Intuition

Do you trust your own instinct or prefer to rely on opinions supposedly based on facts?

Over the years we have been advised against doing what we have wanted to do, we have experienced so many sharp intakes of breath by the people trained in the various areas we have disagreed with, but we have always chosen to stick to our guns and do what we feel is right. The thing is, our decisions came from within – we were never been influenced by others or knew of other people doing what we we wanted to do, we just felt something...a knowing.

When we first got together in 1986, we discovered that we both felt repulsed by certain meats and we began questioning why we continued to eat it when we felt so uncomfortable. One evening Sime came over to my flat and made spicy veggie burgers from soya mince which were delicious and I then found a recipe for walnut and broccoli lasagne and we carried on learning more and more. In 1987, we bought our first house together and it just so happened that a health/wholefood shop opened up down the road and that is how we educated ourselves. We experimented with new ingredients and the sisters who owned the shop also taught us about the importance of eating organically. Shortly after Sal’s birth in 1988 - our epiphany happened! It was while watching lambs feeding from their mums and the absolute joy they were experiencing running around the field - at the same time I was breastfeeding Sal and suddenly felt this deep connection to these beautiful beings...what on earth were we doing? How could we even think about eating other animals when they get so much enjoyment from life? What right did we have to decide when their lives should end? That was it, we stopped and all our kidlets were vegetarian from birth and mainly grew up on a vegan diet. Back then the opinion of experts in the food/science industry said it was impossible to maintain a long term diet without animal protein, but we felt it was important to us and the more we looked into it, the more information we gathered. We had no internet, just the library, the health shop and then we discovered The Vegetarian and Vegan Societies and we found our tribe! There are many of us who have not eaten meat, poultry or fish for over 30+ years and who have excellent health. Same goes for long term vegans too. The experts were wrong.

We were told back in 1990 that as a vegetarian, I would be more likely to need a blood transfusion during childbirth...it was what was said when trying to persuade me against having a home birth. We decided to trust our natural instinct and everything was fine. In fact, our experience far excelled that of Sal’s hospital birth 2 years before and we did it all over again 7 years later.

I first heard of Education Otherwise back in 1991 from a tiny advert in a parenting magazine I just happened to look at. I wrote the address down and while spending the winter in Malta, I wrote to them and asked for more information. At that point, Sal was 3 and Rose was 1. We had both had some dreadful high school experiences and wanted to know if school was compulsory or not...Again, we didn’t know anyone who home educated at that point, but thanks to EO – who wrote back with lots of info, we found out that children needed to receive an “adequate education from school or otherwise”. What a revelation – none of us had to go to school! Yippee!!! But both of our girls did want to go to school at first and of course, we wholeheartedly supported them, but eventually they did come out and we never looked back. We were warned that we would be doing great harm socially as well as academically by teachers, education authority staff, friends and family, but again it felt right to do. Well you only have to meet our 3 adult kids to know this is far from true. Given space, time and love - children thrive, they are naturally curious and can decide for themselves what they want to learn and in doing so, they are motivated. Our family were in many home ed groups, so the kidlets had very sociable times, we all did and we enjoyed our time together. In fact home educating for us was one of the best things we ever did - it was a team effort, we learned from each other and continue to do so. Learning is a way of life.

I have written lots about my experience with Graves Disease – which you can find on this blog. If I had listened to the endocrinologists I would have taken the radioactive iodine and would no doubt have died a few years ago of breast cancer. I spoke to many women with Graves on forums back then who had gone on to have breast cancer and the medical professionals told them that there was no connection to the radioactive iodine. Right. The doctors were desperate to get their hands on my goitre, to open me up and have a look at this exciting phenomenon. They wanted me as an experiment, not to help a fellow human being – but to try out various procedures. I refused each time, but they did try quite forcibly and reduced me to tears on several occasions. It took great courage for me to stand up to them, but I did and I am incredibly thankful to be alive and well.  

We are living in a time when science is being rammed down our throats, we have to believe in the science; it’s the only way. Well actually it isn’t. The experts are not always right and we’ve seen quite clearly this year, that they do get things wrong, a lot. Unfortunately pharmaceutical companies and other corporations are sponsoring the training and steering the great minds of today; those people who feel a calling in doing what they do, but how much influence do these big companies have? We know of GPs who have quit because of the emphasis to push drugs, rather than help patients with advice. Look into any of the universities and colleges mentioned in the news today and you’ll see where their money comes from and why they have to get results that will satisfy their funders. After years of indoctrination, they no longer care about people. It’s all about the results and the money.

The more we hear about experts saying this, that and the other – the more we choose to find things out for ourselves. We don’t dwell on what others are doing, but as I said on a previous post, we choose our own path. Coming up with new ideas for things we want to achieve is always easy for us and decision-making has got easier – we do have goal lists, but also we have a feeling of wanting to try so many things out, to cram all sorts of wonderful experiences into this lifetime. We are definitely in tune with our gut feelings and both know when something is right. Moving to Cornwall put us on a more spiritual path, after many years of being atheists – we are accepting that there is probably something more out there...We are connected to the planet, nature...even the weather!

Go with the flow and learn to use your natural instinct, we are all born with this intuition, but some of us hold on to it and some of us let it slip. That’s probably why our path is very different to most, but we are all capable of using our gut feelings and you can do whatever you want to do. Don’t leave big decisions for others to make about your life...Learn to listen to your inner self. Meditation helps to focus, be more intuitive and we would recommend getting into calming your mind and being more mindful of everything you do.

Here’s Bob Proctor talking about our Higher Faculties...

 

Trust in yourself to know you better.

Have a lovely weekend!

Kay (and Sime) xx