We have the power of choice- we may follow the magic path of intuition, or the long hard road of experience.
-Florence Scovel Shinn
In my work for the school district, there are times when an insight occurs to me that seems to come out of nowhere. It is not based on my rational mind, but just seems to be correct.
Some people call this a hunch, or an intuition. I do my best to stay open to these insights when they flash across my mind because, more often than not, they turn out to be accurate.
There was an instance involving finding an appropriate classroom for one of my students with special needs where my intuitive hunch proved itself correct.
The student was having challenges in the classroom and no one was quite able to put their finger on why. It was not a reflection of the teacher’s knowledge or expertise.
Being a sensitive person myself, I could tell that my student, who is also very sensitive to the emotional states of the people around, would have challenges in that placement.
My intuition kicked in one day when I was walking out to the recess yard and passed another classroom of the same grade.
I looked at the teacher and the feeling I got was a big “Yes!.” I knew, without even entering the classroom, or ever having interacted with the teacher that this would be a great match for my student.
I did not exactly know how to explain my idea to the team so I kept it to myself for a few weeks. In the meanwhile we went through the traditional process of working out the speed bumps that were popping up in the student’s current classroom.
I was relatively new to the idea that I could share my intuitive hunches with people in a professional setting.
Within a month the whole team of educators agreed to move my student over to a new classroom. It turned out to be the very classroom my intuition had given me the green light on.
The challenge with following my intuitions, as an educator and parent, comes when I am faced with my rational mind trying to figure out whether or not I can really trust the hunches when they arise.
This can feel even more challenging in a world that leans toward linear thinking, based on measurable results, and data, when making valuable decisions. So how do I follow my hunches and still provide people with the evidence they seek?
In the case I mentioned above, I simply sat with the idea and waited until the time was right to make my suggestion. There are other times, when I am feeling particularly confident that I will come right out and say it. I admit that it is just a hunch and that, for some reason, I am feeling very sure of it.
More often than not, I don’t even need to explain myself. I find that people enthusiastically agree with my assessment and were thinking the same thing.
So listen to your hunches. If you are not yet confident enough to share them, experiment with writing them down and checking in with them later to find out if they were accurate.
The more we practice listening to our intuition the better we become at trusting them and communicating our hunches with others. I find that people receive me much more readily than I used to think, and the feeling of tapping into genius is worth experimenting with.