How to Work Out (Your Intuition)

Partly this is a how-to post, but it’s also a pep talk for myself. You see, I’m a decision-oriented, control-type person, as anyone reading this blog surely knows. While some people are paralyzed by decisions, I find them intoxicating simple. Dangerously so! Show me a decision and I’ll make it, if not for myself, for YOU. I love giving advice on “what people should do” and I rarely have to ask for it myself.

While this makes me pretty efficient in my line of work, it has drawbacks. The biggest one is this strength of mine makes me TOO confident in myself and my own understanding. Oftentimes I’ll wrestle with the implementation of my decisions. I want them done and NOW. If there is a delay or a bump on my road to executing my plan, I get annoyed, greatly. 

But there’s a solution to this if I’m willing to listen. For you as well. Because the best workout you can do is not for your body, though that’s a fun topic also. It’s your intuition, the guide in you that is divinely ordained. Why would you care about intuition when you have Google? Well, for one, you won’t fall into fake news traps or get sidetracked by reading the Daily Mail. No, there is no spam when you use your intuition, and the insights you gain there come from a better source, a divine one. Convinced yet? Read on.

1. Lean out (from your own understanding)

Resist the Google! Put down your phone! Do not begin to type in that question in your brain that you think the worldwide web has the answer to. I’ve done it, it doesn’t. It just leads you further down the path of mindless clicking and endless searching. What are you looking there for? The world doesn’t hold the answer to your question. And say you think it does, what if it doesn’t work out? Will you be able to go back to that website and beg for answers? I’m guilty as any of this type of frenetic searching. I’ve reached the end of the internet looking for solutions for medical ailments, listened to podcasts about finance. Informative? There is a fine line. I’m not saying do not ever because why make hard and fast rules? But when you feel yourself obsessively scrubbing outside sources to inform yourself, just make note of it. Sometimes it’s the attitude you take toward something that makes all the difference. 

2. Take your time 

I may have violated this guidance this morning, but here it goes. When you feel yourself jumping to a decision, just take a moment and sense, feel whether or not it passes the sniff test. Are you rushing something? Could you benefit from taking a few days to ponder it? I’m an all-or-nothing person and it’s very VERY hard for me to sit and wait on something. But time is important. It allows your sense, your guide, to inform you along the way. This might not be your problem, in fact, you may be the person that agonizes for days without making a decision. There is a balance between these two approaches to aim for. I think that makes me feel better. Given a little space around my decision feels like progress, even though I know I have a ways to go.

3. Touch base with the Spirit

Are you making time to pray/walk/meditate/etc? Life will run you through the rapids if you let it. Taking meaningful time from your day, morning, night, meal times, the thirty seconds you have in the bathroom before your kids come looking for you, WHATEVER. The length of time and where you are does not matter. That you do it matters very much. You can’t form a relationship if you aren’t “talking” to the Spirit within you. Not sure how to do it? Here are some places to start. 

4. Live and forgive

Like any good workout, we have to keep at it, right? And there are some days you’ll fail, horribly. But we aren’t going to give up, we aren’t going to beat ourselves up. We aren’t going to go right back to the way we were doing things before. We are going to forgive ourselves and keep going. Do you know why? Because God already forgave you. He’s that amazing, his love is that big. So use him as your guide, love yourself just as much. Everything is ok. Nothing you’ve done can separate yourself from him. That should make you feel safe, and the safer you feel, the more in control you act. It’s a circular act of love that will sustain you if you allow it.

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Any time of great stress in my life always amps up my “need to do something” and therefore the intuition falls to the wayside. Don’t let it. Good spiritual hygiene, like prayer, time alone, reflection, etc can do wonders to reconnect you with your own internal compass. The best part? You can’t get lost.