Today, I am delighted to feature my friend Ajen of AM Experience blog with her guest post “Moving by faith and intuition”
We met in March 2012 when we both commented on a mutual friend’s blog post. Ajen emailed me, inviting me to contribute a couple of paragraphs to share my perspective about love and how the expression of love is a motivating force in my life for her magazine. Our friendship was born. Then, she invited me to guest blog at her site. We keep in touch via email and enjoy our communication. So in the course of one of these conversations, Ajen graciously agreed to step on my Red Carpet. And here she is, with a beautiful post!
Over to you, Ajen!
Moving by Faith And Intuition
by Ajen
Not too long ago, intuition coach and author, Angela Artemis, sent an email asking if I could share my thoughts about intuition. Though it appeared to be a rather easy task to do, I had a difficult time responding to the question as I found myself in deep thought about my own intuition.
From this process, I have learned that in order for me to explore my intuitive senses, I needed to look at how I am exercising my faith.
According to my own spiritual beliefs, faith is something that one exercises by doing good deeds with conscious knowledge of what one is doing. Therefore, for instance, if I wanted to deliver a good speech on the chocolate industry, I would first make sure that I am up to date on not only chocolate, but also find out about its consumers, the suppliers, and its value-added products, and even the complementary ingredients along with their industry statistics. Second, I would do my best to present the information that I had at that moment in time.
Having faith is not as easy as it seems sometimes. Self-doubt gets in the way and fear of the unknown sets in as one considers past experiences of failures and the potential pressure from future success. It can be limiting when you think about such things. That is what happened to me.
I have a lot going on in my life; and during this reflective period, I discovered that I have placed great pressure to do things right. I found myself questioning what exactly the issue is and questioning my “knowledge”.
Asking myself, “Am I smart enough” was quite debilitating as my initial response was, “Well there is always something new one can learn.”
Through my continued reflection, I remembered that learning is a never-ending process. It was important for me to understand that all that I can do the best that I can do with the information that I have at the present moment in time. …and from this understanding, I saw how moving by faith, which is achieved through good actions with conscious knowledge, is at the essence of me contributing to make the world a better place than the previous day.
So now enter in intuition.
To me, I see intuition is slightly different from faith. I believe that intuition is a state in which a person acts in the world without conscious reasoning. Being the mechanism to employ one’s knowledge to a particular situation, reasoning causes one to pause before they make a decision to perform an action of good intentions. To do this without reason, one is not taking a leap of faith, one is rather using intuition.
…and the $64 million question is …do I have it?
The answer is, yes.
It took me sometime to recognize it as I often think too much about what I am doing. I discovered this one day, when I started an old habit out of the blue. Calling people as soon I thought of them. I would go visit them, give them a call, send them an email or a simple text message letting them know that I am thinking about them.
Sometimes I would hear, “I was just thinking about you”, or “I was just talking about you, were your ears burning?” Other times, I find out that my reaching out to them was needed at that very moment. Some have told me this that day and others have told me days or months later.
My intuition presents itself when I not even thinking about it. This is its nature. Because of this, I believe that there are many times, I must have acted on intuition but I was not really paying attention to what I was actually doing.
How many times have you given a response similar to “I do not know why I did it, it just needed to be done” when someone asked you about your good deed?
This is intuition. It is about risking that you are reading your intuition correctly when being proactive.
My process of reflecting on my faith and intuition is a continuous one and I am grateful for this. Instead of worrying about whether I have intuition or not, I am beginning to place greater faith in my intuition. It will kick into to gear when it is called to do so.
Thank you, Molly Hahn
So if by chance you currently find yourself in the position that I was in a few weeks ago, here are three easy steps to help you to place greater faith in your intuition:
Step 1: Detach. Let go of the past. Let go of the outcomes. How you ask? You do this by being present. See Step 2.
Step 2: Exercise your faith. Here’s the formula I am working with: conscious knowledge + the action of good deeds (or in other words, being the best person you can be for that very moment of time). Doing good work is one thing; however, being presently aware and conscious of what you are doing in a given moment is another. Seriously, take some time to reflect on this. Every action you perform has a direct and indirect influence in your life as well as the lives of others. If anyone questions your actions, can you honestly say that you were doing the best you can, given the understanding that you had at that moment in time? Strive to have conscious knowledge. Be present.
Step 3: Do your best not to worry. For the sake of not making this post any longer than it already is, I must refer you to one of my earlier posts about worry. In a nutshell, I consider worry a state where one is overly concerned about the unknown; and I describe the best way to prevent worry is to gather as much information as possible. Believe me, it works!
Gathering information comes from simply asking questions:
- Ask your family and friends for their perspective.
- Ask inspiring people through mutual friends
- Read inspiring autobiographies /biographies.
- Pray, ask God, the Universe.
- Be still and ask yourself.
Because I believe that we are called to understand our present moment so that we can be who we are called to be, I think that being still enough to ask yourself for understanding is of the utmost importance.
Ancient sayings suggest that the expression of wisdom comes from not knowing. I agree. We can have great understanding of “knowledge experience”, and yet we do not know. I say this because there is always an exception to the rule and life’s circumstances can always change in a twinkle of an eye. Having a great understanding of what our present situation is while being detached from future outcomes allows us to exercise our faith as we move through this world with grace. The more we go through this process, the greater our intuition benefits. As I write this, I am reminded of a saying from my spiritual faith: “As ye have faith, so shall your powers and blessings be… this is the balance… this is the balance… this is the balance.” Mmmm…perhaps my powers and blessings are what amounts to my intuition.
May we all be willing to allow our intuition take the lead to make this world a better today than yesterday. Let’s continue to exercise our faith everyday!
Thank you, Ajen!
Ajen loves to find metaphors in random places. Professionally, she uses thought provoking experiential activities to facilitate the discovery of metaphors which can aid in self-learning and building personal or professional deeper relationships. She speaks, writes and blogs about the use of metaphors in developing person-centered relationships on a personal level as well as professional level.
She is the founder and co-owner of A. Meliora and a publisher of AM Experience. Do check out her first podcast with Kaje Thomas of Full Circle Life Coaching and her latest blog post: 3 reasons to jump in and take risks.
Now, question for you:
Do you have faith in your intuition? Please share an experience!
P.S.: Don’t miss this great post on guest posting by my sis Vanita Cyril
