Your Best Friend Is Within You

Since early childhood, I have felt alive within me a best friend who has never let me down. When I listen with my whole being, this inner voice of my True Self, which I call the Wise Inner Counselor, unfailingly guides and guards every aspect of my life.

As Close as My Heartbeat

My engagement with this presence began in earnest the summer of my ninth year during a visit with my Grandma Cody at her farm in Missouri. Cody shone like a sunbeam into every life she touched. Her ability to reach into spiritual realms, which our family called her “Hotline to God,” certainly touched mine.

One day at lunchtime, while she was saying grace, I felt the room fill up with light. I peeked around through half-opened eyes, but saw nothing. Still, I knew something extraordinary was happening, and I silently declared to myself, “I want what Grandma Cody has.”

Comfort and a Promise

Soon after this experience, I was lazing on my swing set at home in Colorado, thinking intently about the book on ancient Greece I’d been reading. I was imagining the hot Aegean sun beating on my face, reflecting like diamonds on the azure-blue sea, with iridescent marble columns behind me. It was a scene so vivid I could almost remember being there—almost.

As I sat motionless on the swing, trying to will myself back to antiquity, I was transported. In my mind’s eye I no longer saw glistening Greek temples but, rather, a tunnel of light. I knew immediately that great spiritual beings lived in the brilliant radiance emanating from the center.

Best of all, I felt my Wise Inner Counselor comforting me with a promise that if I followed that light, one day I would remember ancient Greece—and much more.

Following the Promptings

Although I never became clairvoyant like Grandma Cody, my desire for deep connection with what is unseen, though profoundly felt, has only increased. As I have followed the promptings of my Wise Inner Counselor, that connection has flourished—enhancing both my spirituality and my humanity. And teaching me valuable lessons that I recommend to anyone who wants to be more attuned to inner guidance:

1. Listen, listen, listen with your body, mind, heart, and soul
2. Let go of trying to control your life (a challenge for us “make-it-happen” people)
3. Develop hospitality toward the transformational nature of inner guidance, especially when that means releasing outworn concepts or behaviors
4. Pay attention to how you’re being or what you’re doing when inspiration is clearest
5. “Do” and “Be” more of that
6. Invoke spiritual energy daily to refine your perception of subtle promptings
7. Be a friend to your Wise Inner Counselor

Nurturing the Conversation

Our closest relationships may begin as a recognition or the delight of positive relatedness with someone who shares our most cherished values. Within the circle of that oneness, friendship flows—fostering the highest good for all.

Life with my Wise Inner Counselor is like that. And it is a two-way commitment.

This loving inner presence never leaves me. Keeping the communication open is my responsibility. The more dependably I nurture the conversation by practicing the lessons I’ve learned, the stronger our friendship becomes.

Adapted from Reflections on Being Your True Self in Any Situation. Learn more at CherylEckl.com.