Intuitive Living

A recent LinkedIn thread began with the question: “Has Your Intuition Protected or Saved Your Life?” I always appreciate probing questions and this one definitely set my mind to musing as I began the search of memory files for specific experiences and circumstances that would fit the question. In the struggle to remember particulars, my mind presented its own question: When am I not being guided by intuition?

I’ve been a practicing metaphysician for more than twenty years. Even before that I was delving into the mysteries, asking unusual questions and sitting for quiet periods allowing my mind to travel etheric highways of information. All of these habits brought long stares and the brand ‘eccentric’ from family members. However, those habits have also guided me to a way of living that brings me happiness. Whenever I look back at the decisions made, I can see where choosing another route might not have brought as satisfying a result. 

My years of counselingclients along with studies beside traditional elders have widened my  understanding in patterns relating to health, relationships and lifestyles of people that live guided by intuition and those who do not. First world cultures value reliance on academic or scientific information over the internal promptings that are the preference of the less economically developed societies.

My belief is that there are four areas where human beings draw decision making information. I list them from the most base to highest guidance:  

1.      Instincts (behavior performed without prior experience or learning)

2.       Cultural training or condition (belief systems, perceived safety and learned values)

3.       Gut reaction (an etheric DNA, sins of the fathers, attitudes or behavior before applied reason.

4.       Intuitive (knowledge beyond understanding of how or where; never harms another life form) 

Intuition is an inner voice available to all. It is a wordless language of the heart connection. Yet in cultures that rely on mental programming over feelings, 10% of the decisions are made instinctively, 50% from cultural training, 15% from gut reactions, and only 5% from intuitive guidance. That leaves 20% of the decisions being made from some chaotic distraction which often include influences from advertising. 

In traditional or aboriginal peoples, around 5% of the actions are instinctive, 15% from cultural training, 35% from gut Impressions, and 45% from intuition and a deep connection with the Earth. The reduced influence from cultural training is because the teaching in these cultures is to connect with nature and Spirit to find answers. 

Choosing to follow a more intuitive lifestyle helped me find my husband, guided us from Florida to Hawaii where I was accepted by Hawaiian teachers and family. It was through meditation and intuition that I received an invitation (and the funds) to travel on pilgrimage with Mayan elders through Guatemala. The same process of meditation and intuition led me to my beautiful home on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. I feel my life has been greatly blessed, and quite possibly saved from many painful lessons or uncomfortable situations in my choosing intuitive living. How have you followed your intuition?

As above so below, as below so above.

I remember my young mind trying to make sense  while reading the creation story in the Bible; it would not quite fit into my lineal thinking. The words would lead me through the process of bringing light, waters, plants animals, and then people.  My confusion came when, after God rested, it all had to be repeated again. To this child, the repetition seemed illogical.  Today, from my understanding of metaphysics, it all makes sense.   Everything is created in spirit first; just as an idea comes to our mind before we act on it. It is through this spiritual creation that we are all connected to one another as well as all other life forms.  Rituals and ceremonies are a bridge that helps us recognize this oneness of spirit and create change within it.

I am very grateful for wise elders and teachers taking me under their wings to share their knowledge of rituals and ceremony. It is out of respect for them and the insight gained that I continue the tradition with groups or friends and share this wisdom in the books and articles I write.  books and articles I write  Understanding the greater world of spirit makes this physical plane easier to reside in. Ritual and ceremony can heal the emotional wounds humans inflict on each other. They are gifts of empowerment that can help bring peace to our spirits as well as the planet.

What Do I Want?

One of my friends has a signature on her e-mail that states “The happiest people don’t have everything…they are just happy with what they have.” Noble words yet they always leave me feeling that there is a question that has not been answered. An event in my barrio brought her statement and the shadowy question to mind again. I found the question weaving its way through the jungle of critical judgments filling my mind.

My tranquil Sunday morning had been suddenly shattered by the piercing sound of a siren, followed by the blast of a foghorn. This auditory assault continued for some time augmented with Riga- tone music; a kind of Latin Rap. All of this was amplified at a decimal that could shatter glass and from a distance of less than a block from my house. Even though this is typical of Honduran parties, advertising, or the beckoning of customers, I found my mind beginning a downward spiral into its “stink” mode. This negative mental chatter included the condemnation of folks that sacrifice their neighbor’s quality of life for a few extra Lempiras.

Then suddenly my friend’s phrase made its entrance into my thoughts shocking me out of my negative chatter by creating the diversion I needed to break free of the spiral. And as always it was followed by the question that demanded to know, “What do you want?”

Yes, what did I have planned today that the celebration would interfere with? By this time I recognized that the mix of noise and music was probably just that, a celebration since its location logically would attest to a birthday, wedding or such. Instead of pursuing my ‘stinkin’ thinkin’ I should be grateful that I do not live across the street from the little restaurant. Soon some other neighbor who speaks the language far better than I would ask them to tone down the volume. And that’s exactly what happened. As I write this a gentle mix of Caribbean, Popular Spanish and Ranchero music floats through the yard. It’s easy volume now a pleasure for the entire neighborhood.

It was much later that a quieter mind was again visited by the same calm, commanding presence of the question. Hum, so what DO I want, I thought? I decided to sit quietly and explore the question, probing the dark recesses of my mind until the light of awareness began to illuminate the core issue. I came to realize that the question was challenging me to decide what it would take for me to release critical judgment of others so I could have the life I wanted. 

The temporal side of my friends message was a lesson I had learned years before; material things don’t make people happy. And beyond that, I had discovered that I could have any material thing I wanted just by deciding it and holding that positive intent. However there was a more important lesson that connected those two insights. It was that satisfaction is like gratitude; it helps create more, and that if those positive thoughts are expansive then negative thoughts would be constrictive energy.

So, there it was the question that insisted I bare my soul of ego and stand naked, vulnerable before the trappings of the world. As I surrendered to the question I could feel the fear rise to protect me from the unknown. From what possible reality might be held in the light of truth. Yet as I pushed aside the fear and gave space to not only the question but each ensuing question that followed, I was finally guided to the eventual answer. I want to achieve my ultimate potential. It was the answer that becomes its own question.

So, what do you want?