Everyone has a Higher Self, but few are aware of it and fewer still pause and listen to its wisdom. Here is guidance that will never desert us or judge us, that will always support us no matter what.

Your Higher Self is an aspect of you that stands apart from the incarnated ‘busy’ you. It doesn’t get involved in the dramas of Earthly life, rather it is the larger Self, the real essence of You that remains constant. It is the part of you that is always connected to the Divine, even if you are a non-believer and a rationalist. It has been given many names including the Witness and the Wisdom Self.

So if we have a constant connection to the Divine through our Higher Self why aren’t we all behaving like angels? Why isn’t this our Heaven on Earth?

Your Higher Self allows your Ego self complete free will. Even those who commit the most heinous crimes on this planet have got a Higher Self, they just don’t listen to its promptings. Your Witness Consciousness doesn't get upset and dictatorial with you however widely you stray from the Light.

I believe that when the masses wake up to the Divine aspect of themselves the whole of Humanity will be transformed. Perhaps this is one of the changes heralded by the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 and by the start of the New Age. The Divine aspect of ourselves is a true part of us, the truest part of us. We do not need a middle man to connect with it, nor do we need to look for an answer outside of ourselves.

Why aren’t we all living lives of Divine inspiration? In a nutshell we just don’t listen! Because we have been gifted with free will we are allowed to make our mistakes for our learning and soul growth. Our Higher Self is not permitted to shout instructions, just to whisper. It is the 'small, still voice within'. It is easy to drown out the quiet voice of the Wisdom Self with the chattering of the Ego mind so that its voice can go unnoticed.

How can you access the wisdom of your Higher Self? Meditation is the time honoured way that Divine wisdom has been allowed to come through into human consciousness. If you don’t yet build meditation into your daily routine it is something you might consider. Even if you think all this is ‘New Age mumbo jumbo’ science has proven the remarkable health benefits of a short period of meditation each day. Even ten minutes can have a significant effect, so why not try it and see what it feels like?

Sitting and quieting the mind is all well and good, but how to do it? Your chattering ‘monkey mind’ won’t give up its dominance gracefully and will butt in frequently telling you that you're wasting your time with this nonsense and should be up and doing, or running through your lists of chores or old emotional dramas. It is hard to get past the chattering mind to the place of inner peace and wisdom, so consider different and more active forms of Meditation. Our Meditation site on Bellaonline offers many ideas for you to try.

Quiet contemplation is often easier for Westerners. Light a candle and some incense to mark this time as Sacred. You may imagine your consciousness as a radio with a dial marked Higher Self that you can tune into. Intend clearly that you will be communicating only with your Higher Self and then pose a question or a thought for your Higher Self to answer and ruminate quietly on it for 10 to 15 minutes. You can write down the answers in a journal, but don’t read them until your contemplation time is complete.

At the end you can read and you’ll see that some of what you have written may be opinionated, a sure sign of your Ego Mind talking, but some will sound calm and wise. This is the voice of your Higher Self. It might surprise you with its wisdom; I know I sometimes look and think, “Gosh, did I write that?” because it isn’t the personality that you associate with yourself. Your Higher Self will always be working for your highest good. If you’ve written anything that scolds you or asks you to act in ways that aren’t congruent with loving kindness, then you have most likely linked into a Shadow aspect of yourself or even a low level discarnate being. Firmly tell any negative voices to "Begone!"

Although some have illustrated the Higher Self as residing above our heads, between us and Heaven, we can invite this part of ourselves to become embodied within us, sitting within our hearts, so that we become our living, breathing Wisdom Self. This can take some time as you are effectively offering to surrender your free will in order to live a life in harmony with the Divine will, which your Ego self will kick and scream against. It likes to think it knows best for you!

The Ego doesn’t want to be annihilated, understandably, but eventually with patience, by paying attention and witnessing your dramas rather than being engrossed in them, the Ego can be brought into alignment with your Higher Self and you will begin living a life that is more and more congruent with your Higher Purpose, something you will have agreed to before you were born. When you start to embody your Higher Self you will find you can face the challenges of Earthly existence whilst maintaining a core of inner peace and calm that gradually becomes your truth and reality. Let your Higher Self guide you through your life and you will avoid some of the unnecessary ‘snake pits’, cope better with the challenges you do have to face and be taken to wondrous places and new levels of understanding that you may not even dream of at present.

I reviewed Writing the Divine by Sara Wiseman and recommend it as a good starting place for communicating with Higher Guidance.