The Expert

We have become a nation of experts.

We have experts all around us giving us unsolicited advice.  These experts speak to us through social media, periodicals, television and radio.  We meet experts at the grocery store, in the gym locker room, at PTA meetings.  We live next door to experts and we have experts who sit with us at the dinner table.  Pregnant women and mothers of newborns meet experts everywhere they go and, if you know any teenagers or have a mother of your own, you may be blessed with additional expert counsel.


Albert Einstein said "the intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.  We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."


Intuition is, indeed, a sacred gift; for each of us is the one true expert with regard to our unique selves.  However, often, we ignore our inner-wisdom and seek opinions from those around us.  Sometimes we are looking for them to contradict our instinct, as if to give us permission to ignore it.  Other times, we will continue to seek advice until an expert's counsel mirrors our thoughts, as though we need validation in order to rely on intuition.

What makes us fail to consistently trust our own expertise?

Not once in my life have I said or heard another utter the words "I never should have trusted my gut!".  Our intuition speaks to us, sometimes even screams at us, and yet, for a variety of reasons, we often seek to squelch the chatter of our intuitive mind.

Our inner voices tell us the right paths to follow, yet so often, we only follow the one to which we have become accustomed.  Our current states might feel easy and comfortable, while changing direction presents us with a scary set of unknowns.  In some cases, we ignore intuition because of perceived societal norms that we think matter.  They don't.  And, of course, there are the times in which we seek to silence our intuition because the many experts in our world are advising us to take the road to the right even though our instinct tells us to go left, and we somehow would rather disappoint ourselves than disappoint those around us.

Alan Alda said, "at times you have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.  What you'll discover will be wonderful.  What you'll discover is yourself."

Each of us has the gift of the intuitive mind which sends us personal messages about our worlds.  Sometimes, our expert whispers of awareness, remembrance, maybe even pre-cognition.  Other times, it roars to get our attention and deliver warnings.   We must dare to not only listen, but also to hear, to act, to follow.  For in doing so, we will, indeed, discover and elevate our expert selves.