To Thine Own Self Be True
These words of Polonius are taken from Shakespeare’s work:

“This above all: to thine own self be true And it must follow, as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man…”

I’m going to share one of my most valuable clinical techniques in helping another person achieve “being true to themselves.” ????Unfortunately, it has been only the last few years that I discovered the importance of this particular psychological method. As clients struggle in life and come with their insurance and credit cards to my office they often are asking themselves similar questions. Although the specific problems may vary from addiction to depression from abuse to divorce, the core questions generally stay the same “What is the answer to my problem?” and “How can I know what to do?”

Discover And Use Your Personal Promptings
The psychological technique I’m referring to is discovering and using your personal “Promptings“. Promptings are a spiritual influence that come from God into your mind as a thought or a feeling put into your heart. Promptings have in common the fact they come from a divine source, God. The “Light of Christ” and “Holy Ghost” are the specific social media platforms used by God to communicate Promptings to you.  ????At this point the difference between Light of Christ and Holy Ghost really don’t matter. What matters is learning to receive messages from this divine delivery system. As you develop your skill in using Promptings you will obtain impressions from God about what to do and what not to do in your life.

Not All Thoughts and Feelings Come From God
There are numerous causes for your thoughts and feelings. Your thoughts and feelings can be influenced by: your environment e.g. entertainment, pornography; your physical body e.g. nutrition, sleep, mental illness; your life experience e.g. abuse, abandonment; Satan e.g. temptations; and by God e.g. Promptings. As you learn to recognize the different sources of your various thoughts and feelings, your confidence in you and your future will change for ever- you will have no fear!
(See Where Do Thoughts Come From?)

Trial And Error Learning
Yes, there will be a learning curve as you master recognizing and complying with your personal Promptings. It will take time and effort to learn. But hey- remember all those misspelled words on your spelling test and the calculation errors on your Algebra test? Be patient. God wants more than anything to talk to you. You will learn to check your Daily Promptings just like you learned to check your Facebook page, Instagram, or any other social networking platform.

Anatomy Of Your Soul
Let’s do a brief review of the anatomy of your soul. (See: The Anatomy of a Soul) Remember you are made up of a “Physical Body” and a “Spiritual Body”. Both have the capacity to learn. “Spiritual learning” comes from divine sources “Light of Christ” and the “Holy Ghost” talking to your spirit. “Temporal learning” comes from books, school, workshops, therapy, and life-experience. Temporal learning teaches your brain which is part of your physical body. Learning to recognize and comply with your divine Promptings is the classroom where spiritual learning occurs.????Unfortunately, I think we failed to teach anyone how to access divine Promptings and learn spiritually.

Promptings Never Exceed Your Capacity
Because Promptings have a divine source and messaged by an all-knowing God we can be confident they are based on truth. It’s been my experience that choices based on truth eventually work all the time and every time. A choice based on truth never fails! ????Although it may be in the life here-after before we recognize it as the correct choice. ????  When you identify and follow a Prompting it is always the right choice. Because God knows everything about you from beginning to end, you can be sure He would never give you a Prompting beyond your capacity to achieve it. It’s against the laws of Heaven for God to send you a Prompting that you do not have the capacity to achieve. It will not happen! ????Nevertheless, in the beginning as you learn to trust your Promptings it is not unusual for you to believe “I could never achieve that.”

Let’s make a word change on the popular scripture in 1 Nephii 3:7 

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath impressed me to do, for I know that the Lord giveth no impressions unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the impression which he hath given them.

An Example
Here is a recent example. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are a middle age couple. They’ve been married 25 years and active in their church. The wife was severely sexually abused as a child over 30 years ago by a family member. Most of her personal and married life have been impacted by her unresolved sexual abuse issues. Sister Smith has read books, attended classes, been to therapists, and visited with clergy. She seems to have tried everything “on earth” that she and her husband can think of to find peace.  Yet, when I met her she continued to feel victimized by her negative self-talk, occasional dark thoughts, intrusive thoughts of earlier abuse, and frankly being confused on how to proceed with her life.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith have spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on earthly resources attempting to resolve “her sexual abuse problem” with very little success? ????And these guys are very intelligent professional people! I’m quite sure Sister Smith is more knowledgeable about sexual abuse and its effects then I am! If there was a class on abuse, she could teach it! Clearly the Smiths have learned about all they can “temporally” about sexual abuse.

This statement came to my mind: “Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Tim. 3:7 ????I think it is not by accident this scripture is in the chapter where Paul describes the apostasy and perilous times of the last days. Sister Smith had failed to access her most powerful resource- Promptings! No one has taught her the importance of and the “how to” to activate personal revelation for direction concerning her personal sexual abuse issues. She had diligently looked elsewhere to her husband, to her therapist(s), to her books, etc etc – but failed to look inside herself ???? and trust her personal Promptings. She was unsure of what God would have her personally do.  When I asked Sister Smith to pause and look inside and ponder possible Promptings she was quite nervous and unsure of her ability to trust herself and her capacity to follow those Prompgtings. She had been learning about earthly knowledge, but as of yet not found “truth” for her own personal recovery. “Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 2 Tim. 3:7

The way to receive Promptings is really quite simple. The process has been around for hundreds of years. With practice I’m confident Sister Smith, ????And you if you decide will become “true to herself”  by learning “temporally” by her earthly resources and “spiritually” by her Promptings. 

dr rick