Lisa McCourt
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Inner Guidance: Sort the Voices, Choose Joy with Wisdom
Text-only teal graphic with hand-lettered lines: "Sort the Voices." and "Choose Joy" with "Joy" highlighted in an oval; centered, minimalist design representing inner guidance, intuition, and choosing joy.

Sorting the Voices Within: A Simple Path to Your Truest Guidance

Your wisest guidance is already speaking. The real work is learning which inner voice to trust.

The Hidden Shift that Changes Everything

Lisa McCourt’s Free Your Joy is not just about feeling better. It is about learning to hear the kindest, wisest voice inside you, then letting that voice lead. She describes two inner speakers. One is the loud, reactive voice that runs on old beliefs and fear. The other is calm, loving, and present. We all have both voices within us.

In Lisa’s words, “All your anxiety, stress, busy-ness, and mental chaos springs from your Horizontal Self, often referred to as your ego or persona,” while the voice of your soul, or what she calls your Vertical Self, “is sublimely peaceful and accepting” of whatever is going on around you. When you learn to differentiate between these voices, you can begin making choices from the wisest part of you.

That alignment is not a one-time win. Lisa teaches that joy is a skill you practice, and your everyday practices raise your “Joy Setpoint,” the baseline of happiness that has become your natural default setting. She makes it plain: it’s the doing that lifts your joy, not the reading about it. She even renames homework as “homeplay,” because it is the daily practice that changes your default state over time.

Why Your Brain Sounds So Sure, Even When It Is Wrong

The noisy voice is convincing. It believes its stories are the only truth. In the book, Lisa explains how we take tiny slices of reality, then treat them like the whole picture. She shows that we process only a small fraction of the information around us, and our repeated thoughts carve grooves that our mind slips into again and again. She writes that we think about 70,000 thoughts per day, with most of them negative and repetitive, which wear “grooves” in the brain like streambeds on a mountain. Her invitation is simple, “wear some new grooves” by practicing new ways of seeing and thinking.

She calls one trick of the noisy voice the “ipso facto switch,” the habit of drawing instant conclusions based on old beliefs. When that switch flips, we hear the Horizontal Self announce ipso facto conclusions like, "This means I am not safe," or "They do not care about me." Lisa offers a practice for that exact moment, encouraging readers to “make this belief a statue and walk around it.” This opens our perspective to new angles and a more accurate read on the situation. She says this awareness breaks the spell of knee-jerk reactions and false conclusions, allowing you to choose better-feeling truths.

How to Tell Fear from Wisdom

When two opposing voices exist in your mind, here is a simple way to sort them, grounded in Lisa’s guidance.

  • Listen for tone. The fear voice complicates and guards, with lots of "bells and whistles." The wise voice is simple and neutral. Lisa says the voice of the Vertical Self is one of “purity and simplicity” and a steady sense of integrity. It will not rush you or bargain. It will direct you toward the path that is most loving to you, even if that path looks harder in the moment.
  • Check your body. The voice of the Horizontal Self pulls you into anxiety about the past or the future, and you can often notice that anxiety in your physical form. The Vertical Self lives in the present, and feels soft in your body. When you bring attention to the now, the noise quiets, and you return to a peaceful state from which you can create your next reality more cleanly.
  • Ask a better question. Lisa suggests you invite the wiser voice in and let it guide your smallest next step. You do not need elaborate reasons. She notes that your Vertical Self may not tell you why up front. “It’s common to not understand the reason for the suggestion the Vertical Self is nudging you to make until you look back on it later in hindsight."

A Gentle 7-Step Practice You Can Use Today

These steps translate this concept from Free Your Joy into a simple daily routine. Keep it small, steady, and kind.

  1. Name what you hear. See if you can begin to discern which voice is talking and name it. Most of us are conditioned to pay more attention to the voice of the Horizontal Self, so it may take extra care and effort to tune into the softer voice of the Vertical Self.
  2. Question your resistance when it comes up. One hand on your heart, one on your belly. Lisa invites you to ask, “Is this resistance coming from my highest inner knowing?” Then sense the answer without forcing it.
  3. When faced with any decision, ask the integrity question. "Which option has the most integrity and love for me, even if it might look like the harder path?" The wise voice does not offer shortcuts. It points to what is truly kind and honest, not to what is easy.
  4. Use the statue test. Imagine walking around the situation to find multiple different angles of perception. Come up with three alternate explanations for what is happening. This interrupts the “ipso facto” habit and offers a higher, wiser viewpoint.
  5. Return to the present. Notice, "Am I in a past story or a future fear?" Bring your attention back to what is true in this moment, and from there peace can return to guide the next step.
  6. Take one tiny action. Free Your Joy stresses the power of doing. Pick the smallest step that honors the wise voice and do it today. This is “homeplay,” the practice that raises your Joy Setpoint over time.
  7. Wear new grooves. Mental rehearsal paves the way for a different reality. Each time you choose a kinder view, you’re wearing new pathways for your thoughts to follow, and it gets easier to find the healthier paths each time.

Inner Wisdom, Discerned

Lisa’s language is disarming and clear. She will often invite you to spot the old habit, thank it, and then set it aside. She explains that many of our fears are “overblown ego protection instincts” that once kept us safe but now pull us away from joy. Becoming the observer of this tendency “dissipates it,” because you begin to recognize it as a habit, not the truth.

The Vertical Self is not dramatic. It is steady, simple, and present. It tends to speak in short guidance rather than long stories. Lisa calls imagination “the language of the soul.” If a quiet nudge comes through your imagination, that is often how your wisdom speaks. With practice, “you’ll eventually be able to tune into the vibration of anything and know whether or not it’s right for you.”

When Trauma or Old Pain Is Loud

Lisa holds so much compassion for the times when we’re going through the hard stuff. She reminds you that the stress and pressure we layer over life often pulls in more of what we do not want. “It’s just energy. We can play with it. We can loosen it up.” The deeper work is to stop over-identifying with the Horizontal Self and come home to your Vertical Self, where love and steadiness live.

If the fear voice feels like truth, go slower. Ask only for the next gentle step. Lisa’s approach honors safety and steadiness. You are invited to take tiny, loving steps that your nervous system can handle, then let the results teach you to trust.

The Payoff that Actually Lasts

Lisa’s promise is plain. When you train your attention this way, your inner landscape changes, and your outer landscape follows. The practice is not instant, and she is honest about that. But she is equally clear that sincere practice over time will “result in a dramatically elevated Joy Setpoint.” She encourages you to trust your own intuitive knowing as you choose which practices to use each week, because only you can feel what you are ready for.

The goal is not perfection. It is presence. When your desires are in alignment with your Vertical Self, they send a different signal than the signal sent by fear-based desires. Learning the difference is how you “create tomorrow today,” bead by bead, moment by moment.

Real World Scripts You Can Borrow

  • When fear is loud: “Thank you for trying to protect me. I am safe in this moment." Then feel into: "Which tiny, loving step can I take right now?" Take that one step. Taking action shifts your state, which raises your Joy Setpoint over time.
  • When urgency spikes: "If this is truly right, it will still be right tomorrow." Your Vertical Self is patient and clear, not frantic. If your instinct feels like it might be coming from reactivity or old stories, give the impulse a night to settle. What is true will hold steady.
  • When doubt returns: "Make the issue a statue and walk around it." Try on three kinder interpretations and feel which one returns you to alignment with your Vertical Self and creates more peace in your body.

A Five-Minute Daily Ritual

  • Sit, one hand on your heart, one on your belly.
  • Ask, "What do I need to know today to move toward joy?"
  • Wait for a simple phrase or a felt sense.
  • Write it down, then do one tiny action that matches it.

Lisa emphasizes that we are all being guided, and “the single best tool for awakening your intuition is to use your intuition.” The more you trust, the more comes through, and the easier it becomes to move with the flow of your highest knowing.

Pitfalls to Watch For

  • Don’t confuse shutdown with wisdom. Numbness is not intuition. Return to the body and ground yourself in the present, then ask again.
  • Don’t treat fear like the enemy. Fear is data, not a dictator. Let it inform real risks, then let the Vertical Self choose the path with the most integrity and love for you.
  • Don’t chase quick fixes. Joy rises with practice, not a single leap. This is why Lisa’s “homeplay” matters so much. The repetitive doing lifts your Joy Setpoint and keeps it there.

If You Want More Serendipity and Ease

This inner sorting of the voices changes how life feels. It brings a natural flow, more small joys, and a steadier center. To keep exploring intuitive living and how to recognize the voice that leads you to joyful coincidences, visit Embrace Intuitive Living: Unlock Greater Joy and Serendipity at https://inkflare.ai/profile/lisa-mccourt/blog/embrace-intuitive-living-unlock-greater-joy-and-serendipity/.

A Final Word from the Heart of the Book

Free Your Joy carries a throughline of love and deep respect for your process. Lisa is both empowering and practical. She believes you will surprise yourself when you relax into the wiser voice that already lives in you. As she writes, “Our inner landscape is continually creating our outer landscape.” When you let the Vertical Self lead, you begin to feel that truth in your bones and see its evidence in your life.

So tonight, ask one brave question: With your hands on your heart and belly, ask "If I knew I were already safe and loved, what would I choose next?" Then listen for the simplest step. Take it, even if tiny. Do it again tomorrow. This is how the wise voice gets louder. This is how your life becomes one of deep, consistent joy.