I had a conversation last night with a person I work with and at some point, she said “I should have trusted my intuition…I knew this was going to happen.”
I can tell you that during the past 53 years of my life I have said that same thing to myself too many times to remember. Over the years I have developed a theory about “Intuition” that I would like to share with you. It was only after I contemplated the theory within the context of my children, that I realized its value.
Years ago, I had opened an account on a social networking site called GAIA, which was a community where people could “discover and realize that which we’re truly meant to become, and, in doing so, to encourage and inspire others to do the same”.
It had been about 3 weeks when I received a message from another member that simply read ‘Would you like to help me?” Who wouldn’t be intrigued? So, I began a string of email conversations with Faye. I would come to find out that Faye had written a book entitled Self-Empowerment that was published by Namaste Publishing (the same house that publishes Eckart Tolle) and was looking for people to help her develop a social networking/personal coaching website that would mentor people with her unique empowerment model.
Her empowerment model was based on the premise that navigating your life is most successful when done from the present moment and that attempts to direct your life by decisions made from what she calls “feeling-thoughts” like guilt, fear or anger are non-productive.
Feeling-thoughts are emotions like sadness, anxiety and frustration that have piggy backed themselves onto thoughts, transforming into feeling-thoughts like guilt, fear and anger.
These feeling-thoughts then pull you out of the present moment by focusing your attention in the Past & Future timeframes or with Other People. They contribute to the cycle of destructive life decisions. In simple terms: Emotions like sadness, anxiety and frustration are good, while feeling-thoughts like anger, guilt and fear are not good.
Your emotions are a vital part of your own internal guidance system that, when understood properly, are very powerful intuitional tools. Our emotions provide us with instant feedback, without having to “Think” about anything. In Faye’s words: “When we are in the present moment with our attention focused inside ourselves, actually there is no thought. Only when we stop thinking can we access direct experience.”
My children, all children, have very good intuition. They know what feels “good” and what feels “bad”. They instinctively learn to rely on their emotions for feedback and guidance. Because they operate so exclusively from the present moment, their intuition is tuned into the energy of their experiences. Until we condition our children with the concept of time, they cannot distinguish between 25 minutes or 2 weeks.
The concept of time so eludes them because children operate almost exclusively from the present moment. Because intuition is accessible only from the present moment, feeling-thoughts like anger, guilt and fear lead to decisions that are void of clarity and focus.
I have used my intuition or first thought to direct my life in several different areas. It has proven a powerful tool even for the small decisions.
For instance, years ago I was taking my son to his hockey game. Now, I usually keep my sunglasses in the car above my dashboard, but for some reason I had the inclination to keep wearing them. Before we reached the door Jake swung his hockey stick and it hit my eyeglasses hard. If I didn’t have my glasses on, I can only imagine what would have happened.
Have you ever made a decision from anger or fear that you knew just didn’t feel right? Your intuition was telling you one thing and your feeling-thoughts were navigating you in a different direction. But because we have been conditioned since we were children to ignore our emotions (”Stop crying!” or “Take the emotion out of it”) and as adults to medicate our emotions with anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs, we have lost touch with our own internal guidance systems.
As a culture, we don’t know any more how to access our intuition because our feelings are so suppressed and offline.
I wrote “Trust your Intuition” because I really believe in the power of intuition in every facet of my life. Adopting a child’s mind (open and anchored in the present moment) in situations has been liberating, enlightening and the results are truly remarkable. Here are some suggestions to access your intuition daily:
- Try to wean yourself off anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medication. They take your intuition offline.
- Do not make decisions while experiencing feeling-thoughts of anger, fear or guilt. Use the 24-hour rule by waiting 24 hours after an emotional flareup to make a decision.
- Make decisions from the present moment while in a state of clarity and focus.
- Intuition speaks softly, so remain vested in the present so you can hear what your intuition has to say.
- Usually your first thought is the right one. Don’t complicate the issue by over thinking it.
All your power is vested in the present moment. Your ability to change the past and write your future is possible by living your life in the present.
Your emotions are a guidance system for you to know when you are operating in the present moment or operating outside of it. And, when you are operating from the present you have access to a powerful guidance tool that is your intuition. It can tell what shirt to wear today, it can tell you when it is time to take your winnings and leave or stop drinking.
It can steer you away from danger and help you notice opportunities.