Monday, February 24, 2014

Growing Myself Week 6: The Seed of Intuition

Our inner garden is really beginning to bloom beautifully. We are surrounded by the colors of value, creativity and rebirth, transformation, love and truth. Only two more seeds to go to complete our garden.

Today we are planting the the purple seed of Intuition. Everyone is born with intuition. It is that inner knowing when something does or does not ring true for you. It's that pull to take one path over another, make one choice over another. It is the outward manifestation of our inner wisdom. When you get that little twinge in your stomach, that's your intuition telling you that something isn't quite what it appears to be, or you aren't following a path that is true for you.

So many of us don't follow our intuition. We don't trust ourselves to know what is best for us. If we are being drawn to something that is not the "norm" as our culture dictates, we question ourselves rather than the message we're receiving from the outside world. Our intuition, our inner wisdom, is our direct connection to the Wisdom that created us. It is the GPS to our authentic life. Not following what our intuition tells us makes as much sense as shutting off your GPS while trying to drive somewhere that you've never driven to before.

Sure, it's scary sometimes to take the plunge and step off the beaten path that everyone else is following, but your intuition is as true for you as true north is on a compass. It will never lead you astray or get your lost.

All living things have intuition although with animals it is sometimes called instinct. A fish knows enough not to try and live above ground, and a bird knows that the sky is his natural home. But even animals can misread the signals sometimes. Case in point: The Tale of Two Squirrels:

     "Two squirrels were trying to get to a brick of seeds and nuts that a kindly lady (that would be me) had hung from the top of a shepherds crook that was planted in a patio pot on her back porch. The first squirrel kept trying to climb up the pole only to slide back down before she reached the prize. Try as she might, she just couldn't maintain her grasp on the pole. The second squirrel sat and studied the situation. Standing on his hind legs on the porch railing, he took a giant leap and jumped to the top of the pole, wrapped his tail and hind legs around the curve in the crook, and hung upside down, freeing his hands and mouth to reach the block. Fortunately, he was a very nice squirrel and dropped some seeds and nuts on the porch floor so the first squirrel could share in his bounty."

Okay, maybe this is a strange way to make a point, but my intuition tells me that a story sometimes demonstrates an idea better than just stating the idea. In this case, the first squirrel saw only one way to accomplish a task, while the second squirrel looked at it from all sides and followed his intuition, taking a "leap of faith" that his intuition wouldn't fail him.

The next time your are faced with a situation where you have to make a decision between more than one choice, sit in silence with yourself, close your eyes, and mentally check in with your body. Is there a tightness anywhere when you consider one choice over another? A knot in your stomach? Or is there a feeling of excitement and possibility? Trust your inner wisdom to know what will make you happy and then take that leap of faith. Sometimes it's worth hanging upside down to get the best seeds.

And so it is.