During my second year at an arts conservatory, I took a detailed diagnostic test to determine the hemispheric dominance of my left and right brain.
People who tend to lean toward the left are logical, reality-based, practical, and intellectual, while people who tend to lean toward the right are artistic, intuitive, feeling, and imaginative.
On a horizontal linear scale from 1 to 10—1 being the farthest left and 10 being the farthest right—I tested 4.8. That means that I am basically balanced between both sides of my brain but lean .2 toward the left.
All of us, regardless of where we test in the right/left brain hemisphere, have the ability to cultivate intuition.
When we identify with our mind, it can be our worst enemy. It likes to cycle, obsess, tighten, and cut us off from experiencing our heart. It can prevent us from having real intimacy with others and ourselves.
The mind says it wants something, yet sometimes we categorize, intellectualize, and analyze all because we are afraid to actually feel, open, and come to intimately know that thing beating in the center of our chest.
When we take our attention off the chatter of our mind and put our intention onto developing our intuition, we learn to play with much subtler dimensions. Listening and moving from the heart instead of the intellect, we make wiser choices rather than smarter ones, which can serve us better in the end.
Of course, it’s important to be educated and to understand through our intellect. When we were children, our elders taught us the importance of learning the alphabet, but when it came to writing our first “A,” we had to intuitively feel the curves of it as we used our pencil on wide-lined paper.
Intuition comes from a sensation, an expression or movement directly from the heart. This is how we are able to make our dreams come to fruition and create our lives in alignment with our callings.
In fact, our “callings” stem from intuition in the first place. The question to ask is, What does my heart really want in this moment?
When I sit down to write, I begin with this simple question: What do I really want to write right now, in this moment, straight from my heart?
I follow that instinct and don’t worry about whether it fits in the context, if it’s in the right order, or if it’s within certain requirements. First I need to get the energy onto the paper, and then I can go back and edit, delete, and tweak.
The intellect can come in later to make sense of it all. But first, we have the opportunity to honor what our intuitive energy wants, and listen to how it wants to come through us.
As you step into your work for the day, try to follow where you are drawn, not because your mind says so, but because you intuit that that’s the place to start.
When we move from the heart intuitively, we know what is most needed in the moment. We are guided and led, and we sense opportunity.
Wishing your heart it’s fullest expression in every moment!
