Mental Wellness Series
Learning to Trust Your Gut and Use Your Intuition
Listening to your inner spidey sense
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” — Albert Einstein
I’ve always been a highly intuitive person.
But I haven’t always appreciated and listened to my inner voice.
Yet over time I’ve learned to trust that soft voice within and stop and listen carefully to what it’s telling me in the moment.
It helps me size up people quickly and warn me about bad situations. It fuels my creativity. And it’s especially helpful when making important life decisions.
In our modern culture, intuition is not always something that’s valued highly. Logical and rational thinking is worshiped by many in our culture.
Freud and Jung thought it was irrational and not to be trusted. And of course we’ve all heard it dismissively described as “women’s intuition”.
In reality, intuition lets you tap into your powerful unconscious mind so it can quickly process information from the past and present and project what will happen in the future.
Think of all the successful entrepreneurs who listened to their “gut” and made decisions based on it who have imagined and manifested wonderful things that seemed improbable and impossible to the logical thinkers.
People like Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Coco Chanel, Grace Hopper and so many more.
Now I’m not saying you should only rely on intuition, but I believe it’s an invaluable asset you can hone and use to your advantage, especially as a writer.
Here’s how I’ve used intuition in my life.
- I often get intuitive feelings about people and can sense when I’ve found a kindred spirit or someone to avoid. This has been very helpful in both my personal life and in business.
- I get a tingly spidey sense when I get a bad vibe about a situation that might be dangerous or a decision that doesn’t seem quite right. It’s always steered me in the right direction.
- My intuition is a part of my creative spirit and helps guide me to what I want to write about. I get an quick insight and then a spark that ignites my curiosity to start writing about it.
So how do you learn to trust your inner voice and start using it more in your life and your writing?
- First, take the time to sit quietly and let your thoughts just be and see what comes up.
- Meditation and guided visualization can also help get you in touch with your intuition.
- Walking and running can help to quiet your logical brain and help you relax and tap into your unconscious mind.
- Taking a shower often sparks my creative intuition and brings forth lots of ideas for me to write about.
So what about you? Are you ready to take a walk on the intuitive side?
Key Message: You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trusting yourself and that inner voice of yours.
Linda Locke is a writer and mentor/teacher. She lives in Southern California in Ventura County by the coast with her husband and lots and lots of books.
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