Intuitive Self-Esteem: moving out of the abyss of self-doubt and into the crystal clear river of creative flow
Intuitive Intelligence, Intuitive Consciousness, Intuitive Awareness, Intuitive Perception…these are some of the terms I’ve come across in my time reading and researching on intuition. Everywhere I turn I discover so many brilliant people talking about intuition. What exactly is intuition? How can we get better at harnessing its power?
So as I sit here and contemplate writing this essay, I wonder how much more can I contribute to this impressive topic? But intuitively, I know and feel in the depths of my bones, that my perspective on how creative flow thrives with intuition, I can add to the conversation. It is in intuitive play that you can bypass the analytical mind and tap into the deeper, more instinctual parts of yourself.
Through the lens of energetics and embodiment, I’m motivated to contribute to the conversation on intuitive self-esteem that Clarissa Pinkola Estés and Carolyn Myss touch on in Intuition and the Mystical Life. An audiobook that is “a special jewel of eloquent teachings by two of the world’s most influential women.”
As an artist, I know that intuition plays a pivotal role in my creativity. The strength of my intuitive intelligence determines whether my creativity flows freely like a crystal clear river or gets trapped in an abyss of self-doubt! I’ve come to understand that intuitive self-esteem means that I believe in myself and my capabilities, regardless of what others may think or say. It means that I trust my own instincts and intuition, rather than seeking validation and approval from others. Simply, “it’s genuinely liking yourself,” as Estés and Myss stated in their conversation.
There is a universal, intelligent life force that exists within everyone and everything...an inner sense that tells us what feels right and true for us at any given moment.
— Shakti Gawain
Intuitive Intelligence: a natural sense of the world
Science has shown that children are born with a natural intuitive sense of their world. Julie Hamilton, author of Generation Intuitive, says, “All of our children are born with the gift of intuition — a knowing that goes beyond reason and directly plugs them into their deepest wisdom and connects them with who they really are.”
Our innate intuition is a wise intelligence that always has our best interests at heart, and it speaks to us in a variety of ways. Announcing itself eagerly through our physical sensations, thoughts, dreams, signs, symbols and more. I personally experienced the power of this intuitive intelligence as a young girl during a difficult time in my life. In the chapter I contributed to in the book Intuitive Living, I share my experience and insights. Below is a little extract I feel compelled to share with you;
“This is not the first time I have been here. I have had a few operations and even though I am only seven I know this is a few too many. I start to hum and feel the vibration caressing my heart and soothing my heaving chest. I visualise and feel a golden light flowing with my breath through my body. Warming me up. Relaxing my trembling limbs. Eventually the shivering stops and I fall asleep.
Trauma, stress, undigested emotions, anxiety, memories, and experiences are all held in the body. Fortunately, the body knows how to release them through movement, sound and breath. Something my body intuitively knew how to do at that young age. The body will naturally want to tremble and shake, cry and scream as a release mechanism. If we don’t let this happen the sensation will remain trapped and frozen in our nervous system”.
This chapter is about feeling, trusting, and cultivating an embodied awareness of our feelings, so our bodies don’t hold onto past traumas.
Unfortunately, as we get older, we lose touch with this intuitive intelligence, and yet, as Rick Snyder states in TJB American Business Magazine article Intuitive Intelligence: An Entrepreneur’s Best Friend, “it is exactly what is considered the missing link in helping your company culture stay ahead of today’s challenges and better anticipate the ones to come.”
The art of consistent creative flow, which you can read about in my blog Cycle of Creativity: The Moon Squashing the Voice of Self-Sabotage, needs intuitive intelligence to be alive and activated in us. The critical question is HOW do we develop intuitive intelligence to live a creative life that impacts and seeps into the vestiges of entrepreneurial explorations?
Creativity and Intuitive Self-Esteem: shaking fear out from the psyche
Intuition is an illuminating insight that arrives as a feeling, knowingness, idea, or experience that you simply receive. The word itself comes from Latin and means to look within. In order for creativity to thrive and for self-expression to shine, it’s essential to have a strong sense of intuitive self-esteem. It’s the key to unlocking the intuitive intelligence that resides deep within you.
Today intuition is recognized as an essential and natural aspect of our human design. But the giant obstacle FEAR persists, even in our modern logical world. Fear gets in the way, stifling intuition and slows down or blocks creative flow, making it difficult to attain a creative life!
To be a strongly Intuitive Being, you don’t choose intuition, you choose the elements that build you inside to allow an intuitive voice to come forward.
- Caroline Myss
I believe that one of the greatest gifts of intuitive self-esteem is the ability to feel and know that you’re living authentically and in harmony with your true path and purpose. That receiving intuitive insights and living a life of insightfulness, gives you the calm and confidence to handle anything the world offers you.
But to receive intuitive insights, you must transform the fear of making a decision, standing out, or being different. To be able to stop from falling into an abyss of self-doubt but transmute it into a blossoming of self-confidence. The good news is, Rick Snyder presents an easy six-step process in his book, Decisive Intuition to help you connect with your intuition.
Develop Creative Thinking: how intuitive self-esteem leads to innovation.
According to research conducted by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, creative people tend to see reality in a richer and more varied fashion than non-creative people. They notice subtleties and nuances that escape others because they are in flow. In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csikszentmihalyi states that “flow helps to integrate the self because in that state of deep concentration consciousness is unusually well ordered. Thoughts, intentions, feelings, and all the senses are focused on the same goal.”
In my opinion, the flow state Csikszentmihalyi talks about unfolds due to intuition being actively vibrant and alive. In turn, intuitive self-esteem improves simply by the act of allowing yourself to be fully immersed in the creative process without the distraction of self-doubt. This enhances creative thinking and enables you to approach problems from new and innovative perspectives, leading to unique solutions that may not have been considered before.
In fact, confidence and self-esteem are boosted as you gain a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from overcoming challenges in innovative ways. When creative thinking is flowing intuitive self-esteem is high.
There are so many ways you can develop intuition in your everyday life and improve your personal intuitive self-esteem. Here are four tips to help:
Recognise that fear is a normal human emotion. It’s perfectly ok to feel afraid at times. How do you respond to these fears? Do you allow fear to dictate your actions and decisions? Or do you work through it and not let your emotions take over?
Pay attention to your gut instinct, as this is the first signal your body communicates that something may be wrong. Have you ever had an uneasy feeling but couldn’t explain why? That’s probably because your subconscious mind has picked up on something that went unnoticed by your conscious mind.
The more details you notice in your surroundings, whether it be in work or in life, the easier it will be for you to spot when something does not feel right. Do you notice sounds that annoy you while working? Or surrounding sounds that may soothe and help keep a rhythm in your flow?
Be open to new experiences. You can never truly understand yourself until you go outside of your comfort zone and try new things. Did you know, that doing new things, rather than being a frivolous luxury, is an essential tool for enhancing cognitive and emotional well-being? How do you incorporate new experiences into your life?
Tending to Intuitive Intelligence through Intuitive Play
By embracing and cultivating the many ways your intuition manifests, through body, mind, heart and spirit you develop intuitive self-esteem so that your truly genuine voice has the power to roar loudly.
Kim Chestney in Radical Intuition: A Revolutionary Guide to Using Your Inner Power offers a practical guide for tuning into your own process of insight, and “open up new channels for intuitive expression within you.” Chesteny states that there’s a much wiser intelligence guiding us and that the people who listen to their inner voice are the people who really take control of their lives.
Your body, with its capacity for thinking, feeling, and knowing, serves as your innate source of wisdom. It acts as a conduit for understanding and interpreting messages, insights, symbols and signs from your subconscious mind, making it your most intuitive tool.
There is an exquisite tenderness when you are deeply connected to your body. A tenderness that flows between your external reality and your internal reality. Communicating through your “mind’s eye”, the “voice in your head”, or your “gut feeling;” Your intuitive body is speaking to you through your five senses.
The Intuitive Sense of Vision: Images, Daydreams, or Visions in Your Mind’s Eye
The Intuitive Sense of Hearing: Sounds, Words, Phrases, or Songs in Your Head
The Intuitive Sense of Feeling: Sensations or Feelings with No Apparent Source
The Intuitive Sense of Taste: Craving or “Tasting” Certain Foods for No Apparent Reason
The Intuitive Sense of Smell: Affinity or Attraction to Certain Scents or Smells
In my blog The Energetics of Creative Flow: Taming the Originality Monster I speak of the importance of intuitive play for creative thinking. Expanding on this notion, I propose that Intuitive Play is a key way to nurture and develop your intuitive senses. Through play, you’re able to develop the skill of listening to what the inner wisdom of your body is communicating.
As adults, we have lost the sense of play, and yet “neuroscientists, developmental biologists, psychologists, social scientists, and researchers from every point of the scientific compass now know that play is a profound biological process” as stated in Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown.
Brown goes on to say that “another hallmark of play is that it has improvisational potential. We aren’t locked into a rigid way of doing things. We are open to serendipity, to chance. We are willing to include seemingly irrelevant elements in our play. The act of play itself may be outside of “normal” activities. We are fully in the moment, in the zone. We are experiencing what the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls flow.”
The purpose of play is to learn how to navigate the world and adapt to it. The result of play is that we intuitively stumble upon new behaviours, thoughts, strategies, movements, or ways of being. We see things in a different way and have fresh insights.
Final Thoughts
“Play is a very primal activity. It is preconscious and preverbal—it arises out of ancient biological structures that existed before our consciousness or our ability to speak.” Linked to the body wisdom that resides within you. Your intuition.
Most importantly, play lies at the core of creativity and innovation. It’s fun and intensely pleasurable. It energises and enlivens us. Intuitive play eases our burdens and renews our natural sense of optimism. A perfect antidote for increasing intuitive self-esteem.
Intuitive intelligence is ignited!
Intuitive play is something I explore in my Enchant experience. This online experience is a way for people to unlock the magic of their creativity and intuitive power in a playful escape from the chaos of an overstimulated world.
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