By Christine

One of my favorite books is The Alchemist by Paul Coelho.  A quote from the book has always resonated with me: “Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”

In this book the main character, Santiago, has a recurring dream which launches him on a journey to the Egyptian pyramids to find his personal legend and his treasure.  The story is a beautiful illustration of the power of knowing ourselves, following our hearts and finding our deepest treasure.

On the road to finding inner wisdom often there are obstacles and hurdles.  Often hurdles may be tied to beliefs, presumptions, and thoughts. Many of us are all too familiar with our inner critic. It can be difficult to find and trust our inner voice when we are well attuned to our inner critic.  We may be more attuned to the voice of self-doubt and limiting beliefs.  It can be helpful to think of this inner teacher as being compassionate, loving and kind.  That our deepest, purest, and highest purpose is aligned with the Universe.

The meaning of intuition is to “instruct from within” – and the greatest teacher that ever existed is the teacher that exists inside of you.  Yoga allows us to develop a trusting relationship with ourselves.  Developing this relationship with your inner teacher and cultivating your inner wisdom allows you to connect to intuition.

Yoga gives us tools to build a deep trust in our body, our breath, and our innate abilities.  By being with discomfort through physical practice, we learn and see we are more powerful and capable than we may think.  Yoga allows us to nurture the ability to observe without judgement – through this process we become more discerning to our thoughts and realize that thoughts come and go.  We gain the ability to choose our thoughts, and this allows us to choose our habits and our actions.  Adopting good habits allows us to make time for what is most important in our lives.

Creating time and space for stillness can be key to developing Intuition.  If you are constantly focused on external distractions and never make time to become still, cultivating your inner voice can be a challenge. Our inner teacher can give us subtle clues at times and being attuned takes practice, which is why having a regular meditation is important to connecting with intuition.  Finding time to come into stillness, to take the role of the observer gives you space to be able to connect to your inner teacher more deeply. In 1654, the scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Some of the greatest thinkers of our time placed a high value on Intuition.  Albert Einstein said, “the Intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.”  Einstein changed our modern world and the field of physics with the discovery of the theory of relativity.  Even great achievements in the fields of math and science must start from intuitive knowledge – it takes intuition and imagination to create something new.  Steven Jobs was quoted as saying “Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice; have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”  If we can harness the power of our intuition – what can we create for our community and in our lives?

One of the reasons yoga is transformative is the ability to look at your life with new eyes, to see things as they are.  When you can see things as they are without story and judgments, you become more open to be able to see the gifts and blessings that already exist. You are also able to see with clarity how you may be standing in your own way of the power to transform your life, to choose your path, your beliefs, and your destiny.   

There are many tools to cultivating your inner teacher.  A few helpful ones include:

– Spending time regularly in nature

–Daily meditation or prayer

– Journaling to reframe your thoughts and create time for reflection

– Yoga and movement practices to nourish feelings of connection with your body

Living in a way that is truest to our heart and deepest intensions is summarized wonderfully by Rumi who says “Let your self be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.  It will not lead you astray.”  How can you embrace your inner teacher and stand in the flow and power of intuition today?

As a recommended practice, try our new series “Transform” to enliven your inner teacher within: