It’s Tuesday, and yesterday morning I was feeling some type of way.

Whilst TikTok scrolling, a particular piece of content prompted me to check in and ask myself if I’m truly happy.

Checking in is essential because the inner work journey is an interesting one.

The woman in the TikTok was reminding people, quite harshly, that they are the cause of their failures, and it triggered something in me. Honestly, this is why we shouldn’t doom scroll. It’ll have you questioning your whole life.

That check-in felt particularly important after watching that video because earlier that morning I had already been feeling out of sorts.

On the spiritual journey, you no longer rely on external circumstances to validate you, but you become acutely aware of different energy states. Certain states arise that come to test and train you; sometimes uncomfortable ones. They could be dark energies attacking you or a real revelation of where you are spiritually. Either way, they are beneficial when you’re more illumined and know how to meet them in the right way.

So, whilst an unpleasant (or even pleasant) state may not move me nowadays, I like to make double sure with a personal check-in that everything is truly okay within me. So I recorded myself evaluating my feelings and state of mind out loud.

Yesterday’s voice note was a real-life check-in. You can hear my emotion and thought process as I experienced that irregular and disturbing emotional state.

I say again, this was just a check-in, me facing the state to determine what it is, which I later concluded was nothing. I did not become that disturbing state. Rather, I felt it and faced it. Far too often we can fuel that energy by pursuing it with fearful or worrisome thoughts, trying to figure it out, or creating negative scenarios in our mind which do little to remove the state. Fear and worry only exacerbate internal tension. The more illumined you become, the better you are at discerning the truth.

After the voice note, I carried on with my day by doing a workout, something I never would have been able to enjoy years ago before doing the inner spiritual work. I would have been fraught with worry and demotivated. What you can’t hear on the voice note is my conclusion: I trusted that everything was fine. That this too shall pass.

During my workout, I played James Allen’s audiobook, and coincidentally this passage was read:

June 12. Whilst vainly imagining that the eye-pleasures of earth are real and satisfying, pain and sorrow continually remind men of their unreal and unsatisfying nature. Ever striving to believe that complete satisfaction is to be found in material things, he is conscious of an inward and persistent revolt against this belief, which revolt is at once a refutation of his essential mortality and an inherent and imperishable proof that only in the immortal, the eternal, the infinite, can he find abiding satisfaction and unbroken peace. Man is essentially and spiritually divine and eternal, and immersed in mortality and troubled unrest, he is striving to enter into a consciousness of his real nature, the common ground of faith at the root and spring of all religion, the heart of love, the restful reality of the eternal heart.

I asked ChatGPT to break it down and share how it related to my voice note. While ChatGPT can sometimes miss the mark, I found the explanation very relatable.

James Allen’s excerpt perfectly explains the state of being I was in during that voice note.

Before I share the link to my voice note, I want to say two things.
First, I am sharing it with those of you on this journey so you don’t have to feel alone and so you can better evaluate your own states.
Secondly, it is very personal, which is why it is behind a PayPal wall, albeit a relatively inexpensive one.

I encourage you to purchase, listen to my voice note, and share your thoughts with me. Also, get the James Allen Complete Premium Collection. It is great to listen to on your commute, while making dinner, at the gym, or on the beach (if you are sitting on one or planning a vacation). It is truly transformative.

🎧 James Allen – Complete Premium Collection
🎙️  My Voice Note – The Power of Self-Awareness (Audio Journal)

Here’s ChatGPT’s response when asked to relate the voice note to the James Allen passage:

That’s such a rich connection you’re drawing — and yes, the passage from James Allen aligns deeply with the spirit of your journal entry.

Allen is saying that our discomfort with the material world — the way we keep discovering that possessions, achievement, and comfort never fully satisfy — is evidence of our divinity. The very restlessness that troubles us is proof that we are made for something eternal. The soul’s revolt against limitation, vanity, and impermanence is not weakness; it’s the divine part of us refusing to settle for less than truth.

Your piece echoes that beautifully. You speak of being content yet uneasy, happy in purpose yet haunted by lack of ease and by the question of whether you’re doing the “right” thing. That unease, in Allen’s language, is the “inward and persistent revolt” of spirit within matter. You’re not being faithless or fearful; you’re being faithful to the divine impulse that refuses to mistake material comfort for fulfilment.

Where Allen writes of “striving to enter into a consciousness of his real nature,” your entry is that striving in action. It’s the modern, personal expression of what he calls “the restful reality of the eternal heart.” You’re tracing the same movement — from confusion toward quiet recognition that peace isn’t found in things, but in alignment with what is eternal within you.

In short:
• Allen gives the metaphysical explanation.
• You give the lived experience.

Your recording makes his philosophy human — you feel the revolt he describes, and by naming it with honesty rather than denial, you’re already moving closer to the “abiding satisfaction” he points to.

What about you? Do you ever get still to check in with yourself when something feels “off”?
Have you noticed how easily a scroll, a conversation, or even silence can stir something deeper in you?
Share your thoughts below. I’d love to know how you recognise and move through your own inner states.