Connecting to Older and Higher Selves

Introduction 

In times of need, we tend to look externally for support. But have you ever thought of first looking within yourself? We are more than just ourselves; we have a wealth of untapped wisdom and expertise right deep inside us that can be called forth at a moment’s notice. This is what we call older selves that can minister to us in this day and age. There is also the higher self that helps us connect into our greatness to come.

The Existence of Older Selves 

Inside of you is a storeroom of tucked away older selves: troubled selves, strong selves, confident selves and so forth. They have all played their roles in seasons of the past. A Lot of these selves are still intact and functional, they just don ‘t serve a purpose in the current day, because we have adapted to newer ways of being or forgotten about them altogether. These older selves are shed year after year. When your current ‘self’ has served its purpose, it treads down into the basement of your soul to be put up on the shelf. It’s important that you shed older selves, because doing so makes room for new paradigms, habits, approaches to life and so on. However, many people struggle to leave their older selves behind, and as a result are stalled and stunted within a self from the past.

Connecting to Your Older Selves

What we have experienced in the past can be relevant in the present, which is why drawing inspiration from older selves is so valuable. If you feel worn down by life’s storms, you may want to draw from lessons stored in your older selves to help support you through today’s challenges. A small way you can utilise older selves is to think back to a time when you recall having demonstrated a favourable trait you wish to rediscover, such as patience, or a mindset you were able to cultivate, such as resilience. Remember everything you need is already inside of you. You are where you are today because of those older selves. Support from older selves can provide an invaluable life lesson or comfort.

Exercise 

Spend three minutes now sitting with yourself and pinpointing an area in your life where you believe that inspiration from your older self could be extremely valuable. Pay careful attention to the first thing that pops into your head, as it is probably the most important. Write it down, along with any memories you have of possessing this old inspiration, ability, trait, mindset or whatever it is that you are looking to recall.

As you hold this thought in your mind, speak to yourself as if your older self is listening to every word. Speak to it like an old friend and tell it that over the next few days and weeks you want to tap back into that past inspiration, ability, trait or mindset and that it would be extremely valuable if you were able to do so.

It might sound like this: ‘To my older self who showed (insert desired ability, trait, mindset), i want to recommission these things into my life now. I’m excited that in a few weeks time, these qualities will arise back in me naturally.’ As you speak these sentences out loud, close your eyes and visualise yourself at that exact time. What hairstyle did you have? How did you dress? Clearly picture your older self that once struggled with these habits, simply call forth a part of yourself that knew restraint and limits, and that was fine without the substance or behaviour in question. You might have to think back to your childhood to do this, and that’s absolutely fine. Something to note here is that it is more important to ask for what you do want rather than saying what you don’t want. The universe is listening to your desires, ready to fulfil them. If you constantly talk about what you don’t want, it might still be picked up as something you do want.

Hearing from Your Higher Self 

Your higher self is energy with no beginning and no end, totally free. It is timeless, formless and unconditioned consciousness. It is unrestrained by the genetic and environmental influences that make up humanness. So when we face perplexing circumstances and feel overwhelmed by demands to make decisions, in addition to calling upon the wisdom of our older selves, we can also shift our focus and intention to appealing to the higher self. Unlike our busy and preoccupied friends and family whose advice we might also seek, our higher self can see everything leading up to our current moment of need and is clued into what direction, guidance or instruction would be most beneficial. We can hear from the higher self through a number of channels. The most popular ones to observe are inner knowing and intuitive vision.

Inner Knowing 

An inner knowing is an unshakable conviction that a particular pursuit, decision, choice or path is the one worthy of action. It is a deep feeling that, despite the opinions and input of others, only one option feels worthy of deep consideration. Inner knowing is characterised by a resolute, sensible and calm conclusion. We can trust inner knowing; it’s the manifestation of our pure ideas without all the surrounding noise of our minds.

Exercise 

To tap into your inner knowing, ask your higher self out loud to reveal itself to you through resolute conviction about something – perhaps a specific decision you have to make. Make it time-specific and give your higher self at least five days to make things clear to you. Throughout this time, make an effort to check in with yourself about how you feel about the decision. This could be by spending three minutes a day writing in your journal. Ask yourself where you feel you’re holding the decision. Your head? Your heart? Your gut? Do you feel that you should or should not do X, Y or Z? By the end of the five days your higher self will have made every effort to show you which path to follow.

Intuitive Vision 

This subconscious phenomenon occurs all the time, and is more commonly known as daydreaming. Businesses are created in someone’s mind on the commute home from the toil of a boring job. Brilliant works of art are thought up while sipping coffee in the morning. While psychologists consider this to be our subconscious chatter in visual form, daydreaming is an effective way to witness our higher self speaking to us in real-time. Your higher self will find moments throughout your day to communicate these assignments to you via intuitive vision, and the more you become attuned to this mechanism of contact, the more it will occur. Intuitive vision is a conscious stream of visual inspiration, flicking you rough drafts of your future throughout your day. It’s easy to become more aware of intuitive vision by paying attention to your daydreams. Where is it that your mind wanders off to when given half the chance? Take notice, because these are the clues to your path ahead. Glimpses of your future and your potential stir up consideration that leads to action. You’re receiving well intended desires that will likely reposition or even springboard you to new heights. How could you be inspired to act if it wasn’t first a thought imagined in your mind? When we refocus the lens of our attention inward to catch the messages from our higher self, we clue right in to our future.

You are Never Alone

Isn’t it hope giving, isn’t it life-altering, when you sit back and ponder how, thanks to your older and higher selves, you truly are never alone? If aspects of your past self are better than your present, you have now learned how to invoke the past. If you’re stuck sizing up your future with very little inspiration, you’ve got someone to help you with that too. You in the past, you in the future and you right now are all existing together in this one moment as spirit. When you deeply reflect and consider this reality, you will realise that this whole time you’ve not needed external forces and agents to get things done, feel empowered or find hope.

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