How to Rule the World from Your Couch book cover
Photo: Courtesy of Simon & Schuster
Do you listen to your inner voice and follow your gut instincts? If not, now's the time to start! Author Laura Day explains how your intuition will help you become more powerfully connected to your life.
Have you ever experienced, in a fully visceral, soul-talking-directly-to-you kind of way, a shockingly clear, unbelievably useful piece of intuitive information, a tiny morsel of data that you simply, for the life of you, could not explain away? Have you ever just known something not just because you knew it, but more because you sensed it? Many of my students and clients (from doctors, engineers, and market analysts to businesspeople of all varieties, scientists, lawyers, and beyond) have come to their own sense of intuition just this way—through some unexplainable flash of insight, or perhaps triggered by something I said that worked for them.

Regardless of how or under what circumstances it occurs, when tapped into purely, intuition and insight become the breath of life. My clients may have been skeptical, but as pragmatists, they knew they could not ignore what they themselves had experienced firsthand. I believe that intuitively they knew they had tapped into a new way of navigating. This sense made them hungry to know more and perhaps even led them to me. Though they may still be skeptics, guess what: they use these skills regularly anyway.

Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese military sage, said, "Every battle is won before it is ever fought"—and this wise and profound message is exactly what this book is about. Engaging in battle is a waste of time. Goals can be achieved and, in fact, are achieved effectively only when you use your intuition to map the way before you start the journey, anticipating and avoiding obstacles, arriving at landmarks in the right order with proper timing, and, when you can, following the scenic route.

We live in a world of constant activity, always doing, in motion, on task. The reality is that your truest successes come not only from what you do, but more so from your preparedness and ability to gather needed information in advance. The doing piece is actually tiny, but only if you have laid down the proper foundation of readiness. Everything is available. Your only task at hand is to position yourself properly to receive it. Think of yourself as a perfectly designed state-of-the-art radio. You may be able to send and receive all the right signals—but only if your power is on.

What I love about teaching intuition is that it reveals how capable each of us is no matter how we may "feel" about our worth or training. My book How to Rule the World from Your Couch is meant to be used "on the job" of living your daily life. I want to point out some places where you are intuitive and give you suggestions to direct this innate ability more effectively in your life right now.

There are three beginning points to finding your footing in life. Let's join together in a brief experience of each one. I say join together because even science is now finding that we live in a unified field of energy. What does that mean for you? Your experience is perceived and shared by the world around you. If you create health and joy for yourself, it is shared by others even at a distance. You can heal the world by making your own life the best it can be.

Get 3 ways to put your intuition to work

Woman journaling
Photo: © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation
Intuition asks for directions. The part of your brain that's able to take advantage of the unified field wants to know what you want it to find. Write down a positive goal for yourself. Instead of "I want to lose weight" make the goal "I have a slim, lovely healthy body that I am happy to be in" and really feel that (it is not easy at first). Then notice the ideas, things in your environment, even people or ads, that you used to walk by and write those down. You will surprise yourself by coming up with a healing program that works for you.

Scientists used to believe that you were born with a set of genes that to a large degree determined things like obesity, depression, illnesses you would acquire and your rate of aging. Science has now found that your genes do change. What changes them? Environmental factors and experience. Research scientist and author Dr. Bruce Lipton has made major breakthroughs in showing that our bodies can change as we retrain our thinking. Now, in many ways you dictate how you experience things, and your own body makes some of the most powerful, mind-altering drugs you will ever have in your body!

From your couch right now, try allowing yourself to really feel your body healed, and when problems arise in your head, talk to them and convince them of another way. You may surprise yourself with your own ability to reason with your health and change the very "hardwiring" of your body.

How your intuition with help you have a better relationship

Women having serious conversation
Photo: © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation
Many studies show that mind reading and message sending really work. However, you don't need a study to know that when someone in your family is in trouble, everyone feels it and reacts sometimes before they know that something's wrong and even if the person is at a distance. (That interconnected universe again.) How can you use this ability to create and transform relationships?

First, notice the conversations you are having in your head. The arguments that go on and on, the hurtful dialogs that never get resolved. Take a new approach. Really listen to what you are "saying" to the other person and let yourself experience how they are responding. Then ask yourself: "What would make this person respond in a way that would be more productive and healing for them and for me?" Try having this dialog with the person, in your head, instead. The dialog may change as you respond differently and they respond to your efforts. Don't be surprised if the dialog, with the person, in the flesh, simply continues when you next have contact.

If you're struggling with people in your life who won't change, here's a way to protect yourself from the damage of dialogs people won't change. Once again, notice the conversations you're having in your head. Do the previous exercise if you feel there is still something to be resolved in the relationship that would be healing for you. If not or if you cannot reach a resolution, say what you have to say and put a period at the end of the dialog. Every time you return to the dialog in your mind (we can call it an argument too!), shift your thought to a more productive dialog with someone else. This takes practice and discipline, but it is well worth it. More of your brain power will be available for strengthening the relationships that can be resolved, and your body and life will be healthier and more successful for the effort.

You can send love, hope, kindness or even remind your child to eat lunch using this same technique.

The first step to realizing your dreams

Thinking woman
Photo: © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation
Whenever I used to get into a stand-off with someone, my mother would remind me to "walk a mile in the other person's moccasins." Mediumship—a natural ability we all have from that early stages in our lives where energetically and psychologically we were one with our mothers—can be used to great advantage to get the world and the people in it on board with your goals.

As you are sitting, walking or doing dishes, take a moment to really become the other person. If that's hard to wrap your head around, pretend you're the other person; you feel what they feel, you see what they see, believe what they believe and experience life (not just think, really experience) as the other person. When you do this, you will notice what they need and want and what will encourage them to help you achieve your dreams. You will find their language of expression and be able to communicate in a way that's attractive to them. In fact, you can do this with someone you have never met or even someone you're trying to attract. Let me give you an example. If you are single, you might want to become the partner who is perfect for you. Don't "make up" the experience. Simply notice who you become when you become this person and really "get to know them." You may be shocked at how quickly this person walks into your life.

All of these exercises are simple and natural for your brain. Don't overcomplicate them. Try them and see the results.

How to Rule the World from Your Couch will help you use these abilities that you were born with to transform your life and give all that you have to the world around you.

On a final note, one thing intuition teaches us is that "do unto others" is just plain good sense. Once you do these exercises, you will realizes with clarity how connected to each other and the world around us we all are, even at a distance. If even one soul is in pain, we all suffer. One happy person with a complete life and goals fulfilled heals us all.

New York Times best-selling author Laura Day has spent three decades helping individuals, organizations and companies use their innate intuitive abilities to create profound change in their lives. Her new book is How to Rule the World from Your Couch (Simon & Schuster).

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Excerpted from How to Rule the World from Your Couch by Laura Day, (Simon & Schuster)

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