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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Take the "Should" Out of your Intuition

I was enjoying a steaming cup of chai and a delicious plate of chicken makani one fine winter day in downtown Santa Fe.  My friend was lamenting about all "shoulds" in her life.  She proclaimed she was going to strike the word  from her vocabulary.   I cheered her on.

Later, I began to think about how we run our lives from duty and obligation.  How many times a day does the word "should" find its way across our tongues.  "I should do this or that" we say to ourselves ad nauseam.

The word "should" dates to 1200 c.e. and is from the old English word "sceolde," past tense of sceal. (shall).  The original notion of "obligation" is preserved in today's language but the "shall" has been dropped, thus there is no wriggle room in "should."

Choices made and actions taken based upon "should" veer us off our soul path.  The old adage, "let your conscience be your guide" was exchanged for "let what you should do be your guide."  Having a conscience  is not a bad thing.  If more people had one, we would  not be living within the moral void of contemporary life.

Conscience is that little voice within that helps us navigate between right and wrong, good and bad.  While it is generally thought to be a faculty of the mind, commonly used metaphors for conscience include the "voice within," "inner light" and "intuition."  It is when we attach the word "should"  to our conscience that we relegate ourselves into the slavery of its self-persecution.

We need to move back into the right relationship between our conscience and our intuition without the "should."  The conscience is the moral boat the intuition steers.  Sailing together, these two friends form a powerful alliance towards following conscious inner guidance and authentic life destiny.

The only place to truly find your most accurate, conscious compass for movement in life is from within.  And "should" doesn't belong there.  You should think about it.  Ha Ha....Caught you.

Play with matrices #23, #17, #10









2 comments:

  1. Amazing how language reflects and shapes our ways of thinking. I "shall" think about this and continue to be aware of staying connected with intuition and conscience rather than thinking/feeling/acting out of externally imposed mandates. For me the "shoulds" are a little sneaky and so it's a little like weeding a garden. Thanks for the reminder, Melissa.....ce

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