In the Desert: Becoming Without Proof

Like all posts in the Inner Journeys series, this one is inspired by an Inner Voice session—a practice of tapping into intuition to uncover deeper wisdom. In this post, I share the lessons and insights from my own Inner Voice during a recent session with my friend and fellow Inner Voice Facilitator Em Strong. For those curious about Inner Voice sessions, I’ve also included the full audio of the session at the bottom of this post so you can experience firsthand where these insights originated and what an Inner Voice session is like.

In this Inner Voice session, I was guided by my Inner Voice into a vision of a vast, silent desert seen from above — a place that appears barren, but that pulses with unseen life beneath its surface.

What unfolds, and what you’ll hear or read below, is a profound meditation on the nature of inner transformation: slow, imperceptible, and independent of external signs or validations. In fact, my Inner Voice goes as far as to say that any signs or validations are often misleading, or at the very least misunderstood.

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My hope in the sharing of this recent session with you is that its message can be a reminder that even if the map, the timeline, the landscape your life is traversing looks and feels empty as far as the eye can see, you are moving, being moved in fact — and that is enough.

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A note for those of you unfamiliar with what an Inner Voice session is or could be:

If you click over to the audio, you’ll hear how much silence there is between each sentence spoken, how often the words either tumble or trickle out and how other times a visual is given, then described, and later a meaning for it understood.

Know that this is just one example of how an Inner Voice session could unfold. The facilitator for this session, a friend of mine named Em (highly recommend her Love Messages!), didn’t even do much speaking during this session. It wasn’t needed. Other times it is.

What I hope you take away from this, besides the session’s message, is that your Inner Voice will always meet you where you are when you come to the session, oftentimes in ways and with messages you never could have predicted, but that are exactly what you most needed to hear at that time. That’s why this work is priceless.

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The Audio

The Transcript

She saw a desert with many dunes.

Totally empty.

Clear.

She sees it from above, looking down on it.

Facilitator: What do you want Amber to know about this desert and dunes?

Alive.

So much happening beyond what's seen. It looks still. It looks silent. It looks empty.

There's so much happening within it.

It's not as it seems.

She sees how all of the activity happens in the sand, under the surface. It’s all happening underfoot.

And it's not felt, not seen. . .but happening nonetheless. It is happening.

And she sees herself sitting on one of these dunes, these dune mountains, sitting at the top of it, crisscross position.

Feeling nothing.

Seeing nothing.

Nothing but desert, more dunes.

The dunes tell her so much.

They wouldn't exist if there wasn't something happening.

What caused them to rise?

What caused the height?

It’s the unseen force over time.

And she's sitting on one of them.

Can she trust that same thing is happening to her?

These subtle shifts that she doesn't feel, she doesn't know, she doesn't see, are shaping her into something that stands tall in the emptiness, rises high, has perspective, can see it all, can see nothing and see everything.

Because it’s beyond sight, it’s beyond what's seen. It's underneath. It's within. It's part of it.

We try to build on top of it as. . .as proof of creation, of existence, reality. That's not where things are built. They're built from within and they remain within. It forever exists within. They are part of, one with, undying.

The desert doesn't need a whole city to be created on top of it for things to happen, for it to appear like something's happening.

There's nothing in that.

It's just appearances.

True change is not seen. And oftentimes, it’s not even felt. It just is.

It just is. It’s part of it all, part of it, part of you.

Let it be desert. Let it be desolate. Let there be nothing to see that doesn't mean anything.

Whatever meaning you put to that has no meaning.

Let it be empty.

Let there be nothing as far as the eye can see.

It's not boring to sit on this dune seeing and feeling nothing.

It feels that way as long as. . .as you strain to see something and see nothing.

Release the need to see something and see what shifts.

See how it feels then, to sit in this place of nothingness.

How does that feel?

There's acceptance in that.

And acceptance is a doorway to more acceptance and more acceptance and more acceptance.

It takes you straight to a place of. . .of being. . .of being right where you are, only where you are, in touch with where you are, breathing where you are, actually breathing that air into your lungs, accepting it, taking it in, letting it fill you, fuel you, feed you.

It's everything.

That's all you need.

And this is what shifts when you stop looking for it out there in the empty landscape.

Waiting, hoping, even trusting.

You're straining. You're straining to see something,

Something that doesn't matter whether it appears or not.

You don't need that proof.

You don't need that proof that something's happening.

That’s what’s truly empty. That proof is empty.

It’s never what you think it is.

Learn. Learn to sit on this mountaintop, on this dune, this high, high perch. Seeing nothing. Feeling nothing. Striving not to see or feel anything but to. . .be right where you are.

That's it. That's the only destination.

You can't see what's really happening, so don't look for it.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you know. It doesn't matter if you see.

You want to skip ahead to see the story of your life. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. It doesn't matter.

You’re getting caught up in the story, the forward projections where it all could go. . .the dreams, the ideas, the possibilities.

They are all distractions, imaginations.

The change is all right here within, under the surface, and you’re on the ride.

You are going somewhere, but you'll never know.

You'll never know where or why.

So stop seeking that.

Let it be a step by step, where each step erases the last one from sight. That one's no longer needed, no longer necessary to be known. It's, it's a present moment thing.

And the reason it's a present moment thing is because that's all there is.

You are moving, you are shifting, you are rising, you are going somewhere. That's all you need to know.

Because if you knew where, how, when, and why, you'd only get confused.

It’s like. . .now she sees what would be a map, but there's literally nothing on it. It's just a blank page, and yet she sees herself like moving all over it, and because there's no lines, there's no labels, there's no distinction of here from there, it feels just like this, like sitting in the desert.

She is moving.

The understanding doesn't matter, the knowing of exactly where you are, and whatever timeline within whatever story. . .It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Like the map without lines, it does not matter.

You are moving,

You are shifting.

You are growing.

There are no distractions in the desert other than the ones your mind comes up with.

There's nothing else here but you in the empty scene.

It gets easier to be in that when you give up. . .give up the mind, give up the thinking, the piece that's not accepting.

It gets easier.

It's easier to be exactly where you are. To accept it.

Now she sees how she chose to sit on top of the dune. She had a reason for that. It was to go search, to see whatever might be there. Now she sees how unnecessary it is up so high if she's not searching for anything.

Even if she saw something, she knows it doesn't matter. It doesn't really matter. So. . .there's no point in sitting up so high if she doesn't want to. There's no longer any point.

She could be down below where there is no visibility for distance.

It doesn't matter. . .it doesn’t matter what's out there if there's anything out there.

It's not out there.

So she can climb down the dune, sit somewhere else lower.

The dune’s for perspective that she didn't need, she doesn't need, to see things that don't mean anything.

So she walks down the dune and finds a different seat.

And. . .she finds that it's, it's even more comfortable. Because now she even can lean on the dune like the back of a chair.

She has support.

It's, it's not so much waiting as getting comfortable in what is.

It’s the waiting that makes it feel uncomfortable.

I'm staying away from words like trust because it’s been misused, creates this anticipation that isn't helpful.

It's not that trusting is bad, it's just that it creates this energy within that takes you out of what is, sometimes subtly, sometimes more pronounced. But the point is that the way it's been used is taking her out of where she needs to be.

Alongside trust is hope and faith and all of those things that sort of mean the same thing. When misused, they're not very helpful, when misapplied, misunderstood. The opposite of helpful.

They’re taking you out of it. Out of it. Being. Here. Right where you are, right where it's all happening.

It's already happening.

So let what you do always be rooted in what is right here, what is right here.

Not what you see or pretend to see off in the distance, out into the future where you think you're going. It's rooted in that. Anything but clear.

Always do from here, from right where you are and what you have to work with right here, right now.

Cut off that sight to the future.

Pretend it's not there. Even when you think it is,

Act from here. Right here with the materials available to you right here in this place.

You don't know where you're going. You have not the slightest clue.

Stop pretending that you do.

If you can, let the dreams go. They seem so nice, but you have no idea. You have no idea.

Are you willing to be moved?

The map is empty.

Take it day by day.

Let each day be its own world, its own moment, where the day before it, the day after it, is irrelevant. Doesn't exist.

You can break that down even further.

That's the approach, the approach to being moved.

You're going where you're already going, that you cannot see. You cannot know. You will not know.

Let it be done.

The work we did here is we. . .we got off the mountaintop and we realized we don't need that perspective to see, to know.

We can't see. We can't know.

We cut off the searching and moved into a more helpful form of trusting.

Trust is required, but trust without sight, without even a. . .a figment of what the future might look like driving it.

Facilitator: We have a couple more minutes.

Remember this visual, choosing not to see, not to go searching for signs of life, evidence that something's happening, something's coming.

Remember this visual. Remember that you don't need any of that. Something is happening. You are going somewhere. That's all you need to know.

Complete.

Ready to hear from your own Inner Voice?

If something stirred within you as you read — a quiet pull, a deep exhale, a sense that this is what you've been needing — I invite you to experience it for yourself. Inner Voice sessions are a space to sit with the unseen, to hear what’s true beneath the surface, and to come home to your own knowing.

Click here to learn more or book a session with me

When you're ready, I'll meet you right where you are.

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