Intuition: A Trusted Ally for Conscious Writers

Before the technical revolution began the process of redrafting the landscape, I learned the business of publishing from the ground up.

Inspired by the mission of communicating perennial wisdom to a contemporary international audience, I quickly realized that commissioning books for publication was more of an art than a science.

This was especially the case in the world of independent publishing, where breaking new ground and working at the cutting edge were the norm.

Working Intuitively

I hadn’t planned to develop my intuition as part of my work. Yet it wasn’t long before I experienced the limitations of decisions made on facts and figures alone.

Introducing timeless knowledge to a rapidly developing marketplace required greater insight than the study of past success provided.

Add to that the publishing reality of working one or two years ahead of the moment readers would discover the end results in printed form, and it became clear that a “sixth sense” would be extremely valuable.

The Difference that Makes the Difference

Looking back, I now see that making a conscious choice to develop my intuition at an early stage of my publishing career was the difference that made the difference – not just to my work, but to all areas of my life.

In fact, the opportunity to combine my intuitive hunches with the available information to make whole-mind decisions became one of the aspects of publishing I enjoyed the most.

Of course, I didn’t get it right all of the time. Yet over the years the successes outweighed the failures, and in the process my intuition became increasingly accurate.

Today, intuition is an integral part of who I am and how I live my life. It stands out as a defining feature of my work and has become my most trusted ally.

Looking Inside

Intuition comes from a specific kind of inner perception that the Latin origin of the word points towards: the verb intueri means “to look inside” or “to contemplate”.

Intuition is a distinct sense of direct Knowing that transcends the use of intellectual reasoning.

It arises from beyond your conscious awareness and delivers immediate insight that you aren’t able to pin down to the rational thought and logical justification of the everyday mind.

In fact, medical researcher and virologist Jonas Salk, who developed the first successful inactivated polio vaccine, identified that “intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next”.

Intuitive Writing

When you apply intuition to creative writing, it’s like signing up to go on an adventure into uncharted territory without a map and trusting your inner resources to lead you where you need to go.

The more you trust, the deeper you go, and the richer the rewards in the form of sparkling insights and innovative angles from which to view otherwise hidden facets of your subject or story.

The fresh perspective is the sieve through which the nuggets of gold rise to the surface and find their way to the page.

Once there, intuition allows you to feel the resonance of each word in relation to the rest, and the difference it makes to reorder a sentence, a section or the whole book.

Intuitively, you sense the rhythm and flow and impact of your writing as it pours across the page on its way to sharing what you’re here to share.

Writing that is intuitively inspired will always deliver deeper, richer and more meaningful content than that produced by the everyday mind and emotions.

Intuition at Every Stage

And it doesn’t stop there. Conscious Writers draw on intuition at every stage of the creative process.

Intuition steers you towards the right people to work with – editors, designers, printers, agents, publishers – and the most rewarding route to providing your readers with abundant access to the results of the creation that has flowed through you.

Of course this isn’t in isolation of the facts and figures you need to make educated choices at critical stages along your publishing path.

It’s as well as the regular information required to review your options and make whole-mind decisions in service of the ultimate purpose of your Conscious Writing.

It’s Just a Hunch – or Is It?

Most people have had experience of intuitive impulses, gut feelings or unexplained hunches that have proven to be correct.

Think about times when you’ve found yourself saying, “I just had a feeling you would call,” when a friend phones you out of the blue.

You might remember feeling that something wasn’t quite right about a situation without being able to pin down exactly why, only to discover that the possibility you were considering wouldn’t have worked for you at all.

Or you may have required an insight for a creative task or writing challenge of which you had no previous experience.

Your hunch about the best way to move it forwards later proved to be the perfect solution, yet you have no idea how you came up with it.

Dive in

• Take a few minutes now to cast your mind back over your own experience of intuitive whispers.
• Think about instances where you’ve had a feeling about something or someone or a specific situation that later proved to be correct.
• Nudge yourself beyond thinking that this hasn’t happened to you. It almost certainly has. You just need to stretch your memory to recall instances you may have originally dismissed as chance.
• Identify at least three occurrences, however small, when something beyond your rational mind has been at work, and write about them in your Journal.
• Aim to add three more over the next three weeks to train yourself to be open and notice when these instances occur.

Unfortunately, most people have been taught to place exclusive trust in intellectual analysis and rational thought.

At best, you probably haven’t received any encouragement to develop your intuition. At worst, you may have been actively discouraged from paying attention to anything other than scientifically verified facts.

As a result, you may have a tendency to dismiss your intuitive whispers with rationalizations like “It’s just a hunch” or “Just coincidence.”

Yet ignoring the “still, small voice” or purposefully disregarding what could provide you with immensely valuable insight is like walking away from an open door inviting you to experience new levels of perception.

Conscious Writing leads you across the threshold towards an intuitive awareness that pushes the boundaries of regular creativity and integrates your ability to see the complete picture and the most intricate detail simultaneously.

This is an edited extract from Chapter 6 of my book Conscious Writing: Discover Your True Voice through Mindfulness and More. What’s your experience of following your intuitive hunches in relation to your creative writing? Please add a Comment below. Thank you!