Psychic Abilities
Intuition As A Coping Tool
INTUITION: What Is It and How Do I Know If I Have It?
We live in a culture where we have been traditionally encouraged to use only the logical mind to solve problems. However, we all have a deeper knowing aspect to our minds that over the last couple of decades has begun to be recognized in our Western society as an important dimension of our thinking and coping capacity. We have all had the experience of a knowing moment—the ringing phone that brings the call we “knew” was coming; a “hunch” that comes to pass; an event about which we say “I knew that was coming!” Have you ever had a hunch or a dream that revealed the answer to a dilemma? Have you ever followed the guidance of a gut feeling about something, and found it to be quite helpful?
Recently I watched a program about psychic abilities of the presidents. It seems that LBJ had recurring dreams about being over his head in water. Evidently, his interpretation of his dream led him to believe he was “over his head” in Vietnam, and led to his decision not to seek a second term. Clear knowing can come to us in dreams. Clear knowing can be clairvoyant, clairsentient, clairaudient, precognitive or some combination of all. Those aspects of deeper knowing that inform us of something we knew nothing about, are often referred to as psychic. Not all resources in the mind are psychic in nature. However, all of the deeper knowing parts of the mind can be thought of as intuitive; and can be recognized as symbols and information that we can use to direct daily life.
But what is psychic ability really? Is intuition just something lucky people have? The answer is that we all have intuition, that part of our sense of knowing, called sentience, that informs us with a “feeling” about something, often not in words but through images and pictures in the mind. Intuitive knowing uses both the information in the rational mind that is conscious knowledge; and the more “psychic” sense of knowing something we have no conscious knowledge about. Sometimes intuitive impressions can be so fleeting that we do not recognize them. Or they can be so compelling that we cannot ignore them.
The more we learn how to recognize the way our own deeper knowing operates, the more access we have to powerful resources in the mind that can aid us in coping, healing and achieving a feeling of well being in life.
Intuition can be receptive. That is it can be something that happens to you, some impression or feeling you get about something. But you can also learn to harness a type of intuition, sometimes called projective, as an ally in coping. When using intuition this way, you might project onto your mental screen a picture of a problem you are having and then ask your inner mind to offer guidance. Then you allow receptive intuition to go to work and give you information. You can use the logical part of the mind to sort through the ideas and lead you to a coping solution. Ultimately you might decide to follow a hunch and see where it leads, or you might choose a course that comes from your logical mind and “feels” right to your psychic side.
For the most part the resources within the mind that can inform us on a deeper knowing level are not the mind-blowing psychic prediction, but rather the ordinary and mundane thoughts and impressions that help us to cope as we go about our daily business. Ability to identify your intuition comes with practice. As you practice you will become able to recognize and pursue hunches and gut feelings that make difficult decisions easier to make. You will come to trust in the correctness of your choices. When you use your intuitive mind along with your logical mind, you will be more quickly and easily directed toward the right action for a particular situation.
Accessing and using intuition is an art, a skill, and a joy; for intuition is a tool that you can use to understand yourself more fully, heal yourself, provide relief from life’s burdens, and to enhance the very quality of life itself.
Developing Psychic Ability for Coping
To pave the way for using your psychic nature to cope it is important to understand the relationship between stress and intuition. It is a fact of life that we all have stress. We also all have intuition. However, stress blocks intuitive knowing. Therefore, to access intuition for coping, we must learn to clear the mind by managing stress. When the mind is filled with the chatter and worries of daily life, it is as if the channel to deeper knowing is jammed and the information that we need cannot get through. Because intuition constitutes the wisdom inside of ourselves, it is something we need and unblocking the route to this wisdom allows us to use more of the power of our own minds. You can learn to manage stress by practicing the Relaxation Response, which has the potential to open the mind and give access to its many gifts.
The relaxation response (RR) is a mental, emotional and physiological state that can be achieved by many time proven methods. First named in modern culture by Dr. Herbert Benson, author of the book of the same title, The Relaxation Response, according to Benson’s research, has been used by many religions and cultures for eons, under other labels, but with the same common factors as what we call The Relaxation Response today. The RR when correctly achieved, quiets the mind and calms the physiology of the body by use of two major common denominators; focusing attention on breathing and the repetition of a focus on some thing of your choice—a candle, a word, a prayer, a song, a picture…etc. According to Benson any method that combines those two can bring about the RR. The main idea, according to Benson, is to eliminate the chatter of everyday thinking and give the body a chance to rest deeply. In this way the RR will open the channels for the deeper knowing inside of you to emerge.
Still Your Mind And Give Yourself A Time To Think
Still the mind and body by sitting comfortably, closing your eyes if you want to. Clear Away Thinking Traps, i.e. negative thinking that blocks intuitive functioning.
You can try counting from one to ten or ten to one, paying attention to your breath. Tension leaves the body when you breathe deeply and then continue to breathe easily and normally. By inhaling deeply and smoothly and exhaling gently and smoothly, you will notice how easily your body becomes relaxed and this will help you to clear your mind. When extraneous thoughts come in, do not be concerned, just return to the focus of your attention as you exhale. Benson calls this passive attention.
Once you are relaxed, rather than being scattered and anxious, you are calm and it will be easier to think through problems and decisions. Just sit and allow your mind to open to ideas without trying to struggle to a conclusion. Use your imagination, and all of your senses to receive information. Project your problem onto your mental screen and visualize possible outcomes.
See what your mind offers you as you sit. Later you can apply critical analytical thinking to these intuitive offerings. In this way you can use more of your mind to make decisions and solve problems.