Trusting our intuition often saves us from disaster. –Anne Wilson Schae
When you listen to your intuition you avoid many of the problems that are created by ignoring your intuition when making decisions.
Are you healing from an accident that could have been avoided like my friend Sandi?
Did you ignore the signs of an unfaithful spouse?
Were you so attached to keeping up pretenses that you are now facing a bankruptcy?
Are you struggling to stay afloat, sane, grounded, focused and together enough to put the pieces of your life back together?
Often it’s our mistakes that call our attention to the fact that we’ve ignored our intuition. When we look back over the things that have gone wrong in our lives we remember that there was this little nagging voice at the back our mind telling us not to do what we did but, we chose to ignore it.
Recently a reader asked me if his life would always be problem-free if he followed his intuition.
I’ve written many times here on Powered by Intuition and in “The Intuition Principle” that allowing your intuition to guide you is the way to creating a life that “flows effortlessly toward your desires.”
When your life flows effortlessly toward your desires you encounter fortunate coincidences such as synchronicty and serendipity, that move you along the path toward your goals. A fortunate coincidence is the result of you being in the right place at the right time or taking action at the right time so that you are moving along a trajectory that intersects with another person or situation that turns out to be just the opportunity you need.
Why do fortunate coincidences occur?
The reason you meet with these fortunate coincidences is because you’ve followed your intuition when making decisions. Had you not listened to the impulse to pick up the phone and call “so and so” or gone to a certain place on this day at this time you would have never made this connection. Listening to your inner voice is listening to wisdom from within.
At the time the impulse to do this or that arises you cannot explain it. There is no “rational” reason for wanting to the thing you’re being prompted to do. It’s only after the event of being in the right place or having something you need fall into your lap that you understand why you were being “pulled” to do what you did. This is what I mean when I say, “your life will flow effortlessly toward your desires.”
Ignoring intuition is a lot like touching a hot stove: You need only get burned once to know that ignoring your intuition is NOT a good idea!
What about problems?
This doesn’t mean that your car won’t ever break down, your spouse announce that they want a divorce, a hacker steal your information, a broken pipe flood your basement, you won’t ever get laid off from your job…and on and on and on – essentially life will go on and **s__t** will still happen!
What you can expect if you follow your inner guidance is that you will avoid making wrong decisions that create more problems by going ahead with things when your intuition is warning you against it. By following your inner wisdom you will meet with fortunate coincidences that will propel your life forward toward your goals and desires. But, you have to realize that things will still go wrong at times and happen in your life that will be out of your control.
Intuition can be your silver lining
On the other hand, when you follow your intuition you will be able to solve your problems more elegantly. Your intuitive insight will inspire you with ideas about solutions you can take about your situation so that when you do have to deal with problems you will find your way back to normalcy faster and more easily.
We are here to learn life lessons
Unfortunately, most of us learn the hard way – me included – by making mistakes, some of them really, really big. Each time we make a mistake if we are enlightened we will look over what happened and honestly assess what role our behavior played in contributing to the situation and take steps to change what we do in the future. Most of us aren’t born perfect so our lives aren’t perfect either. Making mistakes is part our journey and how we acquire wisdom and experience.
Intuition is not magical but it sure does help~
When you are accustomed to listening to the wisdom of your inner voice you are also more open to being honest about your faults and to working at changing your behavior. This is a boon when it comes to dealing with problems. If you are not under the tight control of your ego you will see your part in what has happened and learn from it so that it doesn’t happen again. And you will be better able to manage the situation from this point forward to move toward a resolution. Listening to your inner voice will help you pick up the pieces of you life and put you back on the right path again.
So, while following your intuition does not guarantee that your life will be free of problems it is a very positive habit to cultivate overall, especially when you are down on your luck.
If you see your life circumstances in this article use the following suggestions to help you get your life back on track:
1. Take some time each day to get quiet. Close your eyes and go within. Ask for guidance and inner wisdom to show you how your underlying motivations may have contributed to creating the life circumstances you are dealing with now. Resist the urge to blame others and point fingers.
If any instances of ignoring your intuition in the past come to mind that may have also contributed to the problems you are now facing, use this knowledge of how your intuition sounded and felt to learn what to look for in the future.
We can only do better once we know better. This is the time to learn what we can do better next time.
2. Forgive yourself and anyone else that is involved. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that we absolve someone of wrong doing. It means that we let go and stop being tethered to this dark cloud of anger and seething emotions that follows us everywhere.
Refusing to forgive literally “clouds” your judgement and creates a huge shadow over your life. Everything appears dark and drab under the shadow of this cloud. If you could let go of it you would be engulfed in sunshine and feel better and positive enough to see that you can and will rise above your current circumstances.
3. Listen for your intuition. Tell yourself that you are open to hearing this wisdom. Ask that you be given answers and solutions to dealing with your current problem.
Ask to be intuitively inspired to contact the right people or to go to the right places at the right time to find the answers and solutions you need.
What is your intuition prompting you to do next? Keep a list of what your inner voice is saying. Review the list and see what speaks to you most and then do it.
If you have a nagging feeling at the back of your mind telling you to do something or not do something listen to it!
Your intuition is a marvelous shortcut to the answers and solutions you seek and to getting over the mountain range of your obstacles. My friend Rob White says, “Intuition offers a short cut, like a tunnel through a mountain range,” and he is right.
You can and will rise from the ashes of your own life when you begin to tune into your intuition.
Can you see how ignoring your intuition in the past may have contributed to the struggles you are now facing? What have you learned about how your intuition speaks to you? Can you describe what to look for next time so you won’t have to hit another low point in your life?
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P.S I have lots more to say about intuition and how to use it in your life. Check out my books here.
Have you been following the book tour for The Intuition Principle? Check out these marvelous articles by these awesome participating blogger here:
Day 22: Intuition is an Ability Natural to All
Day 23: How to Attract the Life You Dream Of Plus a Giveaway!
Day 24: Book Review: A Late Bloomer’s Most-Overlooked Resource
Day 25: How to Flow With the Current of Life
Day 25: Using Your Sacred Gift
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My Satguru Wamanrao Pai also given me the same solution to find the solutions to our problems or to take a particular path in a situation. All the saints advise us to remain in the memory of God within us while living our life for by doing so God himself takes care of us. But then, we must accept happily that whatever happens to us is the desire of God and it is beneficial to me although it seemed apparently painful. I like reading your articles and by doing this, it reminds me of my satguru’s advice.
My life is not like I would like. I am very much of an extrovert but I live alone, work alone and I don’t have a relationship. I am so alone that at times I am presssing insanity.
This depressed the hell out of me. The answer I got when I asked myself the question how I got in such a horrible situation. The answer that came up was that absolutally nothing I do will work. If I want something that is an absoluate 100% guranty that I will not get it. I understand that when you think like this that what you think on is a good chance that that is what you get. However, things have gone contrary for so long it’s impossable to have an optomistic attitude.
My intuition is overwhelming leading me to relocate but has not led me to where or how to get the funds to make the move. I know exactly where to go? Any sugestions?
I remember now my intuition almost beged me not to move here.
Thank you
Dear JW,
I’m sorry to hear that you are so down and that things aren’t going as you would like in your life.
You must try to get hold of your thoughts and turn them around from thinking so negatively.
Sometimes we are under the misguided notion that if we give ourselves tough love like – saying “you will never get what you want, your a loser, your a failure,” that we will motivate ourselves to do better but, nothing could be farther from the truth.
What we need is to love ourselves, be kind, gentle and forgiving to ourselves. After all isn’t that what we would want from someone else?
If you heard your intuition and ignored it – that’s okay. In fact, it’s a good sign. This means you now have a “measuring stick” to know what your intuition sounds and feels like. Now, you can use this tool in the future to “measure” your next decision.
Tell yourself that the answer is coming to you. Don’t panic. Just know that everything happens in its own time. Believe that you are going to know what to do next and that you will have the means to do it. When you send out positive vibrations you will create the right environment for positive results.
I like that image of rising from the ashes. Challenges will continue to occur, but our intuition can help us avoid some and minimize others. I think of it like a good immune system. Having a good immune system doesn’t mean we won’t ever get sick, but we won’t get sick as often. And when we do get sick, we will get through it better and faster.
Galen,
That’s it exactly! I love this idea that our intuition is like having a good immune system!
Thank you for sharing that here with us.
xoxo,
Angela
Hi Angela, it’s funny, as I was reading your post it occurred to me that, at the deepest level, there really is no “rational reason” for any of the goals we pursue in life. In the context of careers, for example, it may sound “more rational” to be a lawyer than a sculptor because being a lawyer may cause you to make more money and be able to buy a BMW, but is there any “rational” reason for wanting the BMW? Not really. It’s just that we’re so deeply conditioned to think that certain goals are rational and certain ones aren’t.
Hi Chris,
Great point! It’s true we are so conditioned by societal standards and the ego’s need to “appear” successful that we buy a lot of stuff we don’t need. I think it comes from a belief that other people won’t value you, unless you can show them an outward symbol of of your value.
Personally, I have nothing against owning a nice car but, let’s be honest about the reason we want to own one. An expensive car is a “status symbol.”
Intuition is that bit of ‘knowing without knowing’ deep within. If life is kicking our butt, the first intuition we should listen to is the one that reminds us that “everything will be okay”. When we put our faith and trust in that voice we will hear other intuitive messages more clearly.
Like your post says, quieting the mind is the best place to start.
Hi P.J.
Thank you. Yes, intuition is “knowing” without any rational explanation for how or why we know.
Putting our faith in the in the belief that everything “will be okay,” is a great way to calm down when you are over anxious because of your circumstances.
Thank you for sharing with us here.
Hi Angela,
I am SO glad you pointed out that following your intuition doesn’t give us a pass to a problem-free life. I can think of many times when I followed my intuition and the result was not exactly positive, but the Lesson therein was. For instance, recently my husband had this idea that we needed a third vehicle. He had an employee that was having car trouble and could not get to work. He researched a bunch and finally came upon an old truck that cost just a few thousand dollars at a dealership. I told him that he shouldn’t buy anything, but if he insisted, go ahead with this one. When he got there, the truck had just been moved to a clearance lot. To me this is a sign to forget it. He tracked it down, bought it “as is”, the employee used it, and then a couple months later the transmission blew. This was a lesson in a long series of extremely expensive lessons about “going beyond the reasonable” to help others and I think he finally got it.
Hi Julie,
I wanted to clear this up after receiving several inquiries about it. Just because you follow your intuition doesn’t mean you won’t encounter problems in your life.
In the example you cite – your instinct to not buy the truck because it was on the “clearance lot” was correct. I don’t think your intuition was wrong in this case. I think you didn’t make the connection between seeing it on clearance and feeling you shouldn’t buy it – was your intuition partly because you were already there on the sales lot due to saying to your husband, “go ahead with it.” Sometimes our ego is very sneaky – it won’t allow us to contradict ourselves once we’ve made what we think is a “proclamation.” I believe your first instinct that your husband didn’t need to buy a truck was your intuition speaking to you. The statement where you said to him, “go ahead if you want,” was deferring to him and his desires. It wasn’t your intuition.
To be honest – I believe our intuition is correct 100 percent of the time we just misidentify other voices as intuition and THEY are wrong.
xoxo,
Angela
Wonderful post Angela!
You are so right about saying that we all learn from our mistakes, which are the ones that teach us something every-time. They are the stepping stones that guide and make us stronger to face life’s situations in the future.
When we follow our heart or intuition as you say and listen to that first inner voice that tells us whether to go with a thing or not, that is the true voice of your soul, which tries to guide you. But yes, most of us aren’t really able to listen to it, for which we need to follow your suggested steps.
Yes, sitting quietly and listening to that inner voice helps a great deal, which is something I follow up after I meditate. Just a few minutes a day do wonders for the rest of the day for me.
I think all of us have been hurt sometime or the other, but we really can’t hold on to that hurt and pain, which will only harm us further. Instead, letting go and moving on in life is what needs to be done to help ourselves.
Thanks for sharing these wonderful ways to use our intuition 🙂
Dear Harleena,
I’m so glad you to share the belief that listening to our intuition is a valuable way of getting insight in our lives.
It’s so unfortunate but, most of us do have to learn the hard way – by not listening to it to learn how important it is.
I guess it’s like “touching a hot stove” we have to be burned once or twice to know that we ought not ignore our intuition.
xoxo,
Angela
This post is gold.
Intuition has saved my life, and rescued me from risky situations a number of times and I am grateful for the ability to recognize it.
Somehow, although I am in my usual calm state, reading this post made me feel so much better. 🙂 Thank you for the positive reinforcement, Angela! Hugs to you!
Thank you Vidya!
I know how intuition has saved your life from an accident and your family from food poisoning!
You are so intuitive my friend.
Hugs back to you.
xoxo
While I’ve frequently had a hard time getting my monkey mind to shut up so I can hear my intuition, there have been times where my intuition came in loud and clear.
One such time was when my husband and I were having difficulties early in our marriage. I almost left but my intuition stopped me in my tracks and said, “Not this time. Stay and learn something from this. You can leave later if you still want but stay for a while.” It made me realize that I was about to repeat my pattern of leaving relationships when things got a little tough instead of working it out and creating something great. I stayed and learned a lot and things have gotten immensely better.
Whenever I’m facing something difficult, I ask for guidance during meditation. An answer always comes and I do my best to follow it.
Thanks for another great post Angela!
Hi Paige,
What an awesome example of listening to your intuition and learning a great life lesson!
Sitting in meditation is just “listening” is so undervalued.
While I love active meditation – just listening is where I get the most inspiration.
Thank you for sharing this awesome example with us.
xoxo,
Ange
Hi, Angela,
Boy, I can think of several situations of my intuition warning me about something — but I didn’t listen even though I got a clear message.
One example is from about 10 years ago when my husband and I were taking a walk up the road with our dogs. A relative of our next-door neighbor was driving by, and stopped to chat for a few minutes. It was a pleasant exchange and as he drove away he told us to have a nice day.
Immediately, I had the thought we should go home and protect our belongings. I talked myself out of it, i.e. he was nice, our house was locked, I was being silly. Well, lo and behold, he DID go rob us! Broke into the back window with a crowbar.
This was a huge lesson to me. Mainly, that even when my thinking contradicts my feeling, when it’s that strong: LISTEN.
Fortunately the robbery didn’t cause a major hardship in our lives, but he did take some sentimental things that I’ll never have back.
But like you say, I did get a precious lesson from it which I’m sure has paid off many times over.
Thanks for yet another great article.
xoxo
Patti
Patti,
OMG! Wow. That is a great example of how we talk ourselves out of listening to our intuition because it seems illogical.
As I keep saying, sometimes we have to learn from our blunders to get the message that our intuition is true knowledge we can rely upon.
Thank you for sharing this awesome example with us here.
xoxo,
Ange