I have always been fascinated by the concept of intuition and what exactly would it mean for me to "trust my intuition." Would there be signals that might mysteriously appear that would guide me to an inner sense of knowing?
It turns out that I didn’t have to look far for the signals. The signals were already there, if I simply slowed down and took the time to notice.
It all began for me by noticing what I was physically feeling. Though it is true that many physical symptoms can be pointing to a medical condition that needs our attention, they can also be revealing our emotional state of mind.
Take, for example, all the phrases we use to describe the state of our body: a gut-feeling, a heart-ache, a lump in our throat, a pain in the neck or feeling sick to our stomach. These are only a few of the places where our body holds tension.
I remember being in a work situation once, when I noticed the feeling of a block in my throat. At the time I wasn’t sure what it was all about. But when I came back home and had time to pause, I realized that there was something that I had wanted to say, but it wouldn’t have been the time or the place to share my thoughts.
What I came to learn in the years to follow, is that I needed to pay more attention to what I was noticing in my body. Some of you may be familiar with the work of Dr. Gabor Maté and one of his books, titled When the Body Says No. So much of his work has resonated with me and has been the turning point for how I view my emotions.
I no longer wanted to be someone who held on to their emotions so tightly. I wanted to find a way to express them, in a way that would feel healthy for me and would also be mindful of those around me.
As for me, I have always loved to write. Even as a child, my mother gave me a small pink diary, with a lock and key, so I could write about how I was feeling. I am not sure how intuitive I would have been as a child, but it gave me a sense that my feelings mattered, and it would somehow be important to make note of them.
One of the other reasons I learned to love journal writing, is that I am free to express all of my emotions. The pen and the paper became the safe place to share, with no concern for being judged or rejected. They hold my thoughts with a kind regard.
Writing is a way for me to allow my emotions to surface and to discover my intuitive sense of knowing. Then, once I have reached a place of knowing, I Iisten closely and know in my heart, it is time to trust and to follow my intuition.
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