What makes it hard to follow your intuition when you can hear it?
Photo credit to www.aistesaulyte.co.uk
Intuition is like your breath, it’s always there but very often we ignore it.
Also mental chatter is always there but we’re programmed to listen to it much more carefully and believe in what it says almost blindly.
Have you ever found yourself hearing a clear gut feeling that felt expansive and just right but also kind of weird and crazy …….and not following it through ?
I know you did because I did it too many times!
Sometimes it was a simple nudge like “Go talk to that person over there, she seems cool” and freezing instead.
Sometimes it was a big nudge like “This career path is not made for you, there is something else out there that fits you better” and I feel totally overwhelmed by this possibility.
The nudge would get louder the more I resisted doing that thing and at the same time just felt sick to my stomach by the idea of staying where I was.
What’s holding us back from doing what intuition tells us?
It’s Fear.
Fear that takes the shape of your mind speaking louder and trying to find all the rational reasons why you should stay where you’re at.
In the first example of going to talk to a new person it may say :
“But it’s so comfortable here! Stay here”
“It’s such an effort to get up and go there and what would I even say?”
“She’ll probably think I’m an idiot to chat or that I’ve very lonely and weird”
And so on and so forth.
I hope it’s getting clear to you that the voices holding you back are not the truth and that following your intuition is way more fun!
If you were this person’s best friend, what would you tell her to encourage her to go to talk to that cool girl?
I would probably say “You’re wonderful and she’s lucky to get to know your kind soul”.
Fear will always be there but there are some ways we can do to manage it:
Don’t automatically believe that what it says is the truth. Question it and ask “Is it really true? Is there another way to see that?”
Get curious about what are different ways to see it without judging them as impossible or silly (that would be once again your mind getting in the way) but instead feel into the answers.
Practice feeling your small daily decisions in your body and observe how you react when following or not that inner nudge
Start following your intuition in these little things so you start gaining trust into it for the bigger choices as well
A big part of this process is getting your mind on board by changing your mindset.
If you want to follow your intuition to go to a certain restaurant but your mind keeps freaking out, that's a bad choice. It'll be very challenging to move your feet and take action. Your mind is that powerful!
If your mind has been trained to gradually get on board your intuitive nudges by developing beliefs in favour of what the intuition says then it’ll be much easier to follow through.
Training your mind has to be a continuous exercise because the mind is stubborn and the old beliefs are deeply ingrained in it so they need a lot of repetition ( I would say daily repetition) to be changed.
Another element that plays a huge role apart from mindset is self-regulation in your body because even If the new expansive belief will help your feet to move towards that restaurant your body might experience a lot of stress for that new unexpected choice you made. So it’s important to soothe the nervous system so that everything is ok and you’re safe.
This may look like taking a nap, a bath, practising movement, nature, deep breaths or any other way you use to soothe yourself.
Finally taking action will help cement that new belief, it will create trust in your insight because that restaurant experience was not so bad and now you have the proof about it. Action is what materialises this process in the outside world and what will give you real results.
The 4 elements I mentioned ( intuitive plan, growth mindset, nourishing self-care and inspired action) are the pillars of my Inspired Career Framework which is the lens through which I coach all my clients because the combination of them is what creates real change in their business and lives. You can find more info about my coaching and how to work together here.
So following your intuition is not easy but it’s the best way to live aligned with your true self and be the happiest version of you so it’s definitely worthy and I hope that this article gave you the tools to manage the fear that will arise with much more confidence!
