Intuition, researchers have found, flourishes in a person who is open, receptive and nonjudgmental. It is a capacity we all possess. Recently I asked participants in a class I was teaching about their experience with intuition and nearly everyone had a story to share. In my experience, we can access intuitive information in various ways. Two include asking a specific question and inviting it to spontaneously flow into our awareness. Here is a story of my experience of the former.
It was a typical Saturday in March. After the full work week, chores and errands were the agenda of the day. I wondered from doing dishes, to sorting the mail that had accumulated throughout the week, to a few loads of laundry. I had done a few errands in the morning and mid day was heading out again, which prompted a ritual of brushing my teeth and putting on my ring. I could not find my ring. My memory kicked in. I remembered wearing it out for my morning errands, I would have taken it off when doing dishes after I returned. My usual habit of pants pockets for temporary keeping was unavailable in my yoga pants and it was not in my night stand, my other location for safe keeping. Hmmmm. I would look later.
When I returned, I looked again, carefully retracing my steps. The kitchen, the desk, the laundry room. My stress response was starting; I could feel myself becoming anxious; my heart beat increasing, that slight sweating on the palm of my hands, the clouding of my thoughts. I asked the other members of the household who were around, had they seen my ring? Possibly in the kitchen where I would have probably taken it off to do the dishes? No assistance.
All of my thinking and movement and asking did not produce a ring. What I knew for certain is it was somewhere in the house. It was time to tap into another way of knowing, my intuition, and intentionally activate my right brain. I sat down, shut my eyes and got very quiet in my mind and body and took a few deep breaths centering all of my attention in this present moment. Out of the stillness an image emerged. It was completely black. As I continued to breathe, I could shift my perspective in this darkness and expand my view. As I did, a bit of light came into my vision and I saw a pile of something. Still uncertain of the images I was seeing in my mind’s eye, I relaxed further and the screen expanded. It was the garbage can in the kitchen. I got up, dug through the layers of mail I had tossed earlier, and found my ring at the bottom.
With this new information, I retraced the steps of my day again and re-engaged my logical left brain ways of knowing. The pocket in my pants was unavailable, but I was wearing a jean shirt with a pocket in the top left corner where I placed my ring before starting the dishes. While sorting the mail (what can we do about the massive junk mail we get?? I do recycle most of it!) I had tossed it off the desk onto the hallway floor into a big pile, then scooped it up and put it in the garbage. The ring must have fallen out of my shirt pocket into the pile and landed in the garbage. I was filled with gratitude for asking for help, the assistance I received and the practical application of intuition. With just my five senses, I would not have found that ring.
Since that experience, initiated by utter despair and surrender, I continue to cultivate my intuition. Pictures in my mind’s eye, sounds, words, physical sensations in my body, thoughts, feelings, and even a sense of smell and taste may come as I turn my attention to my intuitive way of knowing. It has become more accessible and continues to be very practical in my work with clients and daily living. I smile as I recall my daughter calling from college to ask for assistance finding her access card which she needs for her meal plan and getting in and out of buildings. I suggest looking in a book, it seems she may have been using it for a book mark and it slipped down between the pages. She wandered around her apartment, telling me about her English class lecture and the outing the night before with her friends. I can hear the book pages fanning in the background, and eventually the access card drops out of one. She says thanks mom and continues sharing her story. I am grateful my children know intuition as an ordinary and reliable way of knowing.
Cultivating Intuition
Intuition, researchers have found, flourishes in a person who is open, receptive and nonjudgmental. It is a capacity we all possess. Recently I asked participants in a class I was teaching about their experience with intuition and nearly everyone had a story to share. In my experience, we can access intuitive information in various ways. Two include asking a specific question and inviting it to spontaneously flow into our awareness. Here is a story of my experience of the former.
It was a typical Saturday in March. After the full work week, chores and errands were the agenda of the day. I wondered from doing dishes, to sorting the mail that had accumulated throughout the week, to a few loads of laundry. I had done a few errands in the morning and mid day was heading out again, which prompted a ritual of brushing my teeth and putting on my ring. I could not find my ring. My memory kicked in. I remembered wearing it out for my morning errands, I would have taken it off when doing dishes after I returned. My usual habit of pants pockets for temporary keeping was unavailable in my yoga pants and it was not in my night stand, my other location for safe keeping. Hmmmm. I would look later.
When I returned, I looked again, carefully retracing my steps. The kitchen, the desk, the laundry room. My stress response was starting; I could feel myself becoming anxious; my heart beat increasing, that slight sweating on the palm of my hands, the clouding of my thoughts. I asked the other members of the household who were around, had they seen my ring? Possibly in the kitchen where I would have probably taken it off to do the dishes? No assistance.
All of my thinking and movement and asking did not produce a ring. What I knew for certain is it was somewhere in the house. It was time to tap into another way of knowing, my intuition, and intentionally activate my right brain. I sat down, shut my eyes and got very quiet in my mind and body and took a few deep breaths centering all of my attention in this present moment. Out of the stillness an image emerged. It was completely black. As I continued to breathe, I could shift my perspective in this darkness and expand my view. As I did, a bit of light came into my vision and I saw a pile of something. Still uncertain of the images I was seeing in my mind’s eye, I relaxed further and the screen expanded. It was the garbage can in the kitchen. I got up, dug through the layers of mail I had tossed earlier, and found my ring at the bottom.
With this new information, I retraced the steps of my day again and re-engaged my logical left brain ways of knowing. The pocket in my pants was unavailable, but I was wearing a jean shirt with a pocket in the top left corner where I placed my ring before starting the dishes. While sorting the mail (what can we do about the massive junk mail we get?? I do recycle most of it!) I had tossed it off the desk onto the hallway floor into a big pile, then scooped it up and put it in the garbage. The ring must have fallen out of my shirt pocket into the pile and landed in the garbage. I was filled with gratitude for asking for help, the assistance I received and the practical application of intuition. With just my five senses, I would not have found that ring.
Since that experience, initiated by utter despair and surrender, I continue to cultivate my intuition. Pictures in my mind’s eye, sounds, words, physical sensations in my body, thoughts, feelings, and even a sense of smell and taste may come as I turn my attention to my intuitive way of knowing. It has become more accessible and continues to be very practical in my work with clients and daily living. I smile as I recall my daughter calling from college to ask for assistance finding her access card which she needs for her meal plan and getting in and out of buildings. I suggest looking in a book, it seems she may have been using it for a book mark and it slipped down between the pages. She wandered around her apartment, telling me about her English class lecture and the outing the night before with her friends. I can hear the book pages fanning in the background, and eventually the access card drops out of one. She says thanks mom and continues sharing her story. I am grateful my children know intuition as an ordinary and reliable way of knowing.