Learning to Listen with Susan Gorman, Intuitive Counselor

Making Headway

We have heard from many of you that going through a brain injury has been a lesson in listening to yourself at a fundamental level. Having an invisible injury means you have to rely on what your body and mind are telling you; no one else knows! We all have a voice, an instinct, a gut feeling that guides us in knowing what is right. This is intuition. Intuition is alive in all of us. Susan Gorman, Intuitive Counselor, joins us in this episode to unearth the myths and to teach us how to trust and strengthen the voice that is our intuition.

Topics covered:

• Common misconceptions about intuition
• in our society we marginalize intuition...what we believe about it is that:
• it is rare- many people don’t have it or experience it, if you strongly believe in it you are weird,
• it is unreliable, if you can’t confirm it with your 5 senses it can’t be real, and
• it is dangerous or immoral. (3:56)
• If you prescribe to a system of thinking that “tells” you what to think, intuition isn’t heard
• If you believe in a higher power, it helps you to embrace intuition as it puts you more in tune spiritually
• Intuitive counseling is coaching people how to listen to and hear their own intuition
• Hearing intuition over anxiety and fear
• Most don’t listen to intuition until it is a last resort. Some don’t listen at all
• Intuition is not really a mental capacity, it uses language and thought but thinking about something and having intuition are two different things
• Intuition and anxiety/fear cannot exist together
• The things we spend time worrying about don’t usually come to pass. We waste a lot of time and energy on these types of thought patterns
• To listen to our intuition we have to stop the grooves we are used to existing in (the gutter ball analogy). We have to learn to stop fear and anxiety and how to “bowl a strike” to begin thinking clearly (11:14)
• What does Susan do as an intuitive counselor?
• Life would be easier if we didn’t have bodies or egos. She believes in tapping in and listening to our spirit
• Empathy: she feels your thoughts and feelings as if they were her own
• Spiritual connection: we are all connected to each other. The “force” is the energy that connects all living things together and she taps into that
• Clairvoyance: objective clairvoyance--visual images, seeing it as if it was right in front of you. She sees things others do not and it gives her information
• She does not give advice or tell people what is actually going to happen (unless she fees it very strongly)
• She helps people identify and figure out what information they want to take in or listen to
• Healthcare and intuition
• A true therapeutic relationship with a healthcare provider is one where you feel comfortable and respected saying anything to the provider
• The provider should accept you for who you are and listen
• Trust your instincts about your healthcare provider and your own health.
• Protecting the Gift by Gavin De Becker...you have to trust yourself and what you are feeling.
• Systems (healthcare, legal, social, religious, etc) tend to prime us (women especially) to not listen to themselves in an attempt to please others
• “The body has its own language, it just doesn’t necessarily speak English. We have to learn how to listen” (32:38)
• Using your intuition
• Take the time to stop and listen to yourself: There's an added layer of noise in our lives that stops us from listening to ourselves
• Try not to use your intuition as a way to be like “why didn’t I know”
• Stick to the things you do hear and the things that are loud whether they make sense or not (36:20)
• Divine timing
• We learn from our experiences so experiences will still occur
• The aftermath of brain injury
• Think of all the lessons learned from the injury.
• It doesn’t make the injury ok but listen, so much good can come out of it!
• “I'm sure there are times that feeling vulnerable in the world doesn’t feel like a gift but I’m here to tell you that every brush with our mortality turns us into better people and gives us a much better life” (42:01)
• The bad times teach us and help us become better
• When you struggle to hear intuition
• Build in slow time, 5 or 10 minutes a day--drawing, meditation
• Surrender and say “hey” to spirituality
• Use a ritual as a time build a strong spiritual connection i.e. few minutes while doing something you would do anyway to think on and build a connection
• What is intuition? How do you know if it is?
• Intuition is not about getting things or stuff. To Susan, that has always fallen flat. The greatest spiritual stories are always about the highest good for the greatest amount of people. When we follow our intuition we will not be the only beneficiary. There’s always a ripple effect. Sometimes it is very direct; other times we are not always around to understand how we helped someone else. Your intuition is always guiding you to the best outcome in any situation but not just for you. It’s not about creating stuff or turning our relationships into commodities. It is really about having a life that is worth living. Even if we are going through hard times, our intuition will be optimizing that experience if we are willing to listen to it (48:30-50:06)
• Our culture may not take us towards our intuition but our lives do (50:27)
• After brain injury you don’t have a lot more to lose, some find this time as an opportunity to reset and listen to intuition
• To tap into intuition:
• Meditate:
• Running with the Mind of Meditation by Sakyong Mipham- a book that teaches us to use exercise and our breathing as a time to meditate.
• You can’t identify your intuition unless you know how to find the quiet.
• Intuition 101: a course with Susan that teaches you to identify your intuition. www.susangorman.net
• Everybody is intuitive. This isn’t something that only some people can do. It is your most natural resource, you just have to learn how to find it
• You are well served by inventorying how much anxiety you have in your brain. The more you tolerate anxiety, the less you will be able to hear your intuition
• People get stuck, Susan is here as a counselor to help you through.

Links to any resources mentioned:

• Protecting the Gift by Gavin De Becker
• Running with the Mind of Meditation by Sakyong Mipham
• Intuition 101: coming soon! Sign up for her newsletter at https://www.susangorman.net/contact/

Want to connect with Susan?

• www.susangorman.net to book a session, find courses, read her blog, and learn more
• Find Susan on Facebook and Instagram @susangormanintuitive
• Susan’s Podcast: Everyday Intuition https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everyday-intuition/id1510968810

HELP US SPREAD THE WORD!

If you dug this episode head on over to Apple Podcasts and kindly leave us a rating, a review and subscribe!

Ways to subscribe to the Making Headway Podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts
• Click here to subscribe via Spotify
• Click here to subscribe via RSS
• You can also subscribe via Stitcher

Visit the Making Headway Podcast website to learn more about Eryn and Mariah and our journey to podcasting.

Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

As an Amazon Associate, Making Headway may earn from qualifying purchases via links provided.