Written and posted by Jackie Olmstead, March 7, 2022 – We all have some kind of guidance system inside our hearts. Maybe it was someone from our past perhaps that showed us the way to do things the way that were “right” according to the way that they were brought up. Our compasses inside our heads were created from our past experiences literally from the moment we were born.
We were taught how to eat simply by being fed with what they wanted us to eat. We learned by watching them, by imitating them, adopting favorites because “momma made it that way every time I got sick–chicken noodle soup and ginger ale, always” or “when I was sad, my dad always made me warmed milk poured over toast with sugar and cinnamon on top.” “My mom always made it that way, it’s ingrained in me.”
These are literally burned into our brains and our memories became our master guidance system for what was to be our habits, emotional life saviors, our normal life patterns whether they were actually the best for our bodies or not.
I remember reading about how memories are literally etched into our brains, whether chemically or physically, I cannot find the article right now (ironic right?) but I know that you can affect better memory by making a “marker” in the moment you are in by doing a couple things (ask me how later…)
Our elders have been our GPS for a long time until we find our own way. Some of us never change their programming and their source for guidance is always what we learned growing up. Some of us HAVE to change our programming because where we went with that knowledge simply drove us into a cow field with no way out (yes, this literally happened to me while using the GPS on my phone one time.)
(credit: www.pixabay.com, Eszter Miller)
Let’s see, using the actual GPS on my phone or in my car has taken me to cow pastures, empty parking lots and closed businesses which reinforced to me (after yelling at my car and self for listening to the computer instead of using my reading-maps-gift I was trained to do all growing up) that I don’t need the programmed GPS that’s in my car. I already know how to get to where I want to go. I just need a simple roadmap and my knowledge of how maps’ symbols work.
I know, I know, some of you are saying, “But I NEED the GPS to go anywhere!” “I suck at directions!” or “How can you not want to have the computer help you to find the fastest route?” or “What about traffic? Your brain and map isn’t gonna show you where the heavy traffic is right now!”
Ok I have answers for you. If you NEED a GPS to drive places, I get it. If you don’t know directions or know the area, sure, ok. Call me “old school” or whatever but I survived my whole childhood helping my parents navigate driving across the United States multiple times. Yep. All without any computer or GPS or phone. I learned how to read maps in my drivers’ education class in school later on and it helped.
But I was given a map while my parents drove and said “Help us get to New Philadelphia” or “We’re gonna go through Texas to get to North Carolina. Jackie, let’s figure out the best way to get there, got it?” (nodding to you) Yep, that’s how I learned. I poured over those maps. Paper maps that crinkled when you grabbed them to look closer. And then when turns came up in those hundreds of miles, you can bet I was ready to yell out, “Exit 249, DAD! Don’t miss it! It’s coming up in 4 miles!!!”
www.pixabay.com, Gregory Roose
So maybe that’s why I LOVE maps as an adult. Give me a map anyday and I’ll tell you something about it. I digress.
We all need guidance unless we’re actually Buddha or God or Jesus or Allah or one of those master teachers who have already ascended. But then, they don’t live with us like we do, right?
We were born with parents or elders to teach us everything we could learn from them. Then we move on in the world and still need guidance because our parents don’t necessarily know the rest of the stuff we want or need to know when we grow up. Some parents do but anyway…. Who knows how to fix a car with their innate birth knowledge?
See what I mean?
www.pixabay.com, DokaRyan
When we get into romantic relationships they tell us that we gravitate towards those who will help us heal from unhealed stuff from our parents. I’m sure that you’ve heard that too. I’ve lived it. Still living this theory, I’m sure of it.
After I started to write this post last night, I went to bed with it on my mind. I had a dream about my father taking me and my brother to teach us how to fly an airplane. I was so nervous about the experience that I had to run out and tell him I’d be right back after I went to the bathroom. But in my dream I couldn’t find the bathroom and ended up going down the road towards a bathroom nearby but ended up totally distracted and stopped to help some kids in the snow. I woke up not too long after that.
www.pixabay.com, Markus Baumeler
Something in me clicked this morning on my way to a client; I missed my dad when I was younger so much. I began to cry because I remember that feeling of looking up to him with my whole heart. He was our fearless daddy! He knew everything! He was my rock, my guidance system. When things went sour in life, I went to my dad (or mom) but in this case, the dream was showing me my youth when I depended on him.
In this time of my current life, I am depending on my own internal guidance system for everything today. The shift in trusting myself and knowing stuff when I need to know it has happened slowly over time. I am in my fifties now. I think it’s about time. It’s scary sometimes, though. I think that my father wanted us to depend on him, especially being a daughter. The way things have gone in our world for many years now, I have had to completely trust myself, especially in what I eat, who I date, what history I read, who to follow, who to believe now, my medical care choices, what schooling to partake in… everything.
I am talking to you about this today because of my recent use of my GPS on my phone this week and how I forgot that I cannot rely on it for where I am going (oops! right!). Where I drive, how I drive somewhere is how my gut tells me is best. Simple concept, right?
Yes, it is, but when you dig deeper and actually feel what it feels like to not have who you thought to be your guide with you or perhaps someone who you thought was your guidance system NOT be who you thought, there lies the essence of your insecurities or strengths. I bet that you will find your strengths like I did when you dig deeper. Sometimes it’s simply sitting down, shutting up and telling the conference in your head to stop talking while you listen to your very inner Self.
So, in finding out who is NOT your guidance system and now relying on YOUR guidance system, you might now need better teachers, better coaches who align with your newfound Self. Old ones can stay where they live. You can acknowledge them, love them and hold them for who they were for you before.
When it comes to finding out that the food that you eat needs to change and it needs to change TODAY, I can help you with that when you are ready. I can also help you with moving the energy in your body to remove blocks that have served you in the past but now need to move out of the way.
God Bless. Namaste and sending love to you and your Higher Self.
Jackie Olmstead, Earth Momma
(links on this page help to support me and my growing business when you click and purchase something from the search (a small percentage). It doesn’t cost you any more. Thank you! Main photo above from www.pixabay.com.
