EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING has a spirit and that spirit wants you to listen. It wants you to be mindful, present and alive.  Some call it intuition. Some call it a higher power. I call it YOU. Your spirit is YOU. Learning to listen to that precious part of you will literally change the trajectory of your life. Even in affirming that, I still face my own challenges.

My intuition is pretty spot on. In fact, I can't think of an instance when my intuition was wrong. My challenege is that I still struggle to follow through on my INTUITION. I think your INTUITION is comprised of your innate inner voice & wisdom, your sensory awareness, perception & discernment, history and genetic make up. I think everyone's intuition is different. How it speaks and peaks differs for us. What our intuition naturally responds to is different.  I believe our intuition has different volume levels. I also believe the more you learn to discern & understand it and the more you use it, the more you'll find its accuracy increases and the more you are willing to go with the flow of your own voice. I struggle with this though. I struggle with going with the flow of what my intuition says when I feel like it might be labeled as making a snap judgement . I'm trying to understand the why.

Let's look at the modern definition and my own case study. Maybe together we can get to the bottom of this and it may shed some light or serve to inform you as well.

Defining Intuition

According to dictionary.com, INTUITION is

1. direct perception of truth, fact independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension.
2. a fact, truth, perceived in this way.
3. A keen and quick insight.

INTUITION has a lot to do with PERCEPTION and INSTINCT.

I also believe that INTUITION can co-exist with sound reasoning. Nevermind what dictionary.com says. When our INTUTION emerges, the capacity of our brain is running at full speed with absolute clarity and focus. We aren't used to this. There is that age old saying about us only using 10% of our brains. Maybe we use a little more but I don't think we make a daily practice of tapping into all of our SOURCE.  When it comes to INTUITION though, I believe our brain is running at hyper FULL speed in just a fraction of a nanosecond. It simply can't be measured but it appears that all of sudden, without reason, something has been made clear to us. I believe part of that hyper functionality of our brain and ethereal understanding is comprised of our sensory awareness.

The best way for me to conceptualize this is to think of the instinct of an animal.  It appears that without reason an animal just knows there is danger.  (I believe their brain has been turned completely on and their sensory perception is fully aware.) They felt the energy change in some radius around them. The temperature dropped or rose because something shifted. They heard the faintest of sounds that they can't even fully register and then they just know, RUN RIGHT NOW! So to me, its not independent of reasoning. There is a reason your intuition spoke. We're just not used to our brain knowing the answer without the addition of our negative judgement and filters. That's my take on it. (Are you following me? I hope I'm making sense.)

Case Study One - The Bad Date

I went on a date with a man awhile back, mainly because I felt bad about the months of silence between our email conversations on my part. CLUE NUMBER ONE. Going on a date because you feel bad is not ideal. The first date landed us at a restaurant and after the pleasantries and ordering, we began to chow down. Three things happened that I clearly remember and my body & mind noted them AS SOON AS they happened.

1. When our food arrived, he took charge of the table. He rearranged our bowls, the napkins, our drinks, the candle in the middle and everything else. He was drinking sake much faster than me and was already on his second one. Mine had barely been touched. As he rearranged the table with a pace that just seemed off to me, he moved my drink closer to me in an extremely subtle yet aggressive manner. It was so slight. It was so very little.  There was something about his body language. I noticed it and I noted it. Interesting, I thought.
2. As we both began to eat our separate dishes, he asked me to pass him this speciality spoon that's used to drink the soup in our noodle dish. It was more like, "Pass me your spoon." To which I responded, "Ok." Maybe he dropped his. Maybe he liked to eat with two spoons. I wasn't using mine, so I didn't really care. I saw him with ease, authority and assurance place some noodles and soup into the spoon. "Uh, is that for me?" I asked. "Yes," he replied. "I don't want any. I like mine," I said. "Just try it," he said. In the everyday world, this was a pleasant exchange. But something inside me noticed and noted this. There was something off. That ease, authority and assurance he seemed to possess seemed very assuming. Interesting, I thought.
3. As we stood to leave, he helped me into my jacket. It was fine. We laughed at a joke. I grabbed my bag. He wrapped his scarf around his neck. And then he placed his hand on my back to help guide me through a maze of people waiting to be seated. There was something so slight about the way he touched my back. There are different ways of touching people. The intention behind the touch can be discerned on the skin. There was just something that sort of made my skin crawl. It wasn't like he was a jerk... at that point. The date went smoothly, except for that drink move and spoon grab. However, it was something in the nature of that touch that was noticed and noted in my mind. Without knowing this man or seeing any red, blaring, alarm sounding, red flags I remember clearly thinking at this exact moment, "This man is not good. He is a control freak. He is manipulative." It was a quick thought. So quick that I just let it pass through my mind and I joined him for drinks at an adjoining bar.

There weren't any other things to note that night. No other instances where my mind thought, Interesting. We must have talked and enjoyed our drinks for about an hour or so before we parted ways and I made my way home.

I thought about those three instances when he texted me saying he wanted to go out again. I thought about how for some reason something in me labelled him as a control freak and not in a good, sexy BDSM way. It was more, this man is no good for me. He will try to dictate my life. And this is where I get in trouble with my INTUITION. I recalled the three things that made my INTUITION flare up. The drink move. The spoon grab. The back touch. And I let my judgement set in. "Who was I to label him as a controlling man? Maybe he was a saint. Who determines someone's character based on how they put noodles in a spoon? People will say you are judgemental. Really Sheena, there was something about how he moved your drink closer to you? You're going to say no to another date because of that. That's not a good reason."

So I went out with this man two more times.Those three little notices from my INTUITION turned into the red, blaring, alarm sounding red flags. In more overt ways, it was apparent this man was controlling and manipulative. He turned into that "jerk" that I thought I was initially too quick to label. I won't even get into the details but after the third date I communicated with him that I didn't want to see him again. Even after that, he still tried to be controlling & manipulative. Eventually he backed away completely.

Lessons Learned

The point is this. My intuition was clear. It was immediate. My senses were reading everything. My perception was spot on. But I felt like if I listened too quickly to my intuition the perception of others would be that I was judgemental. I thought maybe I couldn't follow through on my INTUITION initially because aren't we supposed to give people the benefit of the doubt? I'm so used to women who listen to their INTUITION being called paranoid, unreasonable and emotionally unstable.

But paranoia is not it at all. It's more so a heightened sense of awareness, thoughtfulness, clarity and focus.

In other case studies, my personal response is similar. I have clear signs and I let my social filters set in. I tell myself, Aren't you supposed to give people the benefit of the doubt? Isn't that judgement and aren't you always critiqued for being judgemental. Paranoid, much? Why don't you wait until you have more evidence?

INTUITION is something I want to explore. It's cost me many things. It cost me $300.00 due to a really bad designer. It cost me $450.00 due to a deteriorated roommate situation. It's cost me many things even though my instinct was spot on. It's because I decided not to listen to it and I've got to stop ignoring myself.

I don't want to end on a seemingly negative note, so I want to give a clear example of listening to my intuition in a positive light. When I explore sensual movement and pole dance at my local studio, towards the end of class we are given time to each dance freestyle to songs of our choice. When we do these dances, as mentioned they are freestyle; they aren't choreographed, planned or rehearsed. We turn the music on and we get in the zone. We listen to our body and follow where it leads. We let our emotions, our senses, our breath and our hearts take the lead. Actually we let our complete selves take the lead. I think these dances are INTUITIVE. We use sensory awareness, our body's perception, and our inner voice to communicate and tell a story of our self in that exact present moment. INTUITIVE movement.  I hope you all have that kind of experience.

How do you define intution? Why is intution important? What are some positive examples of where you listened to your intution? What has NOT listening to you intution cost you? Why do we give space for a man's gut feeling and not a woman's intuitive response? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I wish for you a glorious existence, full of passion & wholehearted love. Here's to the Thrivers.

Sheena LaShay

www.SheenaLaShay.com