✨ Up for grabs ⚡️

Remember at lunchtime when we were kids, someone would hold something in the air and say “Up for grabs!” And then, just as quickly, “Down for safety!”

It feels like everything is up for grabs right now.

The world continues to be upside down and on fire. The balance of war and peace (along with hope and despair) is bouncing around like a pinball. Astrologically — for those of you keeping up with that front — we are at a unprecedented zero point moment.

And while being alive right now is disorienting, it’s also extremely liberating. It’s glaringly clear that there are no rules any more.

In that spirit, I’m saying this to nobody and myself: This Substack newsletter is hereby about whatever the fuck it wants to be about. Intuition for Breakfast started as a home for my work/inquiries/infatuation with/research into intuition. It still is. But it’s also about joy and art and the mundane and play and whatever happens next week — because intuition is about tuning into our innermost self for guidance, empowerment and expression.

Below you’ll find a little piece I wrote about stopping to ask your body for its take on your decisions. But before we get there, I wanted to share that I’ve just released a new t-shirt design and a bunch of (new and old) prints at my online art shop (jorlipena.art).

If you like anything you see, please buy and/or share! All pieces are made to order, just for you. :)

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Stop. Ask Your Body.

Ninety percent of the time when my friends ask me for advice, I answer with a version of: Well, have you asked your body?

With very few exceptions, we know the answers to our own questions, but they’re buried somewhere inside of us. We haven’t stopped to ask ourselves. At least, not in a way where we’ve created the conditions to be able to hear the answer.

The best place to start — with anything — is with a pause and a breath.

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[This is me giving you a sec to do that.]

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Now ask yourself, How does it feel? (“It” being, whatever you are considering.)

How does the idea of that feel in your body?

That’s it. It’s deceptively simple. And we forget to do this.

This practice can be used to help make any decision, big or small.

Should I call that person back? Well, stop. Take a breath. How does it feel (the thought of calling them back)?

Should I order this or that? Stop, ask your body how it would feel if you chose the first one. Then do it again with the second option.

Do I want to live there? Picture yourself already there. What comes up?

The clair we are tapping into here is clairsentience (feeling). That said, clairs work together, just like our physical senses. What starts as clairsentience may turn into an image (clairvoyance), spark an “ah-ha” moment (claircognizance), or resurface a memory (spanning multiple clairs). Pausing to ask how you feel might unearth a buried emotion that is asking to be acknowledged so it can be processed and released.

We humans are so good at overcomplicating things. It’s not as hard as we make out.

We know when we like something.

We know what it feels like to look forward to something.

We know what it feels like to dread something.

Many things fall in the middle, but they trend one way or another.

When you’re tapping in, when you’re imagining a scenario and asking your body for its input, consider which of these two energetic polarities you feel closer to: open or closed.

Does the thought of that experience make you feel expansive and free? Like somebody standing or sitting tall with their arms outstretched and their heart beaming out? Picture a gorgeous tree or a wide open flower. Does it make you feel like that?

Or is it the opposite?

Imagine someone in the fetal position, scrunched up like a ball. The human equivalent of a crumpled piece of paper. The inside of a locked box. Is what you are feeling?

Sometimes what you tune into is neutral, but usually it feels good or it feels bad. It feels like freedom or it feels like stagnation.

Stop and ask your body. You’ll get an answer.

Now, your mind may not like the answer. That’s okay. It’s still data. Make a note of it. Receiving guidance and acting on guidance are two separate skills. Start where you are. But don’t forgot to check in.