Finally Friday Week Two: Using Intuition to Change Your Life

Crocuses blooming at Greenlake

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself."—Alan Alda

I've been experimenting with intuition for a long time now...perhaps since I was born (ha!). Seriously, though, I can remember when I was a baby lying on my stomach on a blanket in the backyard in the summer. I felt the sun beat down on my bare skin as I pressed my palms into the grass to lift myself up into a mini pushup. I then took fists full of grass, testing out my grip. I remember the sensation of the green grass between my fingers, the coolness of it on a warm day, like silk on the skin. I remember thinking, "I've been here before."

Perhaps we are purest when we are that age—before conditioning sets in and we forget who we really are. We are always taking note of our surroundings and trying to fit in, adjust, follow the status quo, do what's right. Then, it takes our whole lives to remember who we were at that tender age when everything was fresh and new, when we were open vessels absorbing information.

 I now find that I have a set of beliefs, patterns and habits, but are they mine or have they just become mine and who am I anyway? As I get older, I find that I'm unraveling myself to get to the essence of my being. It's not the ego I'm after. It's not the personality either. It's the frequency or vibration. It's the place where I feel most "in tune" that I seek. I'm looking for that place of harmony. I'm getting closer.

Nature always brings me back to harmony and my essence. It reminds me that I'm part of a bigger picture and I can let go of the parameters of my human form and become part of all that I taste, touch, hear, smell and see. Anytime I start to feel contracted, I seek nature. It's my refuge. I become a child again in nature and I start to see things as if for the first time. I could stare at a leaf for several minutes. A chickadee singing its tune makes me want to sing back. Here in the Pacific Northwest, spring is upon us and it's February 13 (Friday the 13th to be exact). I like to pay a visit to the rhododendrons and check on the progress of the crocuses and daffodils (they are blooming in places right now). Even the cherry blossoms are making an appearance!

Cherry Blossoms at Carkeek Park

Rhododendrons at Llandover Woods

I find new things and discoveries every time I walk. Life is changing, pulsating, vibrating all the time. We are different every moment, so how can we really say who we are? We are free to be whomever we want to be at any given moment.

I've been teaching a 5-week Intuitive Writing Class and yesterday was our last event for this session. I'm starting up a new Intuitive Writing class on February 19th. I use Penney Peirce's book The Intuitive Way in my classes. It has wonderful prompts and exercises to help one return to that place beyond the critic. That place that is free, like a child. That's where I believe our true self really lies and where I find my best writing lies. Penney just so happened to be here in Seattle for the Women of Wisdom Conference during our last class, so we all went together for the opening night. She gave a talk on The Power of Personal Vibration. It really resonated with me and I think the my class enjoyed it too! Penney wrote a guest post for my blog on January 1, 2012 here.

A quote I can relate to at the Women of Wisdom Conference

Members of my Intuitive Writing Class at the Women of Wisdom Conference

I've had dreams recently of teetering on the edge of a cliff, just barely escaping the jaws of a pride of lions, and being faced with a giant tsunami wave right before my eyes. All of these dreams seem to represent current fears I'm dealing with. Working with my intuition more deeply these days has shaken my old self up. I'm in the process of creating a new identity that is more in line with my own vibration. Change is not always an easy process. We are creatures of habit and comfort. But I know from my own experience that if I gently push myself past my comfort zone, through that mysterious doorway, an entire world awaits. If I'm really in tune with myself, I won't get eaten by lions or fall off a cliff. If I am pursuing something I'm truly passionate about, the "how" will work itself out and the uncomfortableness will lead to tremendous growth. I'm getting closer. Each conscious step I take is a step closer to the essence, harmony and light that I seek. 

Have you used your intuition lately to make any decisions about your life?

365 Inspirations—111: Awakening Intuition

"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you, and you don't know how or why."—Albert Einstein

I'm doing a self course in awakening my intuition. To be honest, I'm a highly intuitive person, but I am trapped in a body and mind that has been trained not to trust or follow this side of myself completely. I'm now realizing that there is no other way I can live. Following my intuition is my path. All other paths are not the ones I'm supposed to be on!

I know this at a very deep level, yet I fear the outcome of following my intuition completely. There's a sense of security (It may very well be a false sense of security) I get from following a comfortable, known path, even though I am quite sure that path doesn't suit me anymore.

So I'm back and retraining my mind. I'm reading Penney Peirce's book The Intuitive Way. I'm reading it step by step. I'm scribbling in the margins, I'm underlining things and I'm really listening and paying attention to what I'm reading. I need to absorb this information and live it completely. This is what I know and feel.

Penney asks in her book "Could it be that just beyond the Information Age in the Intuitive Age?"

She goes on to say

"Intuition, I'm convinced, is where the other 90 percent of our brainpower lies. Through intuition, we get the big picture, the simultaneous understanding that puts us and all the facts in our proper relationship to something beyond us."

I've been feeling so many gut instincts, deep in the core of my being,  to follow a new path, but I'm hesitating to do so. Much of it is fear related to security and comfort. Also, there are some financial things to consider. I believe I'm moving in the right direction and am still applying my rational, linear mind and not completely abandoning reason.

I think that is a good balance.

But truth be told, for too long I've ignored signs to do something new and eventually, I believe, if you ignore your gut instincts, they will keep resurfacing in some form or another until you have no other choice but to pay attention to what this intuition of yours is saying.

And this time I'm listening. Really I AM!

Do you always follow your intuition or gut instincts? Are you doing what you want to do?