Strengthen The Access To Your Inner Wisdom

Reconnect with your inner wisdom. This combination of theory and mindfulness practice explains the source of our emotional and inner wisdom. You will learn how our deep-grained values and emotions can be a powerful guide through life. It is when we act in line with our own value system that we are the most beautiful and true expression of ourselves. At times, however, we do not behave in line with our own values and are in need of change. Here is how to re-connect with your inner wisdom.

Transcript

Hi,

I'm Caroline and I wish you a very warm welcome in this session where we are going to explore the power of our own emotions,

Our inner guide and how we can take action when we want to change.

For this session I'd like you to invite in your own mind a special guest.

So I'd like you to close your eyes and just picture a person who you fully trust.

Try to vividly picture this person.

Try to become aware of how you feel when this person is close to you.

This person will be your special guest on this journey.

When we look at the emotional life of our brain,

I'd like to distinguish two types of emotions.

On the one hand side we have these short lived emotions such as a burst of stress when we have to stand on stage or a burst of anger when somebody said something mean to us.

On the other hand we also have these deep grained values that express themselves as strong emotions.

Our own emotions,

The deep grained ones but also the short lived ones,

They are triggered by our own thoughts.

Our brain is constantly producing these thoughts,

Some people call it the monkey mind.

The monkey mind constantly chats and produces these thoughts.

And these thoughts are unique to you.

And this unique interpretation leads to your emotional life.

If you look at the brain,

We have this one system very deep inside the brain,

Our limbic system that plays a significant role when it comes to emotions.

External information is captured by our senses such as seeing,

Hearing,

Feeling and they send this information to the limbic system.

Within the limbic system there is this thalamus and the thalamus will then decide which information is relevant to you and which information is not relevant to you.

Sometimes we also call the thalamus the gate to consciousness.

The information that has been regarded as relevant to you will then be further processed and can lead to an emotion.

And what is an emotion?

Well an emotion is a very complex collection of biological changes in your body.

We feel an emotion in our entire body.

Let's first have a look at these short lived emotions such as sudden bursts of stress or anger.

A classical example of stress is the stress that we feel when we have to stand on stage or when we have to hold a presentation in front of a group.

This stress reaction from a neuroscientific point of view can definitely block you in your potential to fully thrive on stage.

Perhaps you already have experienced this.

Mindfulness can help us to deal with this stress.

First of all when you regularly practice mindfulness meditation it will in general lower the activation level in your amygdala and the amygdala is a part of the brain that leads to stress.

We need the amygdala,

They are very important for our survival,

For our emotions in general,

But sometimes they get very excited without having a real danger outside.

And then they can lead to stress,

Such as for example standing on stage.

Regular mindful practice has been shown by science that it down regulates the amygdala activation and at some point you will not feel so stressed anymore when you stand on stage.

Mindfulness can also help us in the heat of the moment.

The heat of the moment is the moment where we are standing on stage and experiencing this short burst of stress.

When we look at the stress reaction you will see that you've started to breathe very superficially,

Quite high up in the chest and especially you are inhaling the air.

And this act due to the stress will make the stress even worse.

But we can break this vicious circle.

And how do we do that?

Well we can do that by becoming fully aware of the breath and especially take our time to fully exhale.

We forget to exhale when we have stress.

So try to even exhale a tiny bit longer than inhaling and only this act will already bring your brain into a state of more relaxation.

Now let's have a look at our deep-grained values and emotions.

I've told you that emotions they are a very complex collection of biological changes that we feel through our entire body.

This means that our own inner wisdom,

Our own emotional wisdom is happening in our own body.

When we name our emotions or when we reflect on our emotions this only happens in a final stage.

Before that it's the entire emotion that develops in our body.

When we practice true mindfulness meditation we will become much more aware of our bodily sensations,

We start to reconnect with who we are and we are more consciously experiencing what happens with our senses.

And as a result with mindfulness we can strengthen the access to our own inner wisdom.

And this means and I hope that this is a comforting thought but this means that we are never alone.

You always have yourself with you,

Your own inner wise guide.

At times however we do not behave or act in line with our own values but it is only when we behave in line with our own inner values that we are the most true expression of who we are.

And when we do not act in line with our own deep-grained values we notice that.

We have this inner conflict and then we have the feeling there's something that needs to change.

This change does not only need an insight from ourselves but it also requires an emotional readiness because it's the emotions that will give us energy and they will show us the way.

But only you know when you are emotionally ready to change.

And once you are ready keep your senses,

Keep your eyes,

Keep your ears fully open and then you will see your path.

There is always a way.

Making a change,

Both small or large,

Can be challenging at times.

Courage is required and we need to act in a brave way.

Being brave means that we face our own fear,

Our own insecurities,

Our own doubts.

And our own fear and insecurities are often the result of the expectations that we have about ourselves but also the expectations that we feel others have for us.

Making a change starts with a vivid imagination of your goal,

A clear goal that you can feel.

And this will make your path visible.

Because also a journey of 1000 miles will start with the first few steps.

Make these steps clear to you.

What do they require?

How can they look like?

These first small steps are often the most challenging ones to take.

And once you've taken them,

A new process will emerge.

A new process will further develop.

At times we might not feel confident or feel powerful enough to act and initiate change.

But it is our own non-verbal behavior,

Our own body posture,

That can help us.

When we stand up straight,

We open up,

We show we are powerful,

We feel confident,

We are having our head up high,

This type of posture,

This power-posing posture,

Will lead to biological changes.

It will increase your level of testosterone,

It will decrease your level of cortisol.

When the level of testosterone goes up,

In general we will feel more powerful and confident.

And cortisol is a stress hormone and when this one goes down,

We will feel less stressed and more relaxed to do the change.

So remember,

You are never alone.

You always have an extremely wise guide with you.

This is yourself.

Be authentic.

And stay authentic.

Because this is a great gift in itself.

For you and also for others.

Let's do a mindfulness meditation together to really get into contact with our senses.

So we feel what's really important to us.

For this mindfulness meditation,

If you have not closed your eyes yet,

I'd like you to close your eyes now.

Sit up straight,

Straight back and make sure you can breathe in fully,

In and out.

And we start this mindfulness meditation by bringing our full awareness to the inhale and exhale.

We start with inhaling and exhaling just a tiny bit slower and deeper than usual.

We become aware of the movements that our body makes when we inhale and exhale.

We feel the air going in and out.

The inhale is your safe haven.

This is happening here and now.

You are fully present.

Here and now.

You are here and now.

You are fully present.

And you are grounded.

You are beautiful,

Just as your authentic self.

And above all,

You are ready.

So take your imaginary special guest of today,

Take your special guest by hand and make those few first steps.

Because you are ready.

And now you are ready to deal with whatever it is that the remainder of this day will bring to you.

With all my heart,

I wish you the very best.

And hopefully we will meet again.

Reviews

Very interesting and clear. The short meditation was welcoming, emotand comforting thank you 🙏

Clear explanation of the brain and how emotions and conditions work.

Super clear explanation. Thanks for posting ♥️♥️♥️♥️🐧

Excellent. Wisdom that makes sense and is practical. Thanks so much❤️

Dear Karolien, it’s always such a pleasure to see you put up a new course. It gives me to much confidence, courage and strength. Thank you for your wonderful guidance and look forward to many more.

So happy to have myself by my side, thank you. Namaste 🙏🏻💚

Thank you! This is a very easy to understand and yet thorough understanding of the physical and mental mechanisms of stress and anxiety. I certainly appreciate it for me, and will be sharing this with a Women who is going to be spending some transitional housing time with me and who is plagued by anxiety. She has really never heard the concept that her thoughts are creating what she is feeling. So, besides me explaining it, I'm going to send this to her to listen to as well, as she prepares for her journey here. 🙏

Always enlightening listening to Kariline (spelling) thank you 🙏🏼❤️

Karolien,
This is so succinct and direct, it is a stress reliever on its own. I wish you well. Thank you.

I feel powerful. My special friend knows action and accomplishment. I am often paralyzed by fear and emotion but she taught me I can do hard things

This was just what I needed this morning the combination of neuroscience and mindfulness meditation… Spot on!

Karolina is amazing! Her talks and meditations are full of very helpful insights and fantastic ways of reframing things! 🙏

Greatly appreciated her explanation and short guided practice

Informative & interesting, am really glad I discovered your work. Thank you for sharing it with the Insights community.😊

This is very helpful and timely for me. Thank you!🙏

What a sublime mix of scientific explanation of how our thoughts can seed our mood along with the simple tips on how to calm the mind - all delivered with a soft entrancing voice - brilliant

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽💜💜💜

Thank you! Very strengthening and empowering! I love the combination of scientific explanation and mindfulness meditation. Namaste! 🙏🏻

I truly enjoyed listening to this meditation again. Thank you so much 😊✨🙌🏻💖

Thank you 🙏🏻 Karolien

Informative and relaxing