There I was, sitting in a hotel room in Washington DC on a business trip reflecting on my life with a trusted friend, expressing how I couldn’t really remember a time in my life where I felt completely happy. If anything, I was unhappy.
And then it happened to me, a deep feeling struck me in my heart. It seemed out of nowhere, but it just felt right somehow so I found myself curiously saying the words aloud, “I think I’m moving to Australia”. It was the first really big hit of intuition that led me down a road to meeting a mentor in Sydney who could share with me why Intuition is so powerful.
That was the beginning, but soon I started following my intuition in other really big decisions in my life. I quit a job in finance that gave me a lot of security and began writing, doing only the things I really loved. Everything in my life started to come alive. I started a coaching and speaking business around what happens when you continually follow your inner guidance.
Sometimes intuition comes in really small ways like turning left on a run rather than turning right. One time as I stepped out of my Brooklyn apartment as I was about to go run to the butcher for food, I decided to go left instead, and ran down a long parkway I’d wanted to experience for a long time, but it was opposite of where I wanted to buy a raw chicken to roast that evening. As I kept running, I kept thinking how was I going to get that chicken. With only a credit card and keys, I felt really moved to get onto the subway and go into the city, and I got off at union square where I found a farmers market was in full swing just across from the Wholefoods. I bought a cooked chicken only to come home later and find that my oven was broken, so had I gone to the butcher, I would have bought an uncooked chicken without being able to cook it. I’ve discovered that these are the things that somehow intuition knows, that we cannot. That may sound mystical, but think of a time when you just knew something, and you had no idea how you knew it, and later it was confirmed.
What happens when you follow your heart in your life? You take more risks for what you love, and you stop listening to logic for decision making and only use it when required, which makes you start to feel more alive. There is less worry of what might happen in the future, and the mind is less consumed by the past. Those are some powerful ingredients for natural happiness.
Before intuition, I never really believed I could run my own business or travel all over the world without a job that was a “travel job,” and yet I’ve now done both of those things.
What all of these exciting life changes had in common was that they all started with a similar feeling of possibility. That’s the first thing you need to know about Intuition, is that it’s a feeling that speaks to you about what is possible for you. It doesn’t come from your head.
The second thing I noticed in following my heart is that I said yes to the feeling and took action. You don’t always have to do something, but you do have to acknowledge that feeling and say yes in your heart, and if required, take the actions that you can take. It doesn’t need to become a goal, but you do have to aim for what you love.
The third thing you need to know is that sometimes what you desire will appear possible in your circumstances, and sometimes you won’t be able to see the possibilities right away in your story. I remember my first job out of college, I kept feeling this desire to be in California. Yet it didn’t seem possible, but I couldn’t shake the love to move there. Within six months, I was headhunted to another firm that did have an office in California. I simply stayed with the feeling, and it eventually became possible through unforeseen events.
The number one thing that gets in the way of your heart is logic; it’s not being able to see the possibilities. Intuition comes from infinite possibilities, so why would what your heart speaks of be impossible? What comes in your heart isn’t there to tease you, it’s sharing with you what is possible for you.
It’s hard to explain why following Intuition changes you, but because Intuition comes from infinite possibilities, when you trust it, you’re trusting in something bigger than yourself, and you realize that you are bigger. It’s not that I tried to be happy through following my heart, I just became aware that I was no longer unhappy because I was always following what I loved.
Presence is the last thing you need to know about Intuition, to be in touch with your body, but what you get in return when you follow your heart, is more presence, which is all you really need in your life to be truly happy.