I heard this advice over the weekend, while scrolling on Instagram to be truthful. I happened upon an old video about manifesting and while I didn’t watch for long, those words stayed with me. 

Follow the directions. 

Now Bob (the presenter) didn’t mean to blindly follow the directions we are given by others in life. He meant that we all have an inner compass that shows us the way… and it’s up to us to follow. 

In that moment, I realised all the times I had ignored the directions and how that usually meant I would go round in a circle and come back to where I had started. And my inner compass would offer me the direction again! 

I also laughed at the thought of my Dad, who rarely follows recipe directions and never reads the instruction manual for a new gadget. But he does follow his inner compass. 

We’re all given signs, which can be easy to miss if we’re striding on, intent on a particular destination. Or we’re drifting along, feeling a bit directionless. Or we have enough going on without spotting magical signs! This is where practices like meditation, journaling and dreamwork are so helpful, as we pause even for a few minutes to reflect we begin to tune in… and then, aha, we see what’s right in front of us. And we can also ask for signs; you can even ask for 3 signs, just to be ultra clear.  

And then, as Bob said, it’s up to us to follow the signs. That’s where we make a conscious choice, or perhaps an unconscious choice to stay right where we are. Again, through reflective practice, we can contemplate what’s holding us back or prepare ourselves for the next steps. What is it we need to make those steps? What might it be time to let go of? 

A good friend of mine described this as the ‘magical slipstream’ of life. And while it’s a ride, it can feel a little disconcerting to just go with the signs that appear before us. It’s a form of surrender to ‘go with the flow’. Who knows where we will end up? 

Then again, imagine the places you’ll go…