INSPIRATION | INTUITION

If There’s Anyone You Should Listen to, It’s Your Own Intuition

It’s okay to look like a lunatic if my inner voice is the one leading the way

In my teens, thanks to a rebellious older sister, I was introduced to ideas and perspectives that were a far cry from the convention.

I believe it was down to her influence that I was open to believing that we are spiritual beings and connected to one another, and the world at large, through a force greater than anything we are taught about in school.

She showed me the world of alternative music, gigs, festivals, eco-warriors and more.

Through these experiences, I discovered a world of possibility outside of the conventional fashion and music interests that the majority of the population were following. I discovered making music, rather than just listening to it, and the freedom of dancing like nobody’s watching. I discovered tarot cards, incense, yoga and circus skills.

I discovered that connecting with the natural world and eating a vegetarian and plant-rich diet was more energising, and more beautifying than plastering on foundation and blusher. And I discovered a world where walking barefoot in the dew was just as stimulating as a morning cup of coffee.

Somehow, defying the conventions surrounding us made me think deeper about life, about our souls, and about our connection to nature.

And, somewhere, amidst all of this, I began to touch base with an inner voice — one which could guide me effectively in life. In a confusing world with far too much choice, my intuition began whispering, and that whispering gradually grew louder.

I learned to listen to that voice through trial and error

It’s easy to doubt that voice, especially when it’s telling you something that seems quite ludicrous.

There are plenty of times that I have doubted or silenced it, only to realise my mistake later on. One of these occasions was when my (now ex) partner was going out with our two young girls on bicycles.

An image flashed into my head of them getting a puncture while they were out.

“Don’t be silly,” I said to myself. “No need to get all paranoid that they are going to get a puncture and start worrying them. After all, the chances are so small.”

I disregarded this momentary vision as “silly” and “paranoid”. That was the kind of worst-case scenario my mother would constantly plague my sister and me with when we were growing up — and even in adulthood — and I definitely didn’t want to be like that!

However, after they had been gone for a much longer time than I had anticipated, and I was starting to feel concerned, I looked out of the window and saw them in the distance, approaching home. They were returning on foot while pushing the bikes.

Yep, you guessed it. They got a puncture and didn’t have a puncture repair kit on them.

“Oh, that’s weird!” I said to my partner when they had arrived and told me the story. “I had this vision of you getting a puncture.”

“I wish you’d told me.” He replied.

But, when I did take heed, it wasn’t always heard

Then there was the time when that voice came through so urgently, I tried to warn people that something bad was about to happen, and nobody listened.

I wrote about that experience in a separate story, so do feel free to go and read that.

The story, in a nutshell, was that I was staying in the ashram of Mata Amritanandamayi, more commonly known as The Hugging Saint, in Kerala, South India. It was the day of the big tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004.

My partner had woken me that morning because our room was moving. The whole building was swaying as a result of the tremors from the earthquake, though thousands of miles away.

Although it stopped fairly quickly and barely anyone had noticed a thing, I had this awful, niggling feeling that something bigger was coming. I had no idea what, but I knew it was big and scary.

But nobody would listen. My screaming inner voice wasn’t concrete enough evidence for the Western Visitor Office to have anything to go on, and the most useful alternative that was suggested was that I had had a deep, spiritual experience in meditation.

Nope, I was definitely not so spiritually advanced as that.

It was just my goddamn intuition.

In truth, there was no reason why anyone should have listened to me, and I didn’t even know what this voice was warning me. So, I had no real force when it came to it.

I doubt I would have saved any lives. According to those closest to Amma, she knew that the sea was about to cover the land an hour or so before it happened.

She had warned those exploring the suddenly huge and empty beach — drained because the sea had receded as it built its huge wall of water, several miles off the coast — to get off the beach and back into to ashram. Yet, even her warnings didn’t help the fisher-people whose homes, livelihoods, and family members were taken from them by that treacherous wave.

Still, that inner voice of mine was there, and it reassured me that it spoke the truth. A truth that should be listened to.

A lesson to stop doubting and start trusting

It was perhaps a bit of a dramatic way to be taught that my voice of intuition was something to listen to and heed, but it was clearly what it took for me.

As Liberty Forrest, Author explains in her article “How To Make Your Intuition Work Better For You, Starting Now”, even recent research has found that intuition is a real phenomenon that produces correct answers before the analytical brain has had a chance to come to its own conclusions:

“Researchers at Leeds University analysed a hefty pile of research papers on intuition. They concluded that intuition is a very real psychological process where the brain uses past experiences and cues from the self and the environment to make a decision. The decision happens so quickly that it doesn’t register on a conscious level.” — Source

As it turns out, your brain has two ‘operating systems.’ One is quick and instinctual. This is where your intuition lives. It makes quick decisions about whether or not something is a good idea or a bad one, whether it’s right or wrong etc. based on patterns collected by your life experiences. This processing happens without our conscious awareness. It happens in the subconscious mind.

Liberty’s article is packed with valuable tips to connecting with that voice, opening the doors for it to come through loud and clear, and actually listening to it.

If you have found yourself questioning your own intuitive voice, like I have, and even seeing the truth of what it was telling you before your very eyes, I encourage you to go and check it out.

Another way to enhance your intuition is through colour meditation. Kris Bedenian wrote a beautiful article all about the different colours and what they represent:

In the Hindu tradition, the chakras are represented by colours and it is the Third Eye Chakra, represented by the colour indigo, that is where intuition lives. So, go ahead and dive into a bit of colour meditation to get more in touch with that voice.

And, most importantly…

Trust your inner voice.

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