Intuition: The Life Changing Importance of Embracing Your Deeper Wisdom - Dick Rauscher
“I just had a thought… I wonder if…,” are often the words of intuition speaking.
I was in the backyard working on the automatic watering system for my raised bed gardens. The old system was leaking and far too hard to re-hookup every spring. I was just about to give up struggling with it and call a landscaper when those words “I wonder if…” popped into my brain. I don’t have a clue where the idea came from, but I knew the idea in my mind just might work to solve the problem. I’ve learned over the years to trust my intuition.
Three hours, and a trip to the local hardware store later, the new system was installed and running like a charm. Hours of frustration and a sore back trying to fix the old system were already a fading and distant memory.
Intuition, the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning… the glimpse of deeper knowledge… a sudden insight… call it what you like,… it had just solved the problem of a vexing and stubborn watering system for me.
Some Thoughts On Intuition
As I sat on the back porch watching the new system water the beds, I thought about intuition. I wondered if a lot of the world’s problems are in some way connected to our over-stimulated minds… and the lack of intuition that results when our brains are too busy. About six months ago I began intentionally slowing down, simplifying my life, and attempting to create quieter or “white space” in my life. The gift of a quiet retirement had turned into a world full of shiny distracting projects… writing my bi-weekly Nuggets blog, working on my next book, learning to play the guitar, camping with friends, traveling to bluegrass festivals… you name it; I was doing it. It struck me that the intuition that solved my watering system would probably not have happened a few months ago when I was so busy and distracted.
As I sat there over a cup of coffee watching the new watering system do its thing, I wondered if the insane pace of our hyper-distracting, internet-wired world was shutting down our collective ability to direct our attention inward and listen to the quiet whispers of our intuitive wisdom. Those subtle insights that move like a gentle breeze through our awareness. Tiny packets of wisdom with the power to guide the decisions and direction of our life. Or as some would say, the quiet voice of wisdom that comes from our heart or soul. To quote the words of author Ariel ReShel “Intuition is a flow, it’s like falling into the music of life. Hearing the music and sharing it. Intuition is a gift of being human.”
Some Intuitions I Believe We Are Ignoring
It seems to me there is currently a severe shortage of intuition in the world… especially in Washington. When I think of the global challenges and impending crises that are threatening humanity, my intuition is telling me we need to increase our focus and attention on the growing problems and changes that are coming.
For example:
47% of Americans could not cover a $400 emergency without selling something or borrowing the money,
10,000 people a day retiring and almost half of them are entering retirement without any savings and in many cases struggling with significant levels of debt,
the never-ending war that is bankrupting America and creating more terrorists,
The growing number of displaced immigrants struggling with hunger and starvation in a world impacted by wars, droughts, and climate intensification,
the challenges of global climate change and storm intensification in general,
our inability as humans to embrace a right relationship with nature and create a sustainable human culture by learning to incorporate the laws nature uses to ensure the survival of all her living systems,
the unregulated greed embedded in the global economic system that has been driving the illusion of unlimited economic expansion on a finite planet for the last 150 years,
the unlimited resource extraction on that same finite planet,
the exponential growth in the use of coal, petroleum, and other carbon-based energy sources that are polluting our atmosphere, and
uncontrolled human population growth that is predicted to reach over 9 billion by mid-century.
I can’t imagine the intuition of anyone who is paying attention to these problems wouldn’t be telling them it’s past time for us to get serious and begin focusing on creating solutions to these impending and serious problems…and more effectively dealing with the global crises they are already creating.
My intuition is telling me we are headed for some very serious challenges to our global human civilization… challenges that my intuition is telling me could massively impact humanity in the very near future.
My intuition is telling me that the survival of the human species is in jeopardy even as we speak.
My intuition is telling me that these problems and challenges are going to change the human culture in very painful ways in the very near future.
When I look at all these impending challenges and the changes they will create for all of us, my intuition is telling me to grow more of my own food, plant fruit trees, pay off debt, simplify life, eliminate monthly cash outflow where ever possible, increase savings, downsize, go solar, use LED lighting, stock up on beans, rice, batteries, drinking water, and do whatever I can to prepare for the changes that are coming. Ignoring them is pushing the river…never a good idea.
My intuition is telling me it’s time for us to fall into the music of life. Time to begin paying attention. Time to listen to what our intuitions are telling us. Time to listen to the music and begin sharing it with others. Time to embrace our ability to function as a rational species. Time to awaken our human consciousness and prepare for what our collective intuition is telling is coming toward us… like a runaway train picking up speed on a long downhill track.
I shook my head and headed inside for more coffee. It’s all but impossible for me to understand how the world could be ignoring these impending signs of change. I went back to the porch and sat there lost in thought for a while.
Conclusions
The evening desert wind began to pick up. There was a chill in the air. It was time to head inside for supper. The drip system for watering the raised beds in my backyard was happily dripping away. As I stood to head indoors, I paused for a moment and thought about all the neighbors who are convinced I’m an eccentric preaching doom. I’m careful who I share my ideas with these days, but my intuition tells me I’m not being eccentric. There’s a difference between eccentricity and simple preparation.
There are a lot of people around the world struggling to simply survive, and those numbers are growing daily…even in our own country. Pain and suffering quickly become anger. My intuition is telling me that the feelings of shame, hopelessness, and fear about the future that those struggling with hunger, those living in poverty, those who have been displaced by droughts and storms, those who are unemployed, those who are living hand to mouth working minimum wage jobs, those who are financially worse off today than they were ten or twenty years ago, and those who are frightened and homeless, has to be creating a lot of angry people in the world. Angry people with nothing to lose. Angry people are waiting for people like Donald Trump to lead them.
My intuition is clearly telling me to get prepared for the changes that are coming… and the disruptive impact those changes are going to have on our way of life as a nation and as a species. My intuition is telling me we are running out of time.
An awakened consciousness faces everything and avoids nothing; both externally and internally. An awakened consciousness never “pushes the river” by attempting to deny reality. As I mentioned above, pushing the river is never a good idea.
