Trusting your intuition – or so-called “gut instincts” is the closest thing humans have to a superpower. It’s a guide built within us that has all the “right” answers but only for those who know how to listen.
There isn’t a justified reason behind the choice – or feeling your intuition is telling you about certain situations, people, or why you should make a certain decision; you just know. There’s no scientific or logical reason behind it. It’s simply a feeling you get inside of your gut.
Sometimes, someone would tell you all the reasons why you should do something or trust someone, yet, you feel inside you that there’s something wrong – even if what this person is saying makes total sense. It just doesn’t make sense to you. You can feel your body sending you a signal.
Since the experience of trusting your intuition is personal, it’s most likely hard to explain or justify your decision to someone. That’s why most people ignore their intuition because it isn’t “justifiable” to those around them.
Well, trusting your intuition is one of the best things you’ll ever learn in your life – and that’s already embedded within you if you dig deep enough. Throughout all your life, you’ll be faced with confusing situations or people you’re not sure of. When this happens, listening to your intuition will save you.
However, most of us have a hard time trusting ourselves, and hence, our intuition. So, it’s not as easy as it sounds – it’s a process that needs some level of awareness and practice. But, rest assured that we all have intuitions that are waiting for us to listen to.
Here’s how to trust your intuition:
Let go of the “shoulds”
At some stage in my life, I’ve been blinded by all the “shoulds” – What should I do? What’s expected from me to do? How should I behave? What’s normal, and what’s not? Will I be liked if I do this? The questions never end. I find myself unable to make a decision that’s completely my own because of how blurred my mind is by all the shoulds.
If you are anything like I used to be, you’re probably still confused and unaligned with what you prefer – you focus on the outward world rather than the one inside of you. Instead of asking yourself all those questions that have nothing to do with you, redirect those questions towards yourself.
What do I think of this? Do I feel comfortable doing this? Is this decision based on what I know is “likable” by people, or do I actually like it? All these “shoulds” take you away from yourself and lower the sound inside you.
Become aware of the overthinking
Because trusting your intuition is based on trusting yourself without any explanation or reasons, you’ll find yourself overthinking. It interferes with the process – making you doubt yourself.
Overthinking will likely put you in a state of “analysis paralysis”, where you overthink every single thing, run it through your mind a thousand times, think of every bad scenario that could possibly happen, and think of all the outcomes. When in reality, you already know the right decision.
You’re putting yourself inside an endless loophole that only takes you further away from yourself. As human beings, we don’t follow “agendas”, every person is different than the other. So what’s right for you might be wrong for someone else, and vice versa. The best thing you could do in this situation is to notice when you’re overthinking, and make a conscious decision to trust where your gut instinct is leading you instead.
You’re so concerned with someone else’s opinion
Most likely, this person is an authority figure or someone you love and care about their opinion. We all want to become the best version of ourselves for ourselves, and for those we care about. But, I want you to understand that we’re all human – no one has a superpower of knowing all the right answers for everyone.
The only person who has the power to make the right decision – which is highly subjective – is you. It’s fine if you discuss it with someone else, maybe they’re someone who has some experience in that matter, or someone you look up to. But what’s not fine is letting their opinion take you away from yours.
Instant gratification
Instant gratification happens when we want to fill our needs right now. We all have different needs that arise at different times. Maybe you’re super hungry at the moment, but you’re following a specific eating regimen. But you don’t want to wait until you get home and eat your homecooked meal, so instead, you buy fast food.
That’s instant gratification. And it does take a toll on our process of trusting our instincts, that’s because when you really want something, you don’t listen to what your intuition is telling you. You just want to satisfy that need so bad that you disregard anything else.
Maybe you’re feeling lonely, so you hop into any relationship even if your intuition is telling you that you’re not ready at the current time. Learn to pause and listen to yourself – your gut, it’ll tell you what’s right for you.
Past biases
Throughout our lives, we’ve been conditioned to think in a certain way, follow a specific agenda, “rationalize” our decisions, have certain stereotypes, and simply follow what others are following. This clouds your judgment in so many ways – maybe you’ve been taught that people who dress in a certain way behave in a certain way, so stay away from anyone who serves this stereotype.
Unconscious biases are the opposite of overthinking. You make quick judgments based on past conditioning without even thinking whether or not this judgment resonates with you, or is justifiable by you. This takes you away from your intuition.
Take the time to pause
Most of us – if not all – are overwhelmed by the things we need to do every day. We pace around finishing this and that, have racing thoughts, and likely don’t have the time to pause and listen to what our bodies are telling us.
When we go through life rushing around, we don’t process things and information as we should. We run through things just to check them off or tell ourselves that we’re doing something meaningful with our lives, but we miss out on all the meaning by not processing experiences.
Step away from situations so you can see them more clearly, really become present when doing things, and notice how your body feels – the sensations that arise. And by sensations, I don’t mean “emotions”. Emotions are like angry, sad, etc… Sensations are like a tensed-up feeling you get, maybe you feel your heart beating faster when a certain thing happens.
Take away distractions that don’t serve a meaning in your life, and instead, focus on carving time for more mindful activities – maybe taking a walk, doing some yoga, engaging in more self-care rituals, or simply just staring at the ceiling. Redirect your energy towards yourself by becoming more present, and therefore, become more aligned with your inner voice.