Listening Within | Awakening to the Dance

“It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely on it. It’s my partner.” Jonas Salk

Listening for Intuition’s Wisdom

The longer I live, the more I rely on my intuition. My journals are full of entries describing how I ignored it and the unfortunate consequences I experienced as a result. The most difficult times to follow it are when it advises me to do what I don’t want to do.

In February 2011, writing and working intensely on the computer to set up a blog and learn to use Facebook, I foolishly ignored the warning my intuition was sending me verbally and through the tension building up in my back. I woke up one morning with sciatica down the right side of my body. It was the most intense pain I’d ever experienced. It took about six months to recover with acupuncture to relieve the pain and physical therapy to correct my posture and strengthen my core.

In this case and in an accident four years earlier, my physical core was weak and out of balance despite the regular exercises I did. The key to my physical recovery was building strength in the core muscles of the abdomen with daily exercises, and taking the stress off the lower back where the latest injury originated.

Strengthening Our Spiritual Core

But more importantly, I needed to correct my spiritual core. In both instances, I had allowed ego’s fears and needs to override my intuition’s advice. In January, I had set a goal to have certain things done by the end of the month, no matter what! My ego, so much noisier than my intuition kept reminding me of this.

We have to remember that ego loves to feed off of what is negative. It demands our attention. So how can we develop the discipline and awareness to stay in touch with our core intuition?

Ways to Stay in Touch With Intuition

Sitting in the silence is an important first step. When we are centered in silence, we are most likely to hear Spirit speaking to us through intuition. In those moments we are connected to Source, our loving partner, and its words are gentle. When something starts pushing, it is ego. When we feel fear, it is ego. When we are being pushed toward an extreme or to the edge of endurance, that is ego. The practice of listening in the silence teaches us to discern if the voice we hear or the physical response we feel is ego or intuition.

Secondly, we have to release our fear for it only feeds ego. We can sit quietly and direct our minds to release whatever fearful thought has arisen. As we make the statement, “I release this fear,” it is helpful to take a deep breath and in the body feel the tension of the fear release. With the fear gone, there is space for our spiritual guidance to come through and for us to hear it.

I also believe intuition speaks to us in other ways: through the words of others, the ideas we encounter through reading spiritual books, through experiences in workshops and spiritual gatherings. When we feel that “Ah, ha,” intuition is saying, “Listen, this is for you.”

So, during this next week, let’s find moments to listen to that partner inside that loves us enough to say, “This is for you.” And let’s have the good sense to follow its advice. Like Jonas Salk, let’s remember that what our intuition brings to us is a gift that is always good.