Sunday, August 12, 2012

Intuition: Friend or foe?

What is intuition and how do you know if you have it? Intuition is a sense of knowing, feeling, a hunch about something, a decision or perhaps even a person without proof.  How do you know if acting on your intuition helps or hinders you?  Here are some examples of how intuition plays a part in your daily life.

  • How often have you felt that sinking feeling or your stomach does somersaults when you were about to say or do something?  Do you bite your tongue and hold it in or do you just blurt it out with no regards to the consequence?  
  • Have you ever felt a tinge of something not quite right with a person; like your sisters new boyfriend?  You can't seem to put your finger on what your gut is trying to tell you, but you know there is something that will rear its ugly head and instead you wait.
  • Have you driven the same route to work each day?  But today is different, you sit at a stoplight and wonder how long it would take you to drive a different way.  Have you ever forgotten something in the house and went back in saying geez; I don't know why I forgot that, only to find out later you avoided an accident exactly where you would have been a few moments earlier. 
  • Do you all of a sudden think about someone you haven't kept in touch?  You finally give them a call only to find out they were thinking about calling you too.
  • Do you see the signs of an abusive person only to dismiss them hoping your gut instinct is wrong?    

Rationalizing your actions or the actions of another help you avoid facing the truth, at least until you've had enough and realize you had those intuitive moments long before but you didn't act upon them.

  • That truth may reveal that you made a mistake in choosing to stay with an abusive person and that is hard for some to admit.
  • That truth may be that you found you fell in love with a person that just didn't have some of the same goals, values and morals that you believe in, another hard one to swallow.
  • That truth may be that you stayed in a relationship that you found to be very unhealthy.  Whatever the demographics of that relationship is; it could be mother-daughter, sister-brother, friend-friend, you always have the choice to end it and now you are embarrassed that you didn't.
  • That truth may be that your spouse, friends or family are your own worst enemy when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, because they want you barefoot and pregnant or fat and sassy, in other words, they want you to feel bad enough about yourself that you won't attract others into your life that would support the true you.  How often have you tried to lose weight only to have your spouse or friends sabotage your efforts.  

Do you know what you should do to attain the goals you want when it comes to weight loss and healthier living?  Of course you do, but going on a diet doesn't have to be the first step.  Tapping into your intuition to figure out how you want to feel, how energized you want to be, how much joy you can attract into your life because you are healthy and not just skinny is a better, long term approach than the deprivation that comes with weight loss and dieting.

Following your intuition or as most of us call it our gut instinct helps us make better decisions for ourselves and sometimes even keeps us out of harms way.  We are all born with a sense of knowing, maybe you haven't acted upon it or you've pushed it aside thinking oh that is just crazy.

Give it a try, listen to you body, your mind, your heart and listen to your inner self and experience the places it can take you.  Believe in yourself and your natural abilities to reach your goals and live the healthy life you were meant to live.  Intuition is your friend.