The Wealth of Intuitive Health

A core message in Moving Through Walls (MTW) is that our intuitive health plays a huge role in determining the choices we make and the outcomes that result from those choices.

Feb 26th, 2019

Israel Ellis Headshot

Israel Ellis

The Wealth of Intuitive Health

5 minute Read

A core message in Moving Through Walls (MTW) is that our intuitive health plays a huge role in determining the choices we make and the outcomes that result from those choices. The premise is that our decision-making process is in part driven by unconscious motivators, which come into play before any conscious considerations. We often think of intuition in the context of forming first impressions, but it is especially critical when we are faced with a situation or set of inputs that require an autonomous and immediate counteraction. In other words, intuitive health is key not just to acting proactively but also to responding strategically to situations that arise. In fact, in every situation where we make a choice, the state of our intuitive health will be material to the decision we make and the outcome of that decision.

What is intuitive health?

I use the term “intuitive health” to refer to the unconscious drivers of our decision-making process, which are a reflection and direct result of our emotional balance. The process of making intuitive judgments occurs before rational, conscious consideration takes place. For example, upon meeting someone, we form a first impression of them that is not based on rational thought but on feelings. Think of your feelings as an emotional radar, scanning the person before you and giving you information about whether to stay away from or get closer to this person. Of course feelings cannot always be trusted, and this is where intuitive health comes into play. If you are an emotionally healthy person, then your intuition will naturally seek out and be attracted to people who are good for you. Unconsciously, you will identify people whom you can envision as part of the future of your ideal self. Conversely, an unhealthy intuition will attract you to relationships with people who are not good for you.

Take a moment to consider your history of relationships to determine where you land on the spectrum of intuitive health. If you have read MTW, you will know about Bergler’s psychic masochistic link between pleasure and pain, which is foundational to my treatise that our actions and behaviors are the direct and desired results of our decisions, even when those decisions seem counterintuitive to our own survival and growth. Put simply, the brain seeks pleasure – if we are doing things to harm ourselves, it is because we are gaining some sort of perverse pleasure from doing those things. We often struggle to recognize that our unconscious is the force behind our actions and decision-making processes. In the book, I explain that we are often unaware of our hidden motivations, which usually stem from a gap in our psychological need for security, self-worth, confidence, and esteem as described by Maslow. (MTW Page 73)

By simply becoming aware that we are responsible for the outcomes in our life, we can expose and interrogate these unconscious motivators. This awareness will sharpen our intuitive qualities and push us closer to the outcomes that support our ideal future. Finding emotional balance – by bridging the gaps in our psychological needs – is half the battle won.

In business, I make decisions by trusting my intuition. The healthier my intuition, the better my decisions. This is something that you can bank on; I do. My first impressions are often the most accurate. Recently I hired a service provider on contract. Although all indications were positive and the provider was telling me all the right things – and I would have preferred to believe all was well – my intuition told me something different. In this case, the discrepancy between the reality of the situation and how it appeared was due to my emotional investment in the relationship. When you are invested emotionally, your objective view of a situation becomes clouded. We all want to believe that we have made the correct decisions with the right people, but it does not always turn out that way, and the sooner we listen to what we “know,” the better off we will be. When you are dealing with manipulators who insert confusion into the situation, it can easily lead you to doubt yourself, which in turn can negatively influence your intuitive health and unsettle your emotional balance. In these instances, it is of paramount importance to draw your lines and keep an unwavering endgame vision in your sights.

We are all capable of achieving intuitive health and when we do so, we give ourselves the best opportunity to make decisions that will help us achieve the greatest version of ourselves. I have developed four foundational constructs that when practiced are going to deliver positive results. For those of you who have read MTW, you know what I am referring to; for those who have not, read the book 🙂 A blog post is too constrained a forum to delve deeply into the four foundations, but I want to leave you with this thought. When you truly open yourself up to ideas, especially ones counter to your own belief system; when you have faith, knowing that you cannot control the world you live in but you can control many of the inputs, as defined in MTW; when you believe that there is a future where you are your ideal self; and when you can forgive and turn stories of grievance into ones of heroism – you can become your personal best self and let your intuitive health bring you the wealth!

I would wish you good luck – but this is not about luck. It’s in your control to put your best foot forward. Thank you for making me a part of your journey. Please let me know how it’s coming along.


In Moving Through Walls I have narrowed the answers to four foundational principles. These ideas are tools to achieve the life you want to live. Embrace them and make them your own.

– Israel Ellis

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I wrote Moving Through Walls out of a purpose to share what I have learned.

If you have a deep desire to find that road less travelled to your greatest self. Then you have likely come to the right place.

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THE HERO WALL

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Lets make the HERO WALL happen Be a hero, change the world! Tell your Hero Story Here

Feel good, safe, open, smile, express, learn, experience, hope, dreams, strengthen @ movingthroughwalls.com .

YOU are the hero that will change the world!

Accelerators are the fuel for greatness. With every personal and professional project that we commit to and bring to the finish line, we increase the confidence we have in ourselves, the faith that others have in us, and our abilities to achieve larger tasks. But to open those doors, it starts with commitment. It starts with taking the shot. Just do it! as the famous ad campaign goes.

Mrs. Ellison, my grade five teacher, who at the time seemed older than God, would single me out because I did not have my lunch or because my work was not completed. She would hear no excuses. It did not matter to her that at ten years old, I had no one to make me lunch or that I would come to school in pretty bad shape. She would look me straight in the eye, a tremor in her voice, point a shaky finger at me, and say, “Young man, where there is a will, there is a way.”

In retrospect, I have to thank her for her unwavering lack of empathy for me, even if the appropriate action might have been to call a children’s aid society. She drummed that phrase into my head and it stuck. When I find myself in front of what appears to be an impenetrable wall, I recount her words, often saying them out loud in a chant-like fashion.

This mantra has kept me pushing and persevering over the years. There is always a way to move through walls. I have moved through many in my journey, and I will move through more. The commitment to moving through walls reminds me that by keeping stock in my faith and asking the universe to deliver, I will find that crack in the dam and a trickle of opportunity will make its way through to lead me to the next great place on my journey.

Challenging ourselves and pushing the boundaries of what we think we’re capable of is a powerful accelerator. Accelerators related to physical endeavors can be particularly powerful. By persevering through physical discomfort, we learn to access new sources of confidence and motivation. Not to mention, it keeps you looking and feeling great, which is an accelerator all on its own!

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Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to tell a story in six words. He came up with the famous six-word story: “For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” Inspired by this story, Larry Smith of SMITH Magazine challenged others to try to write their lives in six words.

I thought this idea was quite the challenge. How could you encapsulate a life in six words? I was struck by both the brilliant simplicity and the enormity of the challenge: sum up the total sense of who I am and what I believe and package it in a six- word micro-memoir.

I was stumped. For several days, I considered what impact these six words would have on how I value myself. Six words does not allow for any excess; it requires the writer to focus in on what is most important. The exercise took on a new challenge for me. I realized it was asking me to distill my life down to my core essential truth.

When I eventually committed my six words to paper, I felt a great wave of relief come over me. I was calmed by its truth: Living my Life on my Terms. In six words, I captured the feeling of the gratefulness I felt and how far I’d come to understand what a gift life is. Every time I see these words they continue to strengthen and inspire me.

Try it yourself. What are your six words?

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A point of caution here: Stories of grievance have a shelf life. There is a point of repetition where you risk becoming a broken record. No one has the patience to listen to the same grievance over and over again. Grievances can also eventually manifest themselves to include things that did not happen. People who have chosen to dedicate their lives to bearing crosses often become so obsessed that they lose the connection to what really happened.

Don’t become trapped in this cycle. You get a limited number of passes before your story of grievance needs to evolve into one of “heroism”—and this is the story you can tell over and over again. No one gets tired of hearing about heroism. It is motivating and positive. A story of overcoming hardship gives strength to others, and every hero deserves to share their story.

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“If you are meant to be on the path that you are on, the universe will find a way, even when you can’t. When you realize this fact, you will have stumbled upon one of the secret ingredients for success; if you focus on “what” you need to happen—you articulate your goal—the universe will supply the “how.” That is the power of faith. ”

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“If you put your best foot forward and do everything within your power, you will come to a place that is your destiny. “Believe” that you are loved. “Believe” that you have value. And “believe” that you are an important part of this vast universe, one that is a far better place because you have chosen to pursue your greatness, and in doing so, have affected the world in ways that you may never become aware of.”

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Accelerate

"People are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of."
-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

It’s a beautiful summer morning on the ocean, and the perfect wave is coming in. You’ve spotted the wave, paddled hard to be in the right position to catch it, and now you are on the top—on the crest. You lean in, commit yourself, and tip the board forward. You invite the surging force of the breaking water to take over, and the result is a massive jolt of acceleration. Looking back, it seems as if everything that happened was pre-destined, there is such perfect harmony between yourself, your purpose, and nature. In that moment, riding atop the surge, is acceleration. 

"I have trust in my intuition, powered by the confidence that comes from past achievements. I have done it before; I can do it again.”

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“Foundation 4: Forgiveness

The final foundation is forgiveness. When an injustice has been perpetrated against you, it can be incredibly difficult to heal and move forward. That said, when we hang on to the anger that resides deep within us, it tarnishes the soul and blurs our ability to envision and realize the future we desire. To move forward, we must prevail and overcome. But how? How do you move on?
The chapter on forgiveness was the hardest and most personal for me to write. For a long time I struggled to forgive people who had hurt me, but in my journey I realized that only through forgiveness can we unlock a future in which we become the best versions of ourselves. That future is worth the discomfort of being vulnerable. ”

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“What I call the four foundations—openness, faith, future, and forgiveness—are principles that we can use to change the way we interact with the world. These foundations will be the topics of Part One of this book. Our perception—how we see the world around us—is shaped by our life experiences. In our earliest years, we form many of the biases we carry throughout our lives; these biases often predict how we react to the world around us and prevent us from making the changes necessary to living our greatest lives. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We all have the potential to become mindful of our biases and loosen their grip upon us. With conscious effort, we can achieve a state of being that aligns with who we want to be, not where we came from.People often say that change starts with altering actions and behaviors, but I believe this statement is a case of mistaking means for ends. We start the change process by having a vision of who we want to be or what we want to accomplish. Only then will our actions and behaviors change to accommodate that vision.”

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Psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a theory of human motivation in 1943 now called “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.” He believed that our choices and behavior are governed by five stages of needs: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self- actualization. A person must have their needs met at each stage before they can move on to the next. The most primary needs are psychological, safety, and social; these create feelings of being secure, being loved, and belonging. The next level is esteem, which manifests as confidence and self-respect.

All of these needs must be met to reach self-actualization, where a person has the opportunity to achieve their potential by knowing what they want and what their purpose is. The reality is, however, that very few of us are fortunate enough to have all these needs met all the time. Situations in life may conspire to endanger our safety, or impact our social or esteem needs. When this happens, we must recognize what has happened and find a way to address it before it drags us down into a reactive space. When we successfully adapt and overcome these deficiencies, we have the opportunity to reach the final stage: self-actualization.

There is a great deal of effort involved when one or more of your needs is not met in early development. You are left to figure it out for yourself, and the unfortunate truth is that not everyone… Buy the Book