The wisdom of our intuition
A few days ago, I re-read Gary Zukav’s classic “Seat of the Soul.” It is one of those books, I gain new insights from every time I dive into it. It is nearly 30 years old and it remains amazingly current. There were three elements that most spoke to me this time: Seeking to interact with others without blame and judgment, finding our authentic power and trusting our intuition. The latter refers to operating more as a multi-sensory human being rather than a five-sensory personality, namely giving our intuition, instincts and hunches the space they deserve and trusting their wisdom and clarity. It is one of those concepts I have been in a love-hate relationship with for most of my life. While I have always been a spiritual person and very open to faith and less “tangible” guidance to orient ourselves, I have often had difficulty applying it to the big decisions in my own life. To be more precise, I have typically had a clear sense about what happens around me and what the “best” way forward for me would be under most circumstances. The challenge has always been to actually trust my intuition as a spot-on guide for next steps. Instead, I often rationalized my decisions, downplayed my doubts, looked for data outside my gut – basically, overriding my strong instincts. Often feeling, this is too big a decision to just base it on a "hunch."
When I was recently presented with another very complex and difficult growth opportunity, which was sadly connected to and an indirect outcome of a decision where I allowed my clear intuition to be overridden, I was thrown back into a very raw state where I had to make a choice and either learn from it or dig my head in the sand, simply feel sorry for myself and hope that it would never happen again. Obviously, I chose the former and I am very glad and grateful for that. It gave me the impetus to engage in another journey of self-discovery, meditation, and learning through reading and conversations with trusted, open-minded and introspective people. The crucial take-away was that I needed to own the degree to which I co-created this very painful situation by previously allowing fear to be my guide rather than what I already held as clarity deep inside me. By allowing to become disconnected from who I am at my core and what I truly needed to uphold my strength and integrity. I had to concede that judgment and blame would get me nowhere and that all the power for turning things around laid within me. Looking at myself as 'the victim' would have offered me only an illusionary way out and it would have ultimately kept me "(locked) in" much longer. Instead, I learned to acknowledge my pieces of the entanglement. How difficult it is to own such insights and how easily I can still relapse at times, most of us can probably relate to. Yet, by reminding myself every single day that operating from a place of love rather than a place of fear, a place of ownership rather than a mindset of blame and judgment is where the key lies to real growth and authentic power. That is what continuously helps me shift my awareness and move back into the driver seat of my actions.
When I first became a coach many years ago, such an experience would have shaken me to my core and I would have felt very inept to be an effective supporter of my clients and helping them resolve their challenges and struggles when I was going through a rough period myself. Today, I view such an experience as being part of a natural journey and, if anything, a blessing in my overall personal and professional development. Obviously, it allows me to have only more empathy for my clients and actually walk the talk of what I discuss in my coaching sessions on a regular basis. That is, owning our contributions--even if through a "lack of action"--to whatever happens in our life and to take charge for finding our way out when we experience misalignment between where we want to be and what our reality is. That seems to be the only approach that will allow us to use our energy towards a ‘healthier’ and ultimately happier future. Our intuition can play a key role in this, if we let it. It is predominantly a matter of accessing its wisdom and trusting that our greatest insights come less from external sources, but rather our internal guide system.
Applying a quote from Zukav’s book sums it up beautifully: “The multi-sensory personality honors intuition in a way the five-sensory personality does not. To the multi-sensory personality, intuitions are promptings from and links to a perspective of greater compassion and comprehension than its own ... intuitive insights are registrations within its consciousness of a loving guidance that is continually assisting and supporting its growth."
