Your attention is your most valuable currency and yet you may have been trained to pay attention to what is external at the expense of your connection to your Authentic Inner Self.

There is a battle going on for your attention, so many demands being made on it, who will win, you or those outside of yourself? While you are disconnected from your inner core and your source of true power and energy, you are easily manipulated.

Your Authentic Inner Self is the part of you which knows you at a very deep level and has been with you since the beginning of your life. It knows where you have been and where you are going. It always knows what is the right decision for you in any given situation and what you should avoid.

I am going to share with you seven simple and easy ways that you can develop and deepen your connection to your Authentic Inner Self.

Pay Attention:
Pay attention to your feelings, bodily sensations and intuitive hunches. For example notice how your body responds to specific situations or people. Does it feel light, exuberant and expansive or does it tight, tired and heavy. Also notice how your breathing is affected. Slow, deep breathing indicates a feeling of calm, whereas if your chest feels light or your breathing is shallow, it may be your body’s way of telling you that it is feeling stressed.

It is normal to experience stress in certain new situations. However ongoing stress, over long periods can be hugely detrimental to your physical mental and emotional health. You can avoid a lot of future stress, simply by paying attention to your body’s responses. Even if the situation is only imagined, your body’s responses can give you a good indication of its likely outcome for you. Your body has access to more information than your mind

Spend Quiet time with yourself:
Often you are so overloaded with information and external stimuli that it can be difficult to hear what your inner voice may be saying. So spend time with yourself in quiet contemplation, this is very restful for the overstimulated mind. Being in nature, meditating, gardening, yoga, etc. are deeply relaxing for the body-mind. But anything which quietens your mind and brings you into the present moment will help you to have a better relationship with your Self.

Write it down:
Writing or journalling is a great way to pay attention to your inner voice, and connect with your creativity. As you begin to listen, you will get more and more inspiration coming to you. A creative journal and an small ideas notebook are a great way to connect to your Inner Self. You may be surprised by how creative and interesting you really are.

I have devised a process of mental cleansing, a modified version of the morning pages, by Julia Cameron. You write without thinking or censuring for a specific length of time each day. Make sure that you do not analyse or re-read anything you have written. Just write and get rid of what you have written, as soon as you finish. The idea here is just to clear out your mind, to empty it from all the random thoughts, worries or concerns.

As you do this process regularly, you will find that you begin to feel lighter, clearer and free from mind clutter. You may be surprised by how many thoughts you are carry inside your head are not your own. Soon you will begin to hear yourself more clearly and be able to identify the thoughts and feelings which do not belong to you.

Get Physical:
Your body, most often is controlled by your mind, told what to do, where to sit, what to eat, how much exercise, rest or sleep it gets. How would it feel to allow your body some autonomy?

If you allow your body to lead, express preferences and make decisions, you learn to relate to yourself in a completely different way. You get to know yourself at a much deeper level. The way your mind and your body experience reality are very different. The emotional, sensory, somatic experiences via the body are so much richer and layered. There is a deep sense of knowing present in the body that the mind lacks.

Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms and other similar processes are wonderful ways to explore and deepen your connection to your physical and emotional self. But any method, which is not rigid or regimented is good for allowing your body self expression. Dancing, gardening, massage or any type of bodywork are wonderful ways to move down from the head and into the body. From the past and future to the PRESENT moment.

Be Creative:
Connecting with your creativity is again a wonderful way of getting to know yourself. As a child you were effortlessly creative, without judgement of good or bad. It was more about how the creative process made you feel, only you decided when it was finished and complete.

As you grew up, you learned to doubt yourself and judge the quality of your creative efforts. You may eventually have stopped expressing your creative nature all together.

Creativity takes many forms and is often a way for your intuitive self to connect with you. It is important that you reclaim your creativity, because human beings are infinitely creative and so are you. Experiment to find the type of creative expression which resonates with you most deeply. Whether it song, dance, music, art, theatre. It is important that you become a creator as well as a consumer.

I have a really simple method for you to remove judgement from your creative efforts. It involves you using your less dominant hand to draw or paint. This helps to silence the judging mind and gets you back in the creative flow. You learn to relate again to colour and shape, to learn anew. Try this for a week and let me know how you get on.

Have Fun:
You may be so busy with life and responsibilities that you forget to have fun. Laughter is a wonderful medicine and including as many people, activities, places in your life which make you feel happy and alive is hugely important.

This also means limiting or excluding activities or people who do not feel good. So many times you might be living your life out of habit or obligations that you forget that you have a choice. You can choose how you spend your time and what and who gets your attention. Your attention is the your most valuable currency, so please choose carefully how you spend it.

Once you begin to pay attention to how you feel, you begin to know what feels good and nurtures you at a deep level.

When you begin to say YES to yourself, it becomes easier to say no to others.

Explore New Horizons:
We are creatures of habits and routines, however it is good to break out of your habitual ways of being and to try new things. You may have decided that you know what you like and what you do not. Many of these decisions were made a long time ago and you may even have forgotten a reason for it. So challenge your assumptions and try something new.

Being exposed to new, radical and exciting things on a frequent basis keeps you feeling alive and connected with life. Cultivate the beginner’s mind and allow life to surprise you.

This list is by no means comprehensive, what would you add to this list? Please leave your comments below.

Author's Bio: 

Pavandeep Saras-Shakti has been working towards Spiritual and Personal Development for many years. She works with individuals and groups on-line and in-person. She has created HEARTS (Healing Emotions and Reconnecting to Self), method for personal empowerment and soul connection.
Most currently she can be found at
http://www.spiritualandpersonaldevelopment.com/