Imagination or Intuition? How to trust the difference.
In our April blog post, with the help of published writer and veteran faculty member Lisa Voisin, we explored the relationship between imagination, creativity and meditation.
Imagination keeps our ideas flowing and mind open, but sometimes it can make us question what is real or not. This can be tricky if you’re on the path to developing your intuitive gifts and learning to follow your spiritual voice. Have you ever had a vision, heard or felt energy and thought:
“Was that my imagination!?”
On the journey to exploring your intuitive gifting, doubt can often creep in via the guise of imagination.
“Did I see that?”
“Am I feeling what I think I am? Or am I just making it up?!”
The spiritual parts of our perception are wrapped in mystery and often emerge just on the edge of our conscious awareness. It’s not a part of our mind that is validated by mainstream culture and is typically relegated to superstition.
So if you doubt this part of your mind, don’t be hard on yourself, you’ve been taught to!
Unless you had a super spiritually progressive upbringing, when sharing any intuitive insights you had as a kid, you might have heard, “you’re imagining things,” or “what an active imagination!” or “you can’t know that!” Especially if you were witnessing some kind of truth that was intended to be hidden.
We absorb those kinds of messages without being conscious that they are in there. So if you don’t trust your gut right away, know that this is a normal part of the process to accessing these gifts.
Yes, sometimes we were playing imagination! But, sometimes we were simply perceiving. Really pause to feel the difference: How did you naturally read energy as a kid? How do you read it now?
In the Training in Power Academy, we use the terms Clairsentient (feeling energy), Clairaudient (hearing energy) and Clairvoyant (seeing energy) to describe the many ways each person reads the energy we are surrounded by every day. The truth is, we all perceive energy in our own unique way, which means we need to trust and learn our own system to start to effectively use it.
When I’ve wondered to myself if I’m “making it up” or it’s my imagination, I ask myself: Why would I invent this?
Why would I pretend to hear a message of love from the universe? Why would I invent the red flag I feel around a stranger, or the hunch that I shouldn’t eat the plate of food that later gives me food poisoning (ugh, I hate that one!).
Here’s how I’ve come to think about these two parts of my mind:
ENJOY your imagination
TRUST your intuition
Your intuitive gifts are just that, gifts! And the process of learning about them is a healing journey every step of the way. If you are looking for a training system that can support you in the process, check out our foundational course that is designed to help you to connect to all aspects of your power, safely.
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