Intuition is Your Soul Calling

Intuition is frequently confused with instinct, but there\’s one simple way to understand the difference: Instinct has good intentions but is threaded with fear. It wants to protect us. So if I\’m driving a car and am suddenly aware that I shouldn\’t turn a corner——and subsequently learn that if I had turned I would have been in an accident—-that\’s instinct. Intuition arises when I\’m aligned with my soul. I can hear my intuition most easily when all that I am is aligned with reality. Clocks and calendars lose their value. Fear ceases to exist. I\’m completely present with all that is within me and outside of me. One love. When I listen to my intuition, which I think of as my soul\’s sweet voice, I\’m always rewarded. And that\’s what happened in New York. I had to be out of my Airbnb in Brooklyn by 11am, although my flight home to California wasn\’t until 6:30pm. Where could I hang out with a carry-on bag? I sat in a nearby coffee shop, working on my laptop, and feeling out of sorts. An inner voice kept urging me to visit The Alchemist\’s Kitchen in The Bowery. A Sacramento friend had told me about the cafe & store but it wasn\’t close to any of my appointments so I hadn\’t visited. The focus of my trip was to market The Belize Writers\’ Conference, not to sightsee or shop. My inner voice persisted until I realized that an excursion to an herb store in the Bowery wasn\’t about sightseeing or shopping. I was being called into divine service. At the Alchemist\’s Kitchen, I drank an herbal tonic for immunity, ate a yummy vegetarian lunch in the cafe, and wondered why I had been called to the location. I wandered the store, testing lotions, smelling bath products, scanning a shelf full of books. I had spent $40 on an Uber to get here and was curious why. In the back of the shop, three women stood behind a counter under a sign that said, \”Ask An Herbalist.\” I searched each woman\’s face, before being pulled strongly toward the youngest. \”I don\’t know what to ask you, so maybe you could tell me about your products,\” I said to her. She launched into a description of the tonics for sale. Nothing she said interested me. The other two women wandered away. \”Anything else?\” she asked. \”My wheelhouse is relationships,\” I said, \”Maybe you could tell me about trauma or breakups or love.\” She gasped, swiping at the tears now spilling down her cheeks. \”My boyfriend and I broke up,\” she said. \”All morning I\’ve been praying for someone to help me.\” We stood together at the counter as she told me about her relationship with the man she had been living with. I coached her through the process of healing her broken heart and gave her a copy of my book, When Your Heart Breaks, It\’s Opening to Love: Healing and finding love after an affair, heartbreak or divorce. We hugged goodbye. At the curb, waiting for my Uber to the airport, my heart overflowed, radiating joy into every cell of my being. This is my purpose: To listen for the soul\’s sweet voice and to answer the call, no matter where it takes me. No matter the cost. ©joeygarcia all rights reserved For more insights about intuition, see my column in the Sacramento News & Reviewnewspaper.