Why Can’t Intuition Be Obvious and Carnival of Truth #7

Posted on April 6, 2008
Filed Under Embrace Your Highest Path and Purpose, How To Develop Your Intuition, Spiritual Development |

On occasion, I get a frustrated question from my clients and students: “If our Spirit Guides and Higher Self really want to help us, can’t they make themselves more noticeable? Why can’t intuition be more obvious?”

It’s an excellent question. The answer is simple: Free will. We are here to live through choice and consequence. We are responsible for all our choices. Through the perfect feedback system that is our world, we learn about the quality of our choices through their consequences. We can then use this information to make new choices, in order to create the consequences we desire. This is how we learn and growth and create our reality.

The role of our intuition – the information that comes to us from our Higher Self and Spirit Guides – is not to relieve us of the responsibility of our choices. The role of intuition is to gently guide us and to help bring greater awareness to the choices through which we create our lives.

Now imagine if intuitive information came to you via the Hollywood version. You know – the heavens open, a ray of white light falls upon your face, and a big booming voice announces: “You must pick up the phone and call Aunt Margaret.” Would you call Aunt Margaret? Heck, yeah! You’d pick up the phone right away. You would feel so compelled by this event that you would follow this guidance without questioning it. You would feel so compelled, in fact, that one might say your free will was compromised.

I know, needing to call Aunt Margaret doesn’t seem like a big intuitive insight. We don’t mind if those “little” messages fall by the wayside. But we would like the big celestial voice to loudly announce the “big stuff,” such as our next career move, the name of our future life partner, or some stock market tips, right?

Well, intuitively speaking, there are no “big” or “small” messages. Calling Aunt Margaret might have life-changing consequences, for all we know. From the perspective of the present moment, it’s hard to tell. Therefore, all intuitive information is created equal. And absolutely none of it will ever compromise your free will, no matter what the message is.

Intuitive guidance is always merely a suggestion. Intuition must come to you in a way that you can choose to ignore. Otherwise, you would no longer operate through free will, and your spiritual evolution would be compromised. Since your intuition is designed to serve your spiritual growth, it can never be obvious. It is a hint, a whisper, a nudge. You can listen, or you can just as easily brush it aside. The choice is always yours.

Have a look at this wonderful list of articles. Perhaps one title or another will elicit a slight impulse within you. You never know where that impulse may lead you!

Tarakananda presents 19 Exceptional Web Resources for Spiritually Minded People posted at The Atma Jyoti Blog.

Albert Foong presents The Art of Giving What You Don’t Have » Personal Development - The Urban Monk posted at Urban Monk.

Warren Wong presents How To Solve Problems By Changing Your Frame Or Perspective posted at Personal Development.

hkalchemy presents The Science of Blue Feathers posted at Effortless Wealth and Abundance.

Louise Pool presents Are You Tired of Being Stuck in Routine? Here are 8 Ways to Break Out posted at island wench.

Anmol Mehta presents Understanding Non-Duality, Hinduism, Buddhism, Enlightenment & Life! posted at Mastery of Meditation, Enlightenment and Kundalini Yoga.

Joan Newcomb presents Adventures In Density And Effort: Spiritual Merit Badges posted at Adventures In Density And Effort.

HL Grove presents Making Your Dreams Come True posted at Hennie Grove.

Edith presents Creating a Poverty-Free World posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Stacey Hoffer Weckstein presents The Art of Life Balance - Activity Included! posted at createabalance.com.

Akemi presents True Life Purpose Goes Beyond The Illusion Of Self posted at Yes to Me.

Thank you to all contributors for being a part of this Carnival of Truth!

Blessings,
Andrea

Comments

15 Responses to “Why Can’t Intuition Be Obvious and Carnival of Truth #7”

KL on April 6th, 2008 7:12 pm

Great explanation on intuition Andrea, loved it.

It reminds me of Tao somehow - that the Way is always there inside of us, it is the choiceless choice.
Ned on April 7th, 2008 3:29 am

“Intuition must come to you in a way that you can choose to ignore.”

You have such a wonderful gift for making the complex into the simple. I wrote a post recently called “Blogging for the Future” about how I often will be talking about something that is beyond my actual intellectual ability, it just feels like what I’m supposed to talk about. In other words, my intuition doesn’t work for my ego. I am just a conduit, a messenger. Just like a person working at the post office doesn’t know what messages she is carrying to someone or who exactly is sending it, I don’t always understand the content of the messages I am delivering either. I can tell when something is harmful or inappropriate and I can choose whether to deliver it or not. That’s about it.

Somehow if I understood exactly what my higher purpose is and all the consequences therein, it wouldn’t be as interesting.
Andrea Hess on April 7th, 2008 9:12 am

KL - The “choiceless choice” … very interesting! You are right - it is always there inside of us. We can ignore it with ease, though … but it always comes back.

Ned - Thank you! You are totally right. We operate here in a linear way. If we knew all the consequences of our actions, the whole learning experience of this linear system wouldn’t function. I think understanding has to be coupled with faith. I follow my intuition on faith - the understanding comes in hindsight. It is usually only as I witness the consequences that I can understand the perfect beauty of the guidance I receive. Which inspires more faith … and so it goes.

Like you, I often feel that I surprise myself when I write or speak. Something will come out of me that I had no idea about until I said/wrote it. Isn’t it wonderful?

Blessings,
Andrea
Akemi - Yes to Me on April 7th, 2008 9:41 am

Thank you for including my post in the carnival.
The free will and guidance relationship is very interesting.
True Life Purpose Goes Beyond The Illusion Of Self | Yes to Me on April 7th, 2008 9:43 am

[...] I feel so honored to be the first Winning Quote of the Week at Cath Lawson. Please see her post Can You Write a $500 Prize Winning Quote? to see which part of this post was quoted. Thank you, Cath! Also, thanks to Jonathan for including this post in his March Round-up, to Andrea for including this in Carnival of Truth. [...]
Albert | UrbanMonk.Net on April 8th, 2008 12:29 am

That was a great explanation of free will vs. intuition Andrea, it was one I often struggled with myself. Personally I found difficulties in differentiating between intuition and just plain old feelings - I think your explanation shed some light on it. Thanks for including my link as well!
Tom Volkar / Delightful Work on April 8th, 2008 9:07 am

Thanks Andrea I’m interested in hearing more about intuition not coming in big or small packages. Are you saying that our free will and the interest we show or not in responding to an intuitive hit is actually what determines its intensity for us?
Andrea Hess on April 8th, 2008 9:19 am

Albert - Thank you! It’s tough to tell the difference between intuition/feelings/thoughts. Our feelings tend to be bigger, noisier, more insistent, I think. Intuition has that suggestive quality, in a “take it or leave it” way. It doesn’t interfere or compel.

Tom - No, I think the intensity is actually always the same. What changes with our investment is our level of awareness! We can turn up the dial on our intuition by giving it our attention, and to us it will feel very “strong.” But it’s always been there at the same level of intensity. Whatever you focus on, expands, right?

Blessings,
Andrea
Tom Volkar / Delightful Work on April 8th, 2008 9:39 am

What we focus on expands, yes, of course. So your saying the the strength of the signal is determined by the strength of our intention to tune into it?
Andrea Hess on April 8th, 2008 10:14 am

Hi Tom - Absolutely! Not just our intention - but also our attention, which is slightly different. If we pay attention, those signals become fairly obvious over time!
Shilpan | successsoul.com on April 9th, 2008 4:58 am

Andrea,

Marvelous writing. It’s captivating. I personally believe that our intentions manifest through our karma and eventually, spirit connects us to people, fate of higher state via frequency match. Simple example would be to understand how radio works. I believe that invention of radio was an act of spiritual manifestation. As our karma seeks higher frequency, nature makes pathway to get connected to souls and situations that are at the higher frequency. Once get connected, our soul seeks even higher spirituality. But in the end, it is a pure act of free will.

I was intrigued by your blog and I’ve subscribed to it. I’d love to have you visit my blog when time permits.

http://www.successsoul.com/blog/

Thanks
Shilpan
Slade | Shift Your Spirits on April 9th, 2008 7:23 am

Andrea,

I am asked this question a lot, too, and of course it’s one I ask myself.

Great job coming up with an answer, to this challenging question, by the way!

You know me, my “answers” often come in the form of more questions or metaphorical situations. With this question, I’m presented with athletes and games:

What if you ask someone who’s swimming the English Channel why he don’t just take a ferry or hovercraft, since it would be easier?

What if you ask someone who’s running a marathon why she doesn’t just drive, since it would be easier?

What if you ask a group of friends who are road-tripping across America why they don’t just fly?

I get a sense that it’s a matter of the Game - if we weren’t meant to be incarnate in this game, this mission, this life for the purpose of learning and growing the way we are, then we would probably stay on the other side. We chosen this game, with its challenges and limitations, for a very good reason… The goals, within the limiting factors, may very likely be the point.
Andrea Hess on April 10th, 2008 1:30 pm

Hi Shilpan - Thank you for your comment and for stopping by! I’ll definitely come and visit your blog. I agree with you on the radio analogy, and I often use it to explain manifesting to my clients. We seem to be on the same wavelength! (Get it? Wavelength? … sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

Slade - Thank you so much! I agree that the “game” of incarnation carries with it a set of specific rules. I’m not sure they are limitations. It’s like a high-stakes gamble, I think. We’re all in, and we can either evolve ourselves tremendously, or fall on our face in a big way!

Blessings,
Andrea
Suzanne Bird-Harris on April 10th, 2008 4:51 pm

I know I have caught myself wishing for a happy medium, so as to ‘hear’ better but not compromise my free will. With this explanation, though, you’ve granted my wish - I can turn up the volume myself with my intention and attention. Excellent!
The Art of Life Balance - Activity Included! on April 15th, 2008 6:32 am

[...] article was featured in the Carnival of Work Life Balance, the Carnival of Improving Life, and the the Carnival of Truth. Sphere: Related [...]