If intuition is such a spiritual and reflex knowing, you either have the ability or you don't, right?
Wrong.
Just like exercise, learning to play the guitar or any other spiritual discipline, practice makes perfect.
Schools today focus on developing the mind, the spiritual aspects, such as intuition remain underdeveloped and therefor many of us lose it. Yet maybe you've noticed that the most successful people in this world have a secret weapon -- they're highly intuitive and trust their gut much more than pure reasoning.
Time to have some fun and develop the secret weapon in your own kids -- here are 10 easy and fun ways for you to start exercising that intuition today... (this is for grown ups as well as the kids in your life!)
Improve Your Intuition During a Routine Day at Home
by Nancy R. Fenn
- When the phone rings, guess who's calling before you pick up the phone.
- If a tool or article is missing, let it "come to you" while you go on about your business.
- Before you get the mail, decide on at least one item that will be in the mail.
- Guess what time your spouse, child or roommate will walk in the door.
- Guess what your spouse, child or roommate will be talking about when they walk in the door.
- Choose your clothes subjectively by wearing a color that will make you feel a certain way today.
- At any given time during the day, relax and try to guess exactly what time it is without looking at your watch.
- Think of a problem you are having that you would like guidance on. Stand perfectly still and see what changes first in your environment; i.e., dog barks, curtains blow in the wind, ambulance goes by, baby laughs, leaf falls to the ground, birds fly overhead to the left. Interpret this event symbolically as the answer to your question.
- Look out of focus at things in your environment for a few minutes throughout the day.
- Pretend you have never seen your spouse or child before and react to them that way -- courteously, curiously and cautiously
Hi Melissa
Thanks for another great article. I think I find myself doing quite a lot of those things throughout the day anyway and I am often surprised by the accurate results.
I am interested by your comment: "the most successful people in this world have a secret weapon — they’re highly intuitive and trust their gut much more than pure reasoning".
First of all, I would be interested to know how you judge a person is either 'successful' or 'not successful'.
Secondly, I would contend that there are many people who our society considers 'successful' who would themselves argue that they don't use intuition at all, and some who even doubt that such a thing exists. A very notable example is Richard Dawkins. I am not saying I agree that intuition does not exist. I am just saying that they appear to be successful despite not harnessing the power of intuition. So maybe there are lots of ways to be successful, and what works for one individual may not work for another.
I personally think that there is only one definition of 'success' that has any meaning. Are you happy now? If you answer yes, you are successful.
I have found that the quickest way to attain that kind of success is to completely accept who you are as an individual, to stop trying to change, stop trying to 'better yourself', stop trying to become 'more perfect', and just relax, smile and celebrate your life exactly as it is.
Maybe you are intuitive. Maybe you are not. It doesn't matter. Just accept who you are, here and now, and success is inevitable.
I just go with the dictionary's definition of "success" which is the "accomplishment of an aim or purpose."
I subscribe to the notion that people have a reason for being. Some may argue that "just to be" is the purpose, but I truly think that just being here, in this body without a reason or purpose is useless.
I think we are here to learn and experience and grow - that for me means to strive to be better than I was before, to contribute more and to be grateful for my life and everything in it.
So to answer your question, to me the most successful people are the ones that are accomplishing their goals or purpose - and honestly, I find those people to be the happiest people I meet as well.
Hi Melissa
Thank you for your response. I know an awful lot of people who are very goal-driven and are not happy at all. I was once one of them myself. Like Mick Jagger, who was extremely 'successful' when he wrote the famous song, they 'can't get no satisfaction'.
Every goal reached creates a short period of ego massage, but is quickly replaced by the need to satisfy another desire, and then another and another. It is an endless cycle of dissatisfaction. This is the madness that sees our species possibly on the brink of destruction as we exploit and destroy the environment that sustains us. With their minds continually focused in the future, like a dog chasing its tail, they miss life as it actually happens, NOW.
The happiest people I know work because they love the work they are doing. They have no need to set goals in the future. They have no desire to 'be someone' or 'make a name for themselves' or win a prize or save the world.
They do what they love and because they love it, they do it beautifully, to the best of their ability. Because they are focused in the moment, not in the future, they can give their full power and attention to what they are doing and therefore produce the best results they possibly can.
This very often leads to wonderful creation and achievement, but that is just a side-effect of doing work that they love and putting their energy into the work itself rather than some arbitrary goal or abstract notion of 'success'.
I return to your assertion that 'the most successful people in this world have .... intuition.'
I don't think you can justify that. Some people use intuition and achieve goals. Some people do not use intuition and achieve goals. Most people use a mixture of intuition and logical reason and achieve goals. Some people achieve a great deal without ever setting any goals at all.
Why not just let our children be who they are? If they are intuitive, let them use intuition. If they are more logical, let them use logic. If they are a mixture, let them use a mixture.
How can you justify deliberately developing one natural faculty over another? Is that not simply the opposite of the current education system which tends to favour reason and logic?
Peter, as always happens when I see you have posted a comment, I get this feeling of delight and dread all mixed together!!
Thanks for helping me to clarify my thoughts, which are often 1-sided as it's not always so easy to get everyone one of my opinions and thoughts together in a 800 word blog post. So let me try to clarify:
1. I am by my very nature, a goal-driven person, my mom will tell you stories of this from the time I was 2 years old. I love to work hard, play hard and I enjoy every minute of both! I feel like I have a purpose for this lifetime of mine (it's directly tied to this blog if you are wondering
) and I feel driven to work towards this purpose everyday. I think it is possible to be living in the moment while still having an idea of where you want to go and what you want to do with your life.
2. We obviously run in different circles!! LOL which is great because I love the diversity in this world! What we do have in common is that the happiest people we both know - Love what they do! I think that creation and achievement is often a by-product of doing what we love - whether it was planned that way or not.
3. I said that I think "the most successful people in this world have …. intuition.’ which needs no justification because it is simply my opinion based on my observations of life. I think that often people use their intuition with out even knowing it - making split second decisions, deciding to take a different route home, making a phone call to friend. Intuition can be for something simple or of huge importance...but why not learn to use? I believe it is a skill we all were given to help us out in our daily lives.
4. I agree that we need to let our children be who they are, but I also think it is our job as parents to give them the best "toolbox" possible with which to live their lives. You train kids to use reason and logic, why not intuition as well? Then when kids are equipped to use both, they will naturally choose which one best suits their needs for any situation (and will often use a mixture a both!)
5. To respond to your last question, I am not sure where I said any 1 natural faculty is more important than another, and if I did then I recant that statement! I think it is our obligation as parents to teach everything we can - develop our children's mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, social, musical, problem solving and energetic capacities so that they may live passionate, robust lives full of joy and learning and growth! I think our current concept of education is not serving our kids and that it is our job as parent to fill in all the gaps...
So Peter, thank you again for your post! I look forward to many more "conversations" with you!
M
Thanks for your reply, Melissa
I am pleased that you enjoy striving for goals. But is that not simply because you are doing things that you love? Why is the goal needed? When you do whatever work you love, something will be produced. Why do you need to decide beforehand what that something will be? Why not let things evolve and be created naturally?
Please tell me how you can be in the present moment and the future at the same time? Please explain to me how you can completely accept and love life exactly as it is and yet still want to make a plan for it to be different?
Here we are, one of us knows people who set and achieve goals and are very happy. One of us knows people who set and achieve goals and are not very happy and also knows people who never set goals at all and yet are very happy. So what does that tell us? Goal setting must not the deciding factor! There is no consistent correlation. It must be something else producing happiness.
I am suggesting that perhaps that 'something else' is simply doing what you love doing.
I do not train kids to use reason and logic. The education system in my country does. It also trains them to set goals and to 'better' themselves, to try to be 'top of the class', to not accept and love who they are, but to change, to become more 'more perfect', to fit in, to be more like this role model or that role model rather than to just accept, love and be their wonderful, unique and incomparable selves. It makes them learn a whole bunch of subjects that they are not interested in and thereby wastes time they could be spending doing something they are interested in. And thus it produces mostly monotone people who are jacks of all trades but masters of none, who fit in to society nicely, but are certainly not fulfilled.
We need to be careful not to replace this set of indoctrinations with another set. How can we possibly know what are the best tools to use in a future world which we can barely conceive? Of course we need to teach our children not to jump off cliffs or pick up hot coal, but beyond that, why not allow them a clean slate?
You have said yourself, children are all born geniuses. Why not just sit back and let them work out life uniquely for themselves and probably learn a hell of a lot from them ourselves in the meantime? Why not let them ask their own questions and discover their own unique answers or solutions, rather than handing down our attempts?
As far as intuition is concerned, I think it is not really a case of learning to use / not learning to use. I agree we should not encourage children to ignore intuition as traditional education does, but I think each child should learn / not learn to use whatever they want to learn.
Let them decide. Find out what they like doing and let them pursue that. If it is reason and logic then great. If it is intuition, also great. If it is a mixture, great as well. Children don't need to be taught intelligence. Intelligence is innate. It develops naturally as they solve problems on their own without anyone interfering or suggesting ready made solutions. Children just need to be left alone to use their innate abilities however they choose to. It is when we start interfering and intervening that things go awry and children start relying on 'taught' methods rather than naturally discovered methods.
You are right, you did say 'maybe you've noticed that the most successful people have ... intuition'.
Perhaps my initial reply could have more succinctly said, 'No, I have not noticed that.' Yours and everyone else's observations are of course just as valuable as mine.