How to trust your intuition.
For the next week I am going to be holed up in the beautiful Lusty Beg Island in County Fermanagh. I am there for a week of discovery and personal development and intend to add more tools to my toolbox on my quest to help other people do the same.
I have completed a barrage of coursework and pre-course study, all in preparation for this program, and I am now excited to get going.
So along with all this barrage academic learning and preparation of theory, I was told that I was going to need “A Heap if Intuition.”
When we are working and interacting with people we have intuitions that ‘tell’ us about what people are saying, what they are not saying and how they are behaving. So it stands to reason that this is vital when working as a Breakthrough Coach.
What is your intuition ?
Intuition is basically our inner voice talking instinctively to us. Many of us do not trust our intuition, simply because, it does not make sense. It’s an ability that we all possess – something we are born with – and it comes from our non-verbal right brain. Most of us however, suppress this inner voice favouring our left brain – the logical side.
But the intuition – is a bit like our internal sat-nav that gets better and stronger the more that you use it; and experience plays a big part. The trick is that you have to strengthen it and learn to trust it. It is like a muscle, so therefore is makes sense that the more you use it then the stronger it gets.
How to Strengthen you Intuition.
Look into the past. Pay attention to previous missed opportunities. Pay attention to times when you wished you had listened to that voice from within – that gut feeling. By tuning into these moments, you will possibly not ignore those signals next time.
Ask Yourself Questions and test it out. Make a note of the 3 most recent decisions that you have made. Were these decisions right or wrong? Did you use your intuition? With the wrong decisions – did you allow your intuition the chance to play a part? How did you feel when you made that decision? What was your body telling you?
All this helps you to recognise how your intuition and outside influences balance together and to establish whether they are working in harmony.
Work out how it communicates to you. See if you can identify the way that you are “talking to yourself”. There is no right answer – whatever works for you.
- Do you get a gut feeling?
- Is it perhaps an inner knowing?
- Perhaps you have a mental picture?
- Maybe you are noticing repetitive thoughts?
- Are you dreaming and remembering stuff in the morning?
- Perhaps you experience physiological changes – watch your breathing and the tensions in your body.
Quieten your thinking and just relax. It is important to be aware of yourself. Just pay attention. Slow your mind down. Drown out your inner critic and create space in your thinking. You can call this meditation if you wish – but don’t be scared off by this.
Is it your Intuition?
How do you know what you are identifying is your intuition and not just a knee-jerk reaction to a situation?
Intuition is based on past experiences and past learnings that the brain unconsciously stores away. It’s clever like that. It chunks all similar pieces of information together. So you could be standing in front of an audience, standing on the first tee or standing in line at the post office – whatever the situation, your brain recognises similar events and familiar thought patterns and creates the bigger picture for you. Ever had that ‘Deja Vu’ moment? That’s your brain saying “We’ve been here before – this is what you should do.”
You intuition acts for your best good. It’s on your side. The intuition tends not be be overly emotional and tends to be positive and neutral. This gut feeling feels more like an inner wisdom.
The knee-jerk reaction is highly charged and fuelled with emotion. More often that not it’s your ego getting in the way. It’s slightly irrational – and is likely to be based on past hurts and insecurities.
Why Trust your Intuition?
Because it tends to know the right answer even before reason is given the opportunity to step up to the plate.
It’s working for me ….
I have a couple of big decisions to make quite soon. The problem is, that what I feel I should do is really going against all public opinion and advice that I have sought and I am finding this hard to reconcile. So, I tried to tap into my intuition. I visualised myself a year from now and asked myself a number of questions. One being – “How specifically did you achieve XYZ?”
The answers I received were enlightening – but at the same time glaringly obvious.
I just needed to clear myself of the chaos and conflicting viewpoints battling in my head. Once I trusted my intuition, is was clear that I knew the answer all along.
If this post resonated with you and is sparking an interest and you are wanting to have a quick chat about perhaps making changes in your own life, then please get in touch. Thank you.
Cai’s ultimate driver is to empower individuals to make the necessary changes, through Personal Breakthrough Sessions and Performance Coaching; using recognised methods from Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and TimeLine Therapy & Hypnosis.
For more information please contact Cai : cai@caigraham.com or call 02891853478.
