Intuition

Intuition…what a funny word to say.  IN-TU-I-TION, in-tü-ˈi-shən, I-N-T-U-I-T-I-O-N.  What does intuition mean?  My Merriam Webster’s online dictionary says it’s this:

“1: quick and ready insight

2 a: immediate apprehension or cognition b: knowledge or conviction gained by intuition c: the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference”

Sounds to me like intution means you know it because you know it.  It’s “natural”.  It’s “known” intuitively.

So what would it mean to live intuitively?  I believe it means to do things in your own best interest, things that you know in your heart are right for you.  Like say, intuitively I know that standing back when I light my pilot light on the stove is in my best interest.  I also know intuitively to make sure my hands are clear of the car when I slam the door.  I believe that when we are born, we are born with some intuition about just about everything.  The one most intuitive thing we have going for us when we’re born is our way of eating and nourishing our bodies.

When we pop out of mom’s body and scream at the world “hey, I’m here!”, we also immediately start intuitively sensing some things.  We sense that we’re cold and slimy.  We sense that we’re in a big wide open space that feels very foreign compared to our mother’s womb.  AND we sense hunger.

Have you ever really paid attention to a baby?  I mean really.  (I don’t have children and have no small children around me so that’s why I sound so silly asking these questions.)  If you watch a newborn you can see and hear when he’s hungry.  No doubt about it.  His face scrunches up and his little mouth moves in the oddest ways and before you know it, he proves he has the lung capacity of a pro football player by screaming as loudly as he possibly can.  He knows he’s hungry and he wants fed right then and there.  A breast or bottle is stuck in the baby’s mouth and he suckles it like there’s no tomorrow.  But then, something amazing happens.  He stops sucking.  His little eyes are closed, his hands are likely curled up into balls and he’s as calm as a cucumber…sleeping like there’s no tomorrow.  Is there milk or formula left?  Most likely but he’s full.  He’s done.  You can’t make him eat anymore.  He ate when he was hungry and stopped when his tummy was full.  That’s eating intuitively.

As we grow older and become active parts in our families lives, things change.  Eating by intuition just isn’t convenient anymore.  Mom’s say things like, “don’t eat that now, we’re going to have dinner in 20 minutes” or “I said no cookies before the meal”.   Then things happen like puberty when your hormones are all messed up and you don’t know which end is up, you just know you’re fat and ugly.  Boys start either chasing after you or making fun of you…neither scenario is what you want at the time so you get confused.  You learn that you can take diet pills or purge or restrict to look prettier, cuter or more accepted. 

All these outside “rules” take over your intuition and you no longer trust your body.  You end up questioning every morsel you put in your mouth.  “Is this too big a portion?”  “How many calories are in this?”  “Did I exercise enough to use up XX calories?”  “Does this dress make me look fat?”  “Oh.  My.  God.  What have I done to myself?”  “When did I get this big?”

I believe with all my heart that the reason we emotionally or compulsively overeat is because we’ve used food and weight obsession to avoid the real issues in our lives.  It takes a lot of time and energy to focus on what we eat, what we wear, what we weigh, what we’re going to write down and what we’re going to beat ourselves up about on any given day.

I say let’s get back to eating intuitively and trusting our bodies to tell us what we really want and how much will satisfy us.  The next time you see a baby nursing or eating cereal, watch closely and see if the mother forces more food in or if she allows that baby to intuitively choose to stop eating.

~sas