Following your healthy intuition

[attach]1681[/attach]Ever said to yourself, “I should have listened to my gut.”?

Turns out, tapping into that inner voice could have health benefits.

Helping people develop their intuitive faculties is something Beach resident Maria Carmen Verdugo has been doing for 25 years. A registered nurse for 15 years, Verdugo recently launched her own business, Intuitive Resource where she works as a holistic counselor.

According to Verdugo, intuition is knowledge from within that often has little to do with conscious reasoning.

“It is a very natural happening,” she says, “but we are not taught as children to use the senses in the way we’re supposed to.”

Often we’re so inundated with what others think that we lose touch with ourselves, she adds.

But the answers, she says, have nothing to do with the outer world. And often, finding them by looking inward can alleviate physical and mental health issues.

In her practice as a holistic counselor, Verdugo has worked with numerous clients whose physical afflictions seem to be the result of emotional issues that haven’t been dealt with.

It’s only by tapping into and acknowledging those issues that people can heal themselves, she says.

“The subconscious normally locks away very painful issues,” she says, “and that pain can create ills in our body.”

One client in her early 30s had severe acne craters and boils on face. As Verdugo puts it, she was in bad shape.

When she asked the woman how she felt about herself, Verdugo learned the woman had social anxiety around people and wanted to hide herself.

After talking to her about how long she had felt this way and why, she discovered the woman grew up being told that she was no good and had to hide.

Once she talked about it the woman realized her negativity came from someone else, and she was able to work towards healing herself.

“One year later she was a completely different person,” says Verdugo. The lady’s acne had diminished remarkably, she was eating better, and she was able to function better socially.

The best way to access your inner voice or intuition is to listen when that inner voice speaks. Verdugo suggests having an inner conversation with yourself: ask yourself how you feel about a particular situation or health problem. Then ask how you can correct
that problem.

You have to be open to listening to what comes out of that process, she says. In other words, don’t ignore that inner voice.

Although her nursing and her intuition practices are separate, Verdugo says she takes her intuitive philosophy into her nursing work as a weight management specialist, often asking client questions about how they feel about their weight issues and how they think they can remedy them.

She often works with obese people, many of whom are suffering from difficulties in their emotional state they haven’t dealt with, she says.

“It’s only by going inward that they can heal.”