How has intelligent wisdom come to you?
Do you get “gut feelings” about certain things?
Have you felt rightness “in your bones?”
Have you experienced senscience, the felt sense of authentic knowing that can clear up confusion?
Maybe the intelligence of your intuition has manifested as a physical metaphor like it did for my client who had foot problems when her husband was sick. Healing for her stress and her feet became possible when she realized she’d been saying, “I can’t stand it!”
Whether intuitive knowing arrives with a belly laugh or heart-aches, with butterflies, a flood of emotions, or with senscience, the associations attendant to the sensations can direct you to intelligent wisdom and pave the way for dormant body/mind resources to be integrated into the strength of your essential Self. In Soul Mothers’ Wisdom: Seven Insights for the Single Mother I wrote about an experience of wise knowing that happened at a clinical conference when my daughters were young adults. Despite some relief that they’d “made it,” I was missing their childhoods and was anxious about individuation requirements of my new phase of single motherhood.
Listening to a famous therapist discuss his own family’s dynamics, a feeling of warm comfort infused my body, suddenly sending me back in time. As memories suffused me, I flashed to my newborn babies, seeing and feeling emotions I had felt when I first held their teeny bodies next to my heart. I re-experienced in full sensate color the stunning sensations of a new kind of love. Somatic sensations, erupting like volcanic flow that alters the landscape, were helping me to integrate emotions, affirm past life choices, and feel inspired to new possibilities.
As the kaleidoscope of visions and feelings sorted and shifted, I became a witness to where I had been and began to trust where I was going. I could feel how hard it had been to raise the girls after my divorce, and after their father died; how I had wanted to tell them how hard it was; and how intelligent wisdom had helped me resist the temptation to tell, but rather guided me to bring up the girls with as little contamination from my pain as possible. As memories continued their flow, I felt an ache shift in my psyche, as if an inner force, not my ego or my will, was leading, dissolving residual discomfort and bringing clarity into my mind. Now new possibilities began to take shape.
Theoretically, I knew that in order for both to achieve their individual potentials, mothers and children often need to follow separate paths. I’d counseled clients about the dual need for parents and children to stay connected as well as to separate. Intellectually, I understood but now I began to comprehend. From the viscera of the body that had born my babies came conscious intelligent wisdom. “Letting go” of them did not mean giving up my relationship to my children. It was right to release them to their destinies and just as right for me to continue toward a destination of my own. Maybe time was now available for me to pursue my dream of becoming an author.
While this experience was extraordinary for me, experiences like these are actually quite ordinary. We all have the potential for wisdom to emerge through the intuitive channels of mind/body and Soul. This intelligence presents a powerful vehicle for accessing information that can keep us healthy, keep us in touch with our true Selves, and help us cope with life.
Various clinicians have developed effective methods for quieting the chatter inside, regulating sympathetic arousal, and tuning into intelligent wisdom. I have a few ideas of my own, which I will be sharing with you here. However, now, if you wish, you can try this simple exercise to tap your intuition.
Begin by taking a couple gentle breaths and settling into a space that is comfortable for you. If you wish, call to mind an issue you would like to resolve. You may notice biofeedback sensations as your body relaxes, and you may have thoughts and images that contain information and emotions. You may realize now or later that what you receive relates in some way to your issue. Now all you need to do is to pay attention, taking a few moments for feeling and following the flow of associations. As you become increasingly familiar with the phenomena and presentation of intuitive wisdom, you will comprehend more, and be better able to tap its intelligence for insight in your work and for peace of mind in your life. When you are ready, take an easy breath and come back.
I will be curious to hear from you about the many fascinating ways your wisdom manifests and how delightful it can be to use its intelligence in your life and in your work.
“The Intelligent Wisdom of Body/Mind and Soul” is reprinted with permission from Somatic Psychotherapy Today, www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com and Bette Freedson, www.BetteFreedson.com.
