Intuition/Lizard Brain

we would find it odd

if a bird

never once left her nest,

and never used

her wings

we would question why

a butterfly

became a new creature

from that encasement,

but never flew away

i wonder why

your soul has beautiful wings

yet it’s so comfortable

living in a cage;

your soul is a caged bird

a flightless butterfly,

and though you were born of earth,

you were destined for

the sky.

-Shelby Leinbach

My soul is sometimes a little bird that is singing at dawn, singing at noon, taking dibs on a place to nest, singing the mournful cry of a dove, and singing hidden under leaves during a storm.  But she sings!  There is some kind of psychic form in a woman's intuition that is layered upon what we feel and discerning how other's feel.

Our Inner Voice tends to discern other's body stance and facial expressions.  We sense knowing subtle emotional messages being sent.  Sometimes, our intuition can pick up other's aura.  We tend to have an inner dialogue about anothers tone of voice.  Perhaps we are more emotional than our brothers, after all.  We, also, seem to be able to connect to another's feelings in many subtle ways.

Perhaps we spend more time thinking about, observing, and analyzing nonverbal cues.  It may be part of our very DNA that was meant to nurture from the very beginnings.  Ah, it might even be connected to our limbic system (Lizard Brain/ amygdala ;  that ancient bit of brain that carries our instincts to warn us where danger is, what threat might be, and the place that processes our emotions.)  As well, it may be where the Ego/Crosstalk, that we may listen too, that keeps us manageable.  Intuition has all its positive qualities, but, it also has its negatives.

It will give us excuses not to succeed, and want us to keep postponing things by over thinking.  It is that critical voice inside that might symbolize a critical mother, or a critical other.  It is that place that will have us delay making decisions and thinking their might be better alternatives, without thinking of the consequences.  But, then, it might also focus on negative consequences rather than present ones.  It is that place where we replay past negatives over and over and over again and it makes us fearful, timid, uncertain.

When you are aware that your intuition has given reign to your Lizard Brain, you have to remind it that you are no longer a cavewoman.  It does not always need to relate any new circumstances to an old one.  Sometimes the negative overpowers the positives that the Lizard Brain was there for in the first place.  When you are aware of negative Inner talk, it helps if you figure out why you might react, act, think, that particular thing.  What is the main trigger?  If it belongs in the past, which it always does, then spend some time knowing the why of things and soothing yourself by acknowledging it and finding ways to let that go....finally!  Some things should have no power over us.  

Yes, there are times when danger notification should happen.  Sometimes we perceive danger when it is just a reminder of something we have not healed from in the past.  Become more aware of your inner talk and when inner talk is negative versus when intuition steps in.  The longer we listen to our Lizard Brain, the less likely we are to have our positive intuition speak to us.

If that inner voice is harping at you about not being enough, not being right, not being good, not having been ever good or right or worthy, then you are listening to your Lizard Brain, not your intuition.  If you find yourself constantly resisting something that will, logically, be better for you, and you find yourself second-guessing yourself, over and over, then that is your Lizard Brain at work, grinding you down.  We are human.  We have frailties and maybe even defects of character, but we are the ones, through our Lizard Brain processes, that keeps all those things in negative light, when positive light comes as we mature and we see that we have learned lessons, or should have, from the past.  Refuse to constantly judge yourself.

When you have allowed your Lizard Brain reign, just know that you can also quiet it.  When you learn that your Lizard Brain is doing the inner talking, causing reactions and actions that magnify what is going on, you need to take control.  Allow your spirit/soul/Intuition to do its job.

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver

©Carol Desjarlais 3.25.19