Intuition can be your most powerful ally when it comes to writing your book and taking your message out to the marketplace successfully and with soul. Do you know how to access yours?
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung proposed that intuition is one of four ways human beings process the world alongside sensation, thinking and feeling. His pioneering work has contributed hugely to our understanding today.
An important gateway to conscious creativity, intuition functions beyond the mind and opens the way for intuitive writing. The hallmark of intuition is immediate and direct knowledge without the conscious use of reasoning. Rising above thought but using the mind as a vehicle, intuition is a distinct sense of Knowing.
A Strong Hunch
You will have experienced intuition already even though you may not have been consciously aware that it was guiding you.
Think of a time when you had a strong hunch, a gut feeling that you couldn’t quite explain but which just felt “right”.
You may have had an “aha” moment when you suddenly understood something which made complete sense. Or you could have experienced a gradual process which led you towards a conclusion and resulted in the complete knowledge that you were on the right track.
On the Page
When it comes to writing, intuition plays a leading role in capturing and communicating your most original and inspired ideas. Intuitive writing will always deliver deeper, richer and more meaningful insights and stories than your rational mind can come up with.
Readers resonate with intuitive writing at many different levels and this leads to a more rewarding reading experience. As a result, you are likely to build a loyal following as an intuitive writer and your audience will look forward to your next article, short story or book(s).
In the World
As an author, your intuition will help you to make fast decisions which are authentic to you. Combining factual information with your intuitive capacity, for example, will enable you to choose the right publishing option for your book.
When it comes to building relationships with agents, publishers and readers, your intuition will guide you to create meaningful connections with the right people to move you closer to your vision of success.
To achieve the best results with your book you need to go the extra mile. Working consciously with your intuition will enable you to do just that!
So here are 3 tips for enhancing your writing by accessing your intuition:
1. Practice deep listening. One of the keys to unlocking intuition is deep listening. There are two components of this complete approach which are valuable skills for all writers to cultivate:
- Outer listening involves listening to the world around you with curiosity about life, people and relationships …
- Inner listening requires turning your focus inwards to what is going on deep inside you. This is an important gateway to intuition and when practiced regularly will deliver immense rewards.
Take a few moments before you write to listen deeply. Close your eyes, relax your muscles, deepen your breath and see what you can discover from focusing your attention on listening.
2. Ask your intuition for answers to questions and guidance on important decisions relating to any aspect of your authorship.
I am not suggesting that your intuition should be employed to deliver up facts and figures. Your rational mind is perfectly capable of undertaking that task.
Your intuition is more suited to accessing deeper levels for creating new content, developing ideas or exploring which direction to take your writing in.
Spend some time just before you go to bed settling your body and your mind. Then ask your question clearly and write it down. Set the intention to receive the answer, and then let it go.
Review your thoughts and feelings in the morning and write as soon as possible to reveal ideas which have risen to the surface of your conscious mind. As with all such techniques, real success comes with practice.
3. Act as if your intuition was your most important inner guide. If you build up a sense of trust in your intuition, soon it will be your most significant ally!
In the early stages of developing intuition, it is important to suspend any disbelief long enough to experience the results you are looking for.
One good way of doing this is to act as if you already have a strong connection to your intuition.
Start with small steps taken one at a time to build your confidence and your experience of being in touch with your intuition. Pay attention to each success, however small. Build your belief up gradually to enjoy the contribution intuition has to make to your writer’s journey.
Question: Do you pay attention to your intuitive hunches? How does it show up for you? In what ways has intuition helped you to develop your ideas and your writing?
Thanks for this great post. I absolutely think we need more of such reminders about this, especially when so many articles are focused on providing step-by-step how-to’s for writing. I don’t think you get to the magic that way. I just had a conversation with a friend who has begun to write fiction. She was questioning why one such program didn’t seem to be working for her and, having just finished beta reading for my novel, she asked about my process. I had to laugh and say it was about the opposite of that, because I start with a scene, and then another and another, with little sense in the beginning of how they all relate or will be ordered. What’s important about that is that it means every scene matters, because it came before the thinking, if that makes sense. I’m so glad to have seen this post, because now I know what to call it: an intuitve approach to writing 🙂 Thanks again.
Loved your article. It’s reminds me to keep posted, listen pay attention and trust myself. My soul knows. My intuition is my guide. I do not have to act. It is my guide it is my source of living on this planet. I support my clients to listen to their intuition. I always go wrong when I do not listen and pay attention.
I so agree a great article. I don’t consider myself a “writer” however, I write blogs and have written a children’s book. I can only write with the inner and outer listening. It is what comes through me intuitively that gets put on the page. (It still needs to be edited 😉 ) Intuition is my strongest guide for the next books.
Thank you for your comments ladies; I’m delighted to know that this article has resonated with you. Yes, an intuitive approach to writing will always lead us to discover interesting ideas that we might have otherwise missed as well as original ways to express them on the page and in the world! Enjoy the process of following your intuitive inner impulses 🙂
That’s for this article!
I just wrote a story based on the intuition I got so within to tell my story. That was before I saw your article. I am looking forward to seeing the effect it will have on any one who reads. That inner voice when we listen, reveals to us things and aspects outer listening will ever access!
That’s for the reminder and encouragement!