Discover Your Guidance Groove

As a scientist, I value my logical brain. Yet, I live by an undefinable voice that arises from my innermost truth, which I call my intuition or guidance.

We all have that voice, and when you find, nurture, and follow it, you experience the authentic flow of life, which increases your well-being. When you ignore your guidance and make decisions rooted in beliefs of false mental stories accumulated over years of personal, familial, and societal programming you invite inauthenticity and unhappiness.

You can learn to recognize the programming that drives your adherence to Unproductive Grooves, release those beliefs, integrate your intuitive self, then approach all choices from a place of wholeness. You then navigate life from a groove of authenticity, which increases your ease, contentment, and joy.

The Four Unproductive Grooves that Prevent Dancing to Your Guidance Groove

The Inadequacy Groove is sustained when you believe you don’t have the adequate skills to be successful at whatever task is before you. You compare yourself to others and think you don’t measure up. You are terrified your perceived inadequacies will be revealed, so you try to cover up or deflect attention away from them. Your ego, or self-worth, wants to maintain an image of perfection so others don’t find out you’re less than everyone else.

The Obligation Groove forms when your actions stem from a sense of guilt or duty. You are afraid you will be labeled selfish and irrelevant unless you remain committed to fulfilling false obligations. You use your perceived obligations, your desire to avoid upsetting others, and your need to remain invaluable as excuses to ignore your own guidance toward your true path.

The Scarcity Groove materializes when you are afraid resources such as money, love, or appreciation will run out before your needs are met. You fear others will take your share, so you do all you can to grasp at those resources. Your beliefs in scarcity lead to needy behaviors within relationships, choosing an unhappy career path motivated only by earning potential, or demonizing others you perceive as threatening your share of a resource.

The Unworthy Groove appears when you believe you have no inherent value and you are afraid of the intense shame you will experience if others discover your worthlessness. You believe you are not good enough for a rewarding job, friends, a meaningful intimate partnership, or a place of acceptance within your family and community.

The thoughts driving your Unproductive Grooves are fear-based and not real. You can learn to recognize the fallacy of most of your thoughts, then choose not to believe them and gently let them go with love, kindness, and understanding. You can do this for every single choice, all day long, every day.

How to Begin Freeing Yourself from Unproductive Grooves

First, identify your Unproductive Grooves. Determine which patterns in your life fit within the four Unproductive Grooves. Recognize and examine the fears driving your attachments to these grooves. Different grooves may resonate with you for different aspects of your life. Be patient. Take time to explore all the ways you are stuck.

Second, value your guidance. Following your intuitive self requires checking in with your entire self, not remaining stuck only in the mental realm. Humans place great value on mental characteristics, such as cleverness, will, and logic, and assign less value to the more descriptive aspects of our humanity, such as feelings, emotions, and all the processes by which we access our true guidance. When your intuition tells you one thing (this relationship won’t work out), but your mental realm tells you another story that seems to make sense (they are interesting/smart/beautiful/compelling in some way, so of course the relationship is worth pursuing!), then it’s easy to ignore guidance.

Instead of ignoring your guidance, pay attention, notice, and assess the balance between thoughts from your mental realm and sensations from your feeling and emotional aspects. When you assign a high value to your guidance, and integrate it into your decision-making processes, you will recognize how adherence to your truths leads to authenticity and ease. These data points will help you to more frequently and automatically notice and trust your guidance.

Third, create more opportunities to connect with your own authentic guidance. Discover where and how you most easily connect to your intuition. Many find connection to guidance intensifies with meditation, immersion in nature, or with movement, such as walking, doing yoga, or cycling. Find what works for you and make time for it.

Fourth, ask for help. Enlist others in your quest to break free of your Unproductive Grooves. Share your intentions with those who love you and in whom you trust. Asking for help and living authentically is courageous and your bravery can help others investigate their own false stories.

Every action in your life stems from a choice. You can reject actions motivated by fear and instead cultivate and connect with your highly valued guidance and make choices in alignment with your own truth and authenticity.

You are ready to approach life from within your own Guidance Groove.