Archive for intuition

Have you experienced this? Someone that loves you doesn’t agree with how you want to go about approaching your healing. Or maybe you are on the other side of this experience. Maybe you are the one that is really uncomfortable with your loved one’s choices.

I meet people and hear stories about people on both sides of this significant concern…children that were concerned when one of their parents chose an allopathic approach to cancer that included chemotherapy, spouses that couldn’t believe their partner only wanted to use alternative means for healing, doctors that didn’t approve of their patient’s use of energy healing methods, and individuals that wished they had done more than listen to their doctor’s advice.

This is a very sensitive area for many of us. It is extremely difficult to watch our loved ones make decisions for themselves that we are afraid could cause them to become worse off, and it is equally difficult to be clear about how you want to heal yourself, and hopefully gain the support of your loved ones, especially if you choosing a healing approach that they don’t particularly like.

If you try to argue a case about what approach or methodology is right, you are going to have a difficult time. Data and statistics help us make wise decisions. And so do the heart and intuition. The latter two are less tangible, but equally important. Some healing approaches have proven to be effective, but if your heart and intuition are telling you it’s not right for you, there is a good chance it won’t work for you. I believe the greater question to be asking ourselves, whether we are the one being healed or the one concerned is this: “What is my ethical responsibility.”

I know for some of you, what I’m about to suggest is going to be very difficult to consider, but I’m going to ask you to withhold any judgment and consider this concept with me. To clarify, I am talking about adults of free-will right now. Whether you believe that you were given this body or you chose it, at some level there was an agreement that you are the caretaker of this sacred creation. Therefore, you are the one responsible for the well-being or the release of soul in this body. No one else is responsible for your soul in your body…not your doctor, healer, spouse, children, parents or friends. You are the one that lives in this body, and unless you are unconscious, you are the one responsible for the care of your body.

If you decide to surrender your care for any given amount of time to the expertise of a doctor or into the hands of a healer, for example, that is your prerogative.  The responsibility of care may be released to someone else for a little while, as surgery or energy healing is being done. It is temporarily released, not turned over completely.

This is where we have become confused about healing. We have been operating from a model for hundreds of years that allows us to have the impression that healing is about someone else. In order to heal you find the right person and method and turn yourself over completely. However, as I say in my book, The Root of All Healing, “It is the human spirit that beats the odds and continually redefines the playing field of human existence.” That means that if we really want to heal, we need to be fully involved, and responsible for our own self-healing journeys.

My husband has looked askance at me a few times when I told him I was going to use my Sound Healing to heal something, without going in for tests or seeking any other advice. Just imagine what was going through his mind when I told him that I had a dream explaining that the symptoms I was experiencing were onset symptoms for MS, and then told him I was going to heal with sound.

He was concerned and I’m glad that he cared enough to be concerned.  He questioned me at length about whether or not I should be seeing a doctor or another healer and I’m glad he did, because sometimes I’m too close to my own condition and ultimately do heed his advice by getting help. Then there are other times, as with the onset symptoms of MS, where I heal the condition on my own.

I have chosen to be very clear that I am 100% responsible for my self-healing journey, and I respect in that my husband’s healing journey is his own. He loves me and I love him, but we are both clear that I am the steward of my body and he is the steward of his. (And I can assure you if he wasn’t clear about that, I would be, regardless.)

What we have learned to do is respect each other in a process of exploration. I listen to his concerns and his questions, considering whether or not he is making suggestions that feel right to me. If my intuition speaks strongly that he is bringing a solution to me, I follow his lead. If on the other hand, my intuition tells me I need to move forward by using my own gift, that’s what I do, until I am completely healed or meet someone along the way that my intuition tells me to see for additional assistance.

My husband checks in periodically on my progress from a place of genuine care, as I share with him my discoveries. He is not condescending toward me if I have chosen to heal with my own energy when he would have found a doctor. Nor do I attempt to persuade him to choose a less expensive route when he has decided on a healing approach that will cost us hundreds or thousands of dollars.

When I can see that he needs healing attention, I don’t push or insist he take steps that I think would be good for him. I make suggestions, and the rest is between him and Spirit. Even if I would make different choices, I stand by him in his, because I know how difficult it can be to make choices as conscious caretaker of one’s own body.

In the end, we don’t always get our spouse’s or our loved one’s approval about our choices. The best we can be is true to ourselves and ask for the loving support of those that love us.

Creativity is a stimulant to intuition.  Creative people often describe the source of their creativity as inspiration.  Highly intuitive individuals will often describe their source of insight as inspiration.  Stimulating your creativity is one way to develop your inspiration and intuitive abilities; therefore, receiving more messages about your healing from your inner well of wisdom.

For example, if you enjoy painting, you may find your painting becomes a source of understanding about the root of your illness or give you clues about what you need for ultimate healing.  You might find yourself painting the same tree in the background of most of your images, only discover the real life tree has medicinal qualities beneficial for your illness.  Or you may find a deep emotional trauma lies at the core of your emotional and physical pain.  Painting itself might help you identify and even release the trauma, freeing your emotions, mind and body to experience more physical freedom.

A colleague of mine, Ahna Cleveland, discovered her best healing modality and her life work by engaging her creativity.  As she joyfully creates, she frees her body from pain and creates wellness.  Her creative process is writing.  When her emotions become intense, whether happiness, anger, joy, or sorrow, she writes.  As she writes, her awareness transforms the feelings into an opening of profound spiritual revelation.  If she shares her writing with others, she has noticed a doorway of creation seems to open up so that her desires and the desires of the listener manifest very quickly.  The process has been so significant, she now shares the process itself with others.  Discover more about Ahna at http://www.openingenergy.com/

I asked her how her body responds to her writing.  After reflecting for a moment, she said, “Physically, my life becomes effortless.  Energy is flowing through me freely.  Stuckness and pain vanish.”  She then quoted one of her writings. “I give into my joy.”

Like Ahna, as your intuition develops, you will better recognize your spiritual gifts are and understand how to use them. Spiritual gifts often live very close to your natural talents, and sometimes you are suffering because you are not expressing or using your gifts.  The life force energy inside you becomes suppressed and emerges in physical challenges.

If the expression of your gifts seem outside your daily routine, you may not be using them simply because they are not yet a habit or part of your thoughts.  By stretching yourself through creativity, you get outside your self-made box, and touch new ways of experiencing life.  It might take a little courage, but following those impulses can increase your healing, and especially your ability to experience less pain.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to prime the creativity pump to your intuitive insights:

•    Do you currently have a creative outlet that you find allows you many minutes or hours free from pain or at least experiencing less pain, or more joy for life?
•    If yes, what kind of therapeutic value do you experience from that expression?
•    If yes, how often do you allow yourself to be in that creative expression?
•    If you don’t, what kind of creative expression would interest you?
•    If you allowed yourself to spend more time in creative expression, what would you be doing and with what frequency?

If you have always wanted to take a dance class, now is the time to do it.  If you have always thought you would enjoy making pottery, get started.  If you have been intrigued by the healing arts, such as Reiki, sound medicine, or dance therapy, as examples, go for it.  Creativity might best be expressed through gardening, fishing, cooking or any number of activities that genuinely inspire you. Your natural impulses, often buried behind practical considerations or fear of the unknown, are frequently guiding lights to what will help you heal and ultimately enjoy life.

Once you begin following those impulses, not only will the healing journey be more satisfying, but you are also likely to discover more about your purpose here on earth.  As you pursue your talents, you will be in greater communion with Spirit flowing through you—your natural access to intuitive insights.

By Misa Hopkins

Intuition is one of those elusive concepts that many of us know we should be using to enhance our opportunities for healing, but often, don’t quite know how to access. I remember a friend that had been a meditator for many years asking me how he would know when his intuition was speaking to him.

I was taken aback. I had assumed that because he had been an active meditator at one time in his life, that he would automatically be open to and recognize his intuitive wisdom, but that was not the case.

Because he did not have a relationship with his own intuitive insight, he spent countless hours researching about various allopathic and alternative approaches to the treatment of his medical condition, and made logical deductions about which of those treatments gave him the best chance of success—all without the benefit of his intuition.

I can’t personally imagine a more challenging approach. Had I been him, I would have been constantly wondering if I had made the right choice. When I base my decisions on good research and intuitive guidance, I don’t worry about whether or not my choice is right because: 1) I trust my intuition to put me on the right and best path for me and 2) I trust my research will show me how to get the most out of the path I have chosen.

Intuition can be profoundly subtle, and that is one of the reasons we miss its messages. Many of us have not been taught to recognize our intuition when it is speaking to us, so we can feel as though we are intuitionally challenged, and as a result, lean more heavily on our deductive reasoning.

Even if we do recognize it, if the message doesn’t seem logical, we may disregard it. Have you ever had one of those moments where you were arguing with yourself and finally chose the more logical course of action, only to discover later,that the part of yourself you were arguing with actually had a clearer picture about what was going on and what you needed to realize or do?

Whoever coined the words, “the little voice in the back of your head” did a great job of describing the subtle nature of intuition. It can be so faint that intuition can be very easy to dismiss. To get the intuitive message, you really have to become aware of the subtle responses your mind and body make in regard to questions, dilemmas and concerns about your health.

I’ve learned to really pay attention when I have a thought that comes up in response to a decision I need to make, particularly if it is counter to what I normally would choose. I really pay attention if that thought is persistent. And I pay extra special attention when my predominant thought or the little voice in the back of my head is having a visceral effect on my body. Those are signs of intuition trying to break through my habitual thoughts, assumptions, and sometimes, through my logical deductions.

Hunches, gut feelings, tingling, or a tightening belly, for example, are more tell-tale signs of intuition at work. By becoming a more astute observer of your subtle thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, you start recognizing intuitive insights.

Your awareness of intuitive messages gets stronger as you pay attention to how your intuition speaks through you. Act on your intuition, and you’ll notice the insights even more frequently because you will have developed faith in your inner wisdom.

By Misa Hopkins

Someone recently asked me, “As an intuitive, how do you make decisions about what medical or healing care to receive? When I’m not feeling well or I’ve had an injury, I just go to the doctor. How do you figure out what to do?”

No one had ever asked me that question. I really had to think about it. I made an agreement with Spirit many years ago that I would continue to strengthen my sound healing gift for the service of others. In return I expected that when I needed healing or medical help it would be obvious to me and the right help would be there at the right time.

That has held true. I either know I need to do my own healing work, or I know in an instant who I need to call or see for help. If the person I call doesn’t think they can help, they usually have the perfect referral.

Shortly after making the agreement, I remember tripping over a concrete block and falling on my hands and knees in a parking lot. Several of the women with me were Reiki masters and within seconds there were healing hands on me. Months later, I cut my finger deeply (deep enough to require stitches) as I was cutting vegetables, and the only healer in the house was me. So I sang the cut closed. Some years later when I had digestive problems, I knew I needed to see a friend of mine that is a Naturopathic MD. Within days, my problem was cured.

As long as I listen to my intuition and trust it, I’m fine. I’ve learned to pay close attention to my dreams because they often provide me with insights about what is going on in my body and/or what I need to do about it. I meditate and open my heart and mind to intuitive wisdom that guides me, and I do my best to avoid making any assumptions about what is going on and what I need to do until I have received clear guidance, and if needed medical assessment.

After listening to me go on for a while as I attempted to answer her questions, she finally piped up and said, “Oh, you do it like the rest of us, on a case-by-case basis.” Well, there you have it I thought.

Isn’t that what most of us do. If you bump your head, you have to decide whether it is serious enough to see your doctor or visit an emergency room, whether you want to give it some healing energy of your own, or whether you just want to put some ice on it to help take the swelling down. You assess the situation to the best of your ability in the moment and make the decision that seems best to you. Now that I use my intuition consciously, I simply add those insights into my assessment.

Where many of us get tripped up in the beginning is in learning to recognize and trust our intuition. It is there for all of us, but few of us have been taught how to access it for our own well-being. It is not difficult to do, but it does take awareness and practice.

To become aware of your intuition, I recommend that you reflect upon a time in your life when your intuition guided you to make a choice that was absolutely right for you. How did the insight come to you? How did you know it was true? What was it like to act on that hunch and witness the outcome?

How did you respond to that incident later? Did you think it was an accident? Did anyone tell you it was just a coincidence? Did you trust your intuition again or did you shut it down?

Watch for New Dream Foundation’s upcoming class on Intuitive Wisdom starting the end of August at http://www.NewDreamFoundation.com

Ask yourself, “How could I stimulate my intuition awake now?” Allow the question itself to become a quest for greater clarity in your healing journey.

waterfall1I used to be a master at overriding intuition that came from my psychic abilities. I would get a feeling about something, sometimes accompanied by one of those thoughts in the back of my mind about a direction or choice to make, and then I would logically make a case for taking a different course of action. Because I placed greater value in my logic than I did in my intuitive hunches, I persuaded myself to follow my logic.

What I eventually discovered was that my intuition was usually more accurate than my logic when it came to my healing journey.When I started listening to my intuition I actually started healing. My intuition told me to stop working before I became stressed and exhausted, while my logic wanted me to over-extend myself.

My psychic abilities provided me with intuition that guided me to healers and doctors that were truly able to help me in my self-healing, while my logic guided me to experts that didn’t know how to address my specific and unique issues. My intuition guided me to my healing gift—the sound medicine inside me—that I use successfully today for preventing and healing illnesses. My logic thought sound medicine was basically wishful thinking but not real.

Please understand. My logic is great!  When my intuition guides me to slow down and rest, my logical mind solves the problem of a day of commitments by re-organizing my schedule so that time becomes available.

When my intuition guides me to a healer, my logical mind will arrange events to get me there. When I’m guided to do sound medicine, my logical mind sets up the equipment and records the sounds. Logic is marvelous and necessary!

However, logic is not superior over intuition when it comes to healing. They both have their place and I need to make sure both of these abilities serve me appropriately if I’m serious about healing. In my own experience, overriding my intuition was frequently a detriment to my health.

So now, when my intuition calls, I listen and let my logic support my intuitive wisdom. How about you, do you follow your intuition?