For the majority of my life, I’ve seen myself as both curious and intuitive. I’m constantly seeking out new information, but I also have these moments of knowing that come over me––a magnetic pull in a certain direction––in which an inward understanding translates into an outward action.
The moments typically happen around big life decisions, both personal and professional. They feel natural, though they sometimes come with their fair share of internal disruption––which ultimately keeps me aligned and on my path.
If you’d like to learn a bit more about my recent journey, watch the video below:
HOW CAN THE PULL HAPPEN REGULARLY?
I’ve started to wonder if my intuition––the pull I sense from time to time––can happen more consciously. Can I make it a daily practice? How can intuition and deliberateness dictate your actions to ensure consistent alignment with your vision, values, and sense of knowing?
For today’s leaders, who often embody a “do, do, do” mentality, that alignment can be hard to achieve, because this mentality is at odds with the ability to just “be”. When you’re constantly doing, and thus being pulled in multiple directions all day long, it’s hard to be still enough to feel the pull of intuition specifically and lean into it.
And it’s why daily reflection and meditative practices are so important, so we can feel the internal pull that arises first in our heart.
I’ve been absorbing a lot from my reading lately. One thing I’ve learned is that everyone has both masculine and feminine energy. When released effectively in a positive manner, “Doing” strikes me as a masculine energy, and “being” as a feminime energy. Tapping into both of these energies is fundamentally necessary to follow the pull.
(This graphic from Shakti Leadership helped crystallize my thinking)
From my perspective, the feminime energy allows us to “be,” “flow,” and truly listen to what the mind and body need. Meanwhile, masculine energy is responsible for carrying those actions out.
When we carry out the action our souls are calling for (which I’m doing by writing this article), we stay on our paths. When we don’t take action, we step farther away from the path we are meant to travel down. The result? It becomes difficult to feel––and follow––the pull when it’s present.
And that’s where I see a lot of people “lost” in life. Over the years, we build up thousands of actions, thoughts, and belief systems, all of which are pulling us in different directions. As a result, we’re misaligned to our core. We find ourselves off our path and drifting farther from our purpose––without a sense of how to get back. As a teacher from my recent readings, Gary Zukav, would say, “We are not Awake.”
I continue to ponder the question of how to make “following the pull” a daily practice in my own life, and here’s what I’ve come up with so far in terms of what it takes:
Rapid Cycling: Engaging in cycles of tapping into our feminine energy to just “be” and let what comes up guide us, then relying on our masculine energy to “do” the action based on those insights. After taking that action, begin the internal feedback loop by asking yourself,
“Should I keep heading in this direction, make adjustments, or go somewhere else entirely?”
Then repeat.
A WILLINGNESS TO FEEL THE PULL––AND FOLLOW IT
As I shared in the video, my “pull” guided me Westward, to Colorado for the summer. Right now, I’m feeling the pull to go farther west from here. But it’s action that got me here––selling my belongings, disrupting my life, and leaving behind what was comfortable and familiar to be in alignment with my soul and purpose––even when I’m not sure of the outcome.
Before I left DC, there were two things in my heart that have always enticed me, pulls I’d never acted on because I’d been scared.
Over the past couple years, I developed a really strong pull toward acoustic folk music. Bands and artists like Wilderado, Gregory Alan Isakov, The Lumineers, and Mt. Joy have tugged on my heartstrings.
Additionally, I’ve always had an interest in Indie films and documentaries. Film has always intrigued me, but the idea of learning about film was extremely scary because I’d have to learn how to use a camera. I was also scared because it would take me away from my professional work, which I had always seen as the foundation for everything else I envisioned for myself in life.
Since arriving in Denver, I’ve tackled both fears head on, buying all the equipment necessary to learn filmmaking and document my journey and signing up for guitar lessons. Picking up the camera for the first time felt as scary as picking up a newborn baby, yet exhilarating at the same time. And during my first week of guitar lessons––which coincided with my first week in Denver–– I learned all the strings and how to play different chords, the building blocks necessary to play different songs that speak to me. Eventually, I hope to write songs that speak to others.
These recent internal shifts have begun to make me a bit more adaptable and open to the pull.
I’ve been constantly leaning into what I’ve felt, listening to my feminine energy, and relying on my masculine side to do: the act of filming, photography, and learning the guitar. When I incorporate reflection, using my journal to understand the ways in which I’m aligning to my core, the reflection drives the feedback loop that begins the next cycle and keeps me moving forward on the current path.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
The necessary ingredients (for me) are allowing the moments of stillness, the nothingness, the beingness to arise inside and drive the outer actions.
This constant daily practice is already making a difference in my life, allowing for the discovery, exploration, and letting go that I know will get me where I’m meant to be––even if I’m not quite sure where that is.