There is a widespread public interest in the intuitive arts these days. People like Teresa Caputo of TLC’s hit series Long Island Medium and Chip Coffey of A & E’s Psychic Kids, Children of the Paranormal come to mind. Teresa is not only intuitive she is a medium who ‘sees’ and ‘hears’ spirit. Add psychic onto that list and Chip Coffey has the same skill set. A medium is a person that is able to pass messages on to the living from those in the afterlife. Teresa’s waiting list among the living is booked three years out. Both television shows have been on for more than one season and continue to generate ratings. What is intuition exactly?
What Is Intuition?
Besides mediumship, there are other forms of intuitive arts that fascinate the general public including medical intuition, psychic phenomena like clairvoyance, and ‘Law of Attraction’ the idea behind the famous movie The Secret. I recently learned an interesting fact from Dr. Norman Shealy (the originator of the term Medical Intuitive) on how intuition serves us to keep us healthy. He shared that the Central Nervous System (CNS) was once called the ‘Creative’ Nervous System. This is important for anyone trying to understand intuition or the intuitive arts because the CNS regulates fight or flight. It is a highly visual system. The CNS is visceral and it works in pictures and symbols. It speaks in the form of images and through the body with rapid heart rate, eye dilation, and increased energy if you are in danger. In short, it works to keep you alive. The Creative Nervous System is one channel delivering that ‘gut’ instinct.
How The Nervous System Works
Thinking in terms of this original name and why it was dubbed the creative nervous system we are one step closer to understanding how intuition works. This is an ability we all have. Some people are awakened to their intuition early in life and continually attune to it. This is another sensory ability and they perceive the world through it. For these individuals, intuition has already been identified and they don’t need conscious activation. Other times, it takes a crisis or trauma as a voice speaking, or instructing the person to act, to keep them alive. Gavin de Becker outlines how intuition works this way. In his book, The Gift of Fear, he explains how our rational minds ignore the insights that come through intuition even though intuition is as natural an instinct as breathing. Mr. de Becker teaches,
“Intuition is always right in at least two important ways;
It is always in response to something. It always has your best interest at heart” ― The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
Two Kinds of Intuitive Processing
If we strip our minds down into two generalized processes, oversimplifying, there are two kinds of processing. The first is our analytical, logical left hemisphere and it operates primarily in abstraction. Abstraction covers language and sequencing, decoding symbols in mathematics, and rational/logical/linear thinking. The second, our right hemisphere, is in charge of cognition or thinking, spatial reasoning (facial recognition), visual imagery, and music. The right hemisphere is more intuitive and kinesthetic. Both hemispheres speak to each other through the corpus callosum, a band or network of fibrous nerves bundled together. Even though each hemisphere is specialized, having its own strengths dedicated for some behaviors, many times each strength communicates with the other hemisphere to execute specific functions.
How The Brain Works
Your intuition lives primarily in your right hemisphere. The right hemisphere is in charge of thinking. There is no magic to this. Most people know the old cliché that a left brained person is more analytical and a right-brained person is more artistic. Even though that idea is generally understood there is much more depth to it. I’d like you to try a few exercises to increase your own intuition. It is best to understand there are three levels to the Intuitive Voice:
I. Survival – This is your ‘gut’ instinct
II. Impersonal Divine
III. Transpersonal
Working It
In order to work with your intuition, you need to treat it as a living system just like any other part of your mind, body, or spiritual development. First you must believe in the power of your own intuition in making decisions. A belief is only a thought you keep thinking. Expand your beliefs to include intuition as another valuable tool in your decision-making process. Work on this first by saying a few mantras daily. Try these simple ones, “I trust myself”, “I trust in my intuition to lead me”, “I know my intuition”, “I see my intuition”, “I hear my intuition”, “I feel my intuition”.
Using all the senses to see, hear, and feel activates them, showing you your intuition. You will receive a response immediately. Pay attention. The intuitive mind/body is very subtle. Once you focus on your intuition, it will respond and speak to you. Sometimes you may not like the answer or you may pass it off as your mind “making something up”. Remember the creative nervous system? The CNS speaks in pictures, so pay attention to symbols you see in your mind’s eye and write them down.
Journaling
Notice anything unusual in your body. Even if it seems silly, write it down. Try this for a few weeks by tracking all of your sensations with a journal. Go back and read through all your sensations and images to help you see how intuition works for you. Write down any synchronicities or things you notice in your environment that give you reinforcement for your own powerful intuition.
Keep checking back to the blog for more tips and exercises you can use to enhance your own intuition.
