Embodying Your Intuition

Happy New Moon in Cancer! Cancer is ruled by the moon, and connecting with the moon phases always invites the opportunity to connect with your intuition. And one critical area of embodying your authenticity is trusting your intuition. Trusting that inner voice or gut instinct.

But you might wonder how exactly you can strengthen your intuitive muscle. One little known way is through the body. In the movement world, Rudolph Laban developed an approach to movement that looked at Body, Effort, Shape and Space. A common language for movers, and the tool used by many dance/movement therapists today. In the Effort category - which correlates with our inner world and how movement informs that - there are four elements used to observe and develop movement. “Time” is one of those elements, and it correlates directly to Carl Jung’s psychological function of intuiting.

So how do you explore time? Think about how you naturally pace yourself. When you walk. When you work. Your overall approach to timing. Quick or slow. Accelerating or decelerating. Maybe you even dabble in the realm of timelessness (that’s a more advanced concept for another day).

When you think about it, connecting with intuition can absolutely be a matter of timing. Think about the commonly used phrase of “divine timing.” There’s something mystical about it. An unknown factor. But so much of trusting our gut is about noticing and acting at the right moment. You could have a hunch about something and never do anything about it. The timing is off and the opportunity or chance to make a different choice is now gone.

If you want to strengthen your ability to trust when to move, when to stop, when to speed up or slow down - when to take a leap of faith - then I invite you to stand up right now. Begin walking around your room and allow yourself to play with varying speeds. If you have a partner, this can enhance the practice. Speed and slow up in relation to each other and get a sense of when the other person is going to change their speed, direction or intensity.

In Tarot, intuition is connected to the suit of Wands. Working with the archetypes in the court cards - page, knight, queen and king of Wands - can also serve as a development exercise. Intuition is also the element of fire. So connecting with your fire placements - Aries, Leo or Sagittarius - can also help develop this skill.

How do you embody intuition? What helps you connect?