An excerpt from Personal Power through Awareness
by Sanaya Roman | Posted 3/21/20
What is intuition, and how does it operate? Sometimes it is easier to explain intuition by saying what it is not.
It is not the mind that figures everything out. It does not work like a computer going a + b + c = d. It does not utilize the principles of logic, as a computer does. Intuition is not ego; it does not operate in a world of form and structure.
Intuition is the ability to know without words, to sense the truth without explanations. Intuition operates beyond time and space; it is a link to your higher self. Intuition is not bound by the physical body. It operates knowing that the past, present, and future are simultaneous, happening in the "now" moment. It is the voice of your innermost Self, your soul, which is always looking out for you. It speaks to you through insights, revelations, and urges. It does not say to you, as the intellect would, "I must do this tomorrow; this is on my list; this would be a good thing if I got it done." Instead, intuition says, "Wouldn't it be fun, wouldn't it be joyful? This is what I want to do today."
Often intuition feels like the playful child within you, trying to lure you away from your hard work to the world of joy and play with its strong inner urges. Amazingly, in that playful world you can connect with all the answers you spent months working to find.
Intuition can synthesize ideas in a flash. Geniuses like Edison and Einstein worked at a very refined and high level of intuition. They brought in their ideas from outside of time and space. Intuition goes beyond that which is known into the unknown. It can help you find answers and information that are not known in the mind of another person. The challenge is to hear your intuition and then to follow it with action.
You can find answers in a second to problems you have been working on for years. Perhaps you want to leave a job and your intellect keeps telling you, "If you leave you will starve; there is not enough money; you cannot do it." Meanwhile your intuition is saying, "Well, why don't you pretend you can do it — maybe there is a miracle or two out there that will make it happen." To bridge the gap between intellect and intuition, use the heart energy of trust and faith. Intuition will often give you answers that do not seem logical, yet the answers work if you trust them and act upon them.
How can you develop your intuition? First, learn to trust it. All of you have ideas about what you would like to do and be. You do have a vision of a more fulfilling life for yourself, although some of you do not allow yourselves to fantasize about that vision very often, and even fewer of you trust it enough to bring it into your daily experience.
How do you tell the difference between your desire for a certain inner message, and true intuition, which is guiding you to a higher future, to making the best possible choices? True intuition comes from your soul, and its guidance and insights come with conviction. These carry with them the energy, motivation, enthusiasm, and everything else that you need to put your intuitive insights into action.
There are some traps in living too much in the world of intuition. One is that intuition can operate in future time. Future ideas can dazzle you so that the present, in contrast, seems mundane and boring. There is a difference between physical reality, mental reality, and the realm of the intuition. The physical world is composed of much slower energy than the world of your thoughts.
Your intuition comes from an even higher, finer realm: that of your soul. With intuition, and then your mind, you can receive an idea, think about it, plan it out, carry it all the way through to fruition, and live it in a flash. Carrying it through in physical reality is much more time-consuming, for the world of physical reality involves form and time.
It can be much more fun to receive and think about ideas and intuitive insights than to actually take action on them. If you want to translate your intuition into physical reality, develop the qualities of patience, trust, confidence, and focus.
All of you have the ability to use your intuition and follow your hunches. Sometimes you get inner guidance or a feeling that tells you to stop doing something and work on something else instead. That is intuition. Only when you act upon your intuitive guidance and insights will you gain the fruits of the gifts that your intuition offers — in this case taking action means stopping what you are doing and working on whatever else you feel guided to do.
If you live on the intellectual level, you may have lists of things you should do. (Listen to that word should.) You might have your day, week, and month planned. Then you wonder why you do not feel joyful and free!
You may be living too much in the world of the intellect. Intellect and intuition have also been called the left brain and right brain. The left brain is the part of you that memorizes, deals with logic, and thinks in a time-oriented, sequential manner. The right brain is intuition and feelings, creativity and imagination — the world beyond words.
It is not enough to live in the world of intuition, for people who live there will do nothing with their lives other than daydream and fantasize and perhaps talk big. You have seen people who talk on and on of their big visions and plans and yet live in poverty and have not created anything.
It takes much focus, patience, will, and intent to bring intuition into reality. In physical reality, the minute you conceive of an idea, it is already old. That is why it is important to honor those things you have worked on in the past, to love yourself in the past. Everything is instantly in the past the minute it comes through your intuition into consciousness, the minute you hear it. Honor who you were and where you have come from; honor and love your past.
Many of you have a tendency to put yourself down because of who you were in the past. If you are writing a book, for instance, you may not like what you wrote a year ago. If you are in a career that is moving upward, you may look back and say, "I was only a __________ two or three years ago."
The more you can honor your past self, the more quickly you will be able to hear the voice of your intuition and move into your future. It is difficult to hear your intuition if you do not love who you were, for intuition opens to the degree to which you can love those forms you developed in the past. The more you love what you created in the past, the more you can operate at a higher level of intuition.
It is important to go back and clean up your memories, for often the ego will bring you unwanted negative memories of the past that will hold you back. Recognize the soul qualities you were developing during painful times, and affirm that you were doing the best you knew how to do. The insights, skills, and attitudes you have today were developed during those times.
Each lesson left you with the growth that made the next step possible. How often do you think of the wonderful things you have accomplished? You already have memories of successfully doing anything you want to accomplish; thinking of them will help you achieve success now. If you do not have the exact memory, you do have enough similar experiences, which, when put together, can help you.
If you want to make the visions of your intuition real, you must first capture its images, slow them down, hold them in your mind, and then be patient enough to put them into action. The moment you capture your intuition, its vision becomes a memory and in this way becomes the past. It is important to remember the past with positive thoughts, for it contains the visions you are bringing into reality now.
Think back to the "should do" lists made by your intellect. You can spend weeks and months, even years, trying to map out your future at the mental level, thinking every step through. It is valuable to have a plan in that it gives you the faith and belief that you can achieve your goals. The most important thing is to hold a steady vision of your goals. If you follow the plan too rigidly, though, you deny the miracles and the creative flow of energy within you.
It is always faster and easier to create what you want by following your intuition. It can bring you, in its playfulness, all the goals and visions of your intellect and, usually, even more. Intuition may say, "Let us not do anything today; let us take a walk; let us go to the woods; let us go to the bookstore; let us indulge in something very unproductive." Then, lo and behold, at the end of the day you have produced more toward your higher goals than you would have by doing everything on your list. Perhaps you found an idea that helped you reach your goals six months sooner than you expected - for intuition guides you to your highest future in the most effective and efficient way.
Many of you would prefer to live in the future rather than in the present or the past. Remember, it is one thing to live in the future and bring back those visions to the present time, and another to never act upon those visions. If you do not act upon your visions, you will not be able to create the life you want.
Have you been hearing whispers in your mind that you have been ignoring? For instance, you may have heard whispers of what you would like to do for a career, but constantly create reasons why you cannot do it. Would it not be simpler to create reasons why you can? It takes far more energy to hold yourself back than to allow yourself to move forward. Think how drained you feel when you dwell on the negative, and how energized you feel, and how easily things move, when you dwell on the positive.
You may really want to quit your job and pursue a hobby or longtime interest. You may find your mind whispering to you that it will work. You may hear of other people succeeding in your field, and find all kinds of indications from the Universe that this is the right way to go. Intuition beckons you to the future with things you feel drawn to because you love them. When you follow that voice, you will find doors opening everywhere. If you are finding closed doors, it is the Universe telling you there is a better way to go. Do not keep pushing against closed doors; look around for the open ones.
Intuition talks to you through urges, flashes of ideas, insights, and feelings; it moves you in certain directions. To hear it, pay attention to your inner world of ideas and feelings. If you are forcing yourself to do one thing while your feelings are urging you to do something else, you are not paying attention to your intuition. Your intuition sends you messages constantly, telling you every moment what to do to open your energy. It is always directing you toward aliveness and a higher path.
Your intellect may do battle with your intuition. You have been taught to honor your intellect, through your culture, through science, and through the academic world, which are usually oriented to developing the rational, logical mind. Yet, many of humanity's greatest inventions - radio, electric lights, television, computers, and phones — have come from a synthesis of intellect and intuition.
The intellect can be highly developed; it loves to run the show. It can also feel threatened by intuition. Many of you have beliefs that say, "If it happens too easily, it is not right." Or, "If I do not work hard at it, the results are not valuable."
Your intellect loves to plan everything out in a logical way; your intuition is spontaneous. Being flexible is important. If you rigidly stick to your preplanned goals, you may miss many messages from your intuition telling you how to make things simpler.
If you find yourself resisting doing something, stop and ask yourself what you would rather do instead. It may be that it is not the highest way to go, or it may be the wrong time. If you trust and act upon your feelings from moment to moment, you will be flowing with your intuition and the Universe.
There is a role for the intellect, and that is to formulate plans, to decide where to go, and to take action. The intellect is like the captain of a ship, consulting maps, making plans, and steering the ship. Yet, the weather and the ocean actually determine the course; the captain must remain flexible and use his or her plans as a guideline.
So it is with the intellect that steers your ship. Intuition tells you of storms ahead, of detours (that turn out to be shortcuts); it monitors a future path designed to bring you your highest good. Use your intellect to set goals, to aim you higher. Focus your will and intent on going higher. Your intuition will show you how to get there in the best, fastest, and easiest way if you follow your feelings, hunches, inner urges, and deeper desires.
For example, take the person who wants a new career. If he or she were to let go and keep picturing it, intuition would guide him or her to it. One day, while following a playful urge to go walking, this person might run into another person and the connection would furnish him or her with an idea or opportunity that would provide a starting point. Intellect may try to build a path logically, and may not recognize other ways things could work. It takes a great deal of trust to follow your feelings and intuition, for intuition usually shows you only one step at a time.
You can open your intuition by learning to listen to your feelings and act upon them. When you have an urge to do something, do it. Do not force yourself to go to a job you do not like; listen to your feelings. Be open to new ways to earn a living. Acting upon your feelings may take a leap of faith. Look back at all the times you have listened to those inner urges, acted upon them, and were amazed at your success.
Acting upon intuition also requires flexibility and spontaneity. Remember times in which you were flexible and let go of your plans, and things worked out wonderfully.
If you want to increase productivity, allow yourself to listen to your whispers and to act upon them. Allow yourself to play. Do those things you have been wanting to do. Be a child again. Create fun in your life, and you will find that your creative energy will awaken and flow as never before.
Excerpted from the book Personal Power Through Awareness: A Guidebook for Sensitive People. Copyright ©1986, 2019 by Sanaya Roman. Printed with permission from New World Library — www.newworldlibrary.com.
"Intuition is the ability to know without words, to sense the truth without explanations. Intuition operates beyond time and space; it is a link to your higher self." —Sanaya Roman
What is intuition, and how does it operate? In this selection from Personal Power Through Awareness Sanaya Roman explores ways we can tune into our innate intuitive intelligence as part of our creative process and includes a four-step exercise to engage in practice.
"Intuition can synthesize ideas in a flash," Roman says. "Geniuses like Edison and Einstein worked at a very refined and high level of intuition, bringing ideas from outside of time and space."
Roman probes into intuition as something that "goes beyond that which is known into the unknown," where developing deep listening skills "can help you find answers and information that are not known in the mind of another person."
Sanaya Roman has been channeling Orin, a wise and gentle spirit teacher, for many years. One of Sanaya and Orin's greatest gifts is empowering intuitive and energetically open people to appreciate their sensitivity as a gift (and not as a problem or a handicap) and that this gift is in fact, a powerful and reliable way to receive direct and divine information to make life-changing choices.
In the newly revised bestselling spiritual classic Personal Power Through Awareness: A Guidebook for Sensitive People — the second book in the tremendously popular Earth Life Series — there are easy-to-follow processes that thousands have learned to create immediate and profound changes in their lives and relationships. You can read more about Sanaya and Orin's teachings at www.orindaben.com.