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Trusting Our Intuition

22 September 2013

It’s lunchtime and you’re faced with a spread of delicious sandwiches….which one do you go for?

Although we might filter out flavours that we know tend to disagree with us, the chances are that we will rely on our intuition to choose a sandwich that we like. We can’t explain our choice in a rational way; it just feels like the right thing to do.

Our intuition is at work all the time, whether we are deciding on what to eat, what to wear, who to talk to, what piece of work to complete next and so on. Outside of our ‘conscious awareness’ our brain thinks and plans and maps and compares and makes sense of the world around us. Well done brain! Jolly good work!

I celebrate this because we can let our intuition guide us when times are stressful and our ability to think clearly feels a bit diminished. Instead of grinding away at work, weighed down with the burden of deadlines and complexity, we can sit back, take a moment to review our situation and can trust our intuition to guide us.

When we say ‘this felt like the right to do’ or ‘I had a hunch that this was a good plan’ we are simply acknowledging our intuition at work. Interestingly we often use our intuition to make some whopping decisions for us…the car we drive, the house we live in, the partner we live with….the chances are that all of the big things in life are decided for us on the base of intuition. So, perhaps we can allow ourselves to harness this useful attribute of our being a bit more often when we are under stress and need a helping hand.

So, what decisions are you already fretting about this week? What are you collecting more facts about? Which choices need to be made or re-made?

Instead of consciously over-thinking and perhaps getting into a tizz (technical word there) we can sit back, enjoy a cup of something warm (tea or coffee will do) and let our intuition guide us. We don’t need to explain our decisions to anyone, it’s ok to know that it feels right to us and that is good enough. Job done.

Have fun trusting your intuition!

Next week: The Curiosity of Competency