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Tuesday, 06 February 2007 14:51 |
| | Janese Johnson |
When I use the word "intuition" around someone I have just met, I often receive an absent stare, as if I have just said a foreign word.
Intuition seems to be a word that is not commonly used or understood, yet we all have and use it in our everyday lives ÇƒÓ whether we realize it or not.
Intuition is often thought of as a spontaneous and unexpected knowing or feeling that does not follow traditional logic. This is only a partial explanation of intuition. Intuition is the inner knowing or feeling that cannot be attained through the reasoning mind, but can be accessed through contemplation to help us understand the meaning of our daily events. Intuition does not have to be a happenstance experience. It can be cultivated into our way of seeing life and used to guide our lives on a situational, rather than habitual, basis.
Because
our culture is very analytical and we have become quite educated in
science and living life in an empirical way, we have gotten away from
remembering that all answers lay within us. We have stopped listening
to that small, still voice within. So we believe that it does not exist
or has no great value. It is possible to use reasoning with intuition
in all of our decisions. They are not so contrary that they cannot be
used together. All we have to do is be open to listening from within.
It is important
to know that intuition uses a different "mind" than the one that we
were trained with in the education system. Intuition is the inner
knowing that goes beyond emotion into something that just "feels right"
or "does not feel right." By asking questions on a daily basis from
within ourselves and expecting the answers to come from within, we can
open up a whole new world of understanding and possibilities.
While teaching
workshops, I suggest that my students learn to feel what "fits" with
the decisions that they have to make. If they have a choice between two
jobs, it is suggested that they "feel" themselves in each one and
connect with how that fits within them.
People are often
surprised at how different each situation feels. Sometimes our desire
for something interferes with being able to really feel the decision.
That is where our dreams can come in.
Using dreams is
a wonderful way to receive clear intuition without our ideas and
judgments getting in the way. Einstein often credited his dreams for a
lot of his ideas that he received. He said, "We still do not know one
thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us." And " I
have no special gift; I am only passionately curious."
Since it is
said that we are not using our full mind, some say only 10%, it seems
that we havenët even touched the surface of what we can really know.
Intuition is taking that passionate curiosity to understand more deeply
and more fully about who we are and what is life about. The more that
we question in life, of life and about all things, the more that we
will receive and be more connected to our intuition. And if we continue
to live life on automatic, doing what we are suppose to do and nothing
more, than our intuition will be a lot more quiet and harder to hear.
It will then seem like the happenstance experience that happens once in
a while and gives you a "wow". It will not be a strong voice that is
guiding you to a richer more meaningful life.
ï
Janese Johnson
has been doing intuitive counseling nationally for more than 20 years.
She may be contacted at janesej-at-buncombe.main.nc.us.
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