I used to pride myself on being pretty clever. I could debate my way out of most things, knock out a 10 page paper in one night in college or figure out how to build a website on my own. I was a talker, a thinker, and a doer.
When I was taking classes at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition I started to meet a lot of "hippies" who wore quite a bit of hemp, took shots of wheatgrass and had their cards read. I was judgmental at very least, and felt I didn't fit into their way of life.
But part of me was envious.
They were so calm! They were "go with the flow" women and seemed to have life handed to them. I wanted to know their secret.
So I started talking with the granola girls and figuring out what made them different. When they spoke about "divine alignment," "fate," "being guided," I was captivated. As I continued to learn, I realized that all of this "magic" came from one place, their intuition. They all believed in following their intuition, that it never let them down.
I was disappointed. I didn't have an intuition. I wasn't at all psychic and I didn't have divine guidance. I was a thinker.
But my new friends promised me that every woman has intuition, we are built with it. As we grow we're just taught that 'reason' is more dependable than our intuition, and we gradually lose the ability to hear that calm, quiet voice.
So I set out to build my intuition. Here's what I learned:
1. Your intuition lives in your belly.
This made so much sense to me. My head housed my reason, and my intuition is housed in my belly, literally my gut instinct. My issue was that I was completely disengaged from my body, so I started to practice putting my attention in my belly during a meditation, using body wash and massaging my body in the shower, and talking to her kindly during the day. Once I formed a relationship with my body and my belly, I could start to hear her (my intuition) a tiny bit.
2. Your intuition has her own voice.
Once I had enough calm in my life and was connected to my body I could start to hear a little internal voice. Whenever I was trying to make a choice about something, let's say if I should take on a client that I was on the fence about this is how it went in my head:
"Reason" said in a loud, slightly bossy and panicky voice, "Of course you need to take her on, you need the money, you can handle her, you can handle anything, even if she's a nuisance, it's only once a month. Just do it, don't be lazy." 'Intuition' said in a gentle, low voice, "It's not right."
That's it. Simple, peaceful. No back up.
3. She may be quiet, but she is powerful.
Even though I could start to detect the voice, it seemed like a crazy idea to take her advice. She has no back up, any reasons and was not based in real life. It seemed so unreliable. But I was dedicated to developing this part of me so I decided to just try it.
I decided I would base all of my decisions off of my intuition, even when it seemed like a terrible decision for a month. I figured even if I made awful mistakes for a month, in that time frame everything was fixable.
So if my head said "go to the party'", and my intuition said "stay home" I stayed home. When my head said "take the job" and my intuition said "don't take it" I said no. When my head said "it's too much money" and my intuition said "it's worth it" I made the investment.
Every time I followed my intuition I wrote down the situation, my gut instinct and the outcome. I wrote things down like I had a wonderful night at home and my friends said the party sucked anyways, I passed on the job offer and was offered my dream job two weeks later, I invested in this program and made four times the money this month.
My intuition was constantly helpful and continued to lead to more opportunities, even though the decisions I made hardly made sense at the time. These instances became my proof and my reality. I could clearly see a pattern now and I was able to trust that little voice.
I thought back to the times I chose reason and remember results of tiredness, disappointment and had felt like I wasted my time.
So if you are wanting more clarity, more magic, more intuition I hope you can see that it's simple to develop and I promise, it is by far the best tool in my box.
Forming a relationship with your intuition comes from partnering with your body. Click here to make peace with your body with my free online workshop to help you get out of Body Jail. A non-diet approach to Live More, Weigh Less and Feel Amazing In Your Body NOW.
In the comments below, I'd love to know about a time that you've followed your intuition and what the outcome was.
Love,
Sarah