How to Trust Your Intuition…When It’s Led You Down the Wrong Path Before
Have you ever trusted your intuition and made a huge mistake?
It sucks, right? And then you get confused about whether you can even trust yourself!
You start to wonder if your intuition is broken.
The #1 question I get asked about intuition is how to trust it when it’s led you down the wrong path in the past.
To answer that, let’s talk about what your intuition actually is and how it can get messed up.
Intuition is your ability to pick up on cues and messages, both from yourself and from the world around you, without conscious reasoning.
Sounds awesome, right? It’s like an internal compass, leading you in the right direction.
But here’s the kicker.
Your intuition does not act alone.
Your intuition may pick up on something, but then it gets filtered through your conscious mind.
Guess who lives in your conscious mind?
Your EGO.
Yep, the infamous ego.
Your ego does not always act in your best interests, even though it tries to. And your ego might interpret the intuitive hits you get in the way that best serves its own desires.
Let me give you a recent example from my own life.
About a month ago, I almost put down a deposit to host a women’s retreat in Italy in 2017. All my intuitive hits told me I was supposed to be doing this. And yet logically it didn’t make any sense: not for my business, my finances, or my family.
But my intuition said, “Go for it!”
Knowing that it was a huge investment for me in many ways, I did a lot of thinking… and talking to other people…and budgeting…and more thinking.
And then I did what I should have just done all along.
I meditated on it.
I assumed that when I got quiet, my inner wisdom would tell me to screw logic because this was something important I was SUPPOSED to be doing right now.
Boy, was I wrong…
My inner wisdom spoke loud and clear, and said, “Nope. Not now. This is not what you should be focusing on. Get your business foundation set. Focus on your family. That’s it.”
And just like that, the dream of Italy poofed. A huge knot of anxiety – that I hadn’t even acknowledged until that moment – disappeared, and I realized what a huge mistake I had almost made.
I also realized that what I thought was my intuition telling me to go to Italy was actually my ego wanting to do something big and splashy.
When I actually allowed my intuition to talk to me without my conscious mind or ego getting in the way, Italy wasn’t even on the radar. It was just a shiny object trying to distract me from my real focus.
So let me ask you something.
When you made a mistake in the past, was it because your intuition was off or was it that your conscious mind interpreted the intuitive cues in a way that wasn’t actually in your highest interest? Was there in fact another way you could have interpreted what you were feeling that would have led to a different outcome?
Intuition + Ego = Potential for Mistakes.
In order to fully trust your intuitive hits, you have to be able to quiet the mind and put the ego aside.
Guided meditation is a very simple way to do this, but it’s not the only way. Anything that helps you feel calm and centered will help you connect to your inner compass without your ego getting in the way.
You know what won’t help you? Constantly asking other people what they think. Distracting yourself with social media. Buying every e-course you can find on the subject (especially when you don’t actually use any of them).
The answer is always: find your center.
What makes you feel calm and grounded? What makes you feel connected to your own truth? Find that thing and then go do it.
Don’t worry about whatever it is you’ve been stressing over. Just go do your thing and let the answers come to you when they’re ready.
xo,
Iris
