Posts Tagged by intuition

I attended a seminar this weekend where two people upon finding out about my profession asked me to scan their energy. The first person’s scan revealed the common combination of beautiful energy mixed with some congested areas. We chatted about what he was doing right to help his energy flow well and what he could add to his routine. When the second gentleman joined the conversation and asked for a scan, I obliged and immediately began clearing some of the heavier congestion in his heart chakra. When I finished and told him what I had done, he thanked me graciously and the conversation continued. It seemed from the look on the first man’s face that he was wondering why I cleared the second guy and not him. The answer? The first man was not at any risk. He practices yoga, is young and strong, and is of a mindset that will lead him towards constant improvement in his life. And I wasn’t going to say right in front of the second gentleman – this guy is at risk. Not, hey! Let’s head to the emergency room risk. But that part of me that makes me good at this work knew that he needed my help and this was the right time to take care of it. So I did. Intuition is that simple when you get used to following it.

Today, logic is taking the upper hand and I’m reasoning through those events and other related things that come up regularly. The primary issue that comes up amazingly often is that some people think that I should do all healing work for free. A client recently described to me how one of her co-workers was outraged that she was paying me $10 for a healing session saying I should do it out of the goodness of my heart. Did you do a double take just then? Ten bucks isn’t very much to a lot of people yet this woman was ranting about the hugely discounted rate I had given my client.

I met a nurse at the same seminar that cares for patients dying of cancer in their home. Does anyone expect her to work for free? I can guarantee you that she has a loving and gentle heart – a must for a great nurse. Should she work for free because she cares enough about people to help them? Would she have time to help people in the same way if she had to earn her income in another way?

These thoughts lead me to think of my own choices. Healing has never been my only source of income. And although I could do much good in the world if I weren’t working on other projects, most people simply cannot afford to pay me what I’m worth as a healer.

In many of my workshops I share this example from my own life. I learned to do energy healing because I needed to heal. I spent 5-10 hours a day working on myself the first year. Most of the healers I know of charge anywhere from $60 to $400 an hour. Five hours times 365 days at, let’s say, a low average of $80 an hour is over $140,000 for that first year.

Could you afford that? Can people who are truly ill and can’t even get to work to make money afford that? That’s why I teach self-healing workshops. That’s why I have multiple sources of income – so I can afford to charge some people only $10. Other people know they can afford more, so they pay more. Some people even pay my full rate!

But I still feel the dilemma in my heart. Just how much better would the world be if I could spend all my time healing? For now I compromise, I work on my other sources of income, teach people how to do as much themselves as they can, and most importantly to me – I practice. I practice and learn constantly with the thought in mind that if it took me 10 minutes instead of 20 I could heal twice as much or twice as many people.

As always your thoughts and feelings on the subject are welcome. I can assure you my clients who don’t leave comments have expressed how much they enjoy the insight of readers who do.

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We all reach a crossroads, usually many times, in our lives. Decisions have to be made, directions have to be chosen. We all have our favorite method whether it’s logic, intuition or heart based.

My experience with logic is that it’s great if you have all the facts, lousy when you don’t, and even worse when you think you do but you don’t. Intuition is priceless when you don’t have all the facts. It fills in the gaps where your knowledge is lacking and helps you make a better “educated guess.”

Where does the heart come in? Heart based decisions happen when you have an emotional stake in the outcome, and not always, but usually stem from fear. Fear, often called by some of its other names (worry, stress, anxiety, shyness) is so common in our lives we often don’t recognize it for what it is.

What about decisions stemming from love? Hmm…that’s a tough one. Too many times I’ve seen “love” act to cover another emotion like. Control and insecurity are the two most common reasons.

One example: You love your children and don’t want them to get hurt so you make a decision that seems based on love but it’s really based on controlling the situation and your feelings of insecurity that they won’t make the right decision themselves. I’m not saying stop parenting and leave your children to flounder through life on their own. But stop and consider with thoughts like these: At this age, how much of this decision can my children participate in? Will my child experience more personal growth from my help or am I hindering their personal growth? Sometimes we have to step in and take action to protect our children – that’s part of our job as a parent. But often we can find ways to help them grow if we let them share in the process.

Another example: You love your job and you love the people you work with – hey, it does happen! – but you’ve been offered a different opportunity. Your “heart” seems to be telling you to stay, but you’d better check to make sure it’s not your insecurity clinging to the known factors of your current job before you turn down the offer.

So should you listen to your heart in making decisions?

That’s one of those “Yes, but…” kind of answers. Yes you should, but…take the time to figure out what your heart is trying to tell you. When you listen to your heart, you’re open to discovering some of your biggest opportunities for personal growth and awareness.

Let’s look at some possible results from the examples above.

You become aware that you haven’t trained your children to make their own age-appropriate decisions and take steps to improve your parenting skills. You and your children both benefit. Or you bring your child into the decision making process and discover that they’re wiser than you thought.

For that opportunity that was offered? You might sit down to evaluate the situation your current job and discover you’ve been trading growth for comfort and have become stagnant. You can then make a decision about taking the current offer or finding ways within your current job to grow and develop your skills. Either way, your heart has helped open your eyes.

Wrapping up: Remember that even though you have a favorite decision making method, don’t neglect the others. Take advantage of logic, intuition and your heart in making your decisions and you’ll get results that take you where you want to go faster and on a path that is designed just for you.

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Last week in a workshop on intuition someone asked, “How can you speak with such confidence on these things?” His voice carried just a touch of frustration, and it was clear from his many questions that using intuition the way I teach it was a newer concept for him.

My first response was to thank him for the compliment. After all, it is a HUGE compliment to be recognized as having great confidence in yourself and what you’re talking about. But understanding that he had little prior experience with the concept as well as no knowledge of my life or business, I told the class about my first memory of using intuition.

Here’s my story

When I was in elementary school, I said something to my dad. I don’t even remember what it was, but he looked at me with unusual focus and asked, “How did you know that?” All I could do was shrug my shoulders. He pointed his finger at me and said, “That’s your women’s intuition.” I nodded my head – my usual response meaning lesson learned – and my dad turned to other things.

That simple and brief interchange was one of the most significant things of my life. As a child I remember logging intuition away as 1) a fact and 2) something I was capable of. From that day forward, I never doubted that my intuition was real or that I was competent with it – hey, Daddy said so! That makes it real to any kid. But then over time, experience proved my dad right.

The other important part of that moment with my dad was that he caught me in “act” of intuition. How I felt – what intuition feels like – was brought to my attention with such force that I never again had to wonder whether a feeling was my intuition or not. I knew. I recognized it instantly and flawlessly whenever it showed up after that.

Over the years – okay I’ll admit it – over the decades, I’ve come to wonder just how different my life would have been without that precious gift of recognition from my dad.

(I can’t go on without mentioning that men have just as much intuition as women. We just call it by more manly terms – a gut feeling, good instincts…)

Building confidence has followed pretty much the same pattern for everything in my life. Recognition of something I can do (by someone else or my through own insight) followed by practice and experience.

How does confidence look from your perspective? How do you gain confidence in general – especially with a new skill? Please share your thoughts.

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Today’s post was inspired by Lori Roberston’s How To Find Happiness Within Yourself. Lori points out that happiness starts with recognizing the things you can “appreciate and be grateful for” that are already inside of you. At the end of the post, she asks for comments on what her readers do to “keep yourself in a state of happiness and close to the true YOU!” I knew my answer without having to think.

It’s my Gratitude Journal

A few years back, I decided I spent too much time asking and not enough time expressing gratitude. So what did I do? I asked again – but this time for help thinking of a way to be more consciously grateful.

The first thing that came to me was to say thank you when I ask. This sets in motion the assumption that you’ll receive what you’ve asked for. Whether you operate off of the Law of Attraction or the Principles of Faith, it works the same way. And it’s just plain old polite to say thank you.

The second idea was to record the things I asked for, so I started a Gratitude Journal. I log the things I ask for along with the date and regularly go back over them and check off the requests that have been fulfilled.

Not too long after starting the Gratitude Journal, I realized what a priceless treasure it is. The happiness that Lori talks about in her post simply became a part of my everyday thinking. How could it not – now that I had a written record of all the wonderful things that were happening to me just for the asking. Personal goals, things I wanted to improve about myself, good things for my children…

The Journal also helped me to see just how often I asked for something and then forgot about it. Here’s an example.

When my youngest was about 7 or 8, we had some troublemaker kids in the neighborhood. Three brothers. They threw rocks and sticks, constantly tried to pick fights and generally made it hard for the other kids to have any fun or even go outside without expecting an injury. Talking to the boys about playing nicely didn’t work. Talking to their parents didn’t help either. One day after months of everyone’s suffering, my son ran in the house. “Hey, Mom,” he shouted, “You know those kids who throw rocks. They moved!”

“That’s nice,” I said, trying not to sound too ecstatic that the rotten, little cretins were gone. But after my son ran back out to play, that little intuitive nudge hit me. Hadn’t I asked for that? I checked my Gratitude Journal and sure enough there it was in black and white – Please let the mean kids move away.

I can tell you I spent days expressing my gratitude for that one!

Try a Gratitude Journal of your own. And please – leave your thoughts in a comment below. I’d love to keep the inspiration that Lori started going round and round. That way we never run out and can help each other remember where our true happiness lies.

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In a recent class on self healing, I told my students that I was offering private lessons for $10 during the month of April. My intuition had been prompting me to give a huge discount for a week or so prior to the class. And I always follow my intuition…even if it seems crazy.

Maybe you’re thinking – “$10!!!! That’s barely above minimum wage!!” After all – why would I accept only $10 when I usually earn either $80 or $90 for the same amount of time. The answer – intuition.

Naturally the response was very positive which made me very happy. Then my mind wandered off arm in arm with my intuition, and they got to talking. By the time they came back, they had agreed to offer this reduced price for a longer time than I originally planned with a number of time slots set aside for a range of prices $90, $50, $30 and $10 with a waiting list as each one fills up.

Here are some responses I got from friends and family on this.

Why would you do that!?!
What if people can afford more but only pay you the $10.
I recently raised my rates!

But when something feels right to me, I ignore everyone and do it anyway.

So why would my intuition lead me in this ‘crazy’ direction?

hmmm…I find myself thinking about someone that I’ll be able to help in a few months…that wouldn’t be able to get this kind of help otherwise…or maybe they’d never hear about it if one of their friends didn’t grab the $10 rate and then tell them about it…

Who knows. But when I feel these kinds of thoughts about something or someone headed by way, it’s always happens. And has brought me to some wonderful surprises and a great deal of contentment in my heart.

Besides – it won’t be forever – just until I find that person.

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Last Thursday I was getting things together to fly to Portland when my intuition nudged me to take the over-sized purse I use for my laptop. No reason as to why came with that nudge. I wasn’t taking a computer, but I dutifully put the bag with everything else. The next morning, I felt just a bit of irritation at having an empty bag to take with me, so I shoved my regular purse inside and headed to the airport.

I spent the weekend helping my daughter pack for her move to Maui. Friends helped move all the furniture and replaceable things she was giving away. Saturday evening just before closing time, we rushed to FedEx and shipped four boxes of personal things that weren’t going to fit in her suitcases. That left Sunday for cleaning and taking a few boxes to a friend’s house for storage. Late that afternoon, my daughter sat on the hardwood floor of her empty apartment organizing her bags for the flight when she realized the purse she’d chosen wasn’t big enough for her laptop – and the only one that was big enough was already on its way to Hawaii via FedEx.

Tears of frustration after a long, exhausting weekend were welling up in her eyes. My intuition had been right again. And the solution had been provided before we even knew what the problem was going to be. She took my bag – and it made me feel like I did when a kiss and a Band-Aid solved all her problems.

The really cool thing is now I feel open to buy a new bag for my computer – something I’ve been wanting to do but kept putting off as non-essential. And my intuition is telling me that’s a very good idea. Although once again, I don’t know why.

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Ben Underwood, a blind teenager, does amazingly normal things like play video games, skating and walking down the sidewalk unaided. He’s mastered the skill of echo location using a clicker to give him feedback on his surroundings. We’ve all heard of stories like this where a person loses one sense and learns to develop and rely on another to take its place. Sixth senses are the ones that, as a culture, we’ve lost the use of. They’ve been blocked off or ignored by so many people for so long we’ve almost forgotten that they are our birthright as human beings. Fortunately, learning how to nurture your sixth senses does not require that you lose one of your other senses.

Sixth sense benefits are too great to ignore in our super-charged, rush-around, get-it-all-done lives. With too many demands on our time, we have to decide which tasks and activities will benefit ourselves, our families and our businesses the most. There is just no way to take advantage of all of life’s options. How would you like to know how to be able to look at those options and know which was right? Just know. If you’re doing that you’re using the one sixth sense that everyone has – intuition.

The benefits of listening to your intuition become clear as you get used to it. You begin to trust your judgment, and although you will want feedback from other people involved with your decisions, you’ll grow more certain of your choices as you become more skilled at allowing your intuition to guide you. You begin to feel like you’re in the flow of life instead of battling upstream. Small intuitive decisions open the way for big things to fall into place more easily.

Try these three tips to help nurture your sixth senses including your intuition.

1 Acknowledge that you have at least one sixth sense, your intuition. I promise –everyone has this one. Think about it – ever had a gut feeling about something. Ever had the phone ring and you knew who it was before you looked at your caller ID. Ever felt a sudden impulse to call someone, check on the kids, take a different route home. Trust me – you have intuition. If you can’t remember one single event that indicates your intuition, let me know. I can tell you what’s blocking it.

2 Spend time in quiet contemplation. Notice I didn’t say meditation. It doesn’t take hours and hours of meditation develop sixth senses and – surprising as it may be, not all meditations help you with it. Different meditations for different purposes. Try this – Take a few minutes each morning (5-10 is plenty) to clear your head and listen. Here’s where temporarily suspending your other senses can help: close your eyes, block out noise with a fan or white sound recording, do not try this while someone is baking cookies downstairs. Breathe deeply while you let your normal thoughts and worries float around and away. You might see images, have new thoughts rise to the surface or simply feel more at peace for those few moments.

3 Don’t try to force intuition. It doesn’t work that way. It can and will sometimes shout at you in emergency situations, but it does its best work in quiet moments. Simply set your intent (a bit stronger than deciding or hoping) to find the answer to a particular problem. Sit quietly for a few moments while holding thoughts of that problem in your mind with as little emotion attached as possible. Then, and this is really important, allow a feeling of gratitude to flow through you for the future answer you will receive. And the answer will come to you, although it may take a few days or even weeks depending on what you’re seeking. Often you’ll realize it’s something you’ve considered doing but had discounted or resisted. (See! Your intuition was working all along.)

Developing and nurturing sixth senses takes acknowledgment, contemplative time and patience.
And it’s worth the effort. You’ll be rewarded with more confidence and clarity as you move through your day and your life.

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