You know what I've been thinking about lately? How we're all just starlight in a teacup. You, me, even that neighbor who never brings their trash cans in - we're all made of the same cosmic stuff.
Which means you already have everything you need to connect with something bigger than yourself. You don't need anyone's permission. You don't need the right priest, the perfect ritual, or someone else's formula to access the divine.
I get why we look for that external validation though. I've done it myself - searching for the teacher who's "further along the path," hoping they'll confirm I'm doing it right. It's tempting because it feels safer. If someone else can tell us we're on track, then we don't have to trust ourselves. Our minds love that - they love having a strategy, a checklist, a way to level up. Look at me, working on myself! Surely all this effort means I'm getting somewhere. But it's an exhausting hamster wheel that mistakes effort for progress.
Don't get me wrong - sometimes there really is a right way. 2+2 equals 4. Melted butter makes better cookies. Logic and accuracy and have their place. But regulating your nervous system? Connecting with something larger than yourself? That requires a different way of being. The part of you that knows how to do this isn't the part that follows instructions or optimizes strategies.
But here's what I've noticed: at some point, that external searching actually gets in the way. When we're constantly looking outside ourselves for answers, we can't hear our own internal wisdom. We forget that we're already part of this vast, interconnected consciousness.
When you're starting out, a religion or spiritual teacher can point you in a direction. But eventually, there comes a moment where you have to stop strategizing and just... open up. Go inward. Trust what can't be experienced through thought alone. Surrender to the experience that is beyond thought.
That's when things shift. When you stop searching for "the way" outside yourself and instead witness what's already within you, something opens. You start to perceive the larger consciousness you've been part of all along.
Prompt:
This week, notice when you seek external validation.
What would trusting yourself look like instead?
You've always belonged here. You've always had access. The door was never locked - you just had to remember where to look.
🌲 💓 Audrey Evergreene 💗🌲