We all know the feeling. It’s a kind of ‘knowing’ or at least a gentle nudge that something is awesome or off or needs our attention. Usually it’s very subtle, which is why it’s often missed.
Our instinct speaks with a quiet voice, however, if we can learn to choose instinct over logic, it has the potential to be life-changing. Instinct or intuition can come through as an aha-moment, a gut feeling, a dream, a body signal or a flash of insight.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, intuition exists in all of us and is part of the quick, instinctual, effortless brain. For a long time, intuition has been dismissed by science, but fortunately, science has caught up and found evidence that intuition really does exist and showed that the instinctual part of our brain knows the right answer to a problem long before our ‘thinking’, analytical brain has the ability to catch up.
While everybody has instincts that tell us what’s right or wrong, not everybody chooses to listen to them, which is unfortunate, because instincts are brilliant and can make life a whole lot easier.
Here are our TOP 10 ways to nourish your intuition and be able to make a better decision.
#1 Pay Attention to Your Body’s Signals
Our body gives us powerful insights about decisions, other people and our health and it’s through our body that we can ‘hear’ our instinct speaking. Physical sensations let us know that our instinct is communicating with us like feeling a pit in our stomach, chills running up the spine, sudden tears or just a sense of knowing. Pay close attention to your body and you will know which direction to go.
#2 Listen to Your Dreams
Whether we remember them when we wake up or not, we dream every night during the REM stages of our sleep and instinct is the language of dreams. While it can be elusive for some people to remember our dreams and the solution we get may not always be obvious to our waking, rational mind, one simple trick to make our dreams work for us, is to keep a dream journal and write down your dream the second you wake up. Then look at your record later and see if your dream has provided you with the answers you were looking for. Be patient though because it may take some time for the answers to materialize. Using your dreams to listen to your instinct is like exercising a muscle, it gets stronger with use, so stick to the practice and you will find your solution.
#3 Get Quiet
Instinct has a very quiet voice and with all the craziness in our life, it becomes harder and harder to clearly hear the message it wants to convey to us. Between the messages from the media and our devices, our programming to fit into societal rules, our friends’, family’s and co-workers’ opinion, we often sacrifice our connection to that inner voice that has the answer. To re-connect to that primal part of yourself, get quiet, shut out outside influences and simply be silent and bring your attention back inward. You may need to give it some time to drown out everything from the outside, but when you succeed, your inner voice will become louder and louder.
#4 Listen to Your Gut
Our gut has been dabbed our second brain and it has a visceral reaction to situations – especially things like meeting someone for the first time – that comes up before our thinking brain has a chance to respond. A network of neurons in the gut processes information almost instantaneously before our thinking mind starts to kick in, so check in with your enteric nervous system when you meet someone new. Is your gut in knots? Do you feel nauseous? Do you have cramps? Are you all of a sudden completely relaxed and feel a sense of trust?
#5 Meditate
Meditation is a great way to slow down and quiet our ever busy mind and it gives us a chance to reflect and rejuvenate our mind, allowing our instinct to become louder. And if you are not a fan of meditation, yet, try it in unlikely places. Make it a walking meditation by fully becoming aware of how your body functions as you walk and connect the breath with your movements, sneak in a meditation on the subway, while waiting at the bank, on a park bench or while eating lunch. Tune in to what’s going on inside yourself, as a regular meditation practice keeps your instinct present and fresh.
#6 Distinguish Between Instinct and Wishful or Fearful Thinking
Once you become more in tune with your instincts, it is important to be able to distinguish them from wishful or fearful thinking. Keep in mind, our instincts are neutral and unemotional, they simply convey information and usually have a clear, crisp voice. However, wishful or fearful thinking is highly emotional and very demanding. Get quiet and let your instinct speak to you without waiting for a certain answer.
#7 Let Go of Bad Feelings
Negative emotions and feelings have the ability to cloud our instinct. Just think about it, when you feel depressed or angry, you can quickly come to a bad decision, so make it a point to deal with your negative emotions and feelings first, let them go and then make your instinctual decision from a place of positivity. Studies have backed these findings and showed that people make better intuitive decisions when they are in a positive mood compared to when they are consumed with negative emotions and feelings.
#8 Clean Up Your Social Circle
Negative people, who spread toxic energy and drain yours, will make it more difficult to hear what your instincts are trying to tell you. Eliminate those people from your life as much as you can and keep positive people who empower you and enrich you close. Chances are, you already know who supports you and who causes trouble in your life. Clean up your social circle and allow yourself the chance to be able to hear your instincts loud and clear.
#9 Get an Intuitive Reading
You may get a message from your instincts, but you don’t really trust it, yet, so it can be helpful to get a good intuitive reading that can confirm what you already know. Just be careful, the world is full of quacks who call themselves energy healers, psychics or intuitives. But there are ethical, powerful, skilled and pure intuitive readers that can give you a great insights. Ask a trusted friend for a referral and go into the experience with your eyes wide open.
#10 Pay Attention to Your Environment
The more information you get from what’s going on around you, the more your instinctive, subconscious mind has to work with and the more accurately it can advice you on what kind of decision you have to make. Pay close attention to your environment, so you get as many clues for your instinct as possible.
Following our instinct is incredibly powerful and can lead to amazing insights. But however brilliant intuition may be, it’s not always the best idea to follow it blindly. Balance your instinct with rationality and a big dose of common sense and you will set yourself up for the best possible outcome.
TAP INTO YOUR INTUITION AND ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
Joschi & Monika
#BoldNaked