I wrote recently about an exercise that allowed for intuitive insights to occur. The theory goes like this. Although we can’t make intuition happen, we can get into a space where intuitive insights are more likely to happen.
The exercise that I wrote about tells us that the ideal conditions for intuition are paved by relaxation and a state of flexible attention, giving us access to a place in which we can loosely spread our attention over a larger area, instead of just directing it at one point.
The way we do it is by imagining different distances in our bodies, the point between the elbow and the wrist or the knee and the ankle for example. Then, we imagine our attention spreading across these spaces.
I have done this exercise a few times now, and here’s what’s happened so far. There’s no right way to do the exercise, so I just went with what felt right. In places where I didn’t quite even sense my body, I tried to feel the tense places. Where I felt some energy, the image of shifting sand popped up in my head. I visualized my way through that area, the sand moving and taking form in that space. The image helped me move my attention, and it seemed like it came out of the unconscious as a metaphor for what was happening in my body.
In the same way, I visualized my spine filling with air, and I had some felt sense of it. At one point, I combined this exercise with deep pelvic breathing. It was amazing how the two seemed to work together with wonderful synergy.
I relaxed within minutes, and it was empowering to feel that I could do that at will. When I was focusing on my lower body at one point, my back, which was tense and scrunched up, loosened and relaxed. I touched on the fact that my body was one system, and working on one part affected the other.
Did I get more intuitive hunches later on? I am not sure. I felt a difference in my intention to follow whispers of feeling. I felt like my mind had quieted down a bit, and as if I could access my body, even its numbed out parts just a little. I felt my energy collecting a little, and not getting scattered by things that go on outside.
My sense is that something in the exercise is working and will work. I will do it more, and see where it takes me. Often, I have stopped myself in exploring and my first goal has been safety, even when dealing with myself. But digging inside my own caves is probably the most illuminating and rewarding thing I can think of doing right now.
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