If It Feels Right, Do It!

May 2, 2010

Dear Friends,

In the January 11th issue of Time Magazine, there was an article about Magnus Carlsen, the youngest No. 1 player in the history of chess. According to Gary Kasparov, a former chess champion:

“Carlsen’s mastery is rooted in a deep, intuitive sense. He has a natural feel for where to place the pieces, and a knack for sensing the potential energy in each move, even if its ultimate effect is too far away for anyone—even a computer—to calculate.”

The article went on to state that many of Carlsen’s moves are not even considered to be options by the experts until they see those moves and realize how perfect they are. About this, Carlsen simply says:

“It’s hard to explain, but sometimes a move just feels right.”

Friends, when it comes to living life in the divine flow, I cannot emphasis enough the importance of paying keen attention to how a potential move in your life feels.

You make countless decisions every day—some big, some small. And naturally you want all of your decisions to be good ones—decisions that are divinely guided and divinely supported. But often it is impractical to wait for a divine sign to appear, or for a synchronistic event to occur, to help you make the best choice.

Your own intuitive sense, however, is always right there and ready to guide you. Although there are many ways that your intuition can speak to you, most commonly it is through a simple “feeling of rightness.” One potential choice just feels a little better than the other one.

Although I make a point of nurturing my intuitive sense, and I have always relied upon it heavily for making important decisions, I only recently noticed how much I use my intuition for every decision that I make. Not too long ago, someone simply asked me which restaurant we should go to for lunch. For a brief moment I considered Restaurant A versus Restaurant B, and then I said, “I think we should go to Restaurant A.” Later, I noticed that I had used the word, “think.” But the fact is, “thinking” had almost nothing to do with my choice. I simply imagined myself in Restaurant A, then in Restaurant B, and Restaurant A felt a little better. It just . . . well . . . felt right. I realized in that moment how almost all of the decisions I make in life are automatically—and to some degree unconsciously—based on how those decisions feel.

When Carol and I needed to move from one home to another here in Sedona, I came up with what I thought was a logical plan for moving—what we should do first, then second, then third, and so on. But in the end, we ended up doing things in a completely different order. Why? Because it felt right. And I can honestly say, our move was an extraordinarily smooth one.

Even the message that you are reading right now was greatly influenced by how I felt as I wrote it. I make it a practice to read my messages over and over and over again, until every paragraph, every sentence, and every word not only makes sense, but also feels right.

Is there a move—big or small—that you are contemplating making in your life right now? Then go ahead and use your logic and reason to weigh the pros and cons of making that move . . . or of not making it . . . or of making an entirely different move. Just make sure that you pay special attention to how each potential choice feels.

And if it’s time to make a decision and you are still uncertain about which way to go, make the best choice you can and don’t fret about it. Remember—more so in life than in chess—even a misguided move can be transformed by the divine flow into just another stepping-stone to your highest good.

Steven

© 2010 by Steven Lane Taylor
Author of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:
A Guide for Living Life in the Divine Flow
www.rowrowrow.com