Watched a Tedx talk this morning titled “Dare to Disagree.” I was reminded how easily my confidence could be shaken upon meeting intuition skeptics and disbelievers. For years, I wondered what kind of certifications and degrees would attach the right kind of letters to my name that would lend more gravitas.
Dr. French hmmm Intuition that seems like bunk, but you’re a doctor of brain science [human behavior, metaphysics etc.] tell me more. So I can believe it.
Yeah right?!
When I dug in, I discovered the real skeptic. It was me. While speaking or leading a class or even sometimes while I was working with a client, I would think ‘I hope it works this time. I hope this isn’t the time that my intuition will just not be there. How stupid would I look?’
Have you ever sat back where your office chair was supposed to be to find that it has inadvertently rolled away? Yeah you fall on your butt hard. It felt like that experience you have the next time you go to sit down. You know you look back. Make sure it is there. Then look back again and almost fall to the floor even though the chair is there because you don’t trust the chair is there even though you just saw it behind you. I would lean back into using my gift and then be worried it wouldn’t be there. Even though I had just used it the hour before. Total mind fuck.
A friend I had encouraged me to dive into the doubt. Here is what I learned. It always worked eventually. It just didn’t always look, sound, feel or show up how I thought it would. Intuition with certain people or in certain situations worked differently. Seeing those differences made me even more curious.
How do the mechanics of intuition work? By 2012, when I was diving into this exploration, there had been scientific studies about ESP and other inexplicable phenoms of the brain. I was reading books by more spiritual authors that were also trying to say WHERE the intuition was coming from. It couldn’t be proven. Why was that? Because the answer to that question of where was so linked to someone’s personal spiritual and/or religious and/or scientific beliefs.
So again I got even more curious. Not where it came from but how it showed up. Both how my gift worked but also how other people’s intuition worked. I began with simply observing my own intuition. During sessions I would pay very close attention.
What kind of questions am I asking?
What do I do instinctively that I have never critically looked at?
And ultimately I got really curious how I could help others learn to do the same. The process of exploration and discovery led me to understand and more deeply trust my gift. There are still times when my intuition isn’t instantaneous, but now I have a deep in my bones confidence. I go through the process with patience. Kinda like I still sometimes look behind me before I sit down in my office chair. Because I remember how hard the floor was not because I don’t trust my ability to find the chair.
Your gift works too. Even if you don’t know how it works or if you experience it being really clear in one moment and in the next it is radio silence. If it doesn’t come automatically, remember that your intuition is not a fluke. You are just building a muscle of trust. My invitation to you is to do what I did. Observe those times when your intuition pops up and gives you insight. What questions are you asking yourself or others? Is it a sense of knowing or feeling? Does it come as a picture in my mind’s eye? Or is it more like something speaking truth inside of you?