Total Life Inventory: A Guide to Understanding Your Path

Your Higher Self is your inner guide. It's the part of you that is made up of your best qualities, your hidden wisdom, and your untapped potential. By listening to this inner guide, you can lead a more satisfying life. Listening to your Higher Self helps you grow spiritually and personally, understand yourself better, and discover your life’s true purpose.

But how can we tap into this invaluable source of inner wisdom? As basic as it may sound, you can do so simply by asking it questions and listening for the answer. 

How To Communicate With Your Higher Self

To connect with your Higher Self, you can use various practices such as meditation, journaling, being in nature, or creative expression. Because meditation is the most foundational method, we recommend starting there, but feel free to experiment to find the method that resonates best with you. You can find our guide to Connecting to the Higher Self Through Meditation here!

You can ask your Higher Self just about anything, but we’ve come up with a list of questions divided by categories to get you started. Start with the section that you feel you need the most work on!

Career

Your career is more than just a way to make a living—it's an expression of your personal values and talents. This is why we often use the term ‘vocation’ to refer to something that goes beyond a simple way to make a paycheck, but instead, fulfills your life’s purpose while utilizing your talents to act on your deepest values. Consulting your Higher Self can bring clarity about your true vocation and whether your current career path aligns with your core values. Here are some questions to aid your introspection:

• What values do I want my occupation/vocation to reflect? Is the work I do in line with my personal values?
• How does my current job use my best skills and talents?
• Do I derive both a sense of personal accomplishment and societal contribution through my work?
• If my current job doesn’t line up with my values or my talents, what would be a better alternative?

Creative Expression

Engaging with your Higher Self can provide insights into your creative endeavors, revealing whether they are sources of joy or if they carry more complicated emotions. It can help you understand whether your creativity is an outlet for avoidance or self-exploration. Ponder on these questions:

• Do I currently have a healthy relationship with the ways in which I practice creativity? Do I do it because it stimulates my curiosity and engages my senses, or do I do it to avoid doing other important things?
• If I have feelings of discomfort around my relationship to my creative expression, where do they come from, and can I pause to address them? 
• Does my creative practice bring me joy? 
• Are the motives for my creativity rooted in exploration and self-care?

Decision Making

Your Higher Self can help in refining your decision-making process, offering a more reflective and insightful approach. By examining your past decisions and understanding your current decision-making process, you can make future choices more consciously. Use these questions as a guide:

• What big decisions have I made recently, and how did they turn out?
• How long does it take me to come to a decision, and what is my decision-making process?
• Do I approach decisions in my personal life differently than I approach them in my professional life?

Family

Your Higher Self can provide invaluable insights into your family relationships, fostering deeper connections and understanding. It can help you assess if you are present and authentic in your familial interactions and whether there is a balance in giving and receiving love. Consider these questions:

• When I notice I have drifted into distraction in the company of my family, what is it that I am avoiding? 
• Can I be my true self with my family members? What parts of me do I hold back when I’m around them?
• Do I maintain a balanced exchange of love and support within my family unit? Am I giving too much or I am receiving too much?

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Finances

Your relationship with money can greatly impact your sense of security and well-being. Your Higher Self can provide insights into whether your finances bring security or induce anxiety. Reflect on these questions:

• What is the current status of my finances and what is my mental attitude towards it? Does it create a sense of security or anxiety?
• Is my life too oriented towards working for material gain? Whey does this drive steam from? 
• What is my relationship towards being a provider (even to just myself)? Are there ways in which I can positively expand my attitude towards this responsibility?

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Friendships

Friendships enrich our lives and offer support during challenging times. Your Higher Self can guide you in evaluating the quality of your friendships and your behavior toward friends. Reflect on these questions:

• Do I value my friendships and treat those close to me with kindness and compassion? What specific things have I done to show my friends I value them?
• Do my friendships bring me joy, or do I engage out of obligation?
• Do my friendships inspire me to maintain my values and grow in always working to become a better person, or are there some relationships that bring out the negative qualities in me that I am trying to improve?

Home

Your home should serve as a nurturing space. Your Higher Self can guide you to assess whether your living environment fulfills this role and whether you can truly relax and be yourself within it. Here are some questions to guide your reflection:

• Does my home serve as a restorative space? Are there certain areas or rooms I feel more comfortable in than others?
• Can I fully relax and be myself in my home? If not, what is preventing me from doing so?
• Do I have spaces in my home that allow me to pursue my spiritual pursuits, like meditation, reading, and studying?

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Physical Health

Our bodies are the vessels that carry us through life, and your Higher Self can help you maintain a healthy, loving relationship with your physical self. It can shed light on whether you are taking care of your body and finding joy in physical activities. Think about these questions:

• Do I feel a sense of love and gratitude towards my body, or am I reckless with it? What steps do I take to ensure I am treating my body with kindness and care?
• Do I experience joy through physical activities such as exercise, sleep, food, and sex?
• Is there an underlying health issue that I am avoiding?

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Personal Beliefs

Your Higher Self can illuminate and transform deeply held beliefs that may unconsciously guide your life. It can reveal latent biases or assumptions related to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and class. By asking these probing questions, you can uncover these beliefs and start a journey toward reshaping them into more enlightened views.

• When I examine the ways in which beliefs and ideologies relate with the world, are there areas that give me pause? If so, do I have the courage to examine these notions and the determination to transform them? 
• Do I harbor biases related to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or class?
• What inherited beliefs have I retained that may still be causing friction in my own life and the life of those around me? What would it take to move beyond these beliefs?

Personal Growth

Personal growth is a journey toward becoming the best version of oneself. Your Higher Self can illuminate the path, revealing the changes you need to undertake and the barriers to overcome. Consider these questions:

• Do I have a working understanding of my negative behavioral patterns and an approach to transforming them? 
• Do I dedicate regular time to self-reflection and self-care? Am I conscious of leaving time in my daily life for play, aimlessness, curiosity, and contemplation?
• Have I sought out the support of mentors, community, and resources to keep me engaged and accountable?

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Spiritual Growth

Your Higher Self is a cornerstone of your spiritual growth. It can guide you in developing practices that foster self-reflection and inner wisdom. Contemplate these questions:

• Do I have a spiritual practice that challenges and nurtures my inner wisdom?
• What other approaches and practices have I not tried? Do I feel a resistance towards them, and if so, why?
• Do I have goals around my spiritual development and do I treat these aspirations intentionally?
• Am I consistent with my practices or do I allow myself to continuously retreat into old and unhealthy patterns?

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