What is Intuition?

As per the promises of AA, there comes a time in our recovery when "We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us." So, how do we know the difference between intuition and are trauma responses? It is a little complicated and I need to begin with this explanation. The subconscious mind is thousands of times more powerful than the conscious mind. It is handling most of the activities we take for granted at lightning speeds without any need for thoughts. Example, do you need to tell yourself to turn the steering wheel of your car when driving, or does it just seem to happen? Within the subconscious mind is the emotional matrix of our pasts, the Ego. In every waking moment of lives our minds are collecting millions of bits of non verbal information, sights, sounds, sensations, odors, facial expressions and patterns of human behavior. Each of the moments is encoded with the truth and also, how we feel about it. Our feelings, distort the truth and makes things more important than they really are. So, intuition may absolutely recognize a pattern, however it's importance may be exaggerated by the emotions we have attached to it. It depends as always, on where we are in the grieving process. Are we feeling afraid, angry, sad... or peaceful? So here is how intuition works. We are always attracting everything, absolutely everything that we experience has been brought into our perception with perfect timing, meaning and purpose. When we are at peace with ourselves and our surroundings, intuition will steer us from danger and towards the next version of the lesson. Each time we are triggered by the same thing, we learn more about the pattern and how we are engaged in the pattern. Eventually, the entire pattern becomes clear and we can know how to respond without anger or feelings of threat. In plain language, if you can heal a trauma and make peace with the elements that created it, you will respond from a place of acceptance and your response will not require any thought. Addicts are afflicted with a tendency to overthink about everything. Knowing this, I am always doing what I can to clear out thoughts and just engage fully in whatever I am doing in any given moment. They teach intuition in the military and law enforcement, it's called situational awareness. In Buddhism, it's called mindful and present. In recovery, we live one day at a time. Please Note: You know when your intuition is working whenever you feel that sensation of, yes, that was meant to happen. Of course, everything that has happened was meant to happen, outside of our emotions we see life as it is... perfect. Rev. Jeff Rounds for Mixed Recovery, Inc.