Wednesday, March 11, 2009

How I Found My Intuitive Voice

I find it interesting learning how others have found their intuitive voice. In fact, I find it encouraging along my journey. So here is my story:

I spent the first 30+ years of my life creating and living a life of illusion. I was following the path that had been laid out for me: college education, professional job, getting married, and having kids. As I took each step, it seemed like I was moving ahead, but in looking back, I realize that each step took me into a deeper trance-like state. It took the very emotional crises of divorce (which shattered the illusion) to get me to "wake up." This is when I discovered that I was very intuitive. This was the beginning of my "New Age" journey. Here's how it happened:

The divorce left me feeling lost and alone. How could I be leaving my marriage? This wasn't part of the story/illusion that I believed and yet it was happening to me. Out of desperation and curiosity, I heard about a woman who read tarot cards and scheduled an appointment. As she laid these foreign-looking cards on the table, she accurately explained what was going on in my life and how I was feeling. Through the reading, I found clarity and felt as though someone finally understood.

Although I didn't know her before the reading, we became good friends – even though we are polar opposites. She later told me that I had a gift of intuition and could read tarot cards. At first I didn't believe her, but we went to buy some cards for me. I hesitated, thinking that I would probably use them for a while and then they would sit in a box somewhere.

I found that I could read tarot cards and it helped me to get in touch with my intuition and my emotions. I wrote in my journal and noted what questions I had, what cards I pulled, etc. and I got pretty good at it.

One day I remember trying to communicate with a friend of mine. He couldn't put into words what he wanted to say, so I summed up what I thought he felt. I was right on...and both of us were amazed. I asked him, "Can't you tell what others are feeling?" He said he couldn't. I realized I had been doing this my whole life. I could somehow feel other people's feelings and identify/describe them – some times better than they could themselves. It's called being empathic.

I started reading tarot cards for other people. In the beginning, I didn't charge because I thought it was no big deal. It was a cool "party trick." I was amazed at how accurate the cards were and how much people got out of a reading. Three years later I started getting paid to read cards. I did it on the side and didn't talk about my hobby very much for fear that it would not be accepted.

My business cards for tarot readings now hang in several locations and I read cards as part of my life coaching business. I have even started a class on how to read tarot cards. People want to get in touch with their intuitive voice and the tarot cards provide a great tool in which to do so.

Tarot cards and life coaching go hand in hand. Tarot helps people discover what's going on emotionally; life coaching takes their progress to the next level. As a life coach, I help clients move forward and keep them accountable and supported as they make changes in their lives. Life coaching is a bit more "main stream" and more generally accepted than tarot cards. Some of my clients prefer a mainstream approach, and with some clients, I use tarot cards as a tool. It just depends what feels right.

Before I "woke up," I depended on my left brain to help me navigate through life. This would amount to listing pros and cons and trying to intellectually analyze what the right answer was in making a life decision. With the tarot cards and through my intuition, I have added my right brain into the equation. When there is a decision to be made, I pull out my tarot cards long before I even think about creating a spreadsheet to analyze the pros and the cons. I have found that my intuitive voice is much stronger and more accurate than my analytical, left-brained, logical side. Plus, it's more fun to play with my intuition!

I guess the shock of the divorce, meeting my friend the tarot reader, and the emotional growth that came from the crisis of divorce opened my eyes to all of the possibilities. My empathic abilities and my tarot cards were the first steps on my intuitive, New Age journey.

What is your story?

1 comment:

excavator said...

My Story

I too lived a life of illusion. It was in part a mass hallucination, loyalty to what others told me was 'real'. It was very important to get along, and those around me brooked no disagreement. The emperor was wearing a beautiful suit. I patterned my morality on middle-Americana mores; I was raised to move straight from the sheltered life I had with my parents to being someone's wife.

My problem was that there always seemed to be far more nuanced choices than what religion prepared me for. "Just say no" just did not seem to apply. I blamed myself, accused myself of being weak-willed or rationalizing and redoubled my efforts to hold to the line. The problem was, it was a line; two dimensional, and three dimensional life could not be restrained by it.

I tried to make a break from fundamentalist Christianity for a number of years. I'd stand at the brink, and the prospect of eternal hell kept me from taking the step. Life finally pushed me over the edge, though--to remain faithful to 'the line' would have meant a soul death. When it became more painful to hold myself back than my fear of hell, I leaped. I realized later I'd been hearing 'The Call' and I could refuse it no longer.