How do you use your intuition to figure out what kind of healthy activities will work best for you?
You see, social media and other areas of the internet have a great deal of influence on our health these days. It’s a great place for people to share their success stories and offer proof that what they do to keep fit and healthy works.
So our mind, as an onlooker, says to itself “Well if it works for them it’ll probably work for me”. But when we try what they are doing, we may struggle to connect or have success too. This can leave us feeling like a failure, Or like there is something wrong with us for not getting results.
The thing is we’re not wrong. And we’re not a failure. What we are is DIFFERENT. Different right down in our core.
So in this week’s conversation Mother Nature and I talk about intuition and our core nature. Specifically, how we can understand, recognise and use our intuition to help us find our own unique path to vibrant wellbeing.
I hope you enjoy the episode…
Chris: Welcome back to the show Mother Nature.
Mother Nature: It’s lovely to be here Chris.
Chris: Today I’d like to talk to you about a question that was raised by one of our listeners. It’s an incredibly valuable question for people struggling with their wellbeing, so I’m interested in where this conversation might lead us today.
Here’s the question.
“Dear Chris. I’ve been enjoying your podcast greatly and the insights Nature brings to wellbeing. I wonder if you could help me with something I’ve struggled with for a long time now.
I feel like knowing how to exercise, or eat, or live more slowly should be intuitive. It certainly feels that way when I hear you speak about it. However, I’ve tried so many approaches to diet and exercise now but I never seem to find one I connect with. It’s exhausting! So how do I know what is right for me?”
As I say, it’s a great question. So what are your thoughts on this one Mother Nature?
Mother Nature: Firstly, can I just acknowledge the courage it takes to ask this question. I see people struggling to find their intuition for health more and more these days.
I get the sense that this person might be feeling a little burnt out by the process.
It sounds to me like it’s time for her to connect with her Mother Nature.
Chris: Her MOTHER Nature? What do you mean?
Mother Nature:In the information age, people are looking outside of themselves more and more to find the solutions to the needs they have inside.
But all you find, when you look outside of yourself, are the solutions that meet other people’s needs.
Every person has a unique set of preferences and needs when it comes to diet, exercise and recovery. We could say, these preferences and needs, are a reflection of your true Nature. Your ‘Mother’ Nature.
So when you make health choices that reflect this unique internal nature, you’ll find them effortless to connect with.
Chris: Are you saying that healthy practices are most effective when they align with who you are inside?
Aligned with your MOTHER Nature as you’re calling it. And a person’s Mother nature is the reflection of their unique preferences and needs.
Mother Nature: Exactly.
For example, many people join gyms, yet stop turning up within a few weeks of starting. Whilst others join the gym and feel like they’ve found their home, dropping everything to get their daily fix.
The ones who love the gym will shout about how good the place is. They’ll preach the benefits to anyone that will listen. And they’ll share evidence of the progress and successes they’re having too, so they can back up what they are saying.
For these people they have found what resonates with THEIR core nature when it comes to physical activity.
The problem is, if following what they say doesn’t resonate with yours, then you’ll come up against some powerful internal resistance. And the gym will feel anything but like a home.
Fortunately your intuition provides a set of very useful signposts to what your preferences might be.
Chris: That’s interesting and it reminds me of something I always found strange.
I love the sport of Paragliding. I’ve done it for almost 20 years now. When I tell people I fly thousands of feet in the air with 2mm thin ropes attaching me to a couple of sheets of fabric, and I feel great doing it, most people look at me sideways and say “you’ll never catch me doing that!”
They intuitively know it’s not in their Nature to want to fly. And nobody would argue with that!
Yet, when someone says “I work out at the gym five days a week and I feel great doing it”, people begrudgingly sign up for a membership and feel like the whole experience is a punishment they must endure.
So people intuitively know they don’t want to fly a bag of cloth, but they seem to lose connection to their intuition when it comes to more socially normal activities.
Mother Nature: There you go. Sometimes humans trust their intuition and other times they allow social pressure or expectations to override it.
Fighting against your intuition and repeatedly doing something that just doesn’t resonate with you will very quickly lead you to Burn-Out in that area of your life.
Chris: And that’s why you thought this listener’s question had all the hallmarks of someone becoming burnt-out.
She’s trying, and failing, to do what others say is right for her; and it’s exhausting.
You mentioned a moment ago that doing things that don’t resonate with you can create powerful internal resistance. Could you expand on that for me please?
Mother Nature: Of course Chris.
We get powerful resistance when we go against our core Mother nature, and as I said, your intuition is a set of signposts to this.
You have three states of intuition. The first is Positively charged Intuition. The second is Negatively charged intuition. And finally there is a form of chargeless intuition that is completely neutral.
I say Positive and Negative have a charge, because they elicit a positive or negative emotion.
Positive in tuition creates emotions like joy, excitement or enthusiasm. So positively charged intuition becomes that feeling that something is going to be good for you. It draws you forward in a positive direction.
Negative intuition creates emotions like fear, anxiety and inadequacy. So negatively charged intuition is obviously the opposite of positive. You instinctively know that something doesn’t resonate with you. An extreme example of this for you Chris, is to think of going Caving.
Chris: Oh my god yeah. I don’t mind flying high above the ground, but send me down a deep, dark, narrow hole in the ground? No thank you!
So what about that chargeless Neutral Intuition?
Mother Nature: This is an interesting one.
Neutral intuition creates no emotion. It just feels right. Take love for example. Positively charged love creates bonding and pleasure. Negatively charged feeling of love creates fear or obsession. But neutral, chargeless, love is pure unconditional love. No emotion. Just love.
Because neutral intuition has no charge it’s very, very subtle, so it’s hard to spot when it’s there. But it’s that ‘knowing’ deep inside of you that you just trust.
Positive and Negative intuitions are like huge motorway road signs that tell you to get off or keep going.
Neutrally charged intuition is more like the destination you have in mind when you’re travelling along the motorway. It is just there, held as a concept inside of you. The destination that the right and left turns along the way lead you to.
This neutral intuitive place inside of you is your Mother Nature. It’s the core of who you are. And everyone’s Mother nature is unique to them.
Chris: So is this the route of that internal resistance we come up against?
Mother Nature: Yes it is Chris.
People override their Positive and Negative Intuitions. Taking an exit off the motorway, even though the signs are pointing the other way.
Going against your intuition means you’re embarking on a course of action that may go against your deepest core nature. So very quickly you encounter resistance.
It’s nature’s way of getting you to be you.
Chris: Would you say that this is a modern issue? With information everywhere, we look outside of ourselves for answers, rather than paying attention to what’s going on inside.
Mother Nature: It is a more widespread issue today, yes. But it’s not new.
It’s a product of free will and, what’s more, it’s what makes humans so amazing.
Chris: What do you mean? Surely being able to go against intuition is a design fault?
Mother Nature: I don’t do design faults, Chris.
Chris: Sorry, you’re right. Of course you don’t.
So why does free will make humans so amazing?
Mother Nature: Free will is the ability to explore your intuitions. It allows you to go much deeper than the reflexive nature of other animals. Intuition is supposed to be explored.
Have you ever noticed how your reflex to fear the unknown looks very similar to Negatively Charged Intuition.
But often, if you push through your initial fears, incredible things open up for you.
For example, maybe you feel resistant to joining a gym, but you do it anyway. Then you realise that there is a community there that you really like. Or you discover yoga when you get bored of the treadmill.
It’s these experiences that teach you about your core nature. And that is something no other animal will ever get to experience.
Playing with your intuition allows you to explore possibilities. And that’s an amazing gift.
Chris: Wow. So you’re saying that intuition is there to guide us, but ignoring it can be a good thing too?
Positively and Negatively charged intuition, the stuff we really feel, are there to guide us towards our true nature.
And experimenting with following, and NOT following, our intuition can teach us even more about our true nature, by allowing us to explore many possibilities until we hit on something that just feels completely right.
So that person who reluctantly joined the gym but discovered a community or a yoga class learnt even more about their true nature. They learnt that they were right, they don’t enjoy the gym, but they do love community, or yoga.
And that opened up a deeper understanding of their true Mother Nature. That core nature that’s deep inside all of us.
Mother Nature: You’ve got it Chris. The human experience is one of discovery and growth.
True health is to eat, move, rest and socialise in a way that resonates deeply inside of you.
So if we bring this back to your original listener’s question, “How do I know what is right for me?.”
The resistance is telling her that she has yet to find HER core nature in the activities she’s engaged with.
Chris: It seems like this is bringing us back to the governing rule of Playful Curiosity?
Mother Nature: That is exactly what it is doing.
If you’re trying something over and over again, hoping it will click, then you’re not learning anything. But if you open up your Playful Curiosity you can ask yourself questions like. What was it I didn’t like? Or what elements did I like? No matter how small they were.
I’d encourage you to dig into experiences and explore the outcomes. Allow your intuition to pull you forwards and explore the results with an open and curious mind. Doing so will lead you to your answers.
Chris: Mother Nature, this has been another truly enlightening conversation. I think it’s time I did a round up of what we learnt.
Mother Nature: Please. Be my guest.
Chris: Many of us find that, when we are seeking health, the process has us feeling more Burnt-Out than inspired.
The nature of people is somewhat different to that of other animals. We all have broadly the same needs on the surface but deep down each of us has a very unique nature.
Consider this your MOTHER nature. Or your CORE nature if you prefer. A fingerprint of your own, so to speak.
When social media or other information sources promote what is working well for others, it doesn’t always mean what they are doing is going to work well for you.
Try what they are suggesting and see how you get on. If it doesn’t click for you, then it is not because there is anything wrong with YOU.
It’s just a matter of resonance. If you don’t resonate it’s because your core nature is looking for something else. So it’ll put up resistance to help you change path.
This resistance is your Negatively Charged Intuition talking loudly.
Mother Nature suggests we learn to understand our intuition if we want to figure out what WILL resonate with us.
Positively and Negatively charged intuition are the clear signposts, like resistance or excitement, that tell us to stay on, or get off the path.
That neutral intuition, is the ‘Knowing’ inside of us that we recognise when we finally resonate with an activity.
This ‘knowing’ is neither positive nor negative. There’s no emotion attached to it.
Instead, it’s just a sense of comfort. So it’s a rather subtle part of intuition we have to practise listening to.
Mother Nature designed us to play, with curiosity, at following and not following our intuition. Exploring what happens when we do so teaches us what our preferences are.
The key is to try lots of things but without any expectation of a desired outcome. Instead just notice what you like and dislike about the activity without attachment.
The likes are your positive intuitions and the dislikes are your negative intuitions. Both help you fine tune yourself to that deep Mother Nature inside of you.
Mother Nature: Beautifully summarised Chris.
Chris: Thank you for this conversation Mother Nature. I hope it answers the question our listener had. I feel it’s really helped me reframe the positive and negative experiences I have in my own life.
I can see now that health is an individual pursuit. We just need a playful and curious mind to explore our intuition about wellness and find the Mother Nature inside of us..
Mother Nature: You’re welcome Chris. I look forward to the next one.
I hope this conversation has been useful for you today.
Many of us find ourselves at the mercy of other people’s core values in this information age.
We all tend to get a bit on the preachy side when we find something that works for us. Heck, you could easily accuse me of preaching on the “find your own unique preferences for health” soap box.
And you’d be right. Some people would prefer just to do what others tell them to do. Which is cool too!
Nature has encouraged humans to use their free will to explore the world. When it comes to activities that lead to health, playing with your intuition, following it sometimes, ignoring it other times, allows you to learn more about who you are and what activities bring about health in you.
So whilst I can’t directly advise the listener on what health activities will work best for them, I can encourage them to playfully explore and learn from their positive and negative experiences, so they can fine tune their own path.
Now go and have fun exploring. And remember, health emerges quite naturally when you allow Mother Nature to guide you.
