How to Recognize and Trust Your Intuition for a More Fulfilling Life

Intuition is a deep knowing. You don’t have to analyze it. You don’t have to mull over it. It’s an effortless knowing or awareness of what needs to happen or what will happen.

How many times have you thought, “If I just knew what to do!”

Or maybe you’ve made a decision and then keep making the same decision over and over again. Each time with a different selection.

Let’s face it. Life is hard and confusing. I have no idea what to do most of the time and it would make things so much easier if someone would just tell me! Well, sometimes this is exactly what happens. Someone or something just tells you.

I’m not talking about a psychic or the latest, greatest expert in you name it. I’m talking about a gift you were born with.

YOUR INTUITION!

I was driving in my car one day. The particular street I was driving on had two lanes turning left. The far left lane, the lane I was originally in was a turn only lane. The lane next to it was a turn left or go straight lane.  As I mentioned I was in the turn only lane, but I decided to switch lanes. Something told me not to.  However, I thought, “Why not?” and I switched lanes anyway. BAAM! I was hit by a car in the turn only lane that turned too wide.

How many times have you said, “Something told me….” That something is telling us things all the time, but we don’t listen. We have questions first. We want to know why or in my case, why not?

A Google search provides this definition for intuition, “the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.”

Take note of the last phrase of that definition, “without the need for conscious reasoning.” We don’t trust our intuition because we’re still trying to depend on our conscious reasoning skills. Leveraging conscious reasoning wouldn’t be intuition though.

What it boils down to is this simple fact: We trust our conscious or critical thinking more than our intuition. We know our thought processing. We use our critical thinking and decisioning skills on a daily basis.  We are taught to make “sound” decisions.  We’re not taught to trust our intuition or gut. We’re actually often discouraged from doing so.

Your intuition is a strength. 

How can you recognize what comes from your intuition and what comes from your brain? Let’s pretend for a second you were brainstorming ideas to make some additional money this month. What would you do? You’d probably sit down with a pen and paper. You’d think of a bunch of different ideas. Past conversations or books you’ve read would come to mind. You’d analyze each new idea and mentally put them into categories. Maybe you’d go online and do some research. You might ask friends or associates for ideas. Your brain would be thinking, processing, and analyzing to come up with this idea.

If your brain were a picture what would it look like?

I’d bet it would look something like the above. Tons of chatter, questioning, ideas, etc. This is what it looks like when you are talking to you.

When your intuition or higher knowing is talking to you your brain isn’t doing the thinking. Your brain isn’t required for intuition. That’s why people are such advocates of meditation and quieting the mind. When you mind is clear you can hear your intuition.

A quiet brain hears intuition more clearly. Have you ever heard people say that their best ideas come to them in the shower? Why is that? If they’re anything like me I love a nice, hot, long shower. It is so relaxing and comforting. I tend to focus all of my attention on the relief and relaxation my body is experiencing. I’m not brainstorming hard about a problem that needs my attention. I’m enjoying the present moment. My mind has long moments of stillness.

People tend to drive in hypnotic states so sometimes even driving can provide the right environment to hear your intuition more clearly.

To sum this all up, if you’re thinking, deducing, and analyzing that is not your intuition. It’s your brain. And that’s okay. I don’t want you to think that having critical thinking skills is a bad thing. It’s very necessary. I just want to help you understand the difference between your brain talking to you and your intuition talking to you.

If something comes to you without your thinking, deducing, analyzing there’s a good chance it is your intuition. Your intuition doesn’t come from your brain. I feel my intuition from my heart space. It’s a deep knowledge inside of myself. Deeper than my brain. When a idea or feeling “pops” into your head immediately take note of where in the body you felt it. This can help you identify if it is your intuition and where in the body you feel your intuition for future references.

NOW WHAT?!?!

Now that you know how to recognize your intuition you have to learn to trust it. Your critical mind responds well to questioning and alternatives. Your intuition does not. You can question your intuition until the cows come home and look for all kinds of evidence and it will do you no good. Your intuition is not rational. It is not supported by hard facts and evidence. It doesn’t require your analysis. It only asks of you to follow it.

Don’t question your intuition. Just follow it!

Go where it tells you to go. Do what it tells you to do. You can start small first. Such as, don’t switch lanes when it tells you not to. (Duh!) Take note of times you followed your intuition or did not follow your intuition and what the outcome was. If I would have followed by intuition the day of the accident maybe I would have witnessed the driver turning too wide into the next lane. She wouldn’t have hit me, but I would have known had I changed lanes like I intended she would have. Trusting my intuition would have been reinforced.

As you keep notes of these events you’ll start to trust your intuition more and more. You’ll notice a pattern of positive results every time you do decide to trust it. It will lead you in the right direction and prevent you from taking a wrong turn. Small trust creates bigger trust. You’ll start to depend on your intuition for everyday life.

HOW TO HEAR FROM YOUR INTUITION

Make it a point to quiet your mind. It’s that simple. With all the chatter going on in our heads there’s too much noise to hear from our intuition. Spend time in quiet meditation throughout the day everyday.

Once you invite your intuition to have a key role in your life and create the proper space for it to do so IT WILL. You will make better decisions, follow your true self more easily (not your critical thinking self) and create a more rewarding, fulfilling life.