How can we sustain our connection to intuition and let this wisdom guide us in all matters? Intuition is one of our greatest allies. Like spirit, it is ever-present and can provide all the answers we will ever need to our life questions. What keeps us from turning to this wise counsel? What blocks clear seeing? When we do know what is intuitively right in a given situation, what keeps us from taking action on what we sense is true?
In my inquiry into blocks to intuition, I’ve found that the fear of change is a common obstacle and that learning to accept change helps people see and hear their intuition more clearly. Changes of any sort can be threatening to our egoic identities, the parts of us that cling to safety, surety and predictability. If this is true for you, then you may be pushing away the truth about a particular situation if the truth is that a change is being called for.
We may get repeated signals, for example, that it’s time to change jobs. As she looked back, Jamila, a secretary in a realtor’s office, realized that she was getting numerous signals (that she was ignoring) that it was time to leave her current employment. During the week, she was waking up with a sense of dread rather than the enthusiastic way she usually greeted the day. Her body was often tense at work and she’d frequently come home and be impatient and irritable with her two children. Jamila couldn’t allow herself to even consider a new position because she was terrified of losing the security this job offered. Her fear of making a change created a situation in which she discounted and, at times, cut herself off completely from seeing and feeling internal cues that would have her investigate new possibilities for work. As fate would have it, Jamila was laid off of her job and six weeks later found employment that was much more suitable for her. “I was actually relieved when my boss let me go,” she said. “I couldn’t make the change myself so it was made for me. The universe sure works in mysterious ways.”
Our fear of and resistance to change creates quite a dilemma, for life keeps teaching that everything is constantly changing. As writer and psychologist Frances Vaughan says, “Intuition does not necessarily work in service of the ego.” So, while the ego madly scrambles to create a comfortable life where disruption and chaos can’t reach us, the river of life keeps flowing in its own directions, not to be outwitted by our clever strategies to control her movements. I love the bumper sticker, “Do you know how to make God laugh? Tell him (her) what your plans are!”
Although intuition does not work to serve the ego’s desire for security, it does work in the service of the soul. It is, in fact, the way the soul communicates to us and, if we follow its wise direction, we’ll be guided to exactly what we need, not necessarily what we want. As the Rolling Stones song reminds us, “You can’t always get what you want, but…you might find you get what you need.”
TRY THIS
Sentence Completion
Choose one area of your life where you think a change may be called for, and that you may be resisting. Examples might be moving, trying a new exercise program or changing careers. Take 5 minutes each to complete the following sentences without thinking about the answers. Keep your hand moving and don’t censor the writing.
What’s keeping me from ………………………………… (e.g. moving, changing jobs, etc) is…………………………………
If I don’t make this change, I …………………………………………
If I do make this change, I …………………………………………….
What my intuition is telling me about…………………………………is…………………………………………
When you receive an intuitive answer about this situation, commit to at least one action step you can take this week that will begin to move you in the direction of truth.