24 - Are you Guilty of not Listening to that Little Voice in your Head or that Unique Feeling that Something is Wrong?

  

 

Learn to listen

     "Intuition is a direct perception of the truth of a fact received from an instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning." -  Merriam-Webster Dictionary.   It can also be a gut feeling or instinct. Sometimes it’s a feeling. Other times words or visuals float or pop into your head.  Many of us have experienced intuition at least a few times in our lives, and yet either we are too busy to slow down to listen to it, or we’re too scared to acknowledge the truth. However, many times, we forget to deal with the issue because we are experiencing a lot of stress or trauma in our life. 

     Slam!  I woke up, recognizing the scratchy sound of our sliding kitchen glass door.  Damn! I thought. It’s Kyle sneaking in. I glanced at the clock: it was 2am. Since his struggle with drugs, and a breakdown, we had set a curfew for our 22-year-old son, and it wasn’t 2am. I hopped out of bed and scampered down the wooden staircase.  But the dark figure highlighted by the half-moon wasn’t Kyle. To my surprise, it was our 17-year-old daughter, Nicole. 

      “What are you doing outside at this hour?” I whispered intensely, my heart pounding.

      “I couldn’t go to sleep, so I took a walk in the park,” she answered quietly. But her face was incongruous with that peaceful statement. Her eyes were enormous. She was scared. In a ping of a second, I wondered what she had to be afraid of. But that’s not all I sensed. She had been with a male. I could feel it. I stared at her, my tongue bolted to my bottom jaw. I didn’t know what to say and was sure if I said it, our voices would rise, waking up Alan and Kyle, so I decided to talk to her about it the following day.

     I noticed a grayish rectangular plastic piece on the floor.  I picked it up and realized it was a sensor for the house alarm that that fallen from the sliding glass door. It must have popped off when Nicole had slammed the door.  I reached down and picked it up. “Don’t ever do that again. It could be dangerous. If you fell, there would be no one out there to help you.”

      A streak of stubbornness snuck into her voice, a tone that I rarely heard. “No one is going to hurt me.”  Her whole body straightened like an oak plank.

    “Nicole, there are mountain lions that live in our hills,” my voice rose, but then I lowered it back to a whisper. “They could attack you.”

     She shot back, “I’ve never heard of an attack up here.”

     Well, I couldn’t argue about that one; she was right.  “Well, you could trip and fall. Every week there’s a helicopter lifting someone to a hospital.  No more night hikes.”  I softened my voice; the button stuck on fear. “Promise?”

      A stiff nod followed, one that I wasn’t quite sure I believed.

     “Let’s get to bed. We have school tomorrow.”

      Because my body was still stuck in trauma mode due to Kyle’s idrinkinssues, her older brother, the promise to talk to Nicole the next day evaporated like a muddy pool of water. Too much chaos in my brain. I should have written down a reminder to talk to her.

     I was surprised that I wasn’t angry with Nicole for sneaking out, just scared that something horrible would happen while she was in the state park at night. Girls have been sneaking out for centuries. Yes, even I did it.  I was upset with myself about missing the opportunity to have a discussion with her, which would have possibly opened doors that had been closed in our relationship for about two years. This opportunity for discussion might have even brought us into much-needed family therapy.  But most of all, if I would have been grounded, I would have been able to listen and follow through with all the little hints I saw or felt or was told by that magic little voice inside my head that something was very wrong.

      To receive information,   we need to be relaxed and be open.   When you notice you can’t concentrate, or you are overreacting to life or worried all the time, your body is clogged up. Also, if you are drinking too much or using drugs, sometimes this will also block your intuition.  

Tools to help you listen to that tiny voice, feeling or vision:

1.   I know this will sound a bit bizarre, but apologize to your body for not listening to the messages             that it has been trying to send to you and promise you will be working on being a better listener. No       need to feel guilty, as this is a negative emotion that also sets up blocks.

2.  Breathe through your nose some nice slow deep breaths.  Focus on your heart while doing this or a         spot in  the room – ( GREAT TO TEACH KIDS BEFORE THEY’RE ABOUT TO  FREAK OUT.)

3.  Walk outside.  Focus on a tree, or a flower, or the sky and breathe deeply. Pick up a rock and look at        the colors, feel its texture. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.  Do this a few        times till you feel grounded.

 4.   If you want long-term effects on mental and emotional health, incorporate meditation into your               life, 

look at Blog # 7 - "How to Meditate."

 Any questions or shares - Contact me at tbboivin8@gmail.com    or make a comment on the blog site.  Have a blessed day!