Do you have difficulty making decisions? Do you find yourself waiting for more information? Do you wonder if you are making the right choice?
People who often have conflicting feelings when making choices, psychologists call this ambivalence. Often this state of ambivalence is caused by having to come to terms with a complex world of choice and the belief in right and wrong, good or bad decisions.
From being at school we are taught to value our logic and reason as the compass to navigate important decisions we make through our lives. Yet there are multiple ways in which we know what we know. Some people can have knowledge by retaining information and regurgitating it when required. Some people have to learn by experience; even though the sign says 'wet paint' they wonder 'how long has the sign been there? Is the paint still wet?' and they just have to touch it to find out. Others have to see it to believe it and some have to have an emotional connection for information to mean anything. In a world when we are bombarded by information, there is simply too much for the logical mind to think about. This can lead to a lack of sleep when the mind becomes too full to process all of the information though our subconscious during our REM sleep. We wake up at about 3.30am to process the rest of the information before the working day starts again.
However there is a compass for reliable decision making that bypasses the thinking mind. An inner knowing that has been undervalued, that's your intuition.
Mostly intuition has been seen as something for women with children 'female intuition'.
However things are changing, Thomas J. Stanley (Ph. D) studied the behaviors, habits and mindsets of 733 millionaires and multi-millionaires for this book, The Millionaire Mind, and discovered that the number one reason that people became successful in business was: 'ideas through intuition.' Included in this list are male entrepreneur such as Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
So why isn't everyone using intuition?
Up to now, popular thought is that there is only one form of intuition. People describe that as your 'gut instinct'. Many celebrities such as Will.I.Am talk about trusting their gut when it comes to making decisions.
There actually is a brain in your gut. Embedded in the line of the intestines is the enteric nervous system, with hundreds of millions of neurons - one thousandth the number in your brain. This network is termed the second brain and controls the gut function. Gut neurons communicate with the brain through the vagus nerve which runs from the base of the brain to the chest and abdomen. The clearest connection between the gut and the mind and is how we experience anxiety and stress. A gut instinct is when we have a reaction to something we may find fearful or unpleasant. Making decisions through this form of inner knowing means that we make choices out of fear and defence which can result in limiting our life and sticking to what we already know. The second form of intuitive knowing has no words, therefore it is often discounted. It is emotionally based, we just an excited expansive feeling and we simply know, we may not understand why we know, we just, know. We know, but without logical words as to why and we know we can discount the intuition as nothing more than a feeling. Following the inner knowing can lead to remarkable life changes. As there are multiple ways we know what we know, we mustn't discount how we feel.
We can access this form of heart lead intuition by becoming curious about the decision we are trying to make. When we think logically about decision making, way up to pros and cons we can become overwhelmed or ambivalent. What can look good on paper might not work for us on an emotional level. Curiosity works without words, to be curious is a feeling, and we have an intuitive feeling come back to us as a response.
There are three aliments in order for our inner knowing to work:
Curiosity as I talked about above.
Purpose, which means you have to have a reason for your inquiry, it's not simply enough to ponder: 'What is my intuition trying to tell me?' When you have a purpose you have a direction for the intuition to make a connection.
The final one is love; it has to mean something emotional to you.
When these three aspects work together your intuition feels like an emotional positive surge forward.
There are also four intuitive systems:
Somatic - Physically knowing
Mental - A right hemisphere skill
Empathy - Emotionally knowing
Spiritual - Knowing something that seems to come from somewhere outside of your own wisdom.
You maybe one or more of these intuitive types and all of these skills can be activated though: curiosity, purpose and love. Taking direction from this form of intuitive knowing means that we can make more expansive decisions. We are not taking limited actions guided by fear, but powerful strides in our life as we are able to step aside from the voice in our head and be led by passion.
If you would like to learn how to use your four intuitive systems, join me for a free webinar: Evolutionary intuition - the four intuitive systems.
If you missed the webinar a replay will be posted HERE.