcoming retreats: https://www.eventbrite.de/o/drissia-schroeder-hohenwarth-30445146584