Not long ago while hurriedly walking through a big box store of the home supply and hardware type, I was caught by surprise as a woman's voice said, "In this intuitive system...."
I stopped. Was I in a self help store instead? I looked right to see a woman on a tv screen informing passers-by of a nearby washer and dryer's capacity to intuitively determine what one's clothes need.
'Excuse me' I thought, 'Machines now have intuition when most folks don't even know what that means?'
Then I second guessed myself. Maybe most folks know about and use intuition and I'm the one behind. It's only in the past few years that I've really begun to pay attention to my intuitive self. And paying attention doesn't mean I actually follow what I hear.
I hurriedly moved on but this stayed with me. First I was struck by the language. I didn't know whether to be happy or dismayed. At least the general public is being exposed to the phrase 'intuitive system' as I suspect many folks walk through life unfamiliar with their bodies own personal intuitive system be it a gut feeling or inner voice. Maybe I should be pleased an appliance can be intuitive.
Then a random sci-fi thought zipped through my mind - What if machines become intuitive and ultimately save the day? This particular machine had the built-in capacity to 'listen' to my clothing. What if machines continue to develop this capacity to listen and use intuition while humans don't?
I made the above notes then tucked this little musing away but the greater mystery in my life made sure my intuition wasn’t going away. Within a couple of weeks, I noticed a billboard for the Nissan Rogue on a Nashville interstate. The Rogue has intuitive all wheel drive. The same week I got something in the mail from a retirement program with intuitive investing and then just last week I learned my new computer protection program has an intuitive component.
The emergence of the word intuition is especially interesting given the fact that so many women have through history suffered greatly for their intuition at the hands of the patriarchy. Women here and abroad were labeled witches and burned at the stake, stoned and drowned because they were intuitive. If we fast forward a few hundred years, it’s not been that long ago that women were called ‘crazy’ and medicated (and still are at times) for intuition expressed or repressed.
Much of my life I’ve not been a role model for following my intuition. I was recently telling someone about being told in a random moment to “Learn French.” There wasn’t another person in the room who said “Learn French” and it wasn’t my own voice, but as sure as I’m sitting here I heard someone inside me yet not inside me say the words, “Learn French.” I made a note of this but didn’t learn French. Months later an intuitive friend said to me, “Dawn, I’m being told to tell you to learn French.” She didn’t know why other than that’s what she was being told to tell me. Then months after that a neighbor one morning came running from her house as I walked past and called out, “Hey I’ve been meaning to ask you have you ever thought of learning French?”
I may be slow (ie.scared) but this did it. My neighbor and I enrolled in a five day course and I for a beginner with no foreign language other than Southern under my belt did well.
I thought that was it. I fulfilled the request made of me until the day months later a brochure arrived in the mail, a brochure promoting a trip to France. It didn’t take three brochures to arrive in the mail although I did sign up at the last minute. The good news is I went.
My intuitive experiences aren’t always this bold and big. Most times my intuition arrives subtly and quietly, with little nudgings and sensings that I need to look into something or do something. I don’t know the significance until I do whatever it is I’m sensing I need to do and many times even afterwards I don’t know in the moment why I did what I did. I do know I'm following bread crumbs or collecting pieces to a larger life puzzle.
Wednesday night was the perfect example. I had known all day I needed to go outside and sit under the moon because it might be raining come Thursday's full moon (and I hadn't checked the weather). I got on-line instead and spent over an hour reading, sorting and deleting emails. Ten o'clock neared and I was going to bed when I felt the nudge to go outside.
Instead of overriding the nudge, I put on a jacket, grabbed a towel and lay down on Mother Earth in the middle of my postage stamp sized city yard. As soon as I lay down I felt the vibes of Earth and Moon energy buzzing in my body. Even now writing of this memory calls up the sight of the moon in the Southern sky and the feeling I had. I lay there so very grateful I listened and followed rather than ignoring or resisting.
Fear and its kin habit and ignoring try to keep me from following my intuition. My brain wants to know if I learn French what’s next.
Intuition and the mystery say, “Trust.”
And that is the challenge. My safety-seeking brain and nervous system like to know what’s next and next and next. If I know what’s next, ten next steps out and know I’m not going to be burned, drowned or hung for doing what’s next then I’ll do what I’m told to do.
Yet this isn’t how Mystery, Spirit and the Divine work at least in my life. And ironically no one kills me but I kill me, who I came here and am called to be if I don’t listen and follow.
As I reflect on the four marketing references to intuition I’ve heard and seen, it’s interesting that although many women have disconnected from their intuitive selves because of the patriarchy’s control the word intuition is returning through systems (manufacturing, automotive, investing and banking) that have traditionally been male dominated.
I find it perfect these four references in the mainstream all speak metaphorically to some aspect of embodying and embracing the journey. The washer and dryer were referred to as an intuitive system similar to my body’s intuitive system. The vehicle conjures the image of the path traveled or life's road. The investing company represents my money earned by how I spend my energy. Will I invest energy in listening on an intuitive level? And my computer’s security system represents how much more really secure I am in terms of freedom from fear when I'm listening intuitively.
When paying attention and listening to my body’s intuitive system and investing my energy on what I sense I’m to do I experience the road traveled with a inner security that can't be taken from me.
How does intuition arrive in your day? Do you pay attention and listen or are you more like I've been, uneasy and wanting to know the next ten steps?
Imagine the Shift of discovering and following your intuitive self!
-Dawn, The Good News Muse 9 March 2012
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