Aligning with Compassion: How to Ask Your Higher Self About Personal Contribution

After an election such as last week’s, emotions may be intense, interactions challenging, and our vision for the future may feel shaken. Advice to reconnect with your heart might sound simple or cliche, but it is perhaps the only effective starting place for clear action.

We may be tempted to skip this step – to avoid what feels uncomfortable or vulnerable. But if we bypass the work of connecting to and being centered in the heart, our actions come from a place of misalignment and reactivity, rather than inner clarity.

Here are some guiding pillars on how to care for our inner ecosystem and heart – an essential first step that will allow us to offer brilliance, compassion, and solidarity to the most vulnerable in our world – and to move forward to the next step: envisioning our mission.

Part One: Gathering Heart Energy
Emotions as Opportunities for Personal Growth  

Compassion has to come from ourselves. In other words, we cannot use external validation in order to feel okay and in emotional equilibrium. Having self compassion for all parts of ourselves is a meaningful practice and journey. Really accessing these emotions of acceptance by sitting with oneself and observing whatever arises, without judgment, can allow for meaningful personal growth. From this place of inner stability and deep compassion, then we can meaningfully and authentically connect with and even help others. When we get out of ourselves and go to help others, we’ll be coming from a genuine place which will make it more effective 

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Activate Your Discernment

As humans, we are constantly discerning, choosing between impulses that range from positive to negative. Our willingness to favor the positive, to learn, and to embrace a holistic love for others is guided by the heart’s energy.

When we commit to positive discernment, we move beyond attachments to desire or fear, cultivating a steady drive toward balance. This opens us to the heart’s expansive, unbiased perspective, allowing us to embrace not only ourselves but the world as a whole.

Treat the Heart as a Portal

Seeing with the heart allows us to perceive the inequities and suffering around us. In response, it can be tempting to react with frustration (fight), flee from discomfort (flight), or feel immobilized by helplessness (freeze). Yet love also contains courage. When we stay true to the heart’s path, we move through fear and arrive at selflessness, empowerment, and strength. These are the wisdom energies of love, and the agents of positive change. As we become more compassionate beings, our growth ripples outward, contributing to a collective evolution and inspiring those around us.

Remember Care as a Multiplier

By making positive choices with intention, we infuse the world with energy that steers us toward greater outcomes. When we share energy from the heart, we’re not depleting our reserves but inviting a higher, universal energy to flow through us. This energy is boundless, sustaining both ourselves and all those who receive it.

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Part Two: Visioning Your Contribution

The following exercise can bring clarity on how to align the heart energy we have galvanized above into action. As we engage with the world from a place of unique compassion and discernment, our heart’s energy becomes a force of positive change for the greater good. 

Take a moment now to quiet your mind and connect to your heart’s energy, then begin.

Connect: Begin by centering yourself with deep diaphragmatic breaths, until you are in the present. Place your hand on your chest and activate your heart energy, then invite your Higher Self to join you in this moment of reflection.

Generate Compassion:  Hold the energy of compassion in your heart. Feel how this compassion is universal; allow it to grow larger and larger. As it reaches its fullest expression, notice the unique ways it feels connected to you – through your experiences, personality, and essence. As you embrace these qualities, move into the guidance phase.

Ask for Guidance: Gently release any fixed ideas or judgments. Trust that your Higher Self can offer insight you may not have previously considered.

Now, direct your awareness inward and ask, “How can my energy be most helpful to the world at this time?” If an answer takes form, deepen your understanding with the following questions:

1. How can my energy be helpful to the world at this time?
2. Do I have the tools I need to contribute in the way I feel I am meant to?
3. What are the obstacles preventing me from acting on this mission?
4. How can I commit to being of benefit in this way?

Conclude and Give Thanks: Ask that what you have learned today remains at the forefront of your mind, accessible and clear. Conclude by thanking your Higher Self for their guidance and support.