Trusting Your Intuition

Have you ever had a moment where you felt as though something wasn’t quite right?  Or a time when you were drawn to randomly reach out to someone?   Perhaps you walked past a stranger and noticed an odd feeling that told you to get away, or when you called that person that came to mind there was something significant that happened for them.  How many times have you noticed this sensation but shrugged it off, dismissing it as illogical nonsense? 

This feeling we sense in our body is called intuition and is defined as “the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.”  Intuition is a process that gives us the capacity to know something directly without analytic thinking, bridging the gap between the conscious and unconscious parts of our mind.   Some religious traditions might refer to it as “the holy spirit” and secular people may call it a “sixth sense”, or another way of knowing something without fully explaining it.  I like to think of it as an inner compass that illuminates and orients us toward the path of our truest selves and slowly reveals how we might best express that in the world. 

Many people wonder how much credibility we should offer intuition.  Our culture has the tendency to emphasize reliance on the rational, thinking mind as the most evidenced way of knowing truth.  And for most of us, our early education and training focused on looking outside of ourselves for answers to our questions.  We are encouraged to turn to the experts and authorities and few of us have had any training on how to look within.  Yet this can be precisely the place where we find a host of answers to our questions.   Many successful people are those who have developed their intuition, learned to trust their gut feelings, and followed this inner guidance.   

It’s important to realize that intuition can be seen as a type of muscle that needs to develop like any other part of ourselves.  It requires both noticing and taking action in order to strengthen it, and over time we come to sense and trust it more fully.  And with this time and practice, a level of certainty and trust in ourselves and our ability to make the right decisions generates and brings us closer to the things we deeply desire.  If you make a habit of keeping your instincts at bay, they tend to stay at bay.  So how do we go about the process of strengthening our intuitive voice? 

1. Recognize when your intuition speaks 

In order to be able to use your intuition, you must first be able to recognize it when it speaks to you. Intuition usually isn’t loud or demanding – it’s subtle and communicates in different ways for different people. For example, you may receive visual messages, such as images that appear in quick flashes or visions that unfold slowly, like a movie. 

Your intuition might speak to you as a hunch, a thought, or in words. You may even be able to enter into a dialogue with your intuition to get more information and clarity.  Alternatively, your intuition may speak to you in physical sensations, such as goose bumps, discomfort in your gut, a feeling of relief, or a sour taste in your mouth. 

You may receive intuitive messages through your emotions, such as feelings of uneasiness or confusion steering you away from something – or feelings of euphoria and profound peace when you’re being guided down a path that will lead you to greater personal joy and abundance. 

Sometimes these messages are simply a deep sense of knowing and certainty. If you’ve ever felt that you knew something to be true in the depths of your heart or soul, chances are it was a message from your intuition. 

2. Ask questions 

Receiving wisdom from your intuition shouldn’t be a passive experience. Get specific about the information you need and what kind of answers you’re looking for. The more clearly you pose your questions to your innate wisdom, the clearer the answers will be. 

3. Write down your answers 

Intuitive messages are subtle and can fade from your conscious mind very quickly unless you take action to record them. In fact, neuroscience research indicates that intuitive insights not captured within 37 seconds will likely never be recalled again. 

Journal writing is a highly effective way to encourage the unconscious mind to open up and then captures the wisdom on paper. I suggest you make a regular practice of journaling for just five or ten minutes a day – you’ll be amazed at the clarity of what comes through. 

4. Deepen your intuition through meditation 

In order to access your intuition, you need to deepen your connection to it – and meditation is an excellent tool for this. Regular meditation will help you clear your mind of distractions and tune you in to better recognize the subtle impulses from within.  Even 10 minutes a day will yield powerful results and make it much easier for you to notice your intuition when it speaks. 

5. Take immediate action 

When you move and act on the information you receive from your inner source of wisdom, you open the channel between your subconscious and conscious mind even wider and will receive more intuitive messages that are stronger and easier for you to hear and act upon.  Capturing the idea on paper quickly brings it into form and increases the likelihood that further steps will be taken to move the impulse forward.

6. Trust yourself 

A common concern I hear from my clients is “I don’t trust myself.”  Paying attention and demonstrating faith in your intuition will not only strengthen faith and trust in yourself but often yields the results you are hoping to recognize in your life.  Whether you want to make better decisions, solve problems faster, or create winning plans for your life, you will achieve your goals more effectively when you tune into your intuition and listen to what it has to say. 

Easier said than done?  

Developing a strong connection with your intuition can be challenging, especially if you’ve spent a lifetime second-guessing yourself and your own decision-making skills or if you have too many other “voices” in your head – voices of self-doubt, or blame, or judgment – drowning out your intuition. 

If you feel like you need more help with this, I invite you to join me in my one-on-one coaching work.  You’ll get clear on what it is you truly want from life and the steps you need to take to make it happen.  This is a process where you will be cheered on toward your goals while at the same time silencing those negative voices for good. 

Having worked through the process of learning to tune in to that still, small voice, I can attest to the truth that paying close attention in this way can create a sense of authenticity that builds confidence toward stepping out in faith when uncertainty is present.  It sends us reassurance that we know ourselves best, regardless of the external voices telling us otherwise. Ultimately when we tap into our intuitive voice, we not only gain clarity toward our next point of action; we also come one step closer to the person we long for ourselves to become.