Many of my readers are familiar with my spiritual teacher, mentor, and friend Kathryn Harwig. She recently wrote a piece that is a very common-sense, down-to-earth expose on intuition. I liked it so much I asked her permission to reprint it here:
Recently someone asked me, “How do I know if the information I am getting is coming from my intuition or from my own self talk?” This is a very good question, and one that everyone who is serious about being intuitive needs to ask on occasion. It is a challenge to be intuitive about yourself and most of us find that it is far easier to give someone else a psychic reading than to give ourselves good intuitive advice.
Why? Because our own hopes, dreams, worries and fears tend to get in the way of our hearing our inner psychic, at least when we are asking for information for ourselves. Many people solve this dilemma, at least in part, by consulting with other psychics. But, we also want and need to use our intuition to make our own lives better. So, it is necessary, I think, to be able to distinguish the voice of our inner self talk and the quiet voice of our intuitive wisdom.
I attended a talk once where the speaker said that our unconscious mind was unable to hear the word “Not”. Her point was that when we make affirmations such as, “I do NOT want to be fat”, our unconscious mind only hears, “I am fat.” I don’t know if this is true or not, but, upon reflection, I realized that my intuition almost never uses the word “not.”
I will hear, for example, “take this route to work” rather than “do NOT take your usual route”, or, “make this telephone call” rather than, “do NOT call this person.” My “tips for better living” mind, on the other hand, is always telling me what not to do. Thus, when I hear advice about what not to do, I am generally certain it is coming from the part of me that is fearful about something, rather than my intuition.
Another way I differentiate between intuition and self talk is that intuition speaks without emotion. It often “hits” out of the blue with no relationship to what I am doing or even thinking about it. It comes as an emotionless statement in my mind, or a mental picture or even a physical sensation. Seldom though, does it carry a strong emotional charge with it. Even when I see, in my minds eye, something that would normally frighten me, I am able to view it intuitively as if I am watching a movie that doesn’t involve me.
My inner voice though, seems to thrive on emotion. When I think about something and ruminate on it, I tend to feel a lot of emotions. Whether the emotion I feel is excitement, joy, fear or worry is irrelevant. Feeling that type of emotion along with a thought is a clue to me that the thought is not an intuitive message.
Another clue is that intuitive information tends to come without any value judgment attached to it. My intuition gives me messages without any sense of “good” or “bad”, “right” or “wrong.” Sometimes, after getting this information, my conscious mind jumps in, placing judgment on what I have received. But, the actual vision or words or feelings never carry a sense of rightness or wrongness. That is because intuitive information is valueless. It is never right or wrong…good or bad. It simply is.
Not long ago I got an email from some one who had heard me giving intuitive insights to audience members. Her email said, “How do you differentiate between common sense and intuition? When I listened to your intuitive messages, I thought, “this is just common sense advice.”
She made a very good point. As I pondered that I thought, “Where does common sense come from?” We talk about “common sense” as if it is something we can define and understand, but what is it, exactly? I laughed to myself when I realized that common sense is just another way to describe intuition. It is that wiser part of ourself that “just knows things.”
How do you tell what is intuition and what is self talk? I would love to hear from you!
Blessings, Kathryn
Kim
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