“A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity.” – Aung San Suu Kyi

I’ve been noticing more than ever in recent days how much fear there seems to be circulating at this time, and how closely that fear is bound up in the extent to which we’ve handed over responsibility to external authorities. Even within spiritual and awakened arenas there can still be a tendency to want a teacher or guru to tell you how you should live, what you should eat, how much and what kind of exercise to do, what a healthy relationship should look like. When did we so lose touch with our own inner barometer of these things that we could no longer feel them for ourselves?

Perhaps it has a lot to do with society’s debasement of “feelings” altogether, branding them as a sign of weakness and flakiness. I’ve been reminded of the days when I first set up my healing and guidance business, and the theme that resonated for me back then was putting across the idea of “spiritual intelligence”. I wanted to move away from the image of the spiritual community as unrealistic, unreliable and totally at the whim of uncontrolled and whimsical emotions allowed to run wild. I wanted to assert, and reflect in my business and personal presentation that feelings and intuition are (or can be when engaged wisely and fully) valuable tools of an acute spiritual intelligence. It’s an internal guidance system that directs us unerringly and practically through life’s joys and challenges.

The simple fact is that it’s immediately threatening to authority (of the patriarchal kind) when we engage our own spiritual intelligence. It stops us from being sheeple; makes us apt to question the wisdom and justice of decisions imposed on us by others rather than accepting blindly what we’re told just because the information is handed down from generally acknowledged experts. Even this assumption of authority equating to greater wisdom is becoming laughably ridiculous in the present day. We’re supposed to accept Trump as an expert in his current position? Seriously?!

This indoctrination starts so early with the education system, which here in the UK you can be subjected to from as early as 3 years old, that it’s incredibly hard to maintain your sovereignty for any length of time. If you do, you’re invariably branded as a rebel, a trouble-maker, even crazy, and often sidelined with the condemnation that you’ll never amount to anything. It’s scary how often I’ve heard that story from clients. So it’s no wonder that many of us struggle to break away from the established order, the relentless pursuit of consumerism and the demand to conform. Much of the work I do with clients through healing and guidance is helping them to identify and then release the conditioning programming that restricts them, often installed in childhood and sometimes over many lifetimes.

More and more, thankfully, spiritual intelligence is proving its relevance as an antidote to the epidemic of fear and mass destruction that’s infecting the world. When you accept full responsibility for your own well-being and environment then you also claim the ability to change and shape them for the better. When you witness the true extent of your personal power in action, you can’t help but be infused with optimism and hope as you realise you’re not a helpless victim; there is always something you can do. When you stand in empowered integrity, you attract the company and support of others who share your approach to life and inspire those who aspire to it. This is how you change the world, one person at a time, one step at a time, no matter what governments or media may be telling you. It’s why I do what I do to help make it more possible.

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear” – Rosa Parks

“I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear” – Nina Simone

“Things done well,
And with a care, exempt themselves from fear;” – William Shakespeare