while you are daydreaming or just going about your business. These can be nudges or guidance to try something new or move in a particular direction.
A Gut Feeling—This feeling can hit you when you meet someone, walk into a room, or possibly have an important decision to make. It can affect you in a couple of different ways. It may come to you in the form of a peaceful or excited feeling accompanied by butterflies or as a sinking, uneasy feeling that is a sign that something is off. It’s important to honor and pay attention to both signals as they could be signs that you are either headed in the right direction or that you need to be very cautious and wary.
You May Become Ill—When you ignore your intuition and its repeated attempts of communication it is absolutely possible that you may create stress or bring illness into your life. Physical signs like anxiety and sickness can edge into your life because you are ignoring your intuitive signs that you need to change something.
You May Feel Inspired and Have a Sense of Knowing—You know your intuition is speaking to you when you feel excited and inspired! I can certainly relate to this. Prior to all of the projects that I brought to fruition, I felt a rush of excitement, energy, and desire to make them happen. I knew with all of my heart that I was supposed to proceed.
Honoring your feelings isn’t always the easiest route to take…or the most popular. But I can tell you that it is the right route. Being honest with yourself is the most important thing you can do. And learning how to trust your intuition and allowing it to guide you in life is priceless. Trusting my intuition has been the single most important thing that I’ve learned on my journey, second only to learning how to truly love and accept myself.
Remember when I made mention earlier in the book about how my intuition guided me during the process of leaving my family business as well as all of the unique guidance it gave me in my journey? I wouldn’t be where I am today, had I not paid attention to and trusted my intuition. Although everything didn’t necessarily make sense as I was going through it, it was all perfectly orchestrated. I would follow one hunch, which led me to the next step, which would lead me to another intuitive hunch, which led me to another step, and so on and so forth until, before you knew it, my foundation became pretty darn strong and I had created a fulfilling life for myself. A life that continues to leave me excited and inspired because it was intuitive inspiration that guided me each and every step of the way to get here.
If you want to begin to listen to and trust your intuition, there are a few things that you need to be aware of. It’s important that you begin to strive for balance in your life. I have found that when I am out of balance, it makes it harder for me to “hear” my intuition coming through. I also enjoy spending quite a bit of my time in quiet settings. I am not telling you to live the life of a monk in total silence, but if you keep music blasting all of the time or even the TV for that matter, it is going to drown out your ability to foster your intuition. Some people are afraid of silence or, better yet, they haven’t allowed themselves the opportunity to experience it. There is nothing to be afraid of. Feel the beauty in silence and allow whatever is supposed to come up show itself. While possibly uncomfortable at first, it will be healing and you will then be able to begin to trust your intuitive nature by opening your channels to receive it. It is there for all of us to use. We just need to give it permission to show itself by creating a receptive environment.
According to author Thomas Condon, “Intuition is a lot like dreaming. We don’t know how we do it, but we do it. Intuition is knowing something—but not knowing how we know it.” I totally agree. In its very simplest terms, intuition is being open to and listening to your heart or guidance. Do you know that most of the information we use in our daily lives is unconscious, and that we “know” much more than we realize? That little bit of information should “wake up” everyone and make you realize that tapping into your intuition is so very important.
Why do some people trust their intuition and act on it, while others ignore the important guidance being given them? I think some of the reasons are as follows:
Haven’t Been Taught How
There are many reasons why people don’t utilize their gift of intuition. One of the main ones is because most people haven’t been taught how to use it. Growing up, most of us were taught to feed our mind, our ego, and our thoughts, instead of our hearts. We only became comfortable with using and believing in the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. It is time to add a sixth sense—intuition. As a result, many of us have found ourselves in situations that weren’t very fulfilling. I can attest to that when I originally made the decision to run my family’s business. In my heart, I knew it wasn’t going to bring me true fulfillment.
As people become more aware of their inner guidance and the benefits of listening to it, it may still be hard for them to fully subscribe to following this guidance out of fear. Fear from breaking free of the only way of thinking and operating they have known. But you know what? It’s never too late to change one’s habits. Those habits we are addicted to, that never allow us to fully shine. It’s time to acquire new habits that help us build a strong, balanced foundation so that we can listen to our intuition. It’s never too late to trust your inner guidance and honor your feelings.
Lack of Trust
Another thing that can hold people back from listening to their intuition is lack of trust. Of course this corresponds with the fear example, but there is a difference. Some individuals may intellectually agree with the idea of listening to their intuition or heart, but haven’t made the plunge because they have yet to see results. For them it is a lack of trust that is holding them back, not necessarily fear. To those individuals I say: Just go for it! What do you have to lose? Think back to the days when you were a youngster getting ready to jump off of the diving board for the first time. The water was there for your safe landing. This situation is no different. This time, you potentially have peace of mind, fulfillment, and happiness waiting to catch you.
Out of Balance
Without a solid foundation it is very difficult to stay focused and move toward our dreams and goals. While training for my Ironman races, I worked very hard at staying in balance with healthy habits. I made sure to get enough sleep, eat properly, and eliminate the things that threw me off-kilter. When we are in balance we can make proactive choices instead of reactive choices. When we are in balance, that intuitive voice is much stronger.
I know how important listening to my intuition was as I made the decision to get started in triathlons. And it was just as important for me as I embarked on my bike ride across the country. In both situations I felt like I was being guided toward both endeavors. Although at the time I might not have been able to explain what I was thinking or feeling, I did know that I liked the way it felt as I began exploring these new adventures. It felt like: “All systems go!”
Ways to Improve Your Intuition
Meditation. During meditation we are able to give our brain a rest from the busy life and schedule that most of us lead, which in turn helps us to feel more rested, balanced and centered.
Lead a healthy lifestyle. Eat better and eat less. Exercise. Proper hydration. Getting enough sleep. These are all great places to start.
Strive for life balance.
Practice maintaining an open-minded, playful, experimental, nonjudgmental attitude. Daydream, doodle, brainstorm, and write down words or phrases that come to you when problem-solving.
Work at eliminating negativity from your life.
Yoga. Yoga is wonderful for men and women for a variety of reasons. Not only will it help you build strength and flexibility, yoga is also a fantastic practice for slowing down and quieting our bodies. And when we slow down and quiet our body, our
