Yes, I know we’re in the midst of a recession. Jobs are scarce, and post-retirement work (whether the retirement was planned or not) may be harder to find for the older person. But I believe there are possibilities all around us. The fact that we don’t see them, may have more to do with our lack of imagination or closed minds than anything else. We may need to sharpen our intuitive skills in order to receive the “signals” from the universe. Let’s face it: most people sleepwalk through life, following a routine, taking the same route to work every day, dulling our senses with television, etc.
Unless you are in a desperate situation and need to find a job NOW, take the time to do a little intuition training to cultivate alertness to the signs and signals all around us. What is intuition? It is the capacity to KNOW something without rational evidence that proves it to be so. Sarah Ban Breathnach in her book, “Simple Abundance”, states that intuition is the subliminal sense that enables us to maneuver through the maze of life. “It is only by following your deepest instinct that you can lead a rich life and if you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest instinct , then your life will be safe, expedient, and thin.”
The messages come to us in many ways: a physical excitement upon encountering an idea or experience or conversation with a stranger: or an inner KNOWING that helps us arrive at the right place at the right time. For me, it is often a coming together of two reinforcing incidents, one right after another. For example, one day this week I was talking with someone about a previous experience finding a job. I wondered if it had been luck or whether I had simply been alert to a possibility I hadn’t envisioned. The very next day, I was in a workshop and the discussion was about how we go through life asleep and are not alert to the signals from the universe. The second incident reinforced the learning from the first. Coincidence or synchronicity?
Information often comes to me in a dream. An example: Four years ago, I had a dream in which a person (probably my unconscious self) asked me what I really wanted. My response was “more adventures and less responsibility!” Two days later, a fellow financial advisor called and asked if I was willing to sell my accounts. Fortunately I did, and was paid a lump sum, which could not possibly happen in today’s economy. Was I lucky or was I alert? Try keeping a notebook by your bed and jot down strong thoughts about direction for your life that comes in dreams. Often I will get a very strong intuitive nudge in the shower, usually about some forgotten skill or experience I can bring to bear on a situation confronting me. Use these experiences! Don’t ignore them! You are training your intuitive muscle!
Thirty-eight years ago, I had finished graduate school and was looking for a job in government. I had recently moved from Boston to a small town in Connecticut because of my husband’s job and was living 45 miles from any major city. Job opportunities were scarce; it was the recession of 1972. I had even been told as an applicant for several jubs, that I had a husband, therefore didn’t “need” a job. I was discouraged, but knew I “needed” to work in order to use my skills and intelligence. I drove to a counselling center 45 miles away in Hartford, and was telling the counsellor that I really wanted to work. At that moment, the phone rang. It was a non-profit agency that had received a grant to develop a program for senior volunteers. It wasn’t what I had in mind for myself, but I went to the interview, got the job and over the course of the next 17 years, one job led to another, none of which I had planned to do.
Part of intuition training is learning to be open to the opportunities we hadn’t envisioned. If you want to learn to develop this power, you must learn to trust it. Put it to use in little ways, every day. It is a sense like your other senses and can be cultivated just like taste, touch and smell. Find time to be quiet so the signals and nudges can be felt. Spend time with people who believe in inner KNOWING, whether they call it intuition or divine guidance. In a world where the options SEEM to be diminishing, we need to develop patterns of thought that continually open up new possibilties for our lives. Become a “intuition entrepreneur”. This is called “creating” your life!