Intuition

Intuition.  Admittedly for a very long time I was afraid of this word or concept.  Perhaps I was taught to not give it regard because it was considered “supernatural”.  Perhaps you are snickering because I am even admitting this truth.  I am doing so, though, because I think there are many who are still afraid of giving authority or respect in our inner beings to the role of our intuition.  For those of you who have always lived knowing, following, and trusting your intuition, this post might not be a post for you, but for others of you, who perhaps have had an experience like mine, you might find it thought-provoking.  Enough preface.

According to Wikipedia, intuition is derived from the Latin word, intueri, and is translated as “to look inside” or “to contemplate”.  Many know the term intuition as “to follow your gut”.  In the last several centuries, I think there has been a significant chasm between those who live and take for granted, following intuition, and those who have been cautioned away from “following your gut” to follow their obtained knowing, their intellect, or a particular dogma.  Research however, continues to bring validity to the fact that it is in our gut where the bed of our emotions lie.  It is in our gut where our knowing lies.  It is in our gut where our intellect is governed.  This concept is not new, but perhaps cautioned away from as a sense of control and/or fear in some cultures.  In our culture, for many of us, the development of intuition, is something that has to be “re-evolved”  – it is and has always been there, but it is a training or re-training to allow the freedom of knowing, and living in trust of that knowing.

You may remember in the past I have written about “the three questions” – What do I want?  What do I need?  What feels good for me?  Asking those questions invites us back to honoring our intuition and integrating our intuition with our intellect for the care of our soul.  These questions open the door to respecting our soul.  As we listen and follow these “knowings”, then we are able to have boundaries, invite in truths about ourselves, hear them/believe them, and at the same time, we invite others to respect us as we respect ourselves.   We really can’t have honor for others, if we don’t allow the honor for ourselves first.  If we don’t have honor for ourselves first, we don’t know how to truly honor others.  Honor to others then becomes a game of “What is in it for me?”  Subtly and subconsciously so often we ask, “How is helping, or being kind, or loving that person going to really help me?”  Let’s face it so many of us long for that “good job”, “at-a-girl/boy”, “you are wonderful”.  Please don’t hear me say these are wrong desires.  I think where we err though, out of fear of believing who we truly are, is in putting all of our hope eggs in the basket of how we think others or the world sees us.  Sometimes we get caught in the trap of thinking that our value comes from others’ beliefs about us and their interactions with us, setting ourselves up for hurt, shame, less power, less self-worth.  Ultimately then we end up trying to master our self-worth in our head, our intellect – “our self talk”.  We then try to “speak” into our value – make ourselves “feel good” at the same time we ambivalently tell ourselves we shouldn’t want to feel good.  In other words, our protectiveness of our defense mechanisms or ego states function in protection of our own fear – not being able to trust and believe who we truly are.

More thoughts to follow, but for now, I hope you continue to ask those questions of yourself, honor them, . . . and begin to invite your intuition into the equation called your life.

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• Intuition (kosmoactions.wordpress.com)
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• Intellect Will Not Solve Our Problems (teachingsofmasters.wordpress.com)