Asking for inspiration?

You can, very practically, ask for inspiration from your inner Self. Not that your Self would not be able to enter your awareness without doing so. However, it will help you, especially in the beginning when you need to get more experience with it, to help you focus your awareness and reminding yourself that you are working on a change in the way and place within yourself to deal with control issues on the one hand, and inspiration on the other one.

By putting the question itself, you focus your awareness on something different from your personality to listen to and open up to for input. And you will notice how your Self enters your awareness and how it differs from experiencing your personality. Your Self will enter your awareness only when you make mental space available for it, and this is a very practical step towards that. Normally your personality continuously usurps most of your mental space. Now you ask yourself to look out for something different, something your personality cannot come up with, and this automatically has a quieting effect on his activity (should he still be persistent with regard to a certain issue, then write everything he has to say about it down, this makes him feel heard and you will notice that will calm him down as well).

You can apply this to all kinds of very practical questions, like: do I have to react to this, do I have to buy a present and if so, what. Etc. Especially questions to which you can be almost certain there will come an answer, are great ones to practice with in the beginning, like 'what shall I wear today'. Also feel what happens when you do not want to listen to the answer because it does not match the expectations of your personality.

You will notice that it can be possible to practice through not acting on the inspiration you receive. You might call this a kind of practice-inspiration: feel the input from your inner Self, do not listen to it, and then sooner or later, while experiencing the unpleasant feelings which are about to follow, notice yourself having to confess that you did know what to do all along, only did not want to listen. This is one of the ways in which to get a clearer notice of the difference between your inner Self and your personality and learn to trust your inner Self more, while noticing that its input was what you wanted all along, after doing what your personality told you was best. A more obvious example of facing the fact that your personality cannot bring you what you really want, and your inner Self is much more attractive to you, can hardly be found!

Also, it is possible that you receive inspiration which your personality considers stupid, embarrassing, very against what he sees as your interests. However, that too is a great way to practice: does your personality draw a line somewhere - the inspiration has to be in line with what he wants and considers to be logical - or are you truly prepared to listen to and act on inspiration of your inner Self. And there is the situation where it seems that inspiration does not come, when you notice no response to your question. It is the simplest way to practice, and often the most difficult one to accept, because you have to acknowledge: this is not an relevant question, no matter what your personality may try to have you believe. Also, a period of time where the answer is not yet in your awareness, may serve as a great way to become aware of all personality aspects involved and be able to accept the inspiration of your inner Self - once it dawns on your mind - more easily.