This is a guest post by Kevin Wood of Counter Culturist.

You feel the twinges, the deep urges. The unrelenting push of your deepest passions wanting to boil up to the surface. For a while, you’ve tried to ignore the callings.

You’ve written off your deepest feelings as mere indigestion. But, you can only do this for so long.

Eventually the pot boils over. When you ignore the yearnings of your heart, your life seems less full. The shine that usually covers your existence will diminish.

The rosiness that fills certain moments will tend to happen less and less.

You dream of the moment you can empty your plate and start walking along your new path directed by the deepest impulses of your heart.

If only it were that easy, after all you’ve got bills to pay, mouths to feed, and the day-to-day to get through.

Don’t worry; a little injection of magic into your life is easier than you think.

You’ve Been Writing Off the Potential for Magic

Your life can be magical. Let me repeat that. Your life can be magical.

You can do things and become things you’ve only imagined. You can have synchronistic events permeate your day to day. Your life can become more of a waking dream.

There is only one problem.

You’ve been doing it all wrong.

As children we are taught to embrace possibility, we are taught to dream and are taught to create. We live in worlds filled with magic, creativity and invisible friends.

Our dream and waking states collide.

All of this has been cultured out of us. Our creative life force has been beaten out of us. Our ability to inject newness into our lives, to operate more whimsically has been buried, and we’ve forgotten the map to retrieve it.

We need to start moving forward based on a deep inner impulse, a feeling, and knowing.

It’s not your fault if you forgot how to do this. It’s simply a byproduct of our cultural upbringing.

We’ve Left the Wrong Director in Charge

We’ve been piloting our lives with our rational mind at the forefront. A wonderful tool, but not who we want in the director’s chair.

Instead of letting life unfold beautifully through us, we force its way into existence. We see the world as a broken pattern, something we are trying to fix. This shows up in the desire to fix ourselves, to fix the planet and fix others. Only once we’ve fixed everything to our liking can we begin to enjoy ourselves.

We put off enjoying ourselves now for a future that will never come.

We end up analyzing ourselves into paralysis. Letting the fear of making a “wrong” decision hold us captive. We look for the good and bad in everyone and everything.

We conceptualize and classify. We judge and interpret.

We never allow things to blossom naturally. It seems we’ve forgotten our deepest nature. We’ve forgotten we have the power to access the evolutionary force of the universe throughout our daily lives.

There is a way to inject a new sense of awesomeness into your life.

Allowing Your Deepest Intentions to Unfold

The key is to switch the navigation board. We need to pull the plug on our current operating system and begin fresh.

Our path won’t always be filled with flowers, puppies, and pleasant scents. But, even when life hits the fan you’ll have a sense of deeper purpose pulling you along.

By listening to your heart you allow the life you are supposed to live come to surface. It takes a well of courage to keep progressing along that path, as it runs counter to most societal and cultural norms.

There aren’t any boxes to check or forms to fill out. Only you, your heart, and your baby steps.

You become what you need to become, you start to do work that is needed in the world, instead of simply making a quick buck.

You begin to live life in the most beautiful way. In doing this you allow others to do the same. Your life becomes a small ripple that will bring more light, love, peace, creativity, and contentment to the world.

Building a Compass From Your Heart

Now comes time to get down to work. It’s a rigorous practice to re-define your life.

You are bringing the locus of control from your head into your heart. You are adding a universe-sized dash of trust to your life.

There’s a set of practices that will help you to check-in and make sure you’re on the path. Every person’s journey will be unique. Each person’s step will be in a different direction. Although, sometimes we do intertwine.

The following will help you interpret your journey, check-in on your decision making prowess, and keep you fueled along the way.

1. Reading the signs

Since your journey is different from mine I can’t tell you exactly what will happen. But, I can tell you what to look out for.

Basically, we are looking for signposts. These can come in a variety of forms. Sometimes, it will strike as a overwhelming feeling of goodness. Other times, it will show up in a synchronistic event.

Maybe you were drawn to a stranger and ended up having a mind-blowing, affirming conversation. Or maybe you felt the need to hop on a train, or attend an event that ended up rocking your socks off. It could even have been the desire to write an article about something you’re passionate about, and mid-key stroke you felt a feeling of massive contentment.

Whenever an event like this arises you’ll just know. It might feel like inner satisfaction, like your heart and soul are smiling. You’ll feel it in your body.

Just an awesome sense of rightness.

After a while these signs will start to add up and you’ll have an entire bag full of situations, people, events, and circumstances that all point you in the right direction.

2. How does it feel?

When making a decision you can see how it feels in your body. When you make a decision that is in alignment with you and your journey it will feel good. You won’t feel any knots of energy or physical pains.

You might feel a small dose of anxiety or nervousness. Don’t rationalize yourself out of these feelings. Often our fears point towards the direction we need to go. They pull us towards growth and keep us progressing.

You might get a feeling of “yesness” coupled with extreme nervousness. This is super good. If you are feeling this run towards it with full force.

Your body has a deep innate wisdom that you’ll learn to tap into. If you are feeling uneasy or unsure, just ask yourself this question:

Am I feeling this nervousness out of the goodness of my heart, or because it is the wrong thing for me?

Over time you’ll become better at recognizing how the right decisions make you feel, both emotionally and on a body wide level.

3. Adding a spoonful of self-love

This is food for your heart and sustenance for your journey.

You can love yourself in any way you usually do, or try the practice below. In filling up your heart with love you strengthen it, and give it more power.

Embrace this practice as if you were loving your soul-mate. Gift yourself with the same tenderness, acceptance, and intensity. Love your heart out. Feel it and live it.

Try this on for size:

1. Stand in front of a mirror and look yourself in the eye. You’ll have to pick one.

2. Say out loud, “I love myself,” while gazing deeply into your eye.

3. Really feel the feeling!

4. Continue and repeat for as long as you can.

What is your biggest struggle in listening to your heart? Share in the comments.

About the Author: Kevin Wood is a writer at Counter Culturist. He helps you consciously rebel to craft your most meaningful life.