I have a certain mode of being that I think of as now-walking. It’s when I’m deeply in the unknown and just stepping through, moment to moment. This phase of being usually kicks in during crisis. “Bad news” unhinges me and my expectations about the world fall apart. I step into the moment because I don’t trust the future—and sometimes not even the past.

Lately, though, the now-walking/not-knowing mode has come on with more lightness and curiosity. I don’t know how things will be—and that’s ok. I even choose to enter this phase. This happened with my move to Rhode Island. I didn’t have a plan or design for moving here. I fact, it didn’t make much sense at all. Cary and I had such wonderful friends in Asheville. The schools there are good. Charles had found a qi gong class that he loved. But I just knew I needed to move home. I knew with the parts of the brain and heart that have to do with smell, hunger, desire, and love. I could hear the knowing. And that made the not-knowing easier.

Mikio Sankey calls accessing knowing, “discerning the whisper of the heart,” a phrase I love. He developed a style of acupuncture that supports both knowing and now-walking/not-knowing. It’s called Esoteric Acupuncture and it’s specifically for those on a spiritual path.

One of my girlfriends called me today to ask me to help her make an important decision and I reminded her how to access her knowing. Since I couldn’t do Esoteric Acupuncture on her, I reminded her that journaling is effective at clearing out whatever might be obscuring her knowing. So is meditation. So is exactly what she was doing: Sonaring for her own truth by talking to friends.

May she—and we all—have the courage to discern the whispers of our hearts… and follow them!