HOW TO: Listen To Your Intuition

“Follow your heart.” “Trust your gut.” These familiar old adages encourage us to find our paths by listening to our intuition.

What exactly is intuition?

As the Universe is generous,abundant, and unfolding to support us, we each hold within ourselves everything we need to live fulfilling lives. Unfortunately, as we grow older, we drift farther and farther from the carefree trust and bravery of our inner child, and closer and closer to skepticism. We become riddled with doubt—doubt about the future, doubt about the past, about ourselves and our abilities—and this doubt grows so loud and noisy that it drowns out the inner voice that is our intuition – our internal guidance system. We’re too busy worrying that we no longer hear what our intuition is trying to tell us.

If this sounds familiar, don’t worry. It’s never too late to tap back into your power. Below, find three tips on how to let go of worrying and how to listen to your intuition:

Listen To Your Intuition: Tip #1 – Slow down and get still

What happens when we run into a problem? Oftentimes, we jump to a solution, straight-away. We ask: How do I fix this? What can I do? We poke and we prod and we ask friends for advice, and our brains move a million miles a minute just trying to keep up.

Let me let you in on a secret: overanalyzing is not always the best way not to solve your problems. Sometimes, the best thing you can do to gain some clarity during a difficult time is actually to slow down, breathe, and get still.

Slow down, get still, and eliminate distractions. Calming your mind and body interrupts the negative internal narrative that plays on a loop in your mind. Quiet that self-critical inner roommate and listen to your intuition.

When you get still, you give your brain time to catch up and sift through the all the chaos to find real solutions. You can get still in a number of ways, but it often boils down to relinquishing the ego’s desire to control. Stop asking for advice or looking for others to solve your problem, stop researching a million solutions ad infinitum, stop replaying the situation over and over and creating endless scenarios, and for a while, try to focus on being more present and self-trusting.

Take a break from your phone, soothe your mind and body with self-care exercises, or meditate to really focus on the present and the wonder of lifeyour. The idea is not to give in or up on your concerns, but to realize that sometimes, when you stop trying to find the answers, the answers will find you – it’s already within you.  

Listen To Your Intuition: Tip #2 – Ask loved-based instead of fear-based questions

Once you’ve slowed down, it’s time to calmly examine the situation. The trap many people fall into is turning that calm examination into an grand, oppressive inquisition. We ask targeted and accusatory questions, lashing out at ourselves and others: “Why me?” “Who’s at fault?” “How could this happen?” These are examples of fear-based questions.

Fear-based questions perpetuate a victim-mentality, thereby disempowering the person seeking answers. Love-based questions seek not to place blame, but to find solutions, thus restoring agency and empowering the asker.

Ask not, “why me?” but rather, “what is this situation here to teach me?” Instead of, “how could this happen?” try asking, “how does this problem encourage my growth?” Re-posturing your questions in this way makes them more solution-oriented, thus empowering you to see the good in every seemingly bad circumstance. As the saying goes, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” There’s no getting around it—problems pop up; they’re real and we deserve to acknowledge and feel the pain or discomfort that they may bring. However, it is important not to sit in that pain or to wallow. Focusing on why something happened may bring momentary satisfaction, but it’s more productive to focus on how you can move forward.

Listen To Your Intuition: Tip #3 – Stop resisting and learn to surrender

After getting still and asking the right questions, it is critically important to step back and allow the answers to find you. This may be the trickiest step of all because oftentimes, answers come dressed in ways that are unappealing to us. For example, if you’ve done all that you can to improve a job or a relationship problem to no avail, the answer may simply be to let go.

We tend to get so invested in situations that letting go feels like a failure, or a waste of all the effort and energy we’ve expended on someone or something. In reality, however, we sometimes need to surrender to the truth of a situation and release it if it has run its course.

Surrendering means letting go and trusting that something even better will come in place of what you’ve lost.

Trusting your intuition is not easy, and it won’t even necessarily feel good all of the time. On the contrary, your intuition will often push you purposefully forward into discomfort, because it knows growth is on the other side.

So, if it doesn’t feel good right away, how do you know if you’re making the right choice? How do you know if your intuition is leading you the right way? If you feel like you’re growing, chances are you are exactly where you need to be. Relinquish the idea that following your heart, trusting your gut, or listening to your intuition will mean feeling wonderful all of the time. It will also mean feeling scared, feeling challenged, and, ultimately, holding yourself accountable. It will mean evolving to become more aligned with a more fully actualized version of yourself.

DO YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO TAP INTO YOUR INTUITION? DO YOU WANT TO BUILD SELF-CONFIDENCE AND TRUST IN THE ALIGNMENT OF YOUR JOURNEY? Contact Dr. Logan Jones today!

Dr. Logan Jones is a counselor and performance coach working in New York City. He works with people aiming to build self-confidence, helping them to feel more self-assured in both their personal and professional life choices. His practice is located near Flatiron, Chelsea, NoMad, Union Square and the West Village. Contact him today for a complimentary phone consultation. 

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