Go with Gut: Intuition Training

“I had a bad feeling about this.” “I just knew it was the right to do”. “I can’t explain why, I just know I should do this.” “I can’t put my finger on it, but something is off.”  “I knew I shouldn’t have taken this job.” “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him.”

Sound familiar? I’m pretty sure you have said these words at some point in your life. Maybe about a project, a shady new man in your life, about a job. I know you probably have said something along the lines of this. You can live with your head in the clouds (hi!!) or be very down to earth, you can be more rational or more emotional when it comes to decision-making, doesn’t matter. Whether you actively do it or not, your intuition is at play here. Meet your intuition: your Inner GPS to Life. 

How’s that for a catchphrase.? It’s a statement I stand behind completely. I definitely drive through life with my Inner GPS beeping loudly, giving me directions. But I can feel I have to do certain things, when I should say ‘no’ and when I should say ‘yes’, often before I find or realize the rationalizations behind my decision. When I ignore my intuition (which I sometimes do because it makes so much more logical or practical sense), I always regret it.

Once I realized how on-point my intuition always was, I gave it a lot more free reign and listen more closely. I can honestly say that this is one of the smartest moves I’ve ever pulled: listening to my inner voice instead of over-thinking and letting other people rationalize things for me.

I’m not saying I don’t have an error margin (I am a naive HappyGoLucky and I rather trust people than write them off immediately), but all in all it has brought me a lot more good than bad. These days I try to listen more to my intuition than anything else.

Basically your intuition, your instinct, your gut feelings are with you all the time as it is and it’s probably seeping through in your decision making already. How would you it to exercise it a little more? It’s the same as with your biceps, your brain: the more you flex the more better it becomes. In the case of your Inner GPS, it becomes more accurate, more detailed and makes it easier to predict certain outcomes. I thought of a few things you could do to make your gut feelings more prominent. Bring on some Intuition Training.

  • Really ‘feel’ how certain things make you feel. Places, people, future plans, events, even things in your home and foods. Everything. What kind of feeling does your best friend’s new boyfriend evoke in you? Or the idea of traveling abroad when you finish school? Or that house you and your husband want to move into? Feel what kind of inner response comes up.
  • Try it for a day. Make all your decisions based on your gut feeling and your instincts rather than thinking about it. Watch what kind of effect that has and of course, what kind of results this renders long term?
  • Writing Exercise #1. Write down all the things you have had a gut feeling about in the past. The men who broke your heart (or who didn’t!), jobs, plans, people, anything. What did you feel? What made you feel this way? And of course…where you right or wrong in the end?
  • Writing Exercise #2. I did this for a while in 2009-2010. I’d sit down with my note book, be completely still and then write down either a question of a topic. Then I would write down whatever popped into my head. Thoughts that seemed completely random or out of context at that time. It was eery how certain things made sense later on.
  • Ask highly intuitive people how it feels for them when they’re right or wrong. It doesn’t have to be the same for you, but it will give you some extra information that might be useful for some finetuning.

I’m not saying you should throw out any rational thought or that you shouldn’t think things through. By all means, think things through. But I do think it’s good you start basing your decisions also on that feeling you sometimes feel and sometimes ignore. I really believe this will save you a lot of trouble and bring you a lot of good things.

Of course I’m very curious to know: how intuitive are you? And how often are you right/wrong?

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6 comments

  1. wow this is freaky. I just wrote about intuition as well. More rambling though haha.

    On the one hand I am very intuitive and over the last couple of years have learned to listen to it more carefully. I do try to make a clear distinction between emotions and intuition when it comes to decision making, which I have found difficult in the past. Especially when I’m sad or angry I can still find it difficult to listen to my intuition and not let my emotions cloud my judgement, but hey, it’s a process.

    1. That distinction is a hard but very valuable thing. I read your blog, it was interesting!

  2. First of all: I luvvvv your blog! Really inspiring and it makes me feel good 🙂

    About intuition, I think I’m pretty intuitive. One really clear example happened 1,5 year ago. Me and my (now ex-)boyfriend wanted to live together. We were searching for a while for houses and finally we found something and it was perfect! But after we ‘got’ the place (no contracts were signed yet) I felt horrible and I could not put my finger on it why I felt like that. I started having stomach aches and cramps every time I thought about giving my room in Utrecht up and living with him. Something was off and I could not explain why I was feeling it, but it was a horrible feeling.

    Then, the night before we were supposed to sign the contract, I found out that he went home with another girl after a party at his work and spent the night there. I also found out about some other Very disturbing things he did. Without talking about it to him, I followed my guts and immediately cancelled the contract-signing and was just in time to keep my room in Utrecht. Turned out the feeling in my gut was right! We should listen to our instincts more often.

    1. First of all, thank you! Second, your story is amazing, that must have been terrible for you but what a boost in your intuition&self reliance it must also have been. Always listen to your instincts!

  3. again: love this.

    Ik ben zo slecht met mijn gevoel. Ik sprak eens met een vrouw (een soort van medium) die ook zei: jij moet meer met je gevoel werken. Later sprak ik met nog zo’n ehh..spiritueel persoon, en die het ook: werk meer met je gevoel.

    Als ik terugdenk aan alle keuzes die ik maak waarvan mijn gevoel al zei: des niet doen, dan herken ik dat wel.Maar zoals nu: ik vind het zo moeilijk om echt te voelen wat ik voel (als ik een beslissing moet maken)

    mijn zusje heeft het trouwens weer heel sterk. die voelt heel goed aan wanneer iets goed of slecht voor haar is

    1. Ik denk dat dat ook gewoon een proces is Des, blijven proberen en oefenen en zo wordt het wellicht iets natuurlijkers voor jezelf om dat te doen.