5 Steps to intuitive living.
Purpose –
When we make decisions by thinking alone we limit ourselves to ideas based on information we already know. Intuition will guide us to make decisions with our heart but also to step into a ‘knowing’ that isn’t conscious. However this intuitive guidance system only works if there is purpose. So you couldn’t expect to be guided on simply thinking ‘what should I do with my life?’ The emerging desire behind the question might be ‘How can I lead a creative life?’, ‘How can my life be of the best use for others?’ ‘How can I have a happy fulfilled existence?’ Simply adding purpose to a day can also create more intuitive knowing throughout that day. Purpose could also be described as intention. Setting out what you want from a day, a week, or even a year gives your inner guidance system a purpose to work with. Use your imagination, step into wonder and create purpose from a space of being excited. See what unfolds.
Exercise: Write down the purpose for your day. At the end of the day reflect upon any intuitive guides, coincidences or events that enhanced your purpose.
Love –
Often when we look for intuitive knowing it’s because we are trying to avoid something going ‘wrong’. There are two major fears in life ‘losing what we have and not getting what we want. Many people seek intuitive information for controlling those two fears. What happens when we try and control life, we step into the left hemisphere of our brain. The left hemisphere is the action mind; it calculates and works on logic. When this part of the brain is active the intuitive mind in the right hemisphere of the brain, is receiving information you can’t hear, because the left hemisphere is busy in a state of concern or worry. If we take a moment to consider ‘what would love say to this’ we open the channels to be able to hear the intuitive knowing. Of course there are many ways in which we can ‘hear’. This may come as a feeling in the body. So when you pose the question ‘what would love say to this’ put your hand on your heart, so you have a better connection with your body. The more we love in a day, the more our intuition works. This could be feeling a sense of love about anything, from taking a moment to appreciate a flower to the first cup of coffee in the morning. Being present with a moment of love, appreciation, or gratitude heightens intuitive awareness.
Exercise: Take a quiet moment to ponder over something that may have been troubling you this week. Place your hand on your heart and ask ‘what would love say to this’. Note any changes in your body, any pictures you may see in your mind or any emotions that have changed. Sometimes it takes a while for the information to drop into a quite space so you can hear the intuition clearly. Try this exercise just before going to sleep. You might find the answer comes then, or in the morning.
A still mind –
Slow down! The fear of losing what we have or/and not getting what we want can lead the mind to think quickly and often in circles about our situation. You will have heard of the term ‘sleep on it’, sleeping on it works because when you stop thinking you allow the intuition to emerge and the answer becomes obvious. Taking up meditation, walking, dancing or simply two minutes out of your day to be still and quite the mind can save you hours of chasing your tail with unproductive thoughts.
Exercise: Take at least two minutes of silence everyday for a week and see how your life starts to flow more easily.
Body awareness –
The body is more than a tool by which we move through life. You are your body and your body is you. You are a biochemical electromagnetic energy system. In fact you are a system of systems working together. All these systems are interdependent upon one another and can affect one another greatly. You are probably familiar with the physical body and the various systems which are contained within it, but you also have subtler bodies which exist in the same space as the physical body, but at different levels of vibration. These energy bodies cannot be seen because they are composed of energy vibrating at frequencies outside of our normal range of perception. It is a higher, more refined vibration. But although the energy cannot ordinarily be seen, it can be felt, and we can also feel intuitive knowing through this energy system. Taking time to notice when we don’t feel ‘quite like ourselves’ can be an indicator of intuitive wisdom coming though the energy system of the body.
There are four main ways in which we receive intuitive information via the body:
Emotional intuitive who feel things empathically; they pick up other people’s emotions and sometimes find it hard not to make choices for other people rather than themselves. For example an emotional intuitive will know something is wrong and then the phone rings.
Physical intuitive feels intuition somatically. There body is a receiver of information; they learn to know what all the subtitle sensations mean in the body and can act upon them. For example a physical intuitive will be walking towards the phone before it rings without thinking.
Mental intuitive has downloads of intuitive information into the right hemisphere of the mind and can almost express it without finding the words first. For example a mental intuitive will pick up the phone to answer it before it rings and know the caller is Anna.
Spiritual intuitive is connected to a collective consciousness. Has sensitive awareness of the energy system around the body. Can’t always put the knowing into words, but if you’re in the desert in need of water this is the person to follow. For example has picked up the phone and is calling Anna.
A person can have one or more of these skills, however many of us are so used to ‘thinking’ there is a energy disconnection from the body. We spend so much time in our thoughts that it is as if the body isn’t there and we only pay it attention if it hurts or breaks down. Being more aware of our whole physical self means we can tell when the body is receiving intuitive guidance.
Exercise with a partner: Try sitting in a chair and feel your own energy whilst you are on that chair, feel what you feel like in your body and around it.
Then sit in your partners else’s chair. See if you feel any different. Is there any information you get about this person? Any aches and pains you didn’t have before? How tall do you feel? What’s your body size? Do you see any images in your mind’s eye? Take note of anything that feels different and report his to your partner.
It helps if you do this with someone who will give you honest feedback about your impressions.
Curiosity
Many people take the route of using tools such as Tarot cards to access the intuitive mind. The image on the Tarot card opens the right hemisphere of the brain. Regardless of what the card means by the definition in the guide book, people relate to the character archetypes on the cards and downloads of intuitive knowing can be accessed. These cards are just a tool to open a talent that you already have. The world when you look at it with curiosity is one big Tarot card. From the way you look at advertising billboards, over hearing someone’s loud phone conversation, to patterns in the clouds, when you look at the world with curious eyes everything can have a strange sense of coincidence about it. It changes the world from being a place you exist in, to a place that exists within you. Often everything you see becomes more colourful and vibrant, like you stepped into a cartoon. When you look at the world through curious eyes you are able to be in unison with what really matters. You meet people who can aid you in your purpose, you find short cuts you didn’t know excited and you feel part of everything. Simply put, life becomes less of a struggle and more of an intuitive flow in the right direction.
Exercise: Find a photographic image any will do and think of a situation you would like intuitive guidance on. Rather than asking a verbal question or even a question in your head, send out the feeling of curiosity as you look at the image. Allow information to come. Then become curious about that information, this expands and gives clarity on what you have already become aware of. The trick is to expand again, so we become curious as to what this information is. Again the information expands, and with each level of curiosity we find ourselves feeling more love. As love is a vital component of curiosity, we find that both the love and the curiosity expands. As it does so the purpose behind the seeking also expands. The energy of curiosity, love and purpose feeds the intuition and the information becomes clearer.
You can start the process with a question about your life, situation or a person. If you start with a question, make it as non verbal as you can. See it in pictures in your mind, feel the emotions behind the question. Use any of the five senses you can around this question or inquiry and become curious about the answer.
Copyrights Becky Walsh 2011