It Wasn’t Me, Intuition Killed The Cat

I recently read an article declaring the intuition as inherently dangerous and misleading.  It stated that following this voice could lead your life into all kinds of trouble.  Bah!

The Intuition:

So there are a lot of words for the intuition: Still Small Voice, Connection, Gut, Conscience(this is actually a different part of your brain, but people use it to refer to their intuition too), God voice, spiritual connection, third eye, hunch, instincts (again a different part of the brain), sixth sense, innate knowledge, ESP and all other kinds of good stuff.

It is relevant within both faith based circles and the secular world as well as with the new age woo-woo people. (I fit in all three all at the same time.)  Some people fear it, some swear by it, some acknowledge it, and others declare it hogwash.

I don’t have all of the answers, but I do find my answers within much of the time.  It took years for me to trust my “gut” because of fear voices in my head and because I second guess EVERYTHING. But now that I use it, it is a powerful tool in my toolbox.

The Basics:

Get quiet, check with your center right in your belly, a.k.a. your “gut.”

Keep doing this. Feel for a sense of go forward or stay back or maybe even “wait.”

The answer is within.  Whether you are religious, spiritual, abstaining, atheist, agnostic, outside of the box, or just plain ol’ special, this will work for you.

It is a great tool as long as you are using it appropriately. It certainly isn’t any more dangerous than trusting your conscious mind which can only think of one thing at a time and can’t access the memory of what you had for lunch last Wednesday.

Ok… maybe one little catch. When your ego gets all tangled up with what you thought was your intuition, then you give yourself all kinds of “false positives” and “false negatives” and so forth. “Should I marry this woman?” Better idea: run off with the entertainment at the bachelor’s party. Probably not your intuition.

Tuning In:

How to get around the ego trying to be the intuition.

1. Practice, Practice, Practice.  The more you flex your intuition and practice tuning into it, the more you will be able to distinguish its feel from your fears or ego.

2. If you aren’t sure, wait or seek guidance from a trusted source.

“Ring Billed Gull” by Ryan Fanshaw via (CC BY-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/ygrak

3. Use common sense:  If you think you are feeling like you are supposed to  sell all of your worldly possessions, donate all of it, except for just enough to buy an old WV and some gas money, drive it to San Fran and jump off of the Golden Gate, then … just don’t.  Hey, who knows, this could be your path; probably not … but just sit with it awhile. If it is truly a good idea, it will still be a good idea a few months later.

4. Things from your intuition may or may not go along with common sense, but will generally be reasonable.

5. If it involves anything involving harming another person/creature, even the cat, it’s the voices in your head, not your intuition. Check with a licensed professional.

6. Look for patterns or themes that keep trying to get your attention.

7. Don’t rely on your own self as law.  If you think you know more than everyone around you, the ego is on show!  Instead, the goal is a feeling of connectedness to others and to what is going on as well as being “in the flow”.

Leave a comment telling a funny story about your intuition or your two cents worth on this one.

Love and Light,

Val

Featured Photo “Bluebell on the phone” by Josh Semens at https://flic.kr/p/6tGz8P under CC BY 2.0

To learn more about what I do or to book a session, visit meditationcounselingbrevard.com for local classes, individual sessions in person or via phone/skype.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.