Intuition is a vast intelligence which we just barely tap into or it is nonsense of our imagination, depending on where you sit. In the family in which I was raised it was the rational mind that was given the most value. Anything from the heart or resembling emotion was not to be touched. Thus I was raised deaf dumb and blind to what I now term, my own internal guidance system: my intuition. From experience I now know that intuition is a wonderful gift available to every one of us. I see it as a great friend, a companion I can trust, an aspect of the mystical and spiritual in my life.
Intuition is often thought of as a 6th sense, a kind of knowing that we “inherently” possess. The more consciously we choose to follow our intuition the more we can develop this aspect of our lives and incorporate it into the adventure of our living. A life lived attuned to one’s intuition is often experienced as a life lived on purpose.
But how to describe intuition to one who doe not know what it is: that is the question! How to cultivate a life lived from this place, where does one start? A great way to start to look inwards, to get a sense of an inner life, an inner voice or compass is by processes such as meditation or focusing. Gene Gendlin the originator of focusing talked of the edge of awareness, a vague something which he termed the “felt sense”. This again is distinct from intuition, but developing the capacity to connect with an inner knowing goes along way to describing intuition. In focusing this is done by sensing into bodily awareness. Meditation may not involve body awareness but it can. Practices that are increasingly popular today which teach mindfulness and use it as a modality of immense healing also cultivate awareness. Intuition is another aspect of awareness.
Developing intuition is one thing but what about having the courage to trust it? Many of us are more comfortable with rationality and with the mind than with anything intangible and not able to be proven. Intuition is not evidence based! However, society is showing a greater openness in some sectors to such things as emotional intelligence and intuition is surely a part of E I. The field of executive coaching is developing and the corporate world is now increasingly seeing a place for other aspects of communication and decision making than the purely rational. Even in the field of medicine and science many practitioners are now becoming more open to the place of inner awareness.
So if you want to develop your capacity for intuition start with small choices. Try testing things in your body and checking for bodily repsonses. The body does not lie but the mind can easily confuse us. Ask questions that perplex you and put them to a part of you that is internal. Bring an intention to focus some place inside, to enhance your connection with an inner knowing, an inner wisdom that you can trust is already present. For enhancing this capacity to trust yourself and to follow your own beat, is likely to bring fruits well worth the effort in a rewarding and enriching life, a creative and connected life: a life that takes you into possibilities not yet dreamed of.
© Margie Ulbrick
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