Have you ever wondered, is this actually my intuition…or is it my ego leading me down a path of fear, self-doubt, etc?
To answer this, we need to take a super brief detour and look at what intuition really is (beyond all the buzzy hype).
The intuition is a bit like your sense of hearing or sight. It’s a way of taking in information and translating into an understandable form.
In fact, the five senses are often one of the pathways used by the intuition to help translate otherwise unknowable information into graspable messages.
You’ve likely heard of the “clairs,” the different forms intuitive messages can take, such as clairaudience (psychic hearing), clairvoyance (psychic seeing), etc.
The intuition is like the “master sense” that makes all of these different flavors of intuition possible.
And what is the intuition sensing? Unconscious material.
If it was conscious, we wouldn’t need the intuition to sense it. It would be the plain-to-see text and not the subtext.
All of us have intuition, but where things can go awry is in the little, often-imperceptible space between the arrival of the intuitive message…and the stories our ego begins to spin out in response.
Most of the time, we’re not aware of the tiny gap that exists between message and story, and instead, they glob together into one (confusing) inner experience.
Perhaps we walk into a room of people, and something feels off.
That’s our intuition.
But a split-second later, our mind jumps in and begins to churn out thoughts and stories about why it feels off, what should we do, maybe these people don’t like us, and on it goes.
Amidst all of the mental chatter, we lose sight of the intuitive message: something feels off in this room.
To begin recapturing more of that space between inner message and story…
…what I like to call the Pause of Power, try this practice:
When you notice your intuition lighting up, take a moment.
First, note what you felt before any of the thoughts kicked in. Excitement? Trepidation? Dread? Desire?
Don’t worry if you can’t explain it–just name it.
Now, see if you can identify the thoughts that arose in response, and when you do, reframe each one as follows.
Let’s say you heard the thought, “I think Chun is irritated with me.”
Reframe it as: “I have a part who thinks Chun is irritated with me.”
See if you can get a sense of this part right now—can you visualize or feel in your body this part who believes Chun is irritated with you?
The simple act of trying to see this part requires you to step out of the part, to create a space between You and the part who is carrying this thought.
You’re no longer a person who is synonymous with the thought of Chun being irritated.
You are the You who’s aware of this thought.
See if the part can feel your watchful presence, and breathe into your heart space, connecting with a little curiosity or compassion toward this part.
Repeat this process with any other thoughts that arose.
For instance, if you noticed the worry, “What am I supposed to do right now?” Reframe it as, “There’s a part of me who’s wondering what to do right now.”
The You who remains, after you’ve “disrobed” from any parts who’ve stepped onto the stage of the ego, is your capital-S Self.
This is the Self who is one with the intuition, who simply knows what it knows without endless inner debate.
If you practice coming into this Self by stepping out of whatever ego parts appear, now you can be present with them—for example, the part who’s worried about what to do.
This presence, in and of itself, is healing and makes room for wise insight.
You don’t need to fix these parts or make them go away; you simply need to be present with them from the Self.
Can you hear what they’re saying without becoming them?
When your parts feel the presence of the Self, when they feel lovingly seen and heard…
…they begin to feel safe enough to drop their rigid, one-size-fits-none reactions to life. And in the calm that remains in the absence of this frantic activity, you can truly hear your intuition.
Today, and in the days to come, keep practicing this process of “disrobing” from the various parts by reframing your thoughts.
Create a little helpful distance between the Self and the ego, and see what your intuition has to say in this space.
One more thing…
As a (major) bonus, when we stop relating to our inner parts as issues that need fixing, something remarkable happens.
We begin to understand that these parts are aspects of our Self that have been temporarily cut off from the whole, and it’s this rejection that is causing our pain and confusion.
When we’re able to be present with these parts from the Self, they no longer feel like—and they no longer are—a problem that needs to be fixed.
You are not a problem that’s meant to be fixed.
You’re an amazingly fluid dynamism that’s meant to be experienced.
And you do this…by staying curiously present with whatever arises.
Here’s to wholeness.
Happy Equinox!