The Promise of "Intuitive" Thinking

Because my "best" thinking got me here, I am eager to consider "new" ways of thinking instead. 

As I come to a close of this study, I find myself really wanting to explore intuitive thinking. I so much want to get this "right", but will have to settle for good enough. 

I was communicating with a program friend about intuition. He shared that he rarely uses the word.  Yet, he would admit this is an aspect of his relationship with a Higher Power.  He prays in order to make contact with his HP's will.   The slight sense of anxiety/excitement he receives,  and usually guides him "correctly, " might be intuition.

Others have told me over the years that they ignore their "small still voice" at peril. Me too--every time I have not followed a hunch… it has gotten me off track. This happened three times in the last week, all related to things my seventh grader told me (about necessary details that would get us to his orchestra rehearsal, whether he needed to pack a lunch for the big out of town recital, and last night.. that he did not need to attend a big school event. In all three cases, I had this "feeling" that the information I was being given was not quite enough. I was correct. In this case, I needed to practice trusting my son, but I think that his being a seventh grader is muddying our water a bit.  The small still voice is confused!)

There is a very valid question that some bring up: that intuition is not thinking.   (Also some folks in my past thought of  intuition as a woman's approach to NOT thinking.  Fortunately, my family of origin valued intuition. Maybe that is why I learned to listen to mine, despite the fact that I frequently got bludgeoned by my mom's so-called intuition. )

When I was a practicing scientist in a multi-disciplinary field, folks were talking about a thing called "expert systems." A boss-man loved thinking about his way of making decisions as being an expert system. It sounded like a well-informed intuition at work to me, and as we talked about how he was thinking, we came to agree. Intuition is an informed way of thinking that is not linear. It is something that we can support with data, only in hindsight. But it works. It seems miraculous. Perhaps it is.

I think that intuition is also a form of self-trust; as I learn to trust myself and my decisions, I learn to use all of my mind (which to me includes heart and brain and gut). I don't find intuition to be blind or reckless, but a deeply informed process. 

The clearest reference to intuition is EA, is Promise #10. "We know intuitively how to handle situations that used to baffle us."  I have always loved the spirit of this promise, and in fact, it was reading this promise that made me feel at home in our rooms. To me, the promise is that I continue to learn about my true nature and to approach my life in a whole new way, as a result of the changed thinking this program has built inside of me.

I wonder if anyone else has found intuition essential to their program? Or was it an understanding that came once healing had taken place?