Intuition Blog

In these complex times of swift change in all areas of life, how do we know what to do? How do we make smart choices and navigate our lives wisely amidst so much uncertainty? I suggest that given all these unknowns, intuition has become our most valued human skill. Tapping this mysterious resource is now paramount for managing our personal and professional lives.

In this blog, we will explore intuition… what it is, where it’s useful, how we can cultivate and apply it. As a student of intuition, professional intuitive consultant and trainer, and author of Intuition@Work and Voyager Intuition Cards, I seek to give you insights, inspiration and instruction.

I am most interested in intuition for a variety of possibilities in diverse aspects of our lives. These include decision-making and strategizing in the workplace and in the home; Intuition as the source of creativity and innovation; Intuition for the process of manifesting the future, for realizing our everyday goals and ultimate visions; Intuition for communicating, relating, partnering, and collaborating; Intuition as a way of life that is energizing and renewing; And intuitive living as a way of being that evolves human consciousness.

“Intuition is the new physics. It’s an Einsteinian, seventh-sense, practical way to make tough decisions. The crazier the times are, the more important it is for leaders to develop and trust their intuition.”
- Tom Peters, in Fast Company, March 2001

Now that we can communicate faster from New York to London via fiber optics than from our brain to the tip of our fingers, how do we keep up? We have some 170 interactions with others every day, so how do we maintain effective communication with all our partnerships and relationships? How do we know anything for sure now that life has become dauntingly complex and uncertain?

At this dawning of an extraordinary evolution in the quality of life through advances in science and technology, we as a species are challenged by our traditional way of managing life. While we have achieved unparalleled prosperity, we are working harder more than ever before.

The result is often stress, anxiety, burnout, depression, addiction and disease. In short, we humans are under assault as our physical, emotional and mental resources are becoming strained to capacity.

A new human technology must emerge if we are to thrive with the promise of the life we all desire. To match the social, economic and technological forces of change, solutions must come from within ourselves. To paraphrase what Albert Einstein once said, we cannot solve problems by the same ways and thinking that we got into them.

By consciously following our intuition – that knowing feeling – a heretofore undervalued and underused innate human genius, we have a natural human resource for energizing and navigating our lives. Through intuition, we have a tool for becoming more efficient and effective, intelligent and joyous – a way for surviving and thriving.

Our premonitions are often realized, but in a different way than anticipated. I was driving down the highway last night and had a strong intuitive feeling to be very careful driving. I pictured a deer suddenly jumping out on the road in front of me. Within half minute of that feeling, I was forced to swerve my car. There was a large dog on the road. Indeed, the dog was not a deer, and the dog was already dead.

Was my intuition wrong? Absolutely not. I got the message. The right message was simply to take care. This is how intuition often works. We get the important essential information. As for the specificity of the physical way and form in which the intuition manifests, well that’s the mystery.

The lesson of this story is to trust and act on your intuition, and don’t expect it to be exactly like you visualize it.

I used to be a runner, my way of staying fit and cardio strong. After so many 10k races, trail runs and marathon, my knees cannot take the pounding anymore. Looking for another kind of aerobic workout, I have finally found the perfect “soft impact” way… get in the water. Fortunately, I have a pool. It’s round, so instead of laps, I do rounds, but mostly, I do all sorts of fun ways of moving in the water.

So, what’s the point?

Intuitive living is like going with the flow of your feelings. In a way, it’s like “easy does it.” This flies in the face of the traditional “work ethic” of work hard and succeed – pound the concrete and get my 10K runs faster. That works until it breaks you down and you can’t work.

The intuitive way is akin to the venerable Taoist philosophy of following the course of “least resistance.” Go with the flow. Be like the water…. open, soft, fluid, changeable, in constant motion and yet sometimes seemingly still.

Without resistance, however, there is no challenge, no strengthening, no growth… atrophy ensues. So, too “easy” does not do it, nor does “no pain, no gain.”

Intuition is the middle course, a way of balance that integrates effort and ease. Seek a way of living and way of making decisions that is effortless and effortful. Surrender AND stretch. Let go AND push.

Ask yourself, is your life a swimming pool of possibilities where you float easily AND swim vigorously? Are you in the flow of your own current AND in the mainstream?

The next time you have a choice and decision to make, follow the intuitive swimming pool way of going with the passion of motion through emotion AND the practicality of doing the required work.

THE LESSON…BE TRUE TO THE MOST IMPORTANT WORD… and.

Yesterday, I heard a special concert by the legendary singer, Joan Baez, at the Esalen Institute Labor Day Party. The weather was better than grand as we sat on the edge of the pacific and listened to her poignant song, and reveled in her beauty.

And she occasionally forgot the words to some of her older works. Now that made me feel good about myself, having also often lost where I was in making many a presentation.

The good news about forgetting is that we are then forced to be spontaneous – the key to intuitive creativity and genius. Joan was absolutely “ad lib” brilliant. Our intuition flourishes in making it up in the moment.

Ad libitum means “at one’s pleasure” and to be free to do so. That’s intuition – an emotional impulse that feels good and right and that comes without restriction from the past and the future. Improvisation in the moment…intuition at work.

As the genius of nature would have it, everything and every state has a use. So, forgetting is a resource and an opportunity. And instead of getting down on yourself and sorry for your poor memory, realize it’s nature’s way of saying create, which is more important than remembering old words and old facts. Joan never apologized for not remembering. She shined even more with her impromptu, extemporaneous (intuitive) songs, stories, and words.

The less we remember, the more we create.

Recent studies have confirmed what many of us have already suspected… the person who knows best about your state of health is YOU.

In the October 2006 edition of Psychology Today (in reference to a study in Medical Care magazine), it confirms that “how you rate your health predicts disease and longevity more accurately than even the most thorough medical records.” Wow.

It is also true that people “intuitively concentrate on the health considerations most salient to them… another possible reason their responses (their judgment of their health) are so predictive.”

The study concludes, “To stay healthy, use intuition to guide your behavior.”

In the Psychology Today magazine (www.psychologytoday.com) October issue, there is a Quiz that helps you assess your heath. Remember, it is now believed by some that how you feel about your health is a better predictor than a doctor and medical tests. Check yourself out to get a better understanding of your future health.

The doctor is IN.

Again, referring to the studies in the October Psychology Today magazine article, “The Doctor Within,” people are more likely to make changes in their physical regime if the motivation behind them is “intrinsic.” When we trust our intuition, we are far more inspired to follow it than if we are told the very same thing by an outside authority.

That’s why as a counselor and consultant I strive to have the client see the truth and solutions. All of this flies in the face of the age-long tradition of believing in another person’s reading and diagnosis about ourselves. How can anyone else know ourselves as much as we do?

Indeed, our own intuition is more accurate, and if trusted, a great catalyst in our lives. Of course, this takes self-honesty, self-awareness, and self-belief… not always so easy.

It is commonly believed that women are more intuitive or, at least, more aware of their intuition than men. In the Psychology Today article about the importance of following our intuition for better health, the study indicates that, “There’s evidence that men’s health ratings predict health slightly better than women’s do. Women tend to incorporate their current mood into their appraisals, and moods shift much more quickly than health.” Interesting, but true?

And I wonder if intuition is skewed by mood? Isn’t there a connection between feelings (moods) and intuition? Isn’t it because women have moods that perhaps they are more aware of feelings and thus more intuitive? Is it really true that women are, in fact, more moody than men? What about moods and intuition? Inquiring minds want to know.

Yes, moods are feelings and feelings are intuitions; and yes, both women and men have them.

And yes, moods can distort our “true” intuitions. What is a true intuition and how to move through just a mood swing to the truth? Practice what I call, “wait a minute,” which means to take time out to check in – to feel what your true feelings are beyond just a passing fancy. “Wait a minute” requires sitting quietly and balanced on your big sit bones on your butt, and scan the body for sensations that tell you whether your initial intuition was true or not.

This intuitive practice can be extended to waiting an hour before sitting and sensing; or like the Native-Americans, waiting three days before reviewing the first feeling. The key is to wait and feel.

Intuition is not an emotional reaction so much as a balanced response. Intuition is a measured reflection, a kind of meditative, conscious inward look.

And look inward to your the body for answers. The body does not lie. Let your body speak. You can trust the body more than your mind. The mental mind can imagine anything to be true, whereas, the body knows.