ARE YOU A HIGH FUNCTIONING HUMAN?

I think one of the biggest gifts you can give yourself is to live at your own pace – slowing down when needed and accelerating when you’re ready. 

But what happens when the world’s pace, which is constantly driven by technological advances, collides with your own rhythm? At times, societal expectations might force you to suppress your intuitive guidance. 

I always chuckle when I remember they used to call intuition ‘witchcraft’. 

We live in an age of rapid advancements designed to make life easier, but the real challenge lies in maintaining your core essence as a human while navigating this rapidly changing digital landscape.

I know it’s tempting to look at all the modern systems out there, offering to do pretty much everything for you, but there’s a delicate balance between efficiency and keeping autonomous. If you give too much of your daily life to automated processes you may find yourself disengaged from your own journey. 

It’s important to ground yourself and stay connected to your body. Think about nutrition: our ancestors craved calorie-dense food because they had to chase it. Now, we can get that “hunt” delivered to our doorstep, but processed foods or chemicals are contributing to a widespread health crisis. 

In this age where Artificial Intelligence has woven itself into the fabric of our daily lives, it’s incredibly easy to become almost a bit mechanical in your actions. As convenient as these tools can be, they can create a layer that separates you from your genuine self. Have you ever caught yourself operating on autopilot, feeling like you’re going through the motions rather than actively engaging with life?

When things are handed to you, it can be hard to gauge your desire for it and can, in fact, lead you on a path to apathy rather than a feeling of pride or reward. Did you know that according to the National Endowment for Financial Education, 70% of lottery winners go bankrupt within a few years? Having things handed to you on a plate often causes more problems than it solves!

So when AI systems can do everything for you, it’s easy to imagine a world where we eventually find ourselves, like the sedentary humans in the Pixar movie WALL-E. Walking away from a destroyed planet addicted to screens and detached from reality and your body. 

Have you heard the phrase ‘touch grass’, which is used to reply to someone who is ‘chronically online’? It’s a tongue-in-cheek reminder that a connection to the real world is invaluable. 

I believe that the key to finding this balance is to be fully in tune with your intuition in your body. And as you refine your inner compass, you become more able to engage with progress and technology without losing touch with your humanity. Sure, AI is convenient, but remember, it’s programmed by humans. Like us, it’s also fallible. Historically, the best way to manage the use of AI technology has always been to inject human reasoning wherever possible. Take the story of Stanislav Petrov, a Russian lieutenant colonel who used his intuition to avoid nuclear catastrophe when technology falsely signalled an attack. In fact, the newly implemented detection software had failed to be programmed correctly for sunlight filtering through a specific kind of cloud system. Had Stanislav simply reported the missile strike rather than using his expert judgement, we might very well be living in that WALL-E wasteland I mentioned earlier!

Intuition is a skill. The more you hone it, the more you will be able to trust yourself to make empowered choices. A wonderful way to start developing this skill is my Fascia & Feelings series, designed to help you release stuck fascia in your body. When you learn how to release your physical tension, you enhance your receptivity to your body’s signals. As I mention in my blog, ‘Intuition VS Sensing’, your body is continually perceiving hundreds of details about the world around it. When you open physically, you become more in tune with this subconscious system, taking a step to becoming what I affectionately term a ‘High Functioning Human’.