Hey, welcome back to Day Five of our Un-challenge. In yesterday's session, we explored the theme of intuitive guidance, learning to connect to an inner knowing and inner voice that is more you, that when you listen to it and make decisions from it, it can actually bring you more in alignment with yourself rather than out of alignment. In today's session, I want to talk about the idea of letting go and trusting that inner voice, because it's not always that easy. Maybe you've experienced for yourself this sense of, I know what to do. I have a feeling of this is what's right for me, but it gets complicated.

These thoughts come in that cause you to doubt yourself or different emotions of fear that make you not take the next step. So why is that? Well, we have all these different parts of us. In the therapeutic modality, internal family systems, they describe that, you know, you have your authentic self, they call it your true self, but then there are all these other parts that emerge as well. And so there might be a part that's more like a manager and it's there to make sure you're thinking through everything very logically, all the pros and the cons, the consequences of doing things, really staying in control. Maybe another part comes up that helps put out the fires when things can go wrong.

Or maybe another part that stays sad in certain moments, because you've learned that when you stay sad, you get attention. So all of these arise at different points in our life and some of them become core aspects of our identity. And if we're not aware of them, they can actually come in and really run the show of our life. And that's not always bad. I mean, some of these parts were put in place for a very good reason.

In fact, all of them arose for a very good reason at a particular time. But as years go on, we don't always need those parts in the same way. Something that was used to keep us safe or protected or help us navigate the difficult situation in childhood might not necessarily be useful when we're in our twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, or sixties. And yet it may still show up in situations like our intimate relationships or at our work where maybe fear arises and we quickly go into an old pattern of avoiding or over-analyzing or doubting ourselves. So how do we begin to work with that so that we're leading our life from more of our true self? Well, one of the things that is necessary is that those parts that have adapted, maybe let's say the manager part, that part needs to see, it really needs to be convinced that you have the resources to navigate your life without its help.

If it thinks that it needs to be there in order for you to be safe or to get love or to avoid pain, it's going to continue to persist. That is its job. That is why it arose, to keep you safe and protected and loved. So if it's still thinks that you don't have the resources to navigate your life or that something bad could go wrong, it's going to continue to arise. And this is where a lot of what we've done so far comes in.

You're learning to connect to a place within you that is more grounded, embodied, empowered, surrendered, trusting. Because the reality is, those fear-based parts, those manager-based parts that arise, they're often not aware of the new resources you have. I mean, when you're a child and something goes wrong or a parent or a caregiver says something to you that feels difficult or painful, you don't really have the inner narrative that can say, "All right, you know, this is their stuff. It's not based on me. It doesn't mean that I'm not worthy or lovable." No.

The system adapts and internalizes that. And then maybe you beat yourself up or you tell yourself, "Well, I can't put myself out there because it could lead to pain." It's an adaptive strategy. Later in life, if we don't realize that we have new resources to navigate those moments, something like rejection or betrayal, that part is still going to get activated. And this is where learning to work with our emotions, like fear, like sadness and seeing that we can feel this emotion and we can still be okay or a thought can arise that says, "I don't know if we should do this." And we can just notice it as a thought passing through the mind. We've been doing this a lot in our meditations.

Doing that is developing new internal resources to navigate the ebb and the flow of your life, including the difficult experiences that arise. So you're already setting that foundation. In today's meditation, what we're going to explore is connecting to an inner part of you, we're going to call it a guide, that is your most grounded, authentic self that represents that place that is the truest you. And we're going to have that part interact with maybe the more manager controlling part so that they can begin to have a relationship. And the truer you can give some information and guidance to that underdeveloped or older part to let it know that it can trust it, that you have the resources to navigate your life from a more mature, grounded, adult place rather than this younger version.

So I'm excited to try that out with you. Thanks for your practice as always. And let's settle in for today's meditation.