by Jennifer Baltz

If you want to develop your intuition, meditation is an excellent place to start. I see meditation as the practice of creating space for yourself. When you create space, you allow yourself to stop and take a deeper look at things around you. You become more aware of your own energy field: your aura. The more you meditate, the better and clearer your intuitions will be over time.

One of the biggest obstacles to meditating is the very reason why we need to do it in the first place. Most people are simply overwhelmed with busy schedules.

We try to do too much at once because we have much to do, and therein lies the problem. Unfinished tasks and incomplete communication can sit in our awareness and pull on our energy until they are completed.

Where Is Your Energy Going?

Stop right at this moment, and see if you can count how many things are going through your head right now. If you're like most people, your attention may be divided in many places at once. You may feel rushed and impatient. You may not even want to take the time to really experience this exercise! But just stop and notice what comes up, and where your attention is going.

When your attention is divided, so is your energy. Another way to say this is wherever your attention goes, there also goes a bit of your energy. For example, when you are thinking about your child at school, you send some of your energy there with her. When you make a mental grocery list while sitting in traffic, some of your life energy is actually tooling through the supermarket....shopping.

In addition to where we place our attention, we also have to deal with the constant sensory stimuli that bombard us on a daily basis. So we have learned to tune out most of the "background noise," which includes not only physical sensations but also awareness of spiritual things.

This is why meditation is important in a spiritual practice. There are many kinds of meditation, but the most important thing is that you create a space for yourself where you can just be in the moment.

Even short moments of meditation are helpful. Just stop from time to time during the day, breathe, and notice where your attention is. Notice how your body feels. Then notice what is going on around you. Just practice being present. You might think of meditation as a mini vacation for your mind.

Everyone Can Meditate...Not Everyone Will

If you're like many meditators (and would-be meditators), you may have trouble carving out time to practice at home. I talk to many people who say things like "Well, I try to meditate every day, but I just can't make myself do it." Or, "I just don't have the time." As with exercise, there is usually a level of guilt and self-recriminations that come along for the ride. It is the mountain-high goal that many fail to reach because we put too much expectation on it.

Start small and build your meditation space over time. While setting aside a specific time each day can be ideal, it isn't always practical. So, create small interludes throughout your day where you can stop and sit and breathe. Doing it is more important than doing it perfectly.

Try it Right Now

Try putting your feet flat on the floor, sitting in an easy but upright posture, and close your eyes. Start to be aware of the space immediately around your body--your aura. Notice if one side feels different than another. Do you feel balanced or lopsided? Do you feel like there's more energy in front of you or behind? How far out might your aura extend?

If you find other thoughts crossing your mind, just recognize them--don't try to push them out. If you are thinking about something, that energy is "in your space," and right now all you are doing is noticing what is in there. It's sort of like looking around the room and noticing who and what is occupying it. Take some deep breaths, and just be in the moment. You might imagine collecting up your attention from any place where it is right now. Choose to be here right now.

Before you finish, stop and imagine a big ball of light over your head that represents your energy coming back to you, in your natural state of total joy. Notice what color that is for you right now. Imagine this energy coming down through the top of your head and filling up your body and your aura with You.

Open your eyes, and see if things look different, feel different. Do this a few times each day, and you are on the road to developing your intuition. A funny thing happens when you start creating space for you to be yourself. The more you do it, the more you notice intuitively. More serendipitous coincidences start happening, and you start drawing in people and resources to help along the path. Have the thought that you can find and participate in local resources such as meditation study groups, and more. If you give yourself permission to connect with what you need, it will come to you.

copyright 1999 by Jennifer Baltz. All rights reserved.

Subscribe to CreativeSpirit's newsletter for more information and class updates.