Everything casts a shadow or leaves a mark. Every word, every thought, every behavior. Your angry thoughts about the neighbor and the loving caress you gave a baby. Your diary, a dance of joy, a beautiful painting. Each leaves an energetic mark on the world and each, in turn, impacts your vibration and therefore your ascension.

Be mindful of that as you make your marks. Because everything has an energetic component, it all goes out into the world. Be sure to make your mark a good one, even if no one else sees it. Integrity matters.

Integrity matters for your own life and it matters for the world. I was with a psychic friend of mine and we were pondering the book of Revelation from the Bible. I had read somewhere that about 80% of Bible prophecies had come true and those that had come true were 100% accurate. The rest of the prophecies that had not yet come to pass were mostly the scariest of the prophecies—those of the end times.

I asked her to ask Spirit if these terrible things had to happen. Jesus appeared and showed her two windows side by side. One view was light and happy, while the other one was dark and oppressive. Jesus told her there were two options. There were choices to be made. We asked why, with such a long history of man on this planet, we hadn’t made better choices by now to bring us to a better place. The answer was that we hadn’t been capable until now. Our consciousness hadn’t been high enough. But now it was. The answer was to elevate ourselves and those around us. Acting in integrity was one part of the solution. Empowering others to see and make their highest choices was another.

All we can ask of ourselves is that we make the highest choice we are capable of at any given time. The highest choice we can see will be influenced by our age, education, family views, maturity/life experience, spiritual beliefs and environment, among other things. If we make a choice that is not in alignment with who we currently are, there will be an energetic dissonance. The choice will actually bring our vibration down. We have all likely felt this at one point or another in the form of guilt, shame or possibly a gnawing feeling that something is not right.

Let’s explore this energetic dissonance a bit more. A young man joins the military out of nationalistic pride and a desire to protect his family and country. He believes that war and killing people is justified and necessary. This man is in alignment with his beliefs and there is no dissonance. Let’s say that he then goes to war and sees futility in it. Maybe he sees the humanity in the other side and begins to understand their reasons for fighting. Now the man has an energetic dissonance. His beliefs and his behaviors are out of alignment. This man will need to leave the military or he will be in inner conflict and his vibration will drop. He will actually experience soul growth and vibrational increase if he leaves the military.

I’m not judging either decision, merely pointing out the types of issues that can create energetic dissonance within. Let’s take another example:

Belinda, who is single, enters into a relationship with a man and falls in love. She later finds out he is married. There are many possible perspectives Belinda can take on her situation. Some are:

• “It’s okay because I didn’t know he was married when we began, and now I’m in love. I didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”
• “I’m not married, he is. It’s his karmic consequence, not mine.”
• “I don’t believe it is right to be with a married man necessarily, but she’s not good for him and I am. He’s better off with me, let her give him up.”
• “He’s in love with me, not her, so it is okay.”
• “This is against what I believe and therefore I will leave the relationship. If he ends up leaving her, we’ll see where we stand then.”

Again, I’m not judging any of these choices, but I do recommend that you sit with your choice and make the highest one you can see at that moment. To the extent that the decision is in alignment with who you are and your current beliefs, there will be less of an energetic dissonance within your body. If you believe one thing (“This relationship is not okay”) and you do another (stay in the relationship), you will be energetically out of alignment and there will be blocks and/or drains in your energy.

Here are some other examples to consider:

• Is it okay to file a lawsuit when you know you are wrong, but will probably win?
• Is it okay to file a lawsuit because you’d like to spite the other person and tie things up in court?
• Is it okay if you are a lawyer and you purposely delay things to cost the other side money and force them to settle?
• Is it okay to take illegal drugs to make you stronger in your sport if everyone else is doing it and you’ll absolutely lose if you don’t do it, too?
• Is it okay to cut corners on your product, knowing that it will wear out quickly because otherwise you can’t stay in business?
• Is it okay to steal because the other person has plenty and you just need a little?

You probably said, “No,” to at least some of these, yet we see these things happening all the time.

I don’t always make the best decisions. I wish I did. Sometimes we make what seems like a good decision at the time, but as we gain a greater perspective on the world, we wish we had made a different one. Sometimes I don’t even know what the right choice is, I just know that the only one I see before me is not acceptable. In those cases, I get quiet and ask Spirit to show me what to do. Often I can tell the “right” choice for me by how calm everything gets inside me and how good I feel when I think about that choice. I don’t always like the action I have to take—like telling someone “no”—but I can tell by the feeling that it’s what I must do.

It says in the Bible, “To whom much is given, much is expected.” With respect to integrity, it means to me that once you know or are shown a higher choice, you must take that one. Settling for a lesser truth is no longer an option. The gnawing at my conscience, the feeling of letting myself and the Universe down and the shifting of vibration is just not tolerable.

Just because we know all of this doesn’t mean we’ll always make our highest choice. Sometimes we must act quickly and don’t have enough time to think things through. Other times, we may act from a place of fear, guilt, shame or anger and can’t see the path we might otherwise have taken. The clearer channels we become and the more practice we have seeking and asking to know the highest choice, the more obvious it becomes.

Of course, just because we make a decision that does not create dissonance because it is in alignment with our current vibration and current way of thinking, does not mean it was the highest choice possible. If there was a higher choice, you will likely be presented with future opportunities to make another choice in a similar situation. If not, or if you still make lesser choices—fear not—you will have the opportunity to make a better choice in the next life!

Connect with Wendy Joy at www.facebook.com/wendyjoyauthor for answers to questions and FREE Distant Energy on the 9th of each month. Find information on healing sessions and Wendy’s book Clear Channel: A Guide for the Newly Awakening at www.wendyjoy.net.