Tag: intuition

The Whisper

“Stay close to anything that makes you feel glad to be alive.” – Hafiz

Before I start with the theme that I am going with on the blog today, I overheard something on a podcast that made me spend some time pondering. The question announced was, “Are you getting older or are you growing older?” Being in the middle of one of those birthday clumps in my own family and also in my extended family, it has become quite apparent to me lately, that we are all getting older. There is no choice in that, but growing older sounds so much more progressive in a healthy way. Growing older puts me in mind of a stately old tree that has weathered many storms and yet still reaches for the sky with young, earnest branches, even with its roots running deep and spread far out. Getting older sounds so much more passive and resigned, like a frumpy old piece of furniture, decaying just by sitting there and doing nothing.

But enough of that . . . . Today I have a few new exhibits for our thought museum here at Adulting – Second Half. Most of these exhibits belong in the same room. They center around the idea of “intuition.” Intuition is less, “What do you think about this?” and more, “What do you feel about this?” Here are the exhibits:

+ “Intuition is the sum of all of the times you’ve ever trusted yourself.” The paradox of this is, the more that you trust yourself, the stronger your intuition.

+ “Your path is more well-lighted than you have been allowing yourself to realize.” – Esther Hicks

+ “Having a fear of things going wrong is totally normal, but it’s not the same as having intuition or information that things will go wrong.” – Jessica Lanyandoo So, in other words, do not confuse fear for intuition. Intuition is generally calmer, quieter, clearer, less mutable and more confident than fear.

+ “Prayer is not asking. It is the longing of the soul. . . . It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” – Mahatma Ghandi

+ “There is a close relationship between truth and trust.” – Mister Rogers

+ “Honesty: When your outer expression matches your inner belief. Truth: When your inner belief matches reality.” – Alan Cohen

+ “Are you listening to yourself or are you listening to the story you told yourself?”

Think of all of the times in your life, when you “just knew.” You didn’t always follow that “just knowing”, but the times that you did follow it, even when it was hard, even when it went against logic or others’ opinions, you were so happy that you listened to yourself. Then there are the times which we all can recall, when we didn’t follow our intuition, and it lead us to some regret. But the beautiful thing is, our intuition never gives up on us. It never gets snide and stubborn, angrily folding its arms, blasting us with, “You never listen to me! So forget it. I’ll never help you again.” Our intuition is always there, with its calm, sweet, all-knowing, quiet, wise demeanor inside of us, like a well-spring, or a candlelight that never gets extinguished, always ready to help lead us, even when we ignored it 14 times in a row. Our intuition will happily lead us to the next right step again and again and again, without admonishing us for disregarding it. What a lovely, unconditional gift implanted inside each one of us! Have you checked in with your intuition today?

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Normalize

“Normalize seeing your intuition as divine protection, mismatched vibrations as divine separation, rejection as divine redirection, sudden inner knowing as divine intervention, and walking on eggshells as a divine sign to walk away. Always trust in the perfection of divine timing.” – Inner Practitioner, X

Our middle son is in our home city this month, working out of a local hospital, as he finishes up medical school. We decided on going out to brunch this morning, after his dad was done biking, our son was done washing his car and I was done writing. So, they must be hungry men. I’m the one holding the show up. I hope that you are having a great weekend friends. See you tomorrow!

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

25. Who are your favorite writers?

Sixth Sense

I happened upon an interesting podcast the other day, in which a self-proclaimed psychic medium was being interviewed. The psychic insisted that all of us have psychic abilities, i.e. “the sixth sense.” Our intuitions are a part of all of us. The psychic said that the reason why most of us don’t trust our “gut feelings” is not that the feelings/sensations are ever wrong, but it is our interpretation of the sensations that often prove to be wrong, thus causing us to mistrust our hunches and instincts, when they show up again. The body knows something is up, but our egoic, know-it-all minds and imaginations quickly take over and create, ever-growing narratives and stories about what our intuitions are trying to tell us.

Those of us who call ourselves creatives (artists, writers, actors, poets etc.) are often considered to be sensitive people. Being called “sensitive” unfortunately has taken on a negative connotation in society. It implies, weakness or softness, or touchiness, but nothing could be further from the truth. Sensitive people are just deeply attuned to the energy and feelings within themselves, and all of the energy and emotions surrounding them. It’s easy for sensitive people to get overwhelmed in crowds and highly emotional situations because they feel everything fully and profoundly. Their perceptions of even the slightest changes in mood or atmosphere are noticed immediately and felt deeply and acutely. Sensitive people are actually quite strong. They live vividly. A wise person once told me that there is no such thing as being “too sensitive”. You are as sensitive as you are made up to be. Being extra sensitive can make life a little harder, especially during sad or difficult times, but on the flip side of the coin, sensitive people experience beauty and love and elation and awe at higher levels than most do.

The psychic who was being interviewed on the podcast I listened to, insisted that most of us are more sensitive than we own up to being because of society’s conditioning that “sensitive = bad.” Being sensitive is nothing more than being highly attuned to every element of life. If you shut your sensitivity down too much, you miss out on so much awe and depth and seeing past the surface of things. Some would argue if you shut down your sensitivity and intuition too much, you could even miss signals that could save your life. Dulling the senses, always means dulling every sensation, even the positive ones.

So how do you learn how to trust your own intuition and sixth sense? Listen to your gut feelings. Listen to those hyper-aware sensations you get such as your hair standing up on your neck. Notice dreams that are particularly compelling and memorable. Be aware of things outside of yourself that seem to be signaling to be noticed by you. Don’t immediately start a dramatic, narrative story about why you are feeling that particular sensation, but don’t discount the feeling or sensation either. When you just notice that your intuition is signaling you, take a deep breath, so that you can best hear your own intuition’s calm, quiet, wise, all-knowing voice, which will lead you to the next best step for you to take. Save the stories about what your intuition is telling you, for later. Live in the sensations and the fullness of now.

Fun tip: The psychic suggested that the next time you have a strong hunch about something, write it down and mail it to yourself (or you can even send yourself an email). So when your hunch proves to be the truth, you have time-stamped proof of the validity of your own intuition’s capabilities. It will help your analytical mind to become less negating of your intuition over time.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Sentience

“A person who leaves when they are angry, often returns. A person who leaves when they are calm, rarely returns.” – Wise Connector, Twitter

“The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.” – Elie Wiesel

Love and hate are often passionate and fueled with emotion. Many unhealthy relationships (romantic and otherwise) exist on the yo-yo spectrum of love and hate, because the parties involved are in love with the drama, and the excitement, and they are individually fueled by the passion and the spectacle of the relationship, not necessarily with each other. This yo-yo string keeps them connected, and the back and forth cycle continues ad nauseum, until someone finally burns out and the string is irretrievably broken.

Any time in my life that I came to a conclusion about leaving a place, a job, a relationship, a situation, a habit, etc. it always came with a quiet, calm, sincere fullness of knowing. The last drop fell into my already overflowing pitcher, and there was no more room left for me and my energy, to stay in an untenable situation. It is in these moments in my life when I fully came to understand what my own intuition really and truly feels like. The comfort of the wisdom of our intuition is other-worldly. Intuition doesn’t arrive with an highly detailed plan book and a guaranteed crystal ball prediction of the future. Instead, intuition comes with an assurance like you have never felt before. It assures you that all that you have to do is take the next right step, and you will be lead. Intuition is not necessarily fearless, but it is reassuringly affirming that you are more than able to rise above the fear and do what you must do. Intuition comes to us with an urgency that is not excitable, but is intense and persistent. Intuition is our best leader, but your intuition won’t force you to follow it. Intuition is much like love – patient, kind, understanding . . . . Perhaps our own intuition, is the best form of self-love which we can ever know. Substitute “intuition” for “love”, in the ever comforting love verses in the Bible. It makes complete sense. Love is an action. Following your intuition is the act of loving yourself.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

MP

I am in the middle of reading The Listening Path. Julia Cameron, the author of The Artist’s Way, reiterates her insistence, in her latest book, that the quickest path to yourself, and to your creativity, is in writing “Morning Pages.” Writing Morning Pages is the practice of writing three pages, in your own handwriting, a stream of consciousness, before you even get out of bed, every single morning. I think that I tried this once, decades ago, and I only lasted a few days. Back then I had a house full of young children, who all had the uncanny ability to hear the hinges of my eyelids open, every morning, and to bound into my room, ready to start their/our day. I have restarted the process of writing Morning Pages. I have three days in, so far, and I am hoping to make it last. Cameron calls writing the Morning Pages part of your “Believing Mirrors” because they can get you in touch with your deepest dreams, and they can help you to believe that you can attain these dreams. She says that writing the Morning Pages (which are for your eyes only) helps to heighten your intuition, and writing them helps you to hone in your attention, as to what really matters to you.

“Morning Pages are simple but dramatic. They turn us into who we want to be. What could be better than that?” – Julia Cameron

Are you passing on love, or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.