Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about intuition. Intuition has been described as ‘gut feelings’ or ‘hunches’. I like the definition of intuition as ‘the knowledge from within’. It has also been described more scientifically as ‘the brain’s ability to pick up on certain recurring patterns’, and this happens at a sub-conscious level BEFORE our conscious brain is aware of it.
Intuition has been shown to help people make amazing decisions, including beating cancer against all odds, and helping race car drivers narrowly avoid car crashes.
It’s been a very interesting year for me, and I’ve been learning to listen more to my own intuition.
I’ve been learning to turn down the sounds of the world and turn up my internal feelings.
I believe life teaches us to ignore our intuition. To keep taking action. The pace of life prevents us from listening to our gut feelings. If you’re not feeling well, go to work anyway. If you’re feeling low on energy, have another coffee. Anything to keep moving and ignore how we really feel.
Some people talk about stepping out of the rat race of life, or off the hamster wheel. I think the hamster wheel is quite a good analogy. The hamster wheel captures that need to keep taking action and keep running—that feeling that we have no choice.
Except that we do have a choice.
We have a choice to listen to our intuition. To turn up the messages that come from inside us.
And I believe this is a key to finding our niche and living a more engaged and meaningful life.
Listening to our intuition is about tuning out the messages of the world around us, and tuning in to our true selves.
In my book, Find my niche, I encourage a lot of self-reflection. I encourage people to think about who inspires them—and then to reflect on that and see if there are any themes. I encourage people to develop a better understanding of their strengths and to examine the alignment between their work and their strengths. I encourage people to imagine their 100th birthday party and think about what they want people to say about them. All of these activities are designed to support people to take some time out and uncover their innermost desires.
Is it easy thinking? Probably not. But it’s important thinking that may take time.
In a recent post, I also spoke about the importance of working out your most important values as a way of shaping and guiding your life. This activity is also about slowing down and listening to our heart’s desires. And then honouring these values in the way you live your life.
All of these activities are designed to assist you to listen to your intuition, and to turn up your inner voice.
What do you think? Is intuition our unrecognised strength? How has intuition helped you make important or surprising decisions?
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