Curiosity as a Compass
and intuition as our guide
Do you follow your intuition as your guide, do you respond to the spark of curiosity and follow its path? If so, is it always, or are there doubts? What steers you away from it? One place where I follow it 99.9% of the time is in writing. Intuition whispers that I’m missing a key element, it’s something I haven’t learned, read or explored yet, and while I don’t know where to find that key element I trust that it will arrive in whatever form I need when the time is right. I’m sure this trust developed every time it played out just as my intuition said it would. But what if it didn’t, do I trust myself to stay the course?
This morning it happened again. I book I’ve wanted to write for several years found it’s key. While I’ve written part of it, in fact most of it, the key element, the thing that ties it all together was missing. Funny thing is, I had the element as a visual, I just didn’t have the words. I guess that’s the gift and curse of a being a photographer first, images always come before words. Intuition told me to wait, that it would bring me the words, so I did, I waited a really really long time. While sometimes intellect gets in the way, tells me I’m making excuses for not finishing, intuition has always come through, as long as I give her patience and faith.
“Your intuition allows you to see beyond the mundane, logical and analytical. Follow it.” -Colette Baron-Reid (The Enchanted Map Oracle Cards; card: Moonlight )
Intuition is our sixth sense, that which comes from our true north. Denying our inner knowing, what our heart tells us beyond what we told to believe is true creates tension. Tension creates doubt and removes us from our compassion for others, it takes away our ability to see things from another point of view. Trusting that knowing within gives us the courage to make choices for the greater Whole, not just our own self interests. It’s where we find our kindness and humble-ness.
Curiosity feeds the journey. As long as I’m curious I eventually find that key element. It might be found on a road trip, a conversation with a stranger, in a painting, perhaps a play, it’s been found in the pets I sit for and even in an oracle card. The desire to learn keeps it all happening and gives me the confidence that in time, the project will all come together.
Responding to the ignition of curiosity can be challenging. It might appear as revulsion, distaste, fear, or anger, it’s not always shiny and bright. Observing my reaction to something is my tell. The stronger the reaction the greater the desire to get curious should be. This is where the challenge come in, a lot of the time I’d like to ignore certain feelings or reactions, who wants to go down the road of revulsion? But I know that that’s exactly when I should listen closer, and slowly investigate it.
Such was the case with Reiki. It truly started as a distaste, quickly became an overwhelming desire to dig deeper and led me to becoming a Reiki Master and Animal Reiki practitioner. Imagine if I hadn’t noticed, hadn’t observed the tension in my response and hadn’t discovered my tell. Reiki has become a very important part of my life and my Animal Reiki practice has seamlessly merged with my Pet Sitter Life.
It’s always interesting to discover a long forgotten, well, what I thought was forgotten but was apparently just deeply buried, story. An attachment to something, manifesting with some strong, not so comfortable feelings. Second guessing my intuition at the time is probably how it became buried. When it re-emerges into the light, I get my chance to follow a more intuitive path, to trust my instincts.
Curiosity invites me down the path, to wonder why, I’ve been known to get way too hung up on why, to spin in circles and forget where I’m going. Why is a curious path that diverges into over-analyzing, catching myself before the divergence is my challenge. Thanks to therapy and a Buddhist practice I come back to peeling the layers away, digging into the attachment to “why” so I can move forward, away from the why and into the now.
With curiosity and intuition on my side I have confidence to continue exploring new paths. Intuition is our inner knowing, our knowing of right and wrong, our knowing of good and evil, our knowing of the interconnectedness of us all. Fear keeps us from listening to our intuition, fear separates us, fear is used as justification to ignore our knowing. Intuition comes in many forms, what does yours look like, feel like or sound like? How do you respond?
Intuition can be our guide from our heart and curiosity can be the compass to teach us what we need to know. Will you listen to yours?