The Intuitive Nature of Death

Death is probably the toughest thing to process. Witnessing the dying process of someone you care about takes up so much energy, there’s not much left for anything more than what’s absolutely necessary.

A good friend lost her fight with cancer last month, and I found myself thinking a lot about life and death; I also thought a lot about my father’s battle with cancer, which ended with his death five years ago. In both of those situations, there was a day when they knew they were going to die. You could hear the acceptance in their voices; you could see the resignation in their actions. I think dying is a very intuitive process. Those who are in tune with their bodies and their spirits just know that the time is near.

Both my dad and my friend talked about dreams they had of others who had passed before them; both talked of a different state of awareness at times during their final days. A great book that helped me understand that process when I was going through it with my dad was Final Gifts: Understanding the Special Awareness, Needs, and Communications of the Dying.

It was written by two hospice workers and it talks about that different state of awareness when a person is literally living between two worlds. It reassured me that he would be ok going through the dying process and afterward.

I did honor my feelings of sadness last month and this month. I didn’t feel much like blogging, so I didn’t. Now I do, so I am. I guess that’s what living intuitively is about.

Listening for the Little Things

Often we think of intuition as this sense that helps us to predict the big things: warn us of danger, tell us which job to pick, clue us in on the true motives of that person.

Last week, I couldn’t get the idea of a jigsaw puzzle out of my mind. When I was growing up, my family always had a jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table where any of us would sit down and work on it when we had a spare moment, sometimes together, sometimes separately. I’d forgotten those memories and how much I enjoyed the hours spent trying to figure out how the individual pieces came together to form an amazing picture.

After the idea of a jigsaw puzzle nagged at me for four days, I broke down, drove to Target and bought one. That very night I received bad news about a friend who’s been ill, who likely is living out her final days. Naturally, the news was devastating. But interestingly I’ve found a lot of solace through working on my puzzle. Doing so quiets my mind and creates a sense of peace in me.

It may seem trivial that my intuition was calling for me to get that puzzle last week, but I’m glad I listened.

Your Biggest Healthcare Advocate...

Nowhere is the power of intuition so evident as when you hear stories of people somehow ‘knowing’ they have some medical illness and getting treatment in time. Particularly when the marvels of medicine say everything’s ok.

Last week, my 92-year-old grandfather didn’t feel right, though he had just been to the doctor and been told that everything was ok. He wasn’t in pain, but “I just knew something was off,” he told me. He called my aunt and said he thought he should go to the hospital. Long story short, doctors told him that had he not come into the hospital he might not have been around to tell me that story.

About 11 years ago, Alice Soler had a clear mammogram, yet she had the feeling that something was wrong. So she told her doctor she wasn’t satisfied. Her doctor – who’s got to be commended for this – listened to her and ordered a sonogram. Turns out, Soler had breast cancer.

Today she’s a survivor and an advocate for others, but her willingness to listen to her own nagging feeling saved her life.

No matter how awe-inspiring the latest medical technology is, I don’t think it will ever be able to keep up with our bodies’ own inner knowing.

Titanic Premonitions of Doom

One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of stories of intuition seem to revolve around tragedies. I’m not sure if that’s because people’s intuition sometimes gets stronger in an attempt to warn them of impending danger or if people are just more likely to notice gut feelings of doom.

There were many fascinating stories of intuition surrounding the Titanic. A number of survivors and victims of the boat’s sinking confided to others prior to the trip that they had a bad feeling about it.

Among them: The Washington Herald in 1912 wrote an article describing how novelist Jacques Futrelle, who died on the Titanic, had a strong enough premonition two weeks before the tragedy to set up powers of attorney for his and his wife’s affairs.

Annie Ward, a maid who survived, told her mother she didn’t want to get on the ship because she was afraid something was going to happen, according to the Evening Bulletin.

Major Archibald Butt reportedly received a warning that he’d die on his trip abroad so he made a will before he left and settled his affairs.

The New York Times reported that George Quincy Clifford, who died in the wreck, took out $50,000 worth of extra life insurance prior to traveling.

You can read more stories of the Titanic premonitions here. Clearly something to think about.

What? No Burning Bush?

Since I’ve been writing this blog several people have felt compelled to tell me about their intuitive moments. (I enjoy hearing about them so keep them coming).

I’ve heard several stories of people thinking of someone the moment before that person called. I heard a story about someone knowing a relative would be stopping in unexpectedly from out of town. And I heard a story in which someone felt compelled to contact a former colleague and the conversation led to a job offer.

The interesting thing about all of these stories: they were so anticlimactic. There was no major defining moment, no overwhelming feeling of certainty, just a quick thought or a slight tug of interest. Nothing like the dramatic visions or terrifying dreams you see in movies like The Sixth Sense or television shows like Medium.

Maybe the people I know just aren’t that intuitive yet. But more likely, I think we often miss out on what our intuition is trying to tell us because we’re looking for something far grander. While some people may in fact have the heartstopping visions, I'll settle for the butterflies in my stomach or the quick thought that seems to pop into my mind out of nowhere.

I like the following advice from Meredith Self, a professional intuitive who teaches others how to work with their intuition. She says: “Drop the need for intuition to be a burning bush or great visions. Seriously. Not necessary and distracting for most people... Expect simple.”

Works for me.

Honoring the Instinct to Rest

It’s been a few days since I’ve written because I felt the overwhelming need to rest. I don’t know if it was the holiday weekend or the winding down of the summer, but my body felt tired and I could sense that burnout was on the horizon.

A couple of years ago, I would have kept going, ignoring my body and I probably would have eventually gotten sick – my body’s way of forcing me to slow down.

Researchers have proven what the body intuitively knows: According to studies cited in this article by Marie Claire, chronic work stress can be as harmful to you as smoking and not exercising.

So after listening to my intuition and taking last week off, this week I feel energized, creative and rested. It may seem like a simple concept to just listen to your body but so many of us ignore what’s right in front of us.

We often get caught up in the dramatic stories of intuition in action, such as my previous post on Jaycee Dugard. But intuition is about recognizing the little things that we need minute-by-minute and day-by-day. It’s not something that we can plan weeks in advance; it’s about acknowledging your needs in the moment and responding to them.

Intuitive Action Item: You’ve probably planned out much of your work vacation time but if you haven’t scheduled all of it, leave some days free for “intuitive health” days. You can’t predict when your body will intuitively need a rest.

How Intuition Saved Jaycee Dugard

Intuition played a role in another major news story. Last week Jaycee Dugard, who had been abducted 18 years ago when she was 11, was found and her captor, Philip Garrido, was arrested.

Just as intriguing as the story itself was one of the factors that led to Dugard’s discovery: the intuition of a police officer and a campus safety officer with the University of California, Berkeley.

Both women, upon meeting Garrido, felt that something was off. In fact, that feeling led police officer Allison Jacobs to call Garrido’s parole officer, which eventually led to the discovery of Dugard and Garrido’s arrest.

This story is a good example of how to use intuition. The two officers trusted their gut instincts and then did some research to see if they were right. It’s also interesting that it’s becoming more socially acceptable for people to talk about the role intuition plays in their lives. Hopefully it will inspire someone to speak up like those officers did when intuition throws up a red flag.

Lessons About Fear From an Acrobat

A friend mentioned today that the blog post he most related to was the one about fear. That wasn’t surprising to me. Having worked for years in a newsroom where I listened all day to CNN, I noticed that one of the things many media organizations do well is package fear and transmit it through their newscasts. In fact, the news coverage of the recession earlier this year made me feel so anxious that it got me – a self-professed news junky – to turn off CNN during the day and I haven’t turned it on regularly since.

I’ve also noticed that when people are afraid of something, they tend to act – or react – quickly and rashly. You’re afraid you’ll be destitute so you take a job that you never wanted in the first place. You’re afraid of being alone so you get involved in a relationship that you know doesn’t quite fit. You’re afraid you’ll lose your job so you take on extra work and let a boss mistreat you instead of looking for a better work environment. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve taken on a project or client I knew I shouldn’t have because I was afraid another client wouldn’t come along soon enough. I always regretted it.

There’s no way around it; fear blocks intuition so if you’re worried about something, you’ve got to find a way to calm down and slow down so your inner wisdom has the chance to come through.

Who better to know about fear than two acrobats who risk broken bones or worse when they swing and fly 25 feet above the ground? This article by Dancer Universe poses the question about how they manage fear. Here’s their advice:

---Focus on a successful outcome. The acrobats didn’t think about falling. Period. Don’t think about what can go wrong. Instead, visualize all that can go right.

---Remember successful experiences. The acrobats trusted their bodies because they had performed these daredevil stunts before. Think back to all the successes you’ve had. What makes you think this won’t be another one?

---Reduce the risk. The acrobats planned their routines and had safety precautions in place in case they fell. There are steps you can take to lessen a potential blow. If you could handle the worst-case scenario, why worry about it? It probably won’t happen and if it does, you can handle it!

Intuitive Action Item: One of my favorite movie lines of all time is from Gone With the Wind when Scarlett O’Hara said, “I’ll worry about that tomorrow.” Next time you feel the grip of fear, follow her advice.

Unleashing Intuition on the Job Hunt

Despite the constant news reports about how bad the job market and economy are, I know four people who’ve received job offers in the last week alone. A couple of them were actively job-searching and a couple were not. Conventional wisdom says now is the time to stay at your current job and be grateful to have it even if you’re doing something you hate.

I think differently.

While I don’t recommend that anyone just quit his or her job without a viable plan for making a living, I think you have nothing to lose by looking for a job that is a better fit regardless of the economy and whether you’ve recently been laid off or not.

In the spirit of job-hunting, I came across this article by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D., offering suggestions for using intuition to find that better job.

Among the advice:

---- Relax. If you’re worried about the economy, you’re operating out of fear and even if you do intuitively feel that a certain job or career path is right, you’ll ignore that because your rational mind will tell you it’s too risky or you can’t possibly make enough money.

----Assume the best. This tip will help you to relax. If you imagine the most dire economic situation befalling you, you’ll get anxious and, again, operate out of fear. But if you imagine that everything will work out in the end, you’ll be less tense and open to different opportunities.

----Don’t throw logic out the window. Yes this is a blog on intuition, but the reality is that during tough economic times, you want to use all of the tools at your disposal to get the best outcome so why not use your intuition and logic together?

Go ahead and brainstorm various options that feel right to you intuitively. At this point, give your intuition free reign. Contact any potential employer that interests you even if there’s no official job opening or the media is telling you the industry isn’t hiring or there’s any other logical reason that would keep you from even trying.

I recently felt very strongly about writing an article for a magazine that I’d never written for. However, through another writer, I learned that this magazine wasn’t using freelance writers anymore because of the recession. Now my logical mind told me not to waste my time but I sent off my idea anyway because I really felt like I should. I ended up getting the assignment.

Once you get a job offer, let your logical mind do the research to back up whether you’re making a sound decision in taking the job. Intuition isn’t based on economic trends or media reports so if you feel that urge to make a career shift, you may find an opportunity waiting for you recession and all.

When Intuition Throws You a Lifeline…

How many times have you heard someone say, “I knew I should have done this,” or “I had a bad feeling all along; I wish I had listened to it”?

Every so often you hear a story about how someone’s bad feeling got them out of a precarious situation or even saved a life.

Remember the crash in New York between a tourist helicopter and a private plane over the Hudson River this month? Apparently a woman named Paola Casali and her 13-year-old son had already purchased tickets to be on that helicopter. What stopped them? The 13-year-old had a bad feeling. Casali told the media that her son was jittery all morning and was scared to get in the helicopter. He even procrastinated in a Starbucks that day, causing them to be late and miss the fateful flight.

This story demonstrates to me intuition in action. Intuition isn’t dramatic where you see a burning bush or hear a voice shout down from the sky. It’s a bad feeling, a case of the jitters, a desire to procrastinate or put something off especially when you have no logical reason for doing so.

In less dramatic instances, I’ve had experiences when someone has wanted to hire me for a writing assignment or work on an editing project and even though the money might have been good, I’d get this sinking feeling or just not want to do the job. Once when I ignored this feeling, the client later declared bankruptcy and I never got paid. Another time, the job was a nightmare because the client kept changing her mind about what she wanted and the project dragged on for months.

Intuitive Action Item: Think back to a time when something didn’t go right and you knew beforehand that you should have taken a different action (we all have these experiences). By keeping your mistakes in mind, you’ll be more likely to make a different choice the next time your intuition sends out an SOS.

Coming Out of the Intuitive Closet

Since I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve been surprised by the number of people who have remarked to me about how they’ve been really interested in intuition and other metaphysical topics but never told anyone because they didn’t know how people would take it. I’ll admit that I, too, in the past have held my tongue about some of my interests and beliefs around certain people because I was afraid of what they'd think. Besides, there are a lot of misperceptions about intuition and similar topics.

But some of those who I thought wouldn’t be interested in intuition have surprised me, leading me to wonder just how many people are in the intuitive closet, so to speak.

Here are some signs that you’re in the intuitive closet:

---You’ve withheld from people in your life what you really think about religion, spirituality and matters of the soul.

---You have books that you wouldn’t leave lying around your house for everyone to see.

---You feel somewhat vindicated when certain metaphysical topics like The Secret go mainstream but you still keep the bulk of your beliefs to yourself.

---You’ve considered visiting a psychic or actually have visited one but you wouldn’t tell certain people about that.

---You’re avid fans of shows like Medium, the Ghost Whisperer and the X-Files, but you wouldn’t admit to someone that you think these shows are realistic and not so far-fetched.

Intuitive Action Item: I asked some people how they became more comfortable sharing their intuitive beliefs with others and came away with the following tips:

---Take a class on a metaphysical topic you’re interested in at a community college or holistic health center to find people who share similar views, reinforcing for you how normal your views actually are.

---Next time you’re in a bookstore, grab a cup of coffee and just watch how many people stop and look through the metaphysical section. You might even see someone you know.

---Start sharing little things, such as an experience you had following your instincts or an appealing concept from a book you read. When people don’t run away screaming, you’ll realize your views are acceptable and probably more common than you think.

Learning Your Own Intuitive Language

You can’t give someone a step-by-step guide to understanding how their intuition communicates with them because for everyone it’s different. A symbol could mean one thing to one person and another to someone else.

For example, one way my intuition talks to me is through car dreams. After having many of these dreams, I’ve learned that when I dream that I’m driving, I’m in control and handling a situation effectively. When I’m in the passenger seat, back seat or in some cases outside of the car entirely, I’m allowing others to exert too much influence in my life so I know I need to make some real-world changes. Likewise, if I dream that I’m driving and the brakes don’t work, I know that I’ve totally lost control of a situation.

I had coffee with a friend from college yesterday and she mentioned her fish dreams, which never fail to tell her when someone she knows is pregnant.

Because people’s symbols are different, I don’t think much of dream dictionaries and other attempts to attach a meaning to specific thoughts or dreams. The only way you can learn your own language is to pay attention to what happens after you’ve had a certain dream or noticed a certain gut feeling.

Intuitive Action Item: Get a notebook and start recording every dream, hunch, flash of insight or gut instinct that you experience. In doing so, you’ll start to notice what symbols keep showing up, as well as what happens in your life shortly thereafter. The more comfortable you are with your intuition’s method of communicating, the more success you’ll have in interpreting its messages.

Intuition or Fear?

One of the questions I’ve grappled with: How do you know if it’s your intuition and not just thoughts?

I came across this posting from The Art of Sensitive Living Blog that explains a few ways to tell the difference between intuition and fearful thoughts. A lot of it comes down to the way you feel when you’re experiencing the insight or the thought. Intuition tends to bring about positive feelings whereas fearful thoughts often make you feel bad.

--When you experience intuition, there’s often a feeling of simplicity, clarity and peace that comes along with the knowledge, even if it’s about an outcome you don’t desire. In other words, you’ll likely feel calm.

--When you’re experiencing fearful ego-based thoughts, you often feel confused, upset, and feel that you have to know more. If there’s an emotional charge with the thought, it’s probably not your intuition.

You can find more tips to accessing your intuition, here.

Intuitive Action Item: This week when you’re paying attention to your thoughts, also notice the way you’re feeling as you have them. Give more credence to those thoughts that are accompanied by feelings of calmness and peace.

A Novel Lesson

A comment to the post about imagination and intuition referenced the fact that fiction writers sometimes tap into future events. (Check out this blog post about how Edgar Allan Poe seems to have written about an event before it happened). As a fiction lover who is working steadily to finish my first novel, that thought really fascinated me.

I’ve often heard other writers talk about how they have no control over the plot; rather, they sit down to write and the characters come alive and take over the story. My logical mind thought that was a bunch of “caca.” I figured these writers were just trying to sound artsy. But I was wrong because my story does seem to be taking on a life of its own. In fact, a character that I intended to be a minor player came onto the canvas and I liked him so much that I made an entire plot adjustment to give him more action.

I don’t know whether I’m tapping into some future occurrence. (Wouldn’t it be great to create the characters we want to enter our lives and erase the ones we’d like to leave behind?) But the one thing this process is helping me to do is leave my logical mind at the door. When I started writing this book, I had this long outline that detailed what would happen in each scene. As I filled in the blanks, fleshing out my little blueprint, I started to become bored, and frankly, the book started to feel like a chore. And then one day I had an idea that differed from my outline and I went with it. Since then, I’ve veered so far off course from that outline that I have no idea where the book is heading – but the process has become a lot more interesting and alive.

Intuition works the same way. If we have to control everything, we don’t have the flexibility to adapt to a flash of inspiration. And if we’ve already planned out our every step, what’s the point of having intuition to guide us along in the first place?

Intuitive Action Item: Think of something you’ve created ‘a plan’ for. This might be a tough one, but scrap your plan. Just wing it instead and see what happens. It might turn out better than you thought.

Daydreaming: A Playground for Intuition

Even though I’m making an effort to consciously use and develop my intuition, I still struggle with doubts sometimes about whether the hunches I have are really my intuition or whether I’m just making them up. After all, I’m a writer who’s currently working on my first novel so it’s important for me to let my imagination run free.

But I’ve found that my imagination takes on different forms. Sometimes I’ll visualize or consciously imagine a desired scenario, a practice that has been long touted as a way to manifest a certain outcome. For example, athletes will often imagine themselves performing well and research has found that they do perform better after visualization.

Other times I’ll make up stories in my head about people and situations, a practice that is tied directly to my fiction writing. It helps me to stay creative and come up with plot twists and story ideas.

But in rarer cases, a scenario will pop into my mind unexpectedly. These are never long, drawn-out moments and there is generally not that much detail, yet there is clearly an element of imagination involved. During these moments I believe I’m witnessing intuition in action, or at least I’m close to it.

Daydreaming in any capacity is a merging of the conscious and subconscious minds, and since intuition is largely a subconscious practice, daydreaming can serve as a gateway inviting more collaboration between these two worlds.

Intuitive Action Item: I’ve decided to experiment with using my daydreams to spark my intuition. The next time I have a choice to consider, I’ll imagine how it will turn out and if the scenario I get is something I like, I’ll do it. If it goes poorly in my mind, I’ll say no. I’ll report my results in a later post but if you care to try it with me, I’d love to know how it goes for you. There's one caveat: Only try this if you're making a choice about something you've never done before. If you have a history with an experience, your memories will probably cloud your intuition. Either comment below or email me at theintuitivegirl@gmail.com.

Fake it ‘Til you Make it

Someone wrote to me about the last blog post, asking the simple question, ‘if I hear a certain song on the radio, how do I know it’s a sign and not just a song?’ My initial answer is that it’s a sign if it ‘feels’ like a sign – much of intuition is about taking your hunches and instincts at face value.

However, if you don’t yet trust your instincts, the only way you’re going to find out is to act as if it’s a sign and see what happens.

Chances are you’ve heard the saying, ‘fake it ‘til you make it.’ With intuition, the only way to start trusting it is to pretend you believe it even if you don’t, and then follow it to see whether your instincts were right.

Intuitive Action Item: For the rest of the week, pretend that you already know that the signs you get and hunches you have are all correct. Since you know they’re correct, you can do no wrong, so take action based on what they’re telling you to do. Keep a written record of what happens as a result of those actions.

Waiting for the Signs…

I’ve always been an avid fan of mysteries because I like looking for clues to help me figure things out. Maybe that’s one reason intuition appeals to me since acting intuitively often means looking for signs that you should take a particular course of action. Signs can come from anywhere. Sometimes you’ll be wondering what to do next and someone will call and casually suggest something that appeals to you. Or maybe a billboard will catch your eye, seemingly answering a question that’s been on your mind. Maybe you’ll even turn on the radio and the song that happens to be on has a special meaning for you.

This month, I was looking for a new doctor and I asked for a few recommendations. It turned out that one of the doctors was the relative of someone I had recently been thinking about from college. When a casual conversation with this doctor revealed that connection, I took that as a sign that he was the one.

Signs and synchronicity – a word coined by psychotherapist Carl Jung to describe ‘coincidences’ that actually have a deeper meaning and provide extrasensory guidance – can be tools in your arsenal of decision-making. I’m not saying that you ignore the facts or totally disregard logic, but I look at such signs as clues that I should consider something or maybe think twice about doing something else. External signs are particularly helpful when your emotions are involved because emotions can often confuse you, as the residue from your past tends to cloud the present.

When I’m torn equally between two paths, I make it a habit of waiting for a sign or synchronicity to provide what I take to be God’s input into the matter.

Intuitive Action Item: Instead of rushing into a decision, commit to waiting for a clear, external sign to push you in one direction or another. Expect that it can come from anywhere at any time. Don’t worry about missing out on the opportunity. The time spent waiting will give your emotions a chance to subside, and with a clearer head you’ll be more likely to recognize the path that’s the best for you.

Forget the Early Bird...

Maybe it's the warm weather or the (finally) sunny days, or maybe it's because I'd been doing a lot of running lately, but I've been instinctively feeling the need to rest. But intuitively speaking, that's not a bad thing since many people have been known to be the most creative or experience flashes of insight and inspiration when they're rested.

The problem is, in our society, rest is often misconstrued as laziness. We're taught that 'the early bird gets the worm' and we need to be always striving to reach the finish line – two concepts that often fly in the face of intuition. Our instincts may instead be leading us to be still and let someone else reach the finish line so that we can be ready to experience something different and better for us.

Periods of rest played a part in the success of some of our greatest thinkers. In fact, Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein are all known to have been proponents of adding naps into their day in order to feel refreshed and be more effective in their lives. While I'm not one that takes naps during the day, I've found that I feel a sudden burst of energy in the afternoons when I've taken a break and rested my mind from the constant thinking, interviewing and writing that make up my day.

Intuitive Action Item: For the rest of the week, take some time in the middle of your day to rest. It need not be a nap; it could be 15 minutes of doing nothing but sitting in the sun, taking a brief walk or reading a chapter from a book or a magazine (but it has to be leisure reading, not reading for work or for professional reasons). Take note of how the rest of your day goes, and whether you find, in fact, that the rested bird is really the one that gets the better treasure in the end.

The Body Knows Best

Every time you let a cold run its course, you're showing faith in the belief that your body instinctively knows how to heal itself. There's an amazing story published in the online medical journal Lancet that gives more credence to this belief.

In 1995, British doctors implanted a donor heart directly on top of a little girl's failing heart. The girl, named Hannah Clark, had developed heart failure and needed a transplant.

Ten years later, doctors were astounded to find that Hannah's heart had healed itself to the point where they could remove the donor heart. Douglas Zipes, a past president of the American College of Cardiology, told the Associated Press, "This shows that the heart can indeed repair itself if given the opportunity."

Hannah's now 16 and living a normal life, but her story proves that our bodies instinctively strive for wellness. It's our minds that sometimes get in the way.

Recognizing Your Body's Cues

While many people think of intuition as an emotional process, it can also be experienced as a physical sensation. Whenever I'm in a place I don’t want to be or around someone I dislike, I feel a tightness in my shoulders and chest, almost as if I can't catch my breath. On the flip side, when I'm in a comfortable setting around people I trust, I feel loose and totally relaxed.

Some people have nervous tics or gestures they make when they're in an uncomfortable situation. Others get goosebumps or feel the hair stand up on the back of their necks when in a dangerous or fearful situation. Still others experience a tingling or a feeling of warmth or cold dread depending upon whether they intuitively like or dislike a situation or experience.

All of these physical reactions are ways that your body is intuitively telling you something about the situation you're currently in. While everyone experiences intuition differently, your body language will be consistent with the way that it communicates with you. You just have to learn how to interpret it.

Intuitive Action Item: Have a conversation with one person you like and one person you dislike. Take note of the differences in your body language and the physical sensations you feel in each interaction to get a better understanding of how your body communicates with you.

Slowing Things Down…One Task at a Time

In my quest to live more intuitively, I'm making a conscious effort to slow things down. While I'm accustomed to doing multiple things at once like talking on the phone as I'm cleaning the kitchen and finishing up my bills, I've read that multitasking keeps us from being present in the moment where our intuition lies. There's also a lot of scientific research that shows that multitasking increases stress and makes us less efficient because it taxes our brains each time we switch from one thing to another. This article from the New York Times describes some of these studies, including the notion that our brains just aren't structured to concentrate on multiple things at once.

So for the past week, I've been doing one thing at a time. If I'm on the phone I stop everything and talk to the person on the other end. If I'm cooking, I'm 100 percent there. When I'm working, I focus on one project at a time and then switch to the next. The hardest thing has been ignoring email, checking it only once an hour rather than looking every time my computer dings to let me know a new message has arrived.

The first couple of days, I felt like I was moving in slow motion and was tempted to give it up. But by day three, I realized that I was actually getting more done and, surprisingly, I had more free time than I had when I was multitasking.

Intuitive Action Item: Spend the next couple of days performing one task at a time. It may feel counterintuitive at first, but give it some time and see whether you feel more refreshed and capable to handle the task at hand.

Summer Intuitive Reading....

One of my favorite summer leisure activities is sitting in the sun with a good mystery book, so in honor of the Fourth of July holiday weekend I thought I’d suggest a few of my fiction favorites in which intuition plays a key role in the storyline or plot.

--Victoria Laurie’s Psychic Eye Series: These books, in which the main character Abby Cooper uses her intuition to help her solve mysteries, are fun, easy reads. The storylines are enough to satisfy any mystery fan. Plus, Laurie provides a lot of insight into the way intuition works. If you’re interested in strengthening your own intuition, these books can serve double-duty.

--Kay Hooper’s Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series: Imagine if the FBI had a unit made up of intuitive special agents who used their intuition to catch serial killers and other criminals. That’s the world Hooper has created, giving suspense fans a realistic dose of the paranormal.

--James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy: This is more of an adventure story with an underlying mystery, and it’s one of my favorite books of all time. It marks the story of a man on an adventure in which he learns to live intuitively as he discovers nine insights into the meaning of life. However, the man finds that there are those who would do anything to keep the world from discovering those insights and that’s where the story gets interesting.

Intuitive Action Item: I’ll be periodically adding fiction and non-fiction books that deal with intuition on this site. If you have any favorites you think I should suggest, email me at theintuitivegirl@gmail.com. Happy reading!

How Intuition Inspired the Mac

The best testimonies about the value of intuition come from people who are unarguably successful. In this excerpt from a commencement speech at Stanford University given by legendary Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs a few years back, Jobs talks about following intuitive choices throughout his life that had no practical value at the time. Yet, years later, he would credit those choices with helping him to achieve monumental success as an entrepreneur.

He gives the example of taking a class in calligraphy during his college years. He didn’t think calligraphy would help him along his career path; he wasn’t considering a career in it. But something told him to take the class, and he did. Ten years later when Apple was designing the first Macintosh computer, memories of that class inspired him to create a computer that used “beautiful typography.”

Jobs also said that he didn’t know the importance of following that hunch back then; it took 10 years for him to understand – and reap the benefits of – going with his gut.

Intuitive Action Item: Refrain from coming up with a reason to do something you have the urge to do. As Jobs discovered, intuition is about acting even if you don’t know why: “You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future,” he said. “You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”

Michael Jackson's Intuitive Nature

The mass appreciation being expressed for Michael Jackson in light of his death got me to thinking about his contributions to music and pop culture. But it also made me think about Michael’s unique nature, which sometimes manifested itself in what society would consider to be ‘bizarre’ behavior.

I believe intuition and creativity come from the same place. In order to be creative, you have to go within and be willing to turn left when others would turn right. Being creative means being willing to express ideas and take actions that feel right to you even if others find them strange or eccentric.

While Michael may have had his missteps I think part of the reason he was a musical genius is because he was willing to make choices that he understood even if the rest of the world didn’t. I’ll never understand why he chose to transform his appearance so drastically or spend so much time with a chimpanzee named Bubbles, but those actions obviously made sense to him and he clearly didn’t listen to public opinion or else he would have acted in a more ‘normal’ manner. But on the flip side, had he been unwilling to follow his own rules, Michael may not have taken the artistic risks that led him to be a trendsetter in music, dance and fashion. (A friend of mine is wearing sequined socks today as a tribute to Michael’s unique look).

At some point, anyone committed to living intuitively will have to choose between doing what’s considered ‘normal’ and doing what feels right. Let the extraordinary success of Michael Jackson be a testament to where following your own path could potentially take you.

Intuitive Dreaming

You may have heard stories about people crediting dreams with providing some type of insight into their lives or even in some cases premonitions about the future.

---For example, horror writer Steven King credits dreams with giving him the inspiration for some of his novels.

---It is said that scientist Albert Einstein first got the idea that led to the Theory of Relativity in a dream.

---There are also stories that former president Abraham Lincoln dreamt about his own assassination.

A recent study described in this BBC News article supports the notion that dreams can provide information not readily accessible to your conscious mind. The University of California San Diego gave a group of volunteers some creative problems to solve. Some of the volunteers were told to stay awake to solve the problem while others were told to take a nap. The ones who napped improved their problem-solving ability by almost 40 percent.

Sure, a rested mind works better, but scientists conducting the study came to another conclusion, suggesting that during the stage of sleep in which dreaming takes place, you’re better able to integrate new information with past experiences. In other words, your subconscious mind can identify patterns and reach conclusions that your conscious mind simply can’t. It’s not rocket science, but do you take advantage of your dreams and the rich source of knowledge that they possess?

Intuitive Action Item: If you’re unsure about a course of action, write your question down before you go to bed and let your subconscious mind wrestle with it while you sleep. When you wake up, write down whatever you remember from your dream. Even if you don’t remember your dream, ask yourself how you feel about the situation and see if you’ve had a change of heart.

Noticing What You Notice

Accessing your intuition isn’t something you have to try hard to do. You’re constantly getting hunches and feelings about things, but you may be conditioned to ignore them. Or you may be so distracted by what’s going on around you that you’re not aware of what you’re thinking or feeling in the first place.

One way to become more in tune with your own thoughts and feelings is to limit your outside distractions. In other words, maybe you turn the tv or radio off and cut out the background noise so you can hear yourself think. Another suggestion is to simplify. When you’re multi-tasking, you’re probably thinking about a lot of different things so it’s harder to pay attention to any particular thought.

According to Laura Day, author of Practical Intuition, one of the keys to accessing your intuition is noticing what you notice. In other words, just pay attention to your thoughts and what catches your eye and you’ll begin to realize that your hunches were right or you’ll discover that you’d sized up a situation accurately even before you knew all of the details.

Intuitive Action Item: This article from ScrippsNews has some good tips for accessing your intuition. Among them: The next time your mind wanders, instead of pulling it back to the task at hand, see where your thoughts end up taking you. Another tip is to take a walk and notice what catches your eye, as well as what thoughts are conjured up in the process. You may find that inspiration is ready to strike once you’re ready to listen.

Procrastination: Intuition at Play?

I’ve often heard people come down hard on themselves or others for putting off a certain task rather than getting it done right away. While I’ll admit there are times I put off overwhelming tasks like cleaning out a closet, other times I’ll avoid doing things that will only take a few moments of my time if I just buckle down and do them.

But is procrastination bad? When you feel hesitant to do something, sure it may just be laziness, but could it also mean that on some level you know you’d be better served waiting it out? Last year, I planned a trip to visit a friend who lives in the Virgin Islands and I noticed that I was dragging my feet on buying my plane ticket. I wasn’t dreading the trip; on the contrary, I was looking forward to it. Ironically, my procrastination ended up working out in my favor since the friend had to leave town for a family emergency at that exact same time.

I once worked with a writer who procrastinated for years in finishing a novel. However, when she finally finished it and sold it to a major publishing house, her agent informed her that the part of the novel that was inspired by a recent event was what the publisher liked most and what led to the sale. Had this writer not procrastinated in finishing her novel, the part of the book that fueled the sale would not have been in there.

Intuitive Action Item: Next time you want to put off making that phone call, following up on that business contact or finishing that project, instead of forcing yourself to do it, honor your resistance. Give yourself permission to wait a couple of days and ask yourself why you’re reluctant to move forward. You may find that your actions yield better results at a later time or that the action is one you’d be better served not taking.

Can't the Heart and Head Get Along?

Go with the heart or go with the head? It’s an age-old question and Women’s Health magazine attempts to answer it this month with an interesting article about determining when to use intuition and when to refer back to logic. According to the article, with some decisions – such as deciding which job candidate to hire or whether to quit your job and move to another country – you should definitely use logic, while when making other decisions, such as getting a second medical opinion, you should use your gut.

My question is, why not use both? Every day we use our sense of sight, hearing and smell to form perceptions about people, places and experiences. We don’t choose to use our eyes to make some decisions and our sense of touch to make others. Intuition is no different than our other senses in that it provides information to help us make the best choices in life so why not use every tool at our disposal? When examining the pros and cons, why not slip your gut feeling into the equation to be considered a factor just like everything else?

Intuitive Action Item: The next time you find yourself confused about a situation you find yourself in, ask yourself what you feel about what you’re experiencing and see whether the thoughts that come to you shed more light on what’s really going on.

If It’s Not a Definite Yes, Then It’s a No….

Once you decide to start living life intuitively and from a self-directed place, you’ll undoubtedly run into a situation in which you’re being internally guided to do one thing and the people around you want you to do something else. If you’ve always approached life looking to please others, they’ll likely expect you to continue doing so and you may be tempted to give up your quest to live life on your own terms just to avoid confrontation.

How do you know when you’re doing this? When you say 'yes' to something, yet you cringe when you think about it, feel a tightness in your stomach or dread the upcoming experience, that’s your intuition screaming for your attention. Or maybe you’ll look for an excuse to get out of the event or passive-aggressively show up late because you really don’t want to be there.

Instead of going through all of that, learn to say 'no.' In fact, it’s important to get comfortable saying ‘no’ if you’re going to live a life from the heart since your heart is focused on your journey and not everyone else’s.

Check out these tips from FirstOurselves.com on drawing your line in the sand. Among them: Demand advance notice from people who demand things from you, come up with specific times when you can help people out (and stick to them) and practice saying ‘No’ without giving any reason at all.

Intuitive Action Item: The next time someone asks you to do something and that feeling of dread comes over you (don’t worry, it won’t be long before this happens), take a deep breath and say ‘No.’ If that’s too difficult, say you’d like to, but you need to check your schedule and get back to them. When you realize that the world won’t stop if you’re not at everyone’s beck and call, it will get easier to follow your own whims for a change.

Intuition Saved You How Much?

I’ve been getting some emails and twitter updates from people sharing some of their experiences with intuition and I thought I’d post a few.

Pandzz, who’s blogging about her experiences with synchronicity, writes: “I used my intuition today-got my hotel via hotels.com; something told me to check the hotel's page and I did and saved nearly $150.”

Otesa Middleton Miles, who writes newsletters, pharmaceutical marketing materials and other items for numerous companies and associations, reports: “Last week I was thinking about a Mexican restaurant I used to go to regularly. The next morning, I awoke to an email from the co-worker I always went there with. She googled me, said I'd been on her mind. We hadn't talked in years.”

Finally, a third reader, Florence from South Carolina, writes that she dreamt about a friend she hadn’t talked to in months. In the dream, the friend was crying. When she woke, Florence called her friend up to find that the friend’s daughter had been rushed to the hospital the night before but was now doing fine.

Intuitive Action Item: I’ll be posting readers’ experiences periodically so if you’ve got a story about how you’re making intuition work for you, drop me an email at theintuitivegirl@gmail.com or send me a tweet at http://twitter.com/intuitivegirl.

Habits You Should Break….

One thing that can stifle your intuition is habit. If you do the same things in the same order every day just because you’ve always done them that way, you may begin to rely on your memories about those things rather than how you feel about them today. You may have enjoyed your job, a hobby or even spending time with a certain person once, but do you still feel the same way or are you just going through the motions because that’s what you’ve always done?

Think about a route that you travel frequently. It could be your path to work or your child’s school, or maybe it’s the way to the grocery store. Do you notice the changes in scenery along the way, such as the house being painted or the For Sale sign that just went up? Or do you simply drive to your destination on auto-pilot relying more on memory than observation since you’ve made this trip so many times you could do it in your sleep?

When you take a new route or go someplace you’ve never been before, your memory can’t help you so you’re naturally more observant and you pay more attention to your surroundings and how you feel about them.

Intuitive Action Item: Next time you get ready to make that routine trip, go the back way, or turn on your GPS and have it provide an alternate route. Instead of thinking that you’re going out of the way, use the experience to stimulate your power of observation in the present moment.

Don't Get Caught Up in Words

Someone made the comment that the notion of intuition is more likely to appeal to women than men because women are more intuitive by nature. Men, on the other hand, rely more on logic than feelings. I thought about this, and while I know plenty of men (and women) who feel more comfortable dealing with facts and reasoning, I wondered if this person wasn’t getting more caught up in the language and missing the bigger picture.

I don’t agree that women are more intuitive than men. While the phrase ‘women’s intuition’ implies that women have this special ability to know things, I’ve heard many men describe some of their choices as being gut decisions. In fact, when I looked up intuition in a thesaurus, I found several words that people use regularly that describe intuition, some of which seem to be more acceptable to logical folks than others.

Instinct, inspiration, hunch, perception and discernment are just some of the words that describe intuitive moments – when one goes beyond logic to assess a situation. Some people feel more comfortable crediting their intuitive decision-making to a hunch, or saying they’d been inspired to turn left when everyone else was going right. Others say they were following their heart rather than their head – another way to express the notion of being inwardly guided, rather than depending on external logic.

Intuitive Action Item: If the word ‘intuition’ conjures up the notion of a special power that certain people have (or don’t have), or if it makes you feel uncomfortable, that may be blocking you from trusting some of your decisions that aren’t based on logic. Replace that word with a word or phrase that may be a little less loaded for you whether it be instinct or even divine intervention. Whatever you call those moments, don’t let the words stop you from acknowledging the experience of marching to the beat of your own drum.

Mindfulness Matters

One of the keys to living intuitively is being present and staying in the moment. That means practicing mindfulness – or being aware of every thought, feeling or sensation that you experience.

Mindfulness not only teaches you to recognize the subtle changes in your mental and emotional landscape, helping you note, for example, the exact moment the mood in the room changed. But it also helps to relieve stress, according to a study done by West Virginia University. That’s not surprising to me: When my father was dying of cancer, it was mindfulness that gave me a break from the anxiety and fear I constantly felt because when I was truly in the moment, everything was ok. It was the future that seemed so scary.

Intuitive Action Item: If you’re trying to learn mindfulness, such exercises as yoga, meditation and tai chi can help you get there because they quiet your mind. Or you can try something as simple as one of the exercises that study participants used. They took their time when eating a raisin. Rather than gobbling it down, they studied it, took in its aroma (who knew raisins even had a scent) and slowly savored the taste, forcing their minds to focus only on that raisin rather than the distractions going on around them.

If you’re not convinced learning mindfulness is worth the time, consider this: The study’s lead investigator Kimberly Williams told CNN that after the experience, participants "had significantly less daily hassles, psychological distress and significantly fewer medical symptoms."

Monkey See, Monkey Do...

A friend made the offhand comment that she wished she could be more like her dog Rex, in that Rex spent his days doing precisely what he wanted to do, whether it be running and jumping or puttering around the house. She was joking, but it got me to thinking about animals and how they aren’t encumbered by logic and use their instincts to not only get by, but to survive.

After the tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands in Sri Lanka and India in December of 2004, National Geographic reported of the many eyewitness accounts made by those who saw animals in those areas react and flee to higher locations moments before the tsunami struck. According to National Geographic, elephants screamed and ran for higher ground, dogs wouldn’t go outdoors, flamingos moved out of low areas and zoo animals rushed into their shelters. It was as if those animals sensed danger was coming.

Some scientists chalk it up to the fact that animals have to be more alert than humans because their worlds are more primitive and dangerous, so they recognized that something was amiss moments before disaster struck. But that’s precisely what it means to be intuitive. You’re alert to your feelings about whatever situation you find yourself in, and act based on those feelings whether that means leaving a crowded venue because you feel uneasy about being there, or confiding in someone you just met because you instinctively know you can trust them.

Intuitive Action Item: Next time you see an animal, watch how it responds to its environment. It’s alert to sounds and movement and when it senses danger it runs. That might seem like a simple notion, but how often do you simply act based on your gut urges without stopping to think about what you should do next?

It's Really Nothing New...

When I first started this blog, I wondered if people would think it was a stretch to approach life intuitively, living moreso according to one’s internal sense of knowing rather than using logic or always doing things the way we’ve been taught. But the e-mails I’ve received in the last week have made me realize that a lot of people are already living intuitively in some areas of their lives, even if they haven’t consciously identified that that is what they are doing.

One person said she realized she felt stifled working 9 to 5, which was one of the reasons she became an entrepreneur. Another said he applied intuition to his job in sales; he has hunches about which potential customers to approach and nine times out of ten that person ends up making a purchase. Another e-mailer uses her intuition when she cooks. She just knows what spices and herbs to use and she says her family and friends can testify that the end result is always a tasty one.

When we think about the many times we’ve instinctively known the answer or the areas of our lives where we trust our sense of what we know, it’s easier to trust ourselves when we’re not so confident about the outcome.

Intuitive Action Item: Think about areas of your life in which you’re already living intuitively. These will be the areas of your life that just seem to flow and where you’re most confident in your ability to excel. In doing so, you’ll find that intuition is already working for you, and while you’re at it, drop me an e-mail because I’m interested in hearing what you find.

What’s Luck Got to Do With It?

Living intuitively means letting go of control and being open to new experiences, opportunities and ways of doing things. A self-professed control freak, I’ll admit I’m having a little trouble with that aspect of it, but evidence mounts that I should stop focusing so hard on life’s destinations and pay more attention to the ride.

A psychologist did a study in which he compared the practices of those who considered themselves to be lucky with those who believed they were unlucky. What he noticed: Unlucky people were more tense and tended to focus on achieving specific results, which led them to miss unexpected opportunities. In other words, I’m so consumed with impressing my boss at a business lunch that I ignore the person sitting next to me who had actually mentioned a job opening that would have been more in line with my goals.

Lucky people were more relaxed and open to new and different experiences. As a result they were better able to see opportunities that were there, rather than miss out by seeing only what they were looking for.

Intuitive Action Item: Next time you go to a business meeting or social event with a goal in mind, make a conscious decision to notice something interesting about everyone you talk to. You’ll pay more attention to the moment and might be surprised by what luck comes your way.

The Secret to Oprah's Success

Some people think of intuition as being the stuff of psychics and gypsies gazing intently into crystal balls but in reality, such successful business people as Oprah, Bill Gates, and Donald Trump have credited intuition with helping them make profitable decisions, says Larry Dossey, author of The Power of Premonitions.

Intuition, Dossey explains, is when you know something instinctively without needing logic, analysis or evidence to back it up. It’s sensing that a new product line is going to be a hit even if the ones before it failed. It’s feeling that a layoff is around the corner even if your boss says things are going well. It’s having a suspicion that someone is lying when they swear they’re telling the truth.

Everyone has had those moments when they had a good or bad feeling about something, but people like Oprah, Gates and Trump acted on those instincts even when they went against popular logic. As a result, they often came out leading trends rather than following them. The U.S. auto industry is in shambles partly because automakers failed to see what was around the corner; they didn’t anticipate the shifting needs of their customers in a changing world. I wonder how many auto execs are now kicking themselves for not paying attention to intuitive guidance.

The Best Way to the Wrong Choice

I always pay attention to my first impressions. I don’t always follow them, but when I don’t, I typically come to regret it. While I’ve been advised to come up with lists of pros and cons before making decisions, I find that doing so causes me to go back and forth and think about something so much that my mind goes into a sort of overdrive and I end up doing nothing.

Now it seems that science is starting to question the value of those lists when it comes to decision-making. According to researchers with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, when decisions are simple, making lists and thinking it through may be the best way to choose a course of action because there isn’t that much to consider. But when decisions are complex, your rational mind can’t take in as much information as your intuitive mind can, putting your logical mind at a disadvantage.

Even more interesting, the researchers say your list-making can actually lead you to make the WRONG decision. You may consider certain bits of information to be more important than others leading to faulty reasoning and bad choices.

Intuitive Action Item: While you may not be ready to throw away your lists completely (I still go back and forth on that), check in with your gut and put your first impression in either the Pro or Con column. In time, you’ll see if your first instinct was right, making it a low-risk way to test whether your gut is in fact leading you in the right direction.

Breaking the 9 to 5 Rhythm

I was telling someone about my blog and she asked me how often I intended to update it. My first thought: Mondays through Fridays since those are workdays. But then I stopped myself. If I'm truly living intuitively, should I force myself to set up rules to determine how spontaneous I can be? Maybe - like today - I'll feel like writing on a Saturday. And maybe on Tuesday I'll feel like reading a book in the park.

Studies have shown that everyone has an internal method of timekeeping and this inner clock controls our Circadian Rhythms or changes in mental and physical activity throughout the day. Some studies, such as this one from the International Journal of Value-Placed Management, suggest that the changes in our personal rhythms affect how efficient we are at different times. For example, if you're a morning person, you'll be most efficient if you get your work done early, while afternoon and evening people will be most productive at the end of the day.

So the 9 to 5 workday, Monday through Friday, might be intuitive for someone who's Circadian Rhythms happen to coincide with it, but for many of us, sticking with a 9 to 5 schedule is like swimming against the tide. While everyone can't go into work and demand a different schedule, many employers are open to flexible hours. Also, many of us who've been laid off or are now working for ourselves as consultants have the ability to consider our ideal work schedule as we consider future opportunities.

Intuitive Action Item: Spend the next couple of days paying attention to when you have the most energy. Is there a time of day when you feel most alive or have the urge to get things done? That's your body's way of telling you it's ready to work, or it's up for the challenges and tasks you need it to perform. Likewise, when do you feel sluggish or have the desire to take a nap? Instead of shrugging it off to the fact that you should have gone to bed earlier, think about whether you can instead adjust your day to accommodate your internal timeclock.

That will be your first step in acknowledging that when it comes to your life, you really do know best.

Fighting My Ego

Anyone who has ever attempted to live life intuitively knows your biggest obstacle is yourself. This morning, I woke up pumped with excitement about living authentically -- viewing life as an adventure that will take time to unfold. I signed up with Twitter -- follow Intuitive Girl's updates throughout the day at http://twitter.com/IntuitiveGirl.

And then, my ego reared its ugly head. Why was I wasting precious time this morning wondering how I can get followers on Twitter when I should be coming up with ideas for my editors about how small businesses can run more efficiently and how people can keep their jobs in a down economy. After all, that's what I'm known for. Why mess with what has been working?

But was it really working? I don't know, I've been bored with my work for a while and feeling like everything about it was pointless. And the economy falling apart tells me that a lot of things people have been doing in life aren't working, which means the articles magazines and newspapers have been putting out year after year are no longer relevant. So why not try something different? Yesterday a friend and mentor who is a spiritual life coach (http://visionsoftheheart.org/VisonsoftheHeart.htm) told me to just write and see what happens. It's scary, but with so many industries breaking down and so many systems no longer working, I guess now's the best time to jump off the sinking ship. Into the deep end.

Intuitive Living

I didn't expect to start a blog, but it fits into my new desire to live intuitively. All around me, I'm seeing and feeling the breaking down of a world that didn't work. Where people lived for money and prestige yet felt empty and unfulfilled. Still, the money and the greed and the debt and the fear kept them chained to the jobs they hated, the relationships that smothered them and the habits that numbed the boredom.

I'm a journalist who has been writing about money and business and careers, but I never wrote stories about what I really think, such as that budgets are limiting and goals inhibit us from letting the lives we really want unfold. Since the economy has taken away some of my business, I've decided not to simply replace lost clients with more of the same. Instead of writing the same stories over and over again I'm going to incorporate my intuition into my writing, just as I change my life so that it is controlled by the inside out instead of the other way around. I'm going to write about living from the heart and how people can learn to listen to their own ideas and feelings -- and trust them. I'm going to write about the world I see, as well as the world I only know to be there, where spiritual guidance helps us along the way.

I'm going to spend some time living intuitively, writing about living a more holistic lifestyle and basically letting my life lead me to the destination IT wants me to reach. Follow my journey or, better yet, join me!