“We have to trust that if we are acting with integrity, compassion, honesty and heart that the outcome will be the right one…” anonymous

Well, I’m making the above quote anonymous. I know who wrote it, but for various reasons I can’t say. I really value what he’s saying here. In recent years, I’ve often thought about trust. Primarily my thinking has focused on people – trusting people. Let’s call anonymous Zach. Zach’s instruction here is talking about trust in relation to journey, process, dynamics. 

I think Zach is encouraging us to trust our instinct.

By instinct, I am referring to an inner wisdom.  This inner wisdom, I’m increasingly starting to see, is particularly special because it is not individual – that is, it is somehow connected to a deeper shared universal wisdom. The power of this wisdom is that it has its roots in compassion, honesty, love (heart). It offers protection when we are in danger.  

Trust your instinct. 

He’s got me thinking about how trusting your instinct, your inner wisdom, requires leaping into the unknown. It requires opening the mind to not having a plan – just being and doing according to instinct in a given moment. He’s writtent his in the context of personal relationships – of what happens when we try and shift old, negative behaviour patterns. Often – we all know – we have behaviour patterns that are destructive, yet we find it very hard to let go of them. In my life, when it comes to behaviour patterns – in a distorted sort of way – I’ve found that they eventually feel comfortable and I get attached to the. The are like a worn pair of shoes with a hole in the sole letting all the elements through and offering very poor protection, possibly even making me limp a bit. I adapt to the shoes on my feet and let the shoe with the hole dictate how I walk. My limp becomes familiar to me. The transition out of it would feel like a huge shock to the system and when I try to change shoes a defensive, wounded part of me tries to talk my loving self out of it. 

I’m  wondering: what if we allowed our social change activism to be more driven by instinct – by inner shared wisdom? 

know the ‘right’ course of action ina  situation