There are lots of things vying for our attention that want to tell us what we need to do or what the best thing is for us. It's almost like you can't go anywhere without being told how to think or feel, what we should own, how we should eat. In an interview with Ralph Nader, he was asked how to avoid marketing, and he said that the only way is to go to sleep.
That's why we have to stop and recognize that we're the authority. That nobody knows what's best for us other than us.
After I had pneumonia I was seeing a lung doctor. He told me I should start using an inhaler. So I did. But it made me feel worse -- really irritable. I found out it had steroids in it, so I decided to stop taking it.
I went back to the lung doctor, and I told him I wasn't taking anything with steroids in it anymore. He said to me, "Well, that's probably good because those things don't really help, they actually make things worse." This was a top lung specialist.
That's part of the reason I decided to go on my vision quest -- I had to get away so I could think clearly. Like many of my clients, I felt disconnected from the place that allows me to make decisions for myself.
My experience is that when we're feeling lost and don't know what to do, that's the time to stop and come back to ourselves. We need to ask what really matters, and trust the voice that answers.