Trust Your Intuition

By Lisa Solis DeLong, RN

Photo: Elizabeth, shared by Emily Hill with permission

I love this ancient Native American proverb, “Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows.” A more formal definition of intuition from Oxford Languages describes it as “The ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.” In essence, the meaning of intuition is that it is a knowing that cannot be explained by fact or thought, but by a deep inner feeling. I can relate, can you?

I am a storyteller. The best way I can explain intuition is through this story. Emily, a fellow pediatric cancer mom and I became friends. Her daughter, Elizabeth, bonded with Jacob in the playroom as they were both being treated for cancer. Sadly, when Elizabeth was sent home on hospice Emily called me, “I can’t do this,” she said tearfully. I tenderly offered what I could from insights I had learned from experiencing my older son, Justin’s, passing six years prior. I said, “Pay attention to everything Elizabeth says. She is going to say profound things to you. Write them down.”

A few weeks later I was standing in my backyard stroking a fine layer of curly post-chemo hair on Jacob’s previously bald head. He was playing with his Playmobil set when my phone rang. It was Emily, “I just had to tell you what Elizabeth said.” I was all ears.

She said, “I was holding Elizabeth in my arms and I told her, Elizabeth, I’m so glad that God gave you to me, my only daughter. She looked up at me and whispered, ‘Me too mommy, I had to wait such a long time for you.’”

In that moment, standing outside, a stillness came over me. I felt chills all over my body, closed my eyes and listened. I knew that Elizabeth did not mean she waited a long time for her mother to come to her bedside or bring her a glass of water. She meant that she had waited for her mother before she was born. That truth flowed through her to me. I picked it up intuitively, without instruction or explanation. Stillness, full body chills, wordless.

The same thing has happened every time I’ve shared this story with healthcare professionals whether twenty or two thousand. Elizabeth’s words land on their ears in a deep collective sigh signifying that they too know something to be true but they don’t know how they know it. That is Intuition.

This intuitive hit led to a deeper understanding as I pondered it. Elizabeth had agreed to be Emily’s daughter before she was born which meant Emily had agreed to be her mother. This meant Justin had agreed to be my son and I had agreed to be his mother. Which meant he was not a victim but rather a participant. For the first time I saw myself not as a victim but as a participant. Let that land.

Now, you tell me, how many business owners, VP’s, directors, employees, parents, families, friends, could benefit from developing intuition? To see themselves as participants. Intuition always has our back. It is an innate survival mechanism. It starts with inner listening skills to not only listen with the outer-ear but with the inner-ear and the whole body. Building intuitive intelligence to feel what is happening in a team meeting, hospital shift change, or when walking in the door at home, is a valuable mechanism. Listening to what is seeking to emerge in any space improves engagement and retention.

Medical Intuitive, Carolyn Myss, says this about intuition, “It is actually the ability to use energy data to make decisions in the immediate moment.” Those full body chills I felt when Emily spoke was my energy system colliding with Emily’s. Collecting energy data starts with listening beyond the ears and paying attention to body signals like chills, and Déjà vu moments, recognizing repeating symbols, and meanings in dreams. Our bodies are like cell phones always connecting to wireless signals and picking up data, and like phones we have to be turned on in order to be receptive.

Brian Collins, CEO and founder of Intuition University, (yes there is such a thing), says, “Insightful, daring decisions drive not only a successful business but a fulfilling life. When we up level and activate every aspect of ourselves, we naturally carry the same energy to business which improves overall performance and engagement.” On a personal level we experience a sense of meaning and purpose. Leading from a place of purpose happens when you lead from your intuitive intelligence. When you develop your own inner knowing and experience what that feels like, you can access untapped power and lead with more clarity from that place.

I believe Albert Einstein got it right when he said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” When my grief was fresh, my rational mind thought ‘I’ll never feel joy again.’ Over time I learned to lean on the sacred gift and trust my intuitive mind. In doing so, I am able to see the gift in the losses I’ve lived. Learning to see the world with less me, me, me and more us, us, us has allowed a connectivity to the collective soup we swim in. I live with more joy than I ever imagined possible.

Indigenous people relied on their intuition instinctively. They lived without manmade technologies. Thankfully this survival mechanism which we all still have, is in you just as it is in me. This ancient Lakota Prayer sums it up perfectly, “Teach me how to trust my heart, my mind, my intuition and my inner knowing, the senses of my body and the blessings of my spirit. Teach me these things so that I may enter my sacred space and learn to love beyond my fear and thus walk in balance with the passing of each glorious sun.” I say this prayer every day at sunset. You can do the same. Try it on. Listen. Trust.