When I was a teenager (many years ago), I once slept over at my older sister’s house. I was supposed to sleep on the sofa. I was lying there, ready to go to sleep but I couldn’t.
You know when something doesn’t feel right?
On paper it sounds like a good idea. You think it through and it should be a good decision. But something doesn’t FEEL good?
Where is it that you feel that? What is it that you feel?
I’ll wager that you feel it in your body as a physical sensation and it might defy logic.
What did you do? Did you listen? Or did you ignore it?
Did you live to regret your decision or was it the right one?
For no logical reason I decided to move myself upstairs and sleep on a hard floor rather than the comfy sofa.
In the morning we came downstairs to find that the house had been broken into. We hadn’t heard a thing over the loud music we thought was coming from the neighbours. The sofa, where I had been lying, was embedded with huge shards of glass. They had smashed the French doors behind the sofa to get in. And had I been lying there, sheltered from view by the back of the sofa, I would have been showered in glass.
Most of us have at least one story like this. I’d love to know yours. (Please share it by leaving a comment.👇)
This is intuition. The wisdom which lives in you. It is in your body, not your brain.
The connection that we all have with this inner knowing has often been eroded, by societal expectations of us, especially for girls and women, who might be afraid to offend or step out of their defined roles after centuries of conditioning.
Historically going with your gut might have resulted in dire consequences. If you’re in an oppressive system, ignoring these internal nudges may be the only way you can survive.But living without this connection to your own wisdom creates a sort of hollowness. It’s a betrayal and breaks down your ability to trust yourself. It creates an internal tension from not aligning your actions to your knowing. And that even has physical consequences. It’s a form of chronic stress and can create inflammation in your body, resulting in many physical illnesses, not to mention the deep sadness and mental unease of not honouring yourself.
So what do you do when you realise that you’ve been ignoring all those nagging feelings? Perhaps you can’t even sense that subtle knowing anymore.
You start small. Tiny loyalties to yourself to re-build the trust between you and your body. Listen. Ask yourself what you need. Maybe you’re thirsty, maybe you need to stretch, maybe you need to go to bed, maybe you need to say no. In time you might hear that inner knowing and be able to honour it, and it may save you. This is where I am right now. Rebuilding the connection. (My Self-Care postcards are designed to help you with this journey)
It’s taken me years to even hear my intuition. And even more to learn to trust and honour it. This is still very much work in progress for me. Only the other day with the help of a coach, I realised that once again I find myself over-stretched, overcommitted by distractions that block out the intuitive voice telling me to trust that in the studio is exactly where I should be.
I use my intuition a lot when creating art. In my Everyday Magic Series, each Spell is a process of being led by feeling and years of experience of creating a composition. The process is a kind of dance between intuition, serendipity and control. I am the co-creator and to me, that makes them all the more powerful. I focus on becoming receptive to the world, noticing the objects and ingredients that present themselves to me like breadcrumbs.
Once the theme for a painting becomes apparent, I have to tune in EVEN more, to not let my busy thinking mind take over. To wait for THE right element to present itself and trust that it will come. 
That means I have well over 10 paintings in progress at the moment and different elements will come with each season.
There is magic for me in the process. An unveiling, which is exciting and an exercise in patience and listening without judgement- not easy. Perhaps you feel this as you look at the work? Perhaps there is a resonance of something that is beyond me, coming onto the page for you? Something you need to hear? Something that can guide you, help you and offer you solace?
I hope so. That’s what I’m trusting. Because once I have made them they become something else. They don’t feel like mine- they’re there for you. To remind you you’re not alone. That all these elements are assembled to give you support and connect you to your potential.
And what is it you need help with? I’d love to know. (Comment below👇)It’s a great question to ask yourself, to notice the underlying recurring themes in your life. Maybe the problem isn’t really you have too much to do, it’s that you find it hard to say no. (Even if you feel it intuitively!) Maybe when you dig a little deeper, you realise you want to feel needed?
might just be the starting point for a new spell and you can guarantee it will resonate with someone else too.Do hit reply and let me know your thoughts, it’s always a treat to hear back from you. And if you want to see what Spells are available to help you right now, look at my Everyday Magic Series Originals, or Prints.