How to Use Your Inner GPS
Photo by Salah Ait Mokhtar
I recently had a great conversation with a new friend, beautiful human, and Entrepreneur Advisor, Rachel Anzalone, on her podcast Profits and Pleasure. We spoke about intuition and using intuition in business. (Stay tuned for the podcast interview this fall.) It was such a great reminder that living intuitively has led to such significant, positive changes in my life that I barely recognize my day to day from a year ago. I believe using our intuition as our GPS helps us step onto the path that brings us the most authentic joy and freedom. Intuition is one of our superpowers as human beings, especially as women.
Almost one year ago my family and I embarked on a big adventure and it all started with listening to my intuition, first hearing that it was time to leave our home, the state we lived in. I didn’t know where to move but when I listened closely I was guided to live internationally. After many conversations with my husband, we decided to try out living in two different countries with our toddler.
This is not the first time intuition has guided me to make big decisions. When I was in my 20’s intuition guided me to use alternative healing techniques for pre-cancerous cells which healed quickly, and I was able to avoid having surgery (I don’t always recommended this approach to treating disease but it was true for me in this case). Intuition is the way I finally found my healing path from severe depression to hope and then joy. However, intuition is not just about the big moments and big decisions. It usually guides me moment to moment, to take small steps throughout the day. It guides me to prioritize what actions to take, reminds me to check in with my body, or to be spontaneous.
Intuitive guidance helps position me so that I am in the right place at the right time for synchronicity, love, or joy. It leads me to meet the Universe as it conspires to bring magic to my life.
This is not to say that listening and taking action on our intuition is always easy, it can take a lot of courage and trust sometimes. Our move internationally, for example, has been a big period of transition, learning, and patience for our entire family. Change can be tough, but the gifts I’ve received have been much better than all of the longing for more aliveness and the discomfort of not growing. While the tasks have been many, the pleasure and the joy have grown as I’ve connected with family, received more support, returned to the land of my ancestors, shifted to working part-time to enjoy time with my son, connected deeply with the Andes mountains, stepped into more of my strength, lived by the ocean for the first time ever, and watched how my toddler learned another language and culture with ease. The rewards are many when we trust in our inner guidance.
Like many things on the path of growth, using our intuition is a practice. It’s a muscle we can strengthen. The stronger the muscle the easier it is to trust and take action.
So how can we start a practice of using our inner GPS? Today I’m sharing some common obstacles + solutions my clients and I have encountered while connecting to our intuition.
Obstacle: Not hearing your intuition clearly
Solution: Listening to intuition requires presence and awareness of the subtle. Slowing down is necessary to hear intuition clearly. Take an honest look at your day and life, see where you are rushing, overextended, or multitasking. Ask yourself where you can add space to simply move slower, breathe, be. Create small windows of quiet and stillness in your life. This can look like staring at a garden for a few minutes while listening, taking a few deep, slow breaths, and asking a question while simply waiting for a response.
Obstacle: Not knowing the difference between fear or a trauma response and intuition
Solution: We must differentiate between the many subtle sensations, thoughts, images of our inner world. If we don’t feel confident in knowing when our intuition is speaking, we won’t be able to trust it. Intuition has a flavor of neutrality. It will never guide you with urgency or fear. It will be subtle, non-judgmental, persistent but patient. Pay attention to what intuition feels like for you - is it an image that pops up within? Is it a clear thought that sounds different from the others? Is it a gut feeling or knowing?
Fear has a sense of urgency and feels stressful to our body and system. We feel pressure to act. A trigger response might make you feel unsafe, overwhelmed with emotion, angry, and intrusive. This is not the gentle and neutral tone of intuition.
Obstacle: Hearing your intuition but feeling too scared to trust it
Solution: Run experiments - start small, see what happens when you listen to intuition. Look back on times when following your intuition led to positive outcomes. Reflecting on these moments can strengthen your trust in your inner guidance. Most times you’ll find it leads to a pleasant experience or delight, a feeling of well-being, a sense of flow, or like you’re moving in the direction you’ve wanted. It could be as simple as making a left instead of right and finding a parking spot easily. It could be as big as avoiding a dangerous encounter. Not listening to your intuition and paying attention to what happens is also good feedback, so you can’t go wrong. The more you see what happens when you choose to act on your intuition, the more you’ll understand how intuition can support you and you’ll build a relationship and trust.
Obstacle: Trusting your intuition + taking action, but faced with others not trusting your intuitive decisions
Solution: We live as part of a society, part of personal and professional relationships that impact the choices we make. Taking action on your family leaving the country, for example, may mean that your family needs to agree to it as well. We may feel nervous about sharing decisions based on intuition if it doesn’t seem logical or convenient. The way through is to gather the courage to communicate honestly and express your trust in your intuition, how it’s led you to positive changes before, and to request support in trusting You. It can look like a request in running an experiment with you for something that matters to you and/or something you think will benefit others.
Our intuition is with us always, each moment of the day. I invite you to make this your loving reminder for prioritizing space to listen. Following our intuition guides us to what is best for us, what our hearts desire, and what life wants to offer us. We are guided in a way that nourishes us and is beneficial for others, because our intuition is connected to all. When we listen, trust, and take action on our intuition, everything aligns.
Love,
Paula
P.S. If you want deeper support in using your inner GPS reply to this email now. We’ll schedule a free call to chat.
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