Improvement Insights Blog
Using Your Intuition to Stay Safe During the Pandemic
One of the challenges of the pandemic is the ongoing uncertainty. We know to wash our hands, mask our face and stay out of crowds. What can we do to take back some sense of control? Here’s what I’ve been doing.
For some of you, this may seem too “woo-woo” to digest. That’s okay. It’s just an insight from my other studies.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma for Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but this whole pandemic thing’s getting a little old, but we know two things for certain: 1 – More people will get sick, and 2 – More people will die. (Hopefully not me,) But you know the things we can do: Wash our hands, wear our mask and stay out of crowds. I’m using those three countermeasures, but since about the first of April I’ve started using another countermeasure that i’d like to share with you.
“I learned this technique from Jack Canfield many, many years ago and I started just to test it. One of the things you may not know about me is I studied Neuro-Linguistic Programming. I learned a lot about how we run our brains through pictures, sounds, things that we say to ourselves, and our feelings.
“Out of that I started thinking about, “Well, one of the things that bugs me is the uncertainty.” You know, I don’t know if I go out, am I going to be in trouble or whatever. I thought, “Well, most of the time, wouldn’t it be nice just to listen to our intuition?”
“Intuition… they don’t talk about, “You see your intuition,” or “You feel your intuition.” No, you listen to your intuition. I thought, “Well, maybe it’s a voice,” and I thought, “Okay, so if I have a voice of intuition maybe I can talk to it.”
“There’s a technique called muscle checking, and if you’ve ever been to a chiropractor they’ll get there and say “Strong,” and then they’ll test you to find out if you’re out of alignment somehow. That’s muscle checking. I learned that from Jack Canfield as well, but he had a simpler version.
“Essentially, you put your index finger and your thumb together, and then put an index finger through there and I use my non-dominant hand for the circle and my dominant hand for the indicator, and so then I say, “Voice of intuition, please show me a yes,” and usually if it’s strong it’ll hold. Then I say, “Voice of intuition, please show me a no,” and my finger will go right through. “Please show me yes.” “Please show me no.”
“So I have a clear yes and no question and answer, so I can ask it questions. “Voice of intuition, is it safe to go to work today?” “Voice of intuition, is it safe to go pick up my prescriptions at the pharmacy?” I started doing this. “Is it safe to go eat at this restaurant?” “Is it safe to go to the post office?”
“I started doing that and I’ll never forget about two weeks into it, I was supposed to pick up some prescriptions. I said, “Voice of intuition, please show me. Is it safe to go pick up my prescriptions?” It said no, and I was surprised because I hadn’t gotten a no yet, but I said, “Voice of intuition, please show me yes.” “Please show me no.” “Is it safe to go pick up my prescriptions?” and no. So I just didn’t do it.
“Over the last three or four months there’s been four or five times where it just said, “No, don’t go eat at this restaurant.” “No, don’t go to the post office.” “No, don’t go pick up a prescription.” “No, don’t go to the store,” and so I’d wait and maybe do it the next day or later on in the day. Later on in the day I’d ask, “Is it safe to go pick up my prescriptions?” Yes. So this is a technique.
“One of the things that I’ve studied over the years is Energy Medicine and Quantum Physics. If you’ve ever read Fred Allen Wolf, he is a noted quantum physicist, but he wrote a book called “The Eagle’s Quest” which is about how Shamans might be Quantum Mechanics. They work at the level of energy at the quantum level. So if we think about it, it’s possible that we are all connected.
“I’m sure you’ve had situations where your intuition just said, “No, don’t do something,” right? It may have been a very strong one. Mine’s a very quiet voice, so I need a more aggressive answer than that. But if we’re all connected maybe our intuition can reach out there and touch the universe, feel what’s going on and give us some insight.
“Now, I don’t guarantee this, right? This is something I’ve been experimenting with. But one of the things I’ve found is in this pandemic is there’s so much uncertainty. You don’t know if you can go do anything, anywhere, anytime, and so this gives me a sense like I’m in control of my own destiny. “Please show me yes.” “Please show me no.” “Is it safe to go for a walk with my wife this morning? “Yes.” Okay. So I’ve been doing this routinely but a number of times it just said no, don’t go and I listen.
“So that’s my Improvement Insight for this week. Here’s another countermeasure: Ask your intuition if it’s safe to go do what you’re going to do. If it says no, don’t go. All right?
“Let’s go and let’s create a hassle-free America. Let’s create a hassle-free world. Let’s go ahead and improve something this week.”
