Step 7 - My Intuition
The private question concerns beliefs about
- personal integrity,
- intuition, and
- insight into our own worth.
Ask: Am I trusting my intuition?
Ask: How do I feel about how I am making this decision? Do I feel calm or anxious? paralyzed or confident? Drained or energized? If the way you feel about how your are making the decision does not feel right, you probably need to change your decision to a better one.
Ask: Am I relying on others' opinions, or relying on my own feelings (intuition) - or better yet, on my better intuition?
Intuition is your unconscious knowledge based on your own personal experiences. It is what you somehow sense is right for you.
To get in touch with this intuition, think about past decisions, and what you sensed at the time. Then look at the consequences. These observations will allow you to teach yourself to use your feeling to forecast the future. Also, try to look at how you feel as you make decisions.
If you are asking probing questions, and you feel peaceful, you may be making a decision based on truth which you have recognized. If so, the results will be far better.
Intuition is the really important thing
- Albert Einstein
Ego can complicate the issue.
'Complex' means there are many parts to the problem. 'Complicated' means you cannot distinguish one part from the other. If you see it as complicated you will remain lost. If you see it as complex, and analyze the parts, you will find several simple, obvious answers. Put them together for a solution.
Fear seems complicated until you take it apart. Insecurity, anxiety, anger, resentment and worry are all masks of fear. Fearful decisions seldom turn out well. Everyone is afraid. The secret is not to act on fear.
Ask: What would I do if I were not afraid. And then do that.
My feelings often forecast the consequences
Intuition is what we have learned inside ourselves. To go beyond, ask for guidance, then keep quiet and listen to what comes to you.
The body's binary code: We think with our minds and feel with our bodies. Our bodies speak to us in a simple binary code*: either YES things feel right or NO they do not. Learning the way to ask the body is the business of the question of the heart.
My Intuition:
Do I feel Stressed or Peaceful?
Clear or Confused?
Drained or Energized?
Fearful or Enthusiastic?
Egotistical or Guided?
Does this decision really feel right to me?
As right as seeing a favourite colour, or meeting a close friend, or taking a peaceful walk?
If is does not, feel right,
it probably is not, and I need to change my decision.
Am I trusting my intuition?
* There is a book called, Focusing, by Eugene T. Gendlin, which describes a process to turn this binary code into a real dialogue. - rjb
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