INTUITION IS A SEXY DANCE PARTNER

By: Trisha Hilder

THE QUIETER YOU BECOME THE MORE YOU CAN HEAR — Ram Dass

Damn intuition is HOT, H - O - T, HOT!   When I see big wave surfers navigating a massive  Eiffel Tower of a wave based on their intuition I die.  These surfers seem to magically know when to do a bottom turn, when to hold off on an "off the lip" because the wave is going to barrel instead, and when to do a roundhouse and when not to!

I just got back from my first surf trip to Indo and I would usually pull off the waves early-ish because I didn't feel like dancing with the reef.  But on my last surf of the whole trip the guys kept telling me to go for it and try to make the first big section and then ride the wave's second section down further.  So here I go, I catch the next wave, I see the section about to closeout, but I keep going, I crouch down as much as I can, close my eyes, try to make the section and as I get around it all I see is an entire wall closing out on me.  There was no second section - dumbass - I ended up on the reef, knee bleeding.  

I was dying laughing and stoked that I actually survived my reef run-in and wished I had taken more chances throughout the trip.  Anyway, whenever I see surfers navigating the waves how they do, it's like they dance with their intuition, their body seems to know what the wave is going to do and when to make or - not make certain maneuvers.  It's so cool - I'm so freaking amazed by it.

With my law firm I get to work with clients who surf fairly often, but one of my clients is an exceptionally good surfer and my favorite part of working with him while he launched his business was his intuition.  The incredible intuition he has in surfing totally carried over to his business decisions.  Usually entrepreneurs use their analytical mind to solve issues when creating a business, but it was very special to see this client navigating the start of his business with his intuition instead.

Surfing has taught me so much about intuition and how trustworthy it is.  I do intuition exercises a lot, which I find to be really fun and helpful.  Sometimes it's hard to trust our intuition on big things, so I like to practice first on small things.  Just like surfing, we practice on smaller waves, so we’re ready for bigger ones.  

One exercise I use as practice is using my intuition to pick where I want to surf.  If I feel a really heavy pull to surf at a certain spot, but all my friends want to surf somewhere else, I'll usually follow my intuition, so I can practice.  I’ve found that when I follow it and go to that spot where I felt pulled, I almost always run into people I've been thinking about that week and who I've needed to re-connect with.

I absolutely love small intuition exercises because I’ve learned to never doubt my intuition in big decisions and I always try to listen to what my body is saying rather than my analytical brain.   I mean if a body can navigate Sebastian Steudtner through waves in Nazare, Portugal, it's worth listening to