How to hear your Inner Voice

Here's a beauty!  How do we hear our inner voice? 

How do we access our Innate Wisdom? Actually, for 'we' read 'I', as this is very much a part of my personal search.

I know it's in there, but how do I know what's my ego and what's my Inner Voice?  I've got one step closer to disentangling my mind and Ego's voices from that of my Inner Voice. 

What I have noticed recently is that that my mind/Ego has two characteristics:  First, it nearly always speaks in words.  And those words have two very common themes: either fear or ego.  It says I'll either be crushed or rule the world (!) as a result of the action I'm considering.  It's not very balanced!

The second characteristic is that is it loud.  I can't fail to hear it.  In fact, I can only hear it because it shouts to ensure no other voice is heard.  My ego wants to help me, to keep me safe, but sadly, it's ground rules for "Keeping Jennifer Safe", were formed when I was a child, and most of them are no longer appropriate.  They don't support an adult who is growing, challenging, developing and eager to experience the richness of simply being.  You can see a tension arising here, can't you?!

My Inner Voice, on the other hand, has the exact opposite characteristics.  First, it doesn't speak in words, which makes hearing it a much more subtle process of awareness.  It is very delicate and discrete: it comes in the form of ideas, feelings and, sometimes, images.  It seldom 'speaks' in the way my mind/Ego speaks; it leaves a light trail of impressions.  I experience it as a very delicate pull, a sense of the direction in which to go or the 'rightness' of a particular action.

Second, its advice is not based on the fear/ego dynamic.  Instead, it feels its way towards expansion and growth, towards experiencing greater beingness.  It could be described as a 'knowingness' or even a day dream... a quiet vision that persistently, yet gently, calls to my heart, not to my mind.

Because it is so subtle, and often what it says is the exact opposite of what my mind/Ego thinks it should be doing, makes it quite difficult to discern.  I'm still in the process of getting to know it and trusting its quiet wisdom.