The Path to Conviction Pt. II: Taking in New Information
The dance toward conviction is not a straight line. Rather, it is an ebb and flow that moves to the rhythm of new information you gather, integrate, and discard along the way. Information comes from a variety of sources, including but not limited to your inner experience, your environment, other people, medical authorities, spiritual healers, and media of all kinds. At the top of the information totem pole is your own witnessing experience. After all, nothing is as convincing as witnessing something for yourself. However, there is more to your experience than meets the eye. Contrary to the popular phrase, “you have to see it to believe it,” your belief system is ultimately what rules the day and it will do all kinds of backflips to rationalize or contort even your own witnessing experience if it contrasts with the new information. For example, if you experience acute back pain following a conflict at work or home and then notice it vanish after resolving the professional or personal issue, it would seem pretty clear that these two instances were related. Yet, if you are a stubborn pursuer of only things biomedical, your belief system may literally prevent your brain from connecting the dots. Therefore, it is more accurate to say that your witnessing experience acts in concert with your openness or readiness to heal, in other words, your openness or readiness to BELIEVE you can heal. From this framework, you do not actually have to see it to believe it. Just as your beliefs can prevent you from acknowledging the truth of your unfolding experience, they can also channel your energy in the direction of healing BEFORE you can see it. With practice, your belief system can be the fuel for your healing journey even when the immediate circumstances of your experience look dim. The power of your mind is the ability to see beyond your circumstances, beyond your limitations, and envision what is possible. You can have the highest source of foolproof information delivered to you on a platter, but if your belief system is not yet open or ready to see the possibilities for your life, it will block your brain’s access to such information. You may be able to understand certain information on an intellectual level, but if your core beliefs remain limited regarding your own potential for healing, they will prevent your nervous system from integrating this information on a deeper, body-based level, which actually allows the energetic blockages to release. Your belief system is the foundation from which all new information is integrated to support your highest vision, and when channeled in this direction, your brain will become wired to seek out the information necessary for this journey. When your belief system comes into alignment with your highest self, you will find that the perfect people, books, podcasts, modalities, and experiences to support your healing and expansion will begin to appear as if orchestrated by a guiding force.
You may be convinced that when a certain piece of information shows up in your life to guide you further down your path of conviction and healing, it is mere coincidence. I assure you, it is not. Certain information shows up in your life once your belief system and, therefore, your brain, is ready to receive it. For all the time you were stewing in your limiting belief and emotion energy, your soul, in connection with your spirit team, was hard at work attempting to deliver the right information for you to heal and expand. When you reach a place of readiness in your beliefs, the information will find its way to you and may be communicated via any source. You may have walked by the same store for years without giving it a second thought, until one day you decide to go in and are guided to a book, a person, or a healing modality that takes you to the next level. Maybe a friend has told you about a kind of therapy or energy practice for years that you have scoffed at, until one day, out of readiness or sheer desperation, a space opens inside you to really hear this friend and pursue their guidance. Before you are able to consciously discern the value of a piece of information, your nervous system, wired by your belief center and years of ancestral lineage, has already decided for you whether or not to allow this information into your frame of reference. Just as your nervous system scans for danger or threat at a preconscious level, it also scans for information that fits within your filtered world view. The path to conviction involves expanding this awareness to allow the right information in that has been previously discarded or ignored.
Once you find yourself at a place of readiness to allow new information in, the next question becomes how you can trust which information is in your highest good to pursue or to let go of? Whether you are conscious of it or not, you have always used a process of discernment. The difference is that before a certain level of awareness, your process of discernment is guided by your limiting beliefs and learned filtration system, which takes place largely unconsciously. For example, your discernment may be based strictly on which information fits within the strict narrative of your parents’ belief systems, of a particular religious ideology, or of double-blind, placebo-controlled studies, which you may otherwise never have questioned as the gold standard or guiding authority for your life. However, with openness to a more expansive flow of information, you may let go of such a narrow type of discernment. Instead, you may be willing to explore a process more unique to your own body, mind, and spirit.
The most powerful form of discernment is the process of intuition.
I have written at length about this topic and will say again that cultivating a deep connection to your own intuitive knowing is the best way of discerning which information is in your highest and best. There are various ways to begin opening the channel to your intuition, but it all starts with getting quiet and listening to your mind body experience beyond the constant chatter of your brain’s thinking. Modalities like network chiropractic, reiki, yoga, guided breathwork, sessions with intuitive healers, or energy-based meditation and visualization are all examples of practices that can facilitate openness in the nervous system to allow such energetic information to flow more freely and connect you to a deeper knowing. Over time, you can grow more connected to and trusting of your intuitive knowing than of your brain’s reactivity.
When making a decision about whether to integrate a particular piece of information into your path of conviction, notice how your body naturally responds. Does it constrict in fear? Does it push away with frustration? Does it tingle with excitement and hope? Does it prepare for disappointment? All of these emotion energies are important information that give you clues about what attached meanings your belief system and nervous system have to a particular piece of information. Emotions bring useful energy but you must not let them be the sole decider of your fate. Fear or anger can be useful, but only if you are able to sit with them and understand their origins. Emotions do not accurately assess the threat in front of you, they respond to the triggered beliefs within you. If you are still carrying limited beliefs about a particular situation, your body may constrict while your soul tells you to expand. With practice, you will be able to discern the difference between information that is meant for you even when it elicits fear. No decision made out of fear is ever in your highest and best. Constructive feedback can be an example of information that triggers negative emotions in you, but is a medicine for your growth. Feelings of excitement and hope can be an important compass as well and you can become familiar with this frequency to guide your decisions, but again, you must practice discerning whether these feeling stem from a place of insecurity and lack or from a true source of love for the highest vision of your life. The allure of money and stability can be an example of dangling fruit that seems to align with your mission, but may instead only be an attempt at comfort when your soul is meant for more.
Lastly, the path toward conviction includes humility. Humility and conviction may seem at odds with one another, but, like all things, they dance in concert. Humility is the capacity for honesty with yourself, your limiting beliefs, and your areas of perceived stuckness. You may be thriving in certain areas with full conviction, yet it is vital to remember that your path is always one of expansion and growth, and such medicine may be presented to you at any time. You may be called to lean into conviction for a period of time before noticing another area of your life open up for new information and awareness. When one door opens, another door… opens! And there will always be more rooms in the house to explore. As you move toward conviction in the truth of who you are, you dance flexibly with all that shows up to guide you, trigger you, love you, and transform you along the way.