Intuition Coaching Curriculum

Journal prompts:

• What is your relationship with yourself? What attracted you to this program?
• How do you want to feel 6 months from now? What changes do you want to see in your life?
• If there were no such thing as conditions, money, or constraints, what would you do with your life?
• What can you do right now to take steps in the next direction?

Read: Intuition, Knowing Beyond Logic by Osho

• Osh/o was an Indian professor of philosophy, a popular speaker who became a guru and a teacher of meditation. In the 1960s, he travelled throughout India as a public speaker and was a vocal critic of socialism. During his lifetime he was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader and mystic. In this book, he discusses the difference between the intellectual mind and the realm of the spirit.

Listen: Positive Head Podcast

• Play a game with “youniverse” via the Positive Head Podcast. Pick a number as directed, and then enter your number in the box and it will deliver that podcast episode to you. The idea is, that the podcast you pick will have a relevant message for you!
• You can also just scroll through some episodes and pick out any random topic that appeals to you. Maybe listen to a few episodes! Follow the where you find your podcasts.

Watch: “Intuition, Power, and Grace” (EP. 3030) SuperSoul Sunday

• Oprah interviews Caroline Myss, five-time New York Times bestselling author and and internationally renowned spiritual teacher. Caroline developed the field of Energy Anatomy, a science that correlates specific emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual, stress patterns with diseases.

We are going to set a baseline to measure your progress throughout the program. To do this, we will use the PERMA Quiz. This profiler is a 23 question survey that measures positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. Please take the quiz before your first real time meeting! Bring your scores to your session, and Jamie will match a tarot card for each category.

“And if your head, your heart, and your body are all in symphony, then to find your being is the easiest thing in the world. But because they are in conflict, your whole life goes on being wasted in that conflict, conflict between instinct and intellect, and intuition.” ~Osho

Journal Prompts

• What does my heart truly want?
• What path would my gut have me follow?
• In my mind’s eye, what can I imagine for my future?

Read: The Women Who Run with Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

• Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes is a poet, psychoanalyst, and story teller. In this novel, she strings together short stories to help women reconnect with the healthy, instinctual, visionary attributes of the Wild Woman archetype.

Listen: “Trust your instincts” Abraham Hicks from Law of Attraction (2019)

• Esther Hicks is an inspirational speaker, author, and channeler, best known for her book Money, and The Law of Attraction. Her teachings are based on the idea that people create their own reality through their attention and focus. Emotions are a person’s guidance system that indicates how close or distant that person is to their point of focus. Life is meant to be fun and easy.

Watch: Head, Heart, and Gut Instincts Backed by Science, a Tedx Salt Lake production featuring Lyn Christian

Practice

Pay attention to how you naturally discern between your head, your heart, and your gut. Practice dropping into your body at least once a day, observing your thoughts from a distance, and leaning in to your inner knowing. Write down your observations!

“Trust instinct to the end, even though you can give no reason.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Journal prompts:

• Describe your relationship with your body. What comes to mind when you think about exercise, diet, fasting, snacking, drinking water, etc…
• How is your sex life? Do you feel fully alive in this area of your life?
• How often do you spend time outdoors? What is your connection to nature?
• How is your health? Is there anything you want to change about your health that is within your control?

Read: Does savoring increase happiness? A daily diary study from the Journal of Positive Psychology (Jose et al 2012)

• This research paper explains why savoring experiences makes you happier.

Listen to: Self-Love Body Positive meditation by Mary Christine Parks on Insight Timer

• Insight Timer is a free app with over 90,000 meditations for you to choose from. The app also features a meditation timer and free classes. Check out the app, there are some great resources!

Watch: Trust your gut feeling a little more a Google Zeitgeist presentation featuring Deepak Chopra

• Google Zeitgeist is a collection of talks by people who are changing the world. An expert in mind-body healing, Deepak Chopra is a world-renowned speaker and author on the subject of alternative medicine.

Practice

Take the time to savor your senses and experiences. Really try to be in the moment with something wonderful, and observe all of your senses as you enjoy it. It can be a really delicious treat. Let’s say I was going to savor a hot cup of coffee. I would start by looking at the coffee – the color, the steam. Then smelling it, and sipping it, really focusing on how it tastes in my mouth.

You can also go on a savoring walk, a short walk where you focus your attention on the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings you encounter. Write down your savored experiences!

“Let the head function as reason, let the heart function as feeling, let the sex center function as sex, let everything function in its own way, and don’t let mechanisms mix with one another or you will corrupt your own instincts. (Osho)”

“Watch out for intellect,
because it knows so much it knows nothing
and leaves you hanging upside down,
mouthing knowledge as your heart
falls out of your mouth.”
~ Anne Sexton

Journal Prompts:

• What is my communication style? How would others describe my way of communicating?
• How do I typically make decisions? Do I tend to make decisions slowly or quickly? What factors influence me?
• Am I too easily swayed by others opinions? What traits in other people bother me the most?

Read: Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change from the Review of General Psychology (Lyumbomirsky et al. 2005)

• This paper argues that a person’s chronic happiness level is governed by three major factors: a genetically determined set point for happiness, happiness-relevant circumstantial factors, and happiness-relevant activities and practices.

Listen to: Think Yourself Happy from the Happiness Lab Podcast with Dr. Laurie Santos

• This podcast, recorded live from Yale University features mindfulness expert Dr. Hedy Kober who introduces a live audience to guided meditation. Dr. Laurie Santos explains the new scientific research that shows the benefits of this ancient practice.

Watch: How mindfulness can changes the emotional life of our brains, a TedTalk by Richard J. Davidson

Practice

Commit to a regular meditation practice. At least once a day would be ideal! Truth is known only when the mind is not known. The mind needs to cease, to stop functioning, to be quiet, still. You cannot obtain real thoughts while thinking. Make a meditation plan with Jamie, and keep your journal nearby so you can jot down any revelations that come through during meditation.

“You have nothing to do: your work is finished when you have stopped repressing and you have cleared your unconscious. Then you have nothing to do; then all that has to be done is by your energy.” ~Osho

Journal prompts:

• What do you dream about? What thoughts or visions come up during your meditation practice?
• Spend time writing down some of the content bubbling up in your subconscious. Don’t confine yourself to traditional writing, like sentences and punctuation. Just write!

Read: The Costs and Benefits of Writing, Talking, and thinking About Life’s Triumphs and Defeats from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Lyubomirsky et al, 2006)

• This study explores different ways of processing negative and positive experiences, in an attempt to find out which are the most beneficial.

Listen: The Science of Dreaming, an episode of the Speaking of Psychology podcast with Deirdre Barrett, PhD

• This podcast is produced by the American Psychological association. Dr. Barrett is a psychologist and scholar of dreams who is on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School Behavioral Medicine Program.

Watch: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior, Leonard Mlodinow at TedxReset (2013)

• Leonard Mlodinow is a theoretical physicist and author recognized for groundbreaking discoveries in physics. In this talk, he discusses the realm of physical perception versus social perception.

Practice:

Continue with your meditation practice and be open to messages, visions, or ideas that come to you. Get comfy and take a 30 minute time-out with this meditation on InsightTimer: Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind by Lucid Power Mind.

“A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner – continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you – is a fine art, in and of itself. Because creative living is where Big Magic will always abide.” ~Elizabeth Gilbert

Journal Prompts:

• Is there any poetry in your heart? What inspires you? Who or what is your muse?
• Make a list of 100 ways to blossom. It’s okay to repeat some and to make up your own definitions. You can fire them all out at once or take time over a few days to come up with ideas.

Read: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

• After her success with bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity.

Listen: Jumpstarting Creativity on TED Radio Hour

• The TED Radio Hour spins together different TED speakers on the topic of creativity – but how is it ignited?

Watch: The Creative Brain documentary on Netflix (trailer below)

• Neuroscientist David Eagleman takes you through the creative process of various innovators while exploring the brain-bending, risk-taking ways to spark creativity.

Practice

Make something creative! It can be anything you want. Let’s talk about some ideas during our one-on-one session. Here are some bullets to get you thinking…

• Write a poem or fiction
• Paint or decorate something
• Cook or bake something new
• Dance
• Make a collage or vision board
• Craft something
• Film a video

“Don’t throw away your suffering. Touch your suffering. Face it directly, and your joy will become deeper. You know that suffering and joy are both impermanent. Learn the art of cultivating joy. Practice like this, and you come to the third turning of the Third Noble Truth, the “Realization” that suffering and happiness are not two. When you reach this stage, your joy is no longer fragile. It is true joy.”
~ Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching

Journal prompts:

• What are you grateful for in your life? What are your strengths?
• What stands in the way of you and your goals? Is there anything preventing you from being fully happy? How will you overcome obstacles?

Read: High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being, published by Princeton University (D Kahneman, A Deaton, 2010)

• This study aims to answer the question, “does money buy happiness?”

Listen: Grit and the Importance of Trying New Things, an episode of the Dare to Lead podcast

• Dare to Lead is an inspiring podcast by host Brene Brown, author of Daring Greatly, who has spent decades studying the topics of courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. In this episode, she interviews Angela Duckworth, author of Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance.

Listen: The Power of a Made-up Ritual from The Happiness Lab podcast

• Dr. Laurie Santos is a cognitive scientist and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. In this episode of her podcast, she examines how rites, ceremonies, and rituals can help you deal with events that make you sad.

Watch: Annoying Features of the Mind on Coursera, a lecture by Dr. Laurie Santos

• This is a clip from The Science of Well-Being, on of Yale University’s most popular courses on Coursera. Dr. Laurie Santos talks about annoying tricks that the mind plays on us that can prevent us from being happier.

Practice

Take this quiz to identify an inventory of your greatest strengths! Then, start putting them to use. Make an effort to use at least two strengths everyday. Share your results with me when we meet!

“In ancient Greek, the word for the highest degree of human happiness is eudaimonia, which basically means “well-daemoned” – that is, nicely taken care of by some external divine creative spirit guide. Modern commentators, perhaps uncomfortable with this sense of divine mystery, simply call it all ‘flow’ or ‘being in the zone.'” ~Elizabeth Gilbert

Journal promots:

• What makes you happy? Have you ever enjoyed an activity so much that you lost track of time? What was it?
• What quality do you admire most about yourself and why?

Read: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

• During a state of flow, people experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. Csikszentmihalyi tells us that achieving a state of flow makes an experience genuinely satisfying as people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life.

Listen: Demonic Possessions from The Happiness Lab Podcast

• In this episode, Dr. Laurie Santos examines why investing in experiences like concerts, vacations, and dining out, can give us long-term happiness boost that buying material things doesn’t match.

Watch: The habits of happiness TED Talk featuring Matthieu Ricard

• Biochemist turned Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard says we can train our minds in habits of well-being, to generate a true sense of serenity and fulfillment.

Practice

This week’s home homework is: try to feel happier! Pay attention to the thoughts and content that you feed to yourself. Create space for the things you like to do.

Take the PERMA quiz again, before our next meeting, so we can compare the results from the start of the program. Bring your scores to our next meeting!

“Divination is a means of telling ourselves what we already know.” ~Joanne Harris

Journal Prompts:

• How has your relationship with yourself changed in the last three months? What about your relationships with others?
• What are you proud of? What have you accomplished?
• Is there anything you want to dig deeper into?
• How will you continue on this path forward? What specifically will you do?

Read: Shakti Rising: Embracing Shadow and Light on the Path to Wholeness by Dr. Kavitha M. Chinnaiyan

• Pulling from Eastern traditions such as tantra and yoga, and focusing on the feminine principle of divine energy, this book explores the symbolism of the Mahavidyas, ten Goddesses who can help you learn to embrace and incorporate every aspect of who you are.

Listen: Back to Basics Series: Psychic Tools Part 1 and Part 2 from the Psychic Teachers Podcast

• Psychic teachers Deb and Samantha discuss psychic tools you can use to enhance your intuition.

• Peter Struck is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His research engages with the history of the construction of meaning, in divination and in ancient notions of the organism.

Watch: Applying ancient divination to modern intuition, a TEDxPenn production featuring Peter Struck

Practice

Choose a divination tool, deity, practice, or energy that you want to work with. Learn more about it, and start practicing with your own intuition.