Adult and Child Intuition

“That feeling you have in your gut”.

Everyone has intuition. Some have it more developed than others. For some, their radar is in their emotions, for others in the physical body, and yet for others in their “movement” or “kinesthetic” body. Our senses in a way are the gateway to our intuition. Said another way, the senses are the gateway between the nervous system and the larger world AND how we define it as important through our perceptions and thinking mind.

For years, I worked with people that had significant trauma of one way or another, primarily from violence occurring through war, sexual abuse or significant childhood trauma. Very often, at least 2 happened together. For people who suffered from childhood trauma, there was a heightened sensitivity and intuition to their environment. They were sometimes labeled as the “sensitive one” and shamed for it. From that shame, there developed the capacity to read the environment in a heightened way, many doing it unconsciously. Their senses were already heightened from sympathetic bombardment: the chronic effect of fight or flight on the nervous system is to bring about physiological changes, heightened sensivity to noise, movement (which can become stiffness in different parts of the body, fibromylgia, TMJ issues), they become even more “intuitive.

The same occurs with soldiers and those with post traumatic stress disorder.

Many learn to drown their sensitivity through drinking, frequent stimulation through activity and social media, which adds insult onto insult to the physical, emotional and mental body. Over time, medication, illness, fatigue, and disconnected relationships happen.

Yet most children have a heightened sensitivity and intuition as well. It becomes “learned out” from the 9-4 schooling at the age of 5 onward.

What I have learned over the last several years with spending more and more time working with children that have not had significant trauma and comparing it with those who have had trauma, is that nature has a way of ALWAYS bringing us back to intuition. And that adults with PTSD have intuition rooted in fear and disconnect, while children have intuition rooted at the heart. In a way, it is our nature to have a heightened sense of knowing and sensitivity to others. And we either make the choice to meet it or we drown it in distraction.

If you observe children over time, you will find that their intuition is their natural heart resonance. There is nothing separate for them, they feel everything, they see and hear it all. As they get older, the conflict between the heart and mind starts rolling in with societal and family dynamics. In working with people with PTSD, teaching them to feel their hearts again has always worked. The heart is formed in the embryo even before the brain, with its own electric field, its own rhythm, its own way of governing our senses and their interpretations and projections before even the mind can grab at them.

If we honor and acknowledge that intuition is our birthright…and that sensitivity is a heightened capacity for compassion and the deep need for love, to be seen and heard, we would heal many including ourselves. Intuition is something we all have, the ability to see and feel ahead without knowing. Most adults without PTSD have fear with intuitive hits, as this very often can mean great changes in their life. It can be scary to meet these places. Yet really intuition is the mouth piece of the heart. If you can remember that your sense of knowing comes from the heart and does not have to have fear, you can prevent much suffering. This is easily said of course, this is why most religious traditions have a teacher, a teaching and a community. If you can find yourself a community, a “tribe” as it were, to support you, you will find that the intuitive voice will be a friend not foe.

For really, nature will always bring us back to our intuition. Either through accidents, politics, or unpleasant traumatic events…or listening through the natural state of being cultivated by being outdoors, prayer, community and trusted advisors and friends. Which one will you choose in your next steps through life?