The following is from my 2006 interview of Andy Smyth, founder of Wilderness Way, an organization that offered canoe trips into northern Canada. Andy talked about using sensations we get of comfort or discomfort to chart our course in life.

From the interview:

For the last ten years, clarity has been the focus of my life and I've found that what we need for that is right within us. When I take the time to tune into my body, I get immediate feedback about whether I am on the right track or on the wrong track.

   I took a class about co-counseling, which is the way we learn to be counselors for each other. We learn to listen to and assist each other without the perception that there is something wrong that needs to be fixed. It teaches that we all have difficulties, but with a little bit of training and a lot of compassion and empathy, we can help each other. I wrote a two-page essay during this class called, "My Distress is My Ally and My Guide." I wrote about how, when you take a wrong step, you always feel it. A sense of unease overtakes you, or anger, or sadness. These feelings are sometimes uncomfortable, but if you pay attention to them, they will provide immediate feedback about whether you are on your path.

   If you let these feelings direct you — and I mean direct, not impel, because anger can impel you somewhere you don't want to go — if you let these feelings direct you, and you say, "I am feeling unease, therefore I must not be meeting this situation in the most beneficial way," you change your direction.

   So read your own emotional body. People look for direction from the outside, but we get this constant direction from right within ourselves. Most of us don't recognize the things we feel upset about, unhappy about, as guidance. We see them as things that are happening to us rather than as direction we are getting from our inner reality— the feedback loop. When you have clarity, your life begins to flow with ease. The ease is the feedback saying, "Ah, yes. This is the path."