the director of education and lead teacher of the Amrit Method of Yoga, at the facility in Silver Springs, Florida, Desai instructs on listening to the voice of intuition identi- fied as prana in yogic tradition, which she characterizes as “the energy that enlivens and carries out all balancing and life-giving processes in nature. “It speaks through the body as sensations, impulses
and urges,” she says. “This ‘inner divining rod’ informs us what feelings, thoughts and actions are moving us into alignment with our source and what is moving us out of alignment.” Quieting the mind and strengthen-
ing the directives of prana through medi- tation, yoga and being in nature moves us away from what we tell ourselves and back to directly responding to its promptings. “Absorbed in the present moment and bodily sensations, we con- nect with inner guidance,” explains De- sai. “With practice, our mind becomes a servant to inner intelligence. It can both direct our lives and make us sensitive to early symptoms suggesting oncoming illness,” she adds. “There is growing interest in energy medicine and developing a deeper connection to the body’s intelligence through yoga and energy practices like qigong and tai chi because people are tired of taking medications that don’t heal the root cause of health problems,” com- ments Dr. Sue Morter, founder of Morter Health Center, near Indianap- olis, Indiana, and the healing phe- nomenon she terms Energy Codes. A regular practice of any one of these disciplines expands sensory
in the Buddhist concept that mindfulness of the body al- lows us to love fully. She finds, “It brings healing, wisdom and freedom.”
She relates how she is led to direct a client’s attention
to their own body’s intuition, which works best when she is following her instincts, rather than thinking. “After one session, my client, who had been silently experiencing numerous feelings in her stomach, asked me why I had touched her abdomen. I was just intuitively led to that part of her body.” Dr. Mona Lisa Schulz, also a Ph.D.,
Fearlessly following
our intuition frees us to fully live an authentic and satisfying life.
function to encompass internal recognition and referencing of subtle information. Morter teaches how to awaken gut feelings, personal
power and self-love to restore wholeness left behind in pur- suit of external sources of happiness. “Participants learn to trust their gut more than the opinions of others, which turns up the volume on the whispers of intuition,” she explains. After Pat Hall, a therapeutic bodyworker in Augusta, Georgia, read Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight, she was certain a habit of listening to mental chatter interfered with feeling and interpreting her body’s helpful promptings. “Jill’s experience of her body as energy and her mind as silent when the left lobe of her brain shut down due to a stroke was my ‘Aha!’ moment,” says Hall. For her, heeding inner guid- ance took practice and a commitment to dismantling reactive thought patterns and habits, plus discerning between intu- ition and distracting chatter. “Mind chatter generally creates fear, negativity and pressure to do something,” she explains. “Intuitive guid- ance is gentle, expansive and undemanding.” Hall believes
medical intuitive and co-author of All is Well, notes that everyone has a connec- tion to intuition. “We get a gut feeling and sadness in our heart from our inner intelligence that we don’t know what to do with. While some individuals consult a practitioner, others listen to their body’s intuitive language and reflect on their insights and dreams—the language of soul,” says Schulz. “Intuition can speak softly through symptoms,” she ob- serves. “Eventually, when disregarded, it can become a full-blown illness.” Biochemist and author of Secrets of Our Cells: Discovering Your Body’s Inner Intelligence, Sondra Barrett, Ph.D., is awed by the body’s cellular intelligence. “Our cells are invis- ible, so we don’t think of ourselves as cellular beings. However, a deeper understanding of our constitution and that our cells speak to each other and collaborate harmoniously could inspire us to befriend our body’s intel- ligence for life,” she says. “We might shift from wanting to fix an ache or pain to understanding that our cells
are warning us of something.”
Sonia Choquette, a global consultant who recommends we rely on our sixth sense as our first sense, has authored several books on intuition. She finds, “With intuition, we have a personal compass and an ally in discerning what is authentic and true for us so that we won’t be tugged and pulled in different directions when we make decisions.” Laurie McCammon, co-author of Enough: The Rise of the Feminine and the Birth of the New Story, was relaxing and reflecting with two friends when intuition graced her with a message of information-laden energy: “I am enough. We are enough. I have enough. We have enough. Enough!” The experience inspired them to collaborate on an e-book celebrating the grassroots groundswell toward a major shift in the world. “I believe intuition is an aspect of The Grand Plan, which always moves us toward greater expansion, inclusion and an ever more mature and loving response to life,” says McCammon. Ute Arnold, founder, director and teacher of the Unergi School of Body-Psychotherapy, in Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania,
natural awakenings May 2014 41
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