Intuitive “Malfunction?”
Posted on January 25, 2008
Filed Under Embrace Your Highest Path and Purpose, How To Develop Your Intuition, Manifest Your Desired Outcomes, Spiritual Development |
Have you ever felt “let down” by your intuition? Have your instincts ever seemed so clear, so strong … only to receive a completely unexpected outcome? One of my clients sent me this wonderful question last week, and graciously allowed me to share and answer it here on my blog:
“I had a job interview last week. It seemed like the perfect job — challenging enough, I was qualified but not overly so, I felt I connected with the people, I thought I answered and asked the right interview questions, I could work my own hours, it had medical benefits — in all I thought I would get the job. Yesterday I got a call that I didn’t even make it to the second interview. I was shocked. I really felt I would get this job. It was the same feeling I’d had previously when I had gotten a job I wanted — and had got the job. I kept telling myself it must have not been for the highest good of all concerned. But why did my intuition malfunction? That’s the only way I can describe it. I thought I was getting more clear with my intuition. Now I can’t trust it. Do you have an answer for this?”
I don’t believe in “intuitive malfunction.” (But I totally love the term!) However, I do believe that we can misinterpret the guidance we are given. You were guided to this interview, and it seems like it was a wonderful experience! You walked out of the meeting having connected to people, with a sense of confidence and joy. This interview created a wonderful energy within you. There’s no doubt that this energy will attract many other wonderful things into your life - mainly further connection to people, confidence, and joy!
But here’s where the mind jumps in, and begins attaching an outcome to this wonderful experience. Instead of remaining in this wonderful energy and cultivating curiosity and openness to what it would bring into your life, your mind decided that the experience would bring you a job. Specifically THIS job. And when this did not happen, the mind decided to invalidate the entire experience.
I love this question so much, because it happens so often - to all of us! I am so grateful that you are allowing me to share your experience here. Our intuition and guidance is a precious thing, and when we feel disappointed, it takes a great deal of courage to address the occurrence.
Life is not linear. Our mind likes to think that every action equals a foreseeable and obvious consequence. In reality, however, our actions create an energetic resonance, which attracts consequences of a like resonance into our lives. We have absolutely no idea what those consequences will look like. You went to an interview, which created an incredibly positive energetic resonance within you. Let’s take the element of having connected with new people in a meaningful way, for example. The linear result our mind comes up with is that these people will want to work with you. But the consequences that the Universe creates may be completely different.
The energy of “connecting with people” could create a different job where you connect even more deeply with new people, perhaps even every day. It could bring new friendships. It could manifest an intimate relationship into your life. It could do so in a completely seemingly unrelated way. It could do so in a month, or in three months. But it would not happen unless you first created this positive energetic resonance in your life through the event of this interview!
When we receive guidance, we must understand that we do not know the exact consequences of following that guidance. We may think we know. We may even receive what I call “accurate misinformation” around the situation. Imagine if you had gone to this job interview, already knowing that you would not get this job. This information would have changed the entire experience. You would not have created the same positive resonance as you did, thinking you would be hired.
In this situation, I would advise staying with the energy of the interview - how confident you felt, how good it was to connect with these people. Allow the Universe to surprise and delight you with what this energy will manifest into your life. Be curious and receptive for the return of this energy. It may be something so much better than this one job!
Practicing detachment like this is hard. We want to know the outcome … and at the same time, knowing the outcome would interfere with the outcome itself! You were guided to this situation. You followed this guidance, which in and of itself is wonderful. We know this was a necessary experience for you, or you would not have been guided in this way. But we do not yet know the outcome. All we know is the energetic resonance of the outcome - connecting with people, confidence, and joy. Stay tunes to these energies … and you will receive their outcome. And it will most likely be better than anything you could have possibly imagined.
Blessings,
Andrea
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19 Responses to “Intuitive “Malfunction?””
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Another great post Andrea. My thanks to your client for allowing you to share it with us.
Detaching from outcome is, for me, the most difficult lesson on my path to Being. If I don’t attach my intent to an outcome will I ever do anything?
It is important for me to change my perspective; to cultivate an attitude of playfulness toward the activities in my life; to lighten up and do things purely for the experience itself in that moment. Like, “Ok, I’m looking for a job but I’m not going to think about that now. I’m going to go to this interview, have fun and see what happens.” Be the ‘silent watcher’ as Eckhart Tolle would say.
It is so true that we miss so much of the magic in our lives by being somewhere other than right here, right now.
Thanks again, Andrea to you and your client. You are a blessing and a gift in my life.
Thank you, Andrea, for your wonderful response to my question. I’m glad you shared it with everyone. I will try and remember to keep in mind the energy of how I felt at the job interview and bring that into other aspects of my life. And not to become attached to the outcome!
I love the phrase “intuition malfunction,” too, but like you, Andrea, I don’t believe our intuition really can get it wrong — but our Thinking Mind can embroider, label, associate, and sometimes even unravel the pure energy of the intention.
Intuitive information and the vocabulary of our spirit guides requires some “translation” process on our part. So, an alternative for “intuition malfunction” might be “lost in translation.”
One thing that came to mind, with this particular individual and the job interview scenario — she had associated the energy with a past experience, which she attached to landing a job. At the time of that earlier interviewing success, the real pure energy of what occurred may be just as you described — she successfully reached a higher vibration that was about connecting with other people, on a general level. But she chose to label and associate the outcome of that energy with “getting the job,” so when that energy showed up again, she pulled up that specific association.
I believe it’s fairly easy to trust our intuitive impulses — it’s translating or synthesizing those impulses into real world, material significance where we overdo it, undo, or get lost.
Great personal story, and great advice!
One thing that Sai Baba has taught me is to let go of the outcome. Like David, I still have difficulty with that sometimes.
I just got an email from a friend that reminded me that we never know how we affect other people that we come in contact with thoughout our lives.
Anita, your sense of connection and confidence may have been what some other person that you came into contact with that day needed to give them a reason to continue with their lives or a reason to make a change. You may have been the encouragement that they needed to live. We never know the full effect that we have on others.
Andrea, this is an excellent response to a situation that many of may misinterpret.
Thank you for that!
Thanks, Andrea (and to your client for sharing). And a big thank you to all the other commenters as well - I love the way everyone adds to the discussion and the understanding of the original blog post. It makes for such a rich learning experience!
Your post really resonates for me - I’ve been focusing lately on BEING rather than specifics (eg like attracting certain things or experiences), and just letting the energy flow naturally as I become more aligned with my Higher Self and Source. A challenge to let go sometimes (control freak, who me?!), but I’m becoming more authentically me day by day.
PS - Your book finally wended its way across the ocean to me, and I’m really enjoying it and finding so much value in it. Just wanted to say thank you!
[...] 26, 2008 in Intuition by laelw The Empowered Soul Blog has a great post on Intuition and getting unexpected results. Here’s an excerpt: You were [...]
WoW! How the situation of the interview, the subject of reading intuition, and being in the Now resonates with my life right now. I had a job interview experience a year ago I am still reeling from because I did not trust my intuition, I tried reading into the interview experience what I WANTED to have instead of what the interview experience told me I would face if I took the job. I did get the job and in a few short weeks I quit. As I studied the experience for months, since I tend to ponder endlessly when I seem to have misread a situation, I realized all of the clues were there during the interview day, and yet, silly me, I just had to have that job!! EgoEgoEgo is what I say now was my downfall, the reason I did not let my intuition lead. I knew best what I needed…..YeahRight! My Ego knew what IT wanted……!!! So, when I am listening nowadays, and keep my Higher Self and Guides and Guardians in the “round table”, my Ego is just One seat in the vote, instead of the only seat in the vote!!! Thank You All for this wonderfilled site and the timing in which it has entered into my life. Goddess Bless……….
Andrea, I really enjoyed this post. And the comments that the other bloggers are worth reading too.
As someone who has not developed intuition to such a degree, I can see that it would be very difficult to tune our mental machinery to clear the static which interferes with our correct interpretation of the data we receive. This interference can be not only our own thoughts, preconceptions, and hopes, but in the case of a sensitive person, it can be all sorts of other signals we pick up, such as other peoples thoughts, radio and other communication waves, etc. And, of course, our health and physical state can play a part, too.
So I stand in awe of those who can correctly interpret any impressions or guidance which they get.
[...] You’re looking for a new job. You’re ready to work. You’re eager for the next wave of clients. What do you do when the opportunities aren’t flooding in yet? [...]
David - thank you! I agree that detachment is one of the hardest lessons for us to learn. True detachment is the ultimate act of faith, I think.
Anita - Thank you, thank you, thank you for allowing me to share your story here! (And as I read all these lovely comments, you know what comes to mind? Connecting to people … look at what your interview created here!)
Slade - you make an awesome point about associating a past experience. I totally missed that, and I’m so glad you bring it up. The same impulse will mean different things in a new moment - because we are not the same person we were before. Thank you!
Patricia - you are so correct. I think if we really knew the far-reaching effects of all our actions, our minds would boggle! So we just go with our inspirations in the moment, and the rest is simply not up to us.
Z - thank you!
Mags - it sounds like you’re doing awesome work. As a recovering Type A, I can relate to having to practice Being-ness! So glad you’re enjoying my book! Hurray!
Victoria - Intuitive hindsight is always 20/20!
I had a relationship once where, if I had paid attention to the not-so-subtle signals of our first date, I could have saved myself a lot of time and energy! But we learn from those experiences, too, right? I love the image of a round table - Guides, Higher Self, Ego all working together harmoniously. Thanks for sharing that one!
ReddyK - thank you for the comment. I’m so surprised to hear that you don’t consider yourself very intuitive! I would think with as much meditation practice as you do in the ashram, that the mental interference energy would be so minimalized that you’d hear nothing BUT Divine Guidance. Maybe you just tap into it so naturally that it’s ordinary?
You know, I think interpretation is much more needed when we do intuitive work on behalf of someone else. When it comes to our own intuitive nudges, I think interpretation often gets in the way of action … and only through action will the consequences reveal themselves.
Thank you all so much for your comments!
Blessings,
Andrea
Hi Andrea,
Great article! In Bhagavad Gita Krishna says to Arjuna, “You perform action, but leave the goal to me (this is “impersonal me,” the Higher Self in all of us that intuits and not the personification of Krishna). Do not be attached to the goal or its outcome.”
I also agree with Slade. We use filters we have created in our minds from our past experiences to look at the present and the future. Therefore, we see the present events to be similar to what had occurred previously, even though they may not be.
Great post and discussion here. I have given this a stumble.
Cheers,
Desika
Desika - Thank you for adding that quote from the Bhagavad Gita to the discussion! And thanks for the stumble.
Blessings,
Andrea
Andrea,
I am very happy to contribute and stumble such an inspiring article.
Cheers,
Desika
Wow, thank you so much for this blog entry. I do not think I have ever heard anybody put that kind of twist on the Law of Attraction.
Thank you, Ryan! I think the popularity of the Law of Attraction has actually done us a bit of a disservice in a way … I mean, we set our intentions and now expect exactly what we intended. But it is limiting to insist on our expectation, and we might actually miss the many, many ways the Universe returns the energy of our intention into our lives. And, let’s face it, the Universe usually comes up with something way, way better than what we could have imagined!
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Blessings,
Andrea
Andrea,
I agree with you. I always add to my intentions, “This or better should come into my life.”
Thanks,
Desika
Andrea - I’m just catching up on posts that have been sent to me and I read this one. I could relate to the commenter with the job interview and I agree with your response. I have a question, however, what do you do when you get the job and you think you’re in tune and then out of the blue it turns totally the opposite leaving you speechless. I recently wrote a post called Thoughts Will Either Lift You Up Or…Do You In sharing a personal experience I recently had. I think my experience had more to do with healing issues as Marianne Williamson explains in her book “Age of Miracles” and the Universe was presenting another event to give me a chance to truly heal this time. What do you think? I’m still wondering about it.
Pat - it’s a wonderful question! There’s a two-part answer, really. The first is that our Higher Self will always lead us to the path that aligns with our highest path and purpose … and that path is designed for our optimum growth and learning based on wherever we are now. So, if we’ve been reluctant to address an issue or learn a lesson, our highest path and purpose may well include getting tapped on the shoulder … and if that doesn’t work, getting smacked upside the head with a big stick. Now, before that happens, we are usually afforded many opportunities to address the lessons in other ways.
The second is that, when we find something that resonates really strongly, such as a job or a relationship, we say: “Aha! This is IT!” And we become attached to having found THE job or THE relationship, when in reality they are just designed to serve us right now. The job or relationship that served us six months ago may not serve us today … but we have crossed it off our list, we are no longer paying attention in this area. And so we are brilliantly given a big shove by Spirit to move on! Which is really far more desirable than a slow deterioration within a situation that doesn’t serve us …
There are, of course, sometimes blocks and restrictions present that also can lead to repeated manifesting of the same old situations over and over … but barring that, the above two examples might apply.
Thanks for the awesome question (I loved the post, too!)
Blessings,
Andrea