Serendipity
Some years back I read a book about a young woman who let her intuition lead her in every decision she made.
The book had a huge impression on me and changed my life. (Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of it or the author.)
This young woman followed her inner promptings in every single decision she made. Listening to her intuition resulted in a series of serendipitous events; she went back to school, then moved out of state, met her perfect soul mate, and ended up working for the Edgar Cayce Foundation in Virginia Beach – in her dream job.
I remember thinking as I read, why doesn’t my life flow like that?
After I finished the book, I knew exactly why my life never flowed like hers. This young woman let her gut guide her – I never had. I was always too scared of making a mistake, instead I played it safe and dismissed the promptings of my intuition.
Physician heal thy self
After that I decided that I needed to start practicing what I preached.
Here I was an intuitive easily able to dispense advice for others, but when it came to myself not able to trust my own intuition. When I said enough already, and started basing my decisions on my gut and not my rational mind – my life started to improve immediately.
I was so miserable in my job at that time, and had contemplated quitting and going back to school just to escape, that I figured I might as well follow my gut. What’s the worse that could happen I thought? Soon after a miraculous “coincidence” occurred.
In a serendipitous fluke my father “accidentally” met the president of a huge multi-national bank. They got to chatting and he told him that his daughter was a private banker unhappy with her job – and guess what – his bank just happened to be looking for private bankers. He sent the head of human resources to meet me – we had lunch and he hired me on the spot!
From then on my life and career just kept getting better as I listened to my intuition. And, all it took was giving that intuitive voice the respect it deserved.
Intuition is easy to overlook
Intuition is very subtle, which is exactly what makes it so easy to miss and overlook.It can come as a feeling in the gut – one that tells you that something is right or wrong, or it can come as a warning and a feeling of dread. Just as frequently, it’s quiet like a whisper, or the flitting of a butterfly that touches down ever so lightly in our consciousness before disappearing.
With intuition, until you start paying attention you may not be aware of these flashes.
Once you begin to notice them though it’s a bit like buying a new car you start seeing that model everywhere. When you put yourself on alert to be aware of these stirrings the same thing happens; the frequency of your intuitive insights increase. After that once you begin using your intuition to make decisions, it takes no time at all to see serendipitous events begin to appear in your life.
Serendipitous events are proof positive that you’re hearing and following your intuition.
When we receive this direct knowledge we’ve tapped into the source that keeps the planets in their orbit, and the earth spinning on its axis. This infinite intelligence doesn’t make mistakes. By plugging into it and using these intuitive insights our lives flow and all the details come together seamlessly.
Most people don’t recognize or trust their intuition
The three biggest hurdles most people face in putting intuition to use are in recognizing the voice of intuition, differentiating it from their own thoughts, and trusting what they get. Intuitive thoughts stream through the mind more rapidly than our own thoughts. Not only that, but when they do appear they’re usually complete ideas. In many case they feel as if they were downloaded whole into the brain. As far as trust goes, only jumping in with both feet and following hunches enough times to know that it’s real will build that trust.
Here are 5 easy tips to help you hone your intuition and put it to work for you:
1. Create the intention to begin noticing your intuition. Tell yourself that you wish to become aware of your intuitive insights and that you will become aware of them.
2. Keep a small notebook with you at all times where you can jot down any thoughts that appear to have been downloaded whole into your mind without you generating them.
3. Give yourself many opportunities to practice. Before answering the phone ask yourself who it might be. When meeting with friends see if you get any impressions about what they will be wearing. Or what they’ll order for dinner, etc. You can come up with dozens of little tests like this.
4. Make it a habit to meditate every day. Meditation is the most powerful way to boost your intuition. If you don’t know how to meditate read my post.
5. When you’re faced with a decision close your eyes and clear your mind. Ask yourself what next step to take – then stop thinking. See what comes to mind no matter how silly it might be. It could be an image, a word, or a thought. Examine this closely. It’s usually your answer.
The point the author illustrated in her book was that letting intuition guide us allows us to go with the flow of our good in our lives. When we struggle to do the things our rational mind/ego tells us we “should” do we are swimming against this current.
Work on incorporating these tips into your life and I guarantee you’ll see a huge rise in your intuitive insights and the number of seemingly miraculous coincidences that occur in you life and soon you’ll be living your dream life too!
Have you ever let intuition guide you? What happened? Did you end up in an even better situation than the one you were striving toward?
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Comments
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I’ve just found your site and I love it!
As a younger adult, I was much more attentive to my intuition but have slacked off a bit in my later years. Now in reading this post, my desire has been rekindled to start paying attention to it once again.
Thanks for the great info.
Barbie
Hi Barbie,
It’s so nice to meet you. Welcome to Powered by Intuition!
I’m so glad reading this post has re-awakened your interest and desire to pay attention to your intuition.
I will look forward to your visits.
Thanks so much for leaving a comment. I really appreciated you lovely compliment.
Charlotte, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. Let me know how the tips work out after you’ve used some of them. I read Second Sight when it came out in ’97 and thought it was a wonderful. Orloff’s book was an affirmation to me that intuition could be very useful and practical in the “real world.” I look forward to reading the review.
Rosemarie, thank you for that very specific example of what happens when we don’t follow our intuition. The little voice ALWAYS KNOWS! I hope you and your husband are feeling much much better by now.
I’ve always been interested in intuition, but recently read “Second Sight” by Judith Orloff (I’ll be reviewing it on my blog on Monday) and my interest was re-kindled. Your post is really helpful, with specific tips on how to follow intuition.
How true this is! Here’s a recent experience that proves Angela’s point.
I’ve always kidded that the often-feared “13” was my lucky number. But December 13, 2009 is a day I’ll never forget. It was drizzling. That’s all, just a drizzle. Temperature was just about freezing at 31 degrees. I thought that this morning would be a perfect time to replace those household items that call out to you as you pass them by to put them out of their misery. So I gathered up the 20-some odd Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons I had accumulated and decided to head out. Just then, by husband said, “wait for me, we need to go food shopping, we can go together.” Nope. No. I did not want to go food shopping. That’s his thing. I just wanted to go to BB&B. “Come on, he said, “we never do anything together.” Ok, so going to Shoprite is doing something together? Is this what our life has come to? “No. You go,” I said. “I really don’t want to go. I don’t really even care about going to BB&B. You go.” But he pleaded and I thought, he seems so needy, how can I say no. Why don’t I do something for him. But even as I was putting on my coat, my gut said, don’t go. I looked around and thought I’d rather spend the time on one of my personal projects. I gave it one last shot. “Honey, go without me. I’d rather stay home.” But he gave me “that” look. And I said, “OK, nevermind, let’s go have an adventure.”
Minutes later we were in the middle of a horrific 17-car pileup—the result of black ice. You could not see even a gleam of what might be ice on the road. A giant Yukon Denali (which I believe was a Sherman tank in its last life) crashed head on right into my door, which later had to be pried open. Our car was totaled. My husband came away with a broken tooth and I with bruises and a hairline fractured to a rib. Small price to pay; we were alive! Yet, had I followed my gut, I would have been home and my husband would have gone out later—long after the disaster had taken place.
I still think 13 is my lucky number because Dec 13, 2009 taught me my most important lesson. Follow your gut. Always.