Living in my Right Mind

Are you in your right mind? Or your left brain most of the time?

If you're like most of us, you spend most of your time in your left brain - the logical, outward-directed awareness. Not so long ago, I thought of intuition like most people who “believe” in it: a handy novelty. Like most Americans, I was taught to ignore it, and to believe what I heard and saw around me in the world, because intuition cannot be “proven”.  Now it seems to me that we are so backward, seeing intuition as anything from whimsical to supernatural, when in reality it comes from who we really are; it comes from our very essence.

I have had too many examples of intuition being real to ignore it, and in recent years, have listened to it more and more. For example, I have been visiting a pastoral care client for a few months, usually on Sundays. I had a Friday off, and kept thinking, I should see if he wants a visit today. My mind said “You don’t want to drive that far in Friday traffic!” But I called anyway, and it turned out that he was in Santa Rosa for the day to get his chemo treatment. He said that it was a great day to visit.

A Mental Swiss Army Knife

As a Prayer Practitioner and spiritual counselor, intuition can give me an inspiration for a It’s like having a mental Swiss Army Knife whispering the right tool or phrase to use.  One person asked for being able to cope with some current and upcoming chaos in her life. I saw white water rapids and calm pools.
treatment.

Not usually a visual person, I took note, and used water images in the treatment. It resonated for her. Some people might not have related to water. Where did that idea come from if not through intuition? In stillness, I can be present with a client, and let intuition tell me what questions to ask, what is not being said, and what to say.

I Told You So

There were times when I ignored my intuition and then realized how right it was. I really wish I had listened to my intuition. And I know you've had them too. Perhaps my intuition was being gentle by asking rather than telling me, knowing how I like to second guess or rebel, sometimes even against myself or my own inner knowing. But my intuition never says, "I told you so." It just keeps "talking" to me.

The more in touch I am with my intuition, the more I wonder whether animals are more intelligent than humans. A dog can find its way home without a navigation system, map or compass; my cat knows when it is safe to go outside even when I do not see any threat; birds know where and when to migrate. As far as I know, they don’t second-guess any of it. How many of us can do those things?

Isn't that the Real Me?

It seems that this instinctive, intuitive knowing is our true nature; that all the marvels that the

mind has brought the modern world, along with all the horrors, are due to living in our left brains. If I could live my life more from my Awareness, intuition would always steer me right. But most of the time most of us listen to our minds, which only know so much. We are literally not in our right minds.

Now, intuition is much more for me than knowing who is on the phone before I answer, although that can be handy.

Horizontal and Vertical Hold

Eckhart Tolle describes the vertical dimension of reality, saying that seekers are looking in the horizontal dimension where most Westerners live. The vertical dimension is delving into the depth of our Being-ness.

We live at the intersection of the divine vertical dimension and the everyday earthly horizontal dimension. I don't know about you, but I can certainly get caught up in the horizontal way too often. It reminds of the days when analog television had the horizontal and vertical hold controls. When my life seems a bit skewed or out of whack, I know it's time to adjust my horizontal and vertical.

Our Awareness, being an aspect of the One, is the source of intuition. Of course it knows more than I do. So I am learning to listen for it and to it more and more. Those moments of insight come when I am not thinking “fast”, but rather idling, in my right mind. Those are moments when I am quiet enough that Being can speak to me through my intuition. Now it calls me deeper and deeper to know my true nature. When I listen to my intuition, it will always bring me closer to my Source. When I feel my Source, I intuitively know what my mind cannot, my true nature, and what and where and when to act.

So my goal is to live from BOTH sides of my brain. And to be in my right mind.

How About You?

Has your intuition warned you or helped you in some way?