“You don’t have anywhere near as much control as you think you have, right? At a lot of crossroads you don’t know which way is which. I think in so many instances, in my experience, intuition has been all I’ve had to go off of.”
Frank Ocean
Waiting for a divine download
As I’ve been attempting to birth this project, spend more time here, write and write some more, cultivate the community and idea … I’ve found myself stuck in a paralysis of noise and indecision. Where do I take this project? What is my concrete plan? It stays in the abstract even as I try to knead the idea to make it more real.
Sometimes, there are similar topics or threads from different sources that coincide and weave together as if on a coordinated time table. It’s almost like the idea or muse is blowing in the wind and multiple people catch it at the same time. Or, since we are all part of this universe, the thoughts are flowing seamlessly from one being to the other.
Three such articles from different sources hit me like this all at once. The topic was intuition and themes varied from how to use it to determine your best path forward, to access your authentic creativity, and how to use it to get unstuck. This inspiration couldn’t have come at a better time for me, personally.
Trust your intuition to lead the way
In a recent interview with GAYLETTER, Frank Ocean opines that using his intuition to make decisions has had a great success rate and he should have put more trust in it earlier in his life.
“Trusting [my intuition] more . . . trying to access that place as much as possible, because a lot of the decisions in my life — the day-to-day and the creative choices, even how you assemble a song — it’s a bunch of choices in a row … And as meaningless as some of those decisions are, even those are moments where I try to access that place.”
Frank Ocean
So what exactly is intuition and how do we tap into it?
The Oxford dictionary defines intuition as: “the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning.”
In an article for 99u, Jay Acunzo illustrates how to tap into this intuition to boost creativity by asking ourselves important questions. Questions like… Why am I doing this? What do I really want from this? What sparks joy?
“Exceptional work isn’t created by the answers others give us, but by the questions we ask ourselves.”
Jay Acunzo
When you are close to your intuitive nature – when you listen and trust it, you can answers these questions very easily. When your intuition is covered with layers of ego, it’s not as easy to do. If you are not in touch with your intuition, don’t know what it is, or feel that it’s inconsistent or fleeting… then you need to do some discovery and observation work to figure out what’s your ego vs. your inner intuitive self.
An important step toward observation, is the practice of meditation. Meditation is a way to quiet your mind and access your inner non-judgmental observer. Once you get in touch with that observer, then you can observe your inner dialogue as you go about your day. By observing your inner dialogue, you discover the false self or selves and can separate these false selves from the authentic self.
There are many popular forms of meditation, but the technique that has worked best for me is similar to Transcendental Meditation. It’s a 20 minute meditation where you focus on “a sacred word” that you keep coming back to as you drift off into thought. It’s a great way to observe your thoughts without getting caught up in them and it works better for me than breath meditation.
Be patient and listen
“Sometimes it’s a waiting period you have to sit through and you can’t rush it. You just have to wait and observe and soak in the work. “The advice I often get from friends is to sit in the moment and everything will unfold, and it’s true.”
Lisa Marie Corso
Once you get a glimpse of your intuitive self, then you need to work on strengthening and trusting that part of yourself. Some people call this feeling a muse, frequency, or flow. It’s not always a quick revelation and you need to have patience for this transformation. From what I hear, once you are more intimately in touch with your intuition, you can tap into it more quickly and easily. But not always. When you are going through a big life change or trying to tap into a higher frequency than where you have presently advanced, then you may have to listen and ruminate for as long as it takes. The answers will eventually come. Have faith.
I’ve been practicing meditation more fervently this year as part of a larger spiritual journey project. It turns out that it is all connected. I’m not sure why I’m surprised. The aha moments come in bursts and they’ve been slowly building into a more cohesive and fulfilling whole. I’m excited to access my intuition in a more profound way and to keep patiently exploring this creative and spiritual path.
