Imagination and Intuition

First blog of the new year...in February! I am thinking about video blogging because I have had 20 blog posts in my mind or in conversations with clients, family and friends that never quite make it onto the page! So, here is one that has been kicking around. Take what you like and leave the rest...

Imagination and Intuition...a powerful combination. I started to title the blog post Imagination VS. Intuition. I almost posted the "versus" because clients report this experience all the time. They have a sense that imagination is just made-up and intuition, if it is to be trusted at all, is often someone else's. I decided to use the "and" because it isn't one or the other...they are intimately related!

I use a lot of guided imagery (hence the word imagination) in my work with clients. I also work with clients to utilize intuition. Being guided through intuitive intelligence has literally changed my life and I believe it can change yours. I had a client say the other day, "How do I know this is my intuition? It feels like I am making this up!" And with this great question...we can begin.

My response was imagination and intuition are intimately related...like "kissing cousins." The big difference in the two is: "What do you believe to be possible?" What do you believe to be true?" And I mean REALLY true. Because trusting in intuition is powerful...it is em-powering in a way that imagination is not. Are you ready to be em-powered? The prefix "em" is to make into, to put into, to get into. Intuition is the "em" in power! Now, where does this "powerful" energy come from?

I observe that clients talked about their intuition in the possessive, "my intuition." (a great word in this case; the "possessive." ) And the minute the "my" shows up, then the confidence, the trust, the empowerment is wobbly. And there lies the creative leap or risk.

Intuition is a universal language. A great correlation is American Sign Language. I used the example of someone who uses American Sign Language to interpret for the hearing impaired. They are working with a universal language that can be interpreted and understood by those who have studied and learned this, again let me say, "universal" language. I invite the same awareness and understanding of intuition as a universal language expressed in a personal way.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell is a great resource about intuition as a practical tool that can be observed, employed and trusted as a way to make meaningful decisions. The only separation is in trusting the information and not "discounting" because it came from a made-up, fanciful imagination instead of a rational, cognitive process. Like any new language, tool or resource, experience with intuitive intelligence is a process that is learned over time; that we learn to trust over time.

So, kiss your cousin today! Use your creative, "made-up" imagination to see the vision up ahead. Then observe what happens...the outcome. Enough experiences with outcomes that match imagination and my hunch is your on the trail of intuition.