Pass the Mic: an ear to intuition
My body wakes from sleep each morning in clocklike rhythm. It seems to honor cycles of nature without being taught. My body simply knows how to do this. It makes me recognize that so many things our bodies have innate connection to have become disconnected. This is alarming. Our bodies are seemingly built to be finely calibrated tuning forks, telling us when we are hungry, tired, satisfied and safe; yet our behaviors don’t support this body wisdom. In fact our culture does a lot to discourage it and instead subjects us to systems that don’t care about us as individuals. We are trained in an authoritative way that tells us from the outside what to do rather than listening to our inner voice. The obvious example here is how we were trained as youths in school. We were instructed when to eat and how quickly we must finish. Watch the clock, the clock rules the body - the student body and therefore our individual bodies. As youngsters in school, the all important schedule told us when to rest our heads on our desks, when to exercise our bodies, when to focus, when to relax, even at what time we relieve our bladders! I remember being in grade school and being instructed to line up for a bathroom break, at which time the teacher or helper would march us down the hallway to the “lavatory.”
Rather than honoring the wisdom of our innate cues about what our bodies need, we have been trained to ignore the signals (inward) and instead follow instruction and the clock (outward). For example, consider how indigenous cultures honor food and value it for its ability to nourish us. Then think about the American restaurant industry and how the business model depends on turning over a table a certain number of times in an evening to be profitable, thus making patrons who loiter over a meal a behavior that is frowned upon. This type of social conditioning runs through most all the ways we operate throughout the day. Essentially school was the training ground that rewarded us for checking off a list of things to compete before leaving each day.
We graduated from school and entered a workforce set up as yet another system to train us to the clock because in the corporate world at least, time is money. Employees are in the debit column of the cash flow statement and so it’s imperative to control behavior in order to control profit. It’s really astounding to me how this American lifestyle lasted as long as it did. We can feel it all unwinding now, of course, especially in examples of businesses that operate remotely, and those whose structures prioritize health and wellness.
And the cost on our health has been devastating. People line up in doctors’ waiting rooms, hoping to find a diagnosis (and prescription) for what ails them. And at the root of it, is in my opinion, a disconnection from our bodies. What I’m learning to recognize is the long lost art of intuition. Through it, I seek to bring my body/mind connection back on line after a lifetime of living with it severed.
I am on a quest to cultivate my intuition. Remember the Dr Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who? How I loved that book as a little kid. It sparked my imagination. It helped me consider that there were things so small in the Universe that even though I couldn’t perceive them, they may exist AND have the right to exist. Also it brought the possibility that maybe I too was the nearly invisible entity in some larger being’s realm. As above, so below.
Intuition is the little voice of Horton. The one who cries out to be heard, but so often goes unnoticed, or maybe simply ignored. Maybe we hear it, and have been so distracted, we don’t register it, like how white noise goes on in the background without being called to the microphone, and yet if contrasted to silence, it would be impossible to ignore. So I guess my intention then, is to call my intuition up to the mic, so that even those sleepy parts of me slouching down in the back row of the theater can hear it. In reviewing where my life trajectory veered in a different direction than what I thought was my intention, I’ve made the connection that the two trails diverged when I refused to listen to my inner voice. This is a big awareness!
How differently would our lives roll out if we gave intuition a voice at the table? I am not suggesting that the clock be canned, or that discipline is dethroned as a core value. I notice that brains - at least my brain - likes the either or thinking. If it’s not this way, it must be that way. I want to embrace the AND, as in, I need structure AND my intuition. It is to this end that I strive and I know my body will benefit. When my body is healthy, then my mind can relax, and when my thinking is calmer, I feel less stress. Our bodies, minds, and souls are one beg network of energy with interconnecting “wires.” To operate fully lit up, we need to reconnect the parts of us we’ve lost along the way.
Intuition is listening to the voice inside us. It may be the very loud voice of warning when we are in imminent danger. But often it often is a very quiet voice that needs to be cultivated through listening. One way to do this is through a practice of mindfulness and meditation. What is one area of your life that could use some reconnecting? If you can’t name it, listen closely for the tiny voice.
