Many have heard this story:
A little girl who just became a big sister, is found in the baby’s room, leaning over the baby’s bassinet. She is overheard asking the baby in a whisper, “tell me what God is like, I’m starting to forget.”
Intuition, our natural connection to the divine and wisdom in us, is just like this. We are born with it, and yet we soon lose our connection to it in a world that teaches us to look to others for information and truth. So nurturing our children’s intuition is not about teaching them anything, it’s simply about recognizing and helping them stay connected to what they already know in their heart.
There are many ways to do this. For now, here are a couple of important basics:
1) Honoring feelings as wisdom: Our feelings guide us to know what feels loving or unloving in any moment. When we feel discord, our feelings are guiding us that we are “off our path.” When we feel peace, clarity, we can know that we are “on our path” Often we discount our own feelings or second guess them, but if we sit with them, and listen to what they are telling us, there is great wisdom there. In the same way that physical pain tells us to do something different (move your hand out of the fire!) emotional pain moves us back to better self care.
2) Communicating to our children that their heart is a guide: I ask my children, “How does that feel in your heart? Or how does your heart feel? Most times they don’t have to be asked, they simply express themselves as children naturally do. Either way, it is our job to take time to listen and really pay attention, to let them know that what they feel, is important. When listened to, they often make their own connections to what would be loving (“if he plays mean, I’m not going to play with him!”) though sometimes they may need a little guidance or strategy to put the pieces together. “Follow your heart!” is a phrase we use often to remind us all to reconnect to our intuition.
3) Connecting children to their gut feelings or belly: Some children resonate more to the physical signs that our body gives us. So you can talk about intuition in the form of their “gut feelings” or their “belly.” How does your “belly” feel when you think about doing that?” The key is asking them. So often we simply give answers or solutions to our children because it sounds like that is what they are asking for and/or we feel we know best. I have found that when I remember to ask, it is not only empowering for us both, but it simply feels good to see that our children really “know” so much.
4) Be a model! The more you listen to your own heart and gut feelings, and model trusting yourself, the more your children will learn to value their own intuition and use it as a valuable tool in life.