Listening to Your Intuitive Voice 

by Rebecca Shafir

Hiding deep beneath our mind’s noise whispers the intuitive voice. These thoughts, messages and feelings surface at the oddest times – while standing in line at the grocery, flossing your teeth or dumping the garbage. Occasionally, my inner voice will gently wake me up in the middle of the night with an idea it wants me to mull over and develop. 

It says, “Look, I couldn’t bother you during the day with this one, could you spare a few minutes right now? I know you’ll really like it!! ” Despite the fact that I really need my sleep this night (tomorrow’s schedule is crammed with patients who will require my utmost attention), I smile and welcome this voice. I’m glad it’s still there after squelching its untimely interruptions all these years.

Others will describe hearing a “kinesthetic” kind of voice. One student said, “When I’m trying to make a decision about something, particularly one I don’t feel good about, a warm, queasy feeling starts in my chest and gradually spreads over me like a blanket. I’d even wager that my temperature rises a few degrees. This feeling may arise and persist whenever I question this decision. 

Other times like a splash of cold water, the “voice” of possibilities and opportunity forces me to take a deep, cleansing breath and re-examine my position. In those rare moments I watch and listen to this dialogue make the right decision. And, surprisingly, it does. ”

Researchers believe that the intuitive voice is an underdeveloped, hard-wired sensory system, essential to our success and survival. Think back how many times you ignored your intuitive voice, in its many forms, and later paid the consequences. Perhaps it was a job you passed up or a love relationship. Maybe a wise inclination to make a move or leave an irreconcilable situation was snuffed out by the voices of parents, spouses, or a boss. Thoughts of the past, worries for the future stifle the wisdom deep inside each one of us. 

How can we clear a path for the intuitive voice? It all begins with a mindfulness minute.