Is intuition more than a gut feeling? Is it our inner voice of wisdom? And if so why don’t we always follow it? Why is it so easy for others to feed us doubt?
I don’t know about you but I tend to approach life with a sort of scientist’s point of view. I need explanations, better yet proof. And I search, analyze and research until I find it. Yet I’m a spiritual person, convinced that there is more between heaven and earth than we’ll ever be able to know and explain.
Knowing this much about me you may make an educated guess. Right, reason has a way of interfering with my intuition, my gut feeling, leading me sometimes to dismiss it.
It took me many years, a lot of wrong turns and left me some scars before I finally realized it’s plain stupid not to listen to my gut feeling. The last nail into that coffin was when I was offered a fantastic job opportunity years ago.
I remember vividly sitting in my then to be boss‘ office, talking about terms and conditions of my contract and having that distinct feeling that something is off with this guy. But it couldn’t be, could it? He was so funny, charming, welcoming. And come on, didn’t we get along just fine sitting there chatting over coffee and cookies?
I worked for this man a little more than a year. I suffered from his dictatorial know-it-all attitude for more than half of that time. It ended with him taking my laurels and me sueing him for it (and winning in court). I vowed to never ever ignore it again when my gut whispers alarm.
This story is well known among my friends. I tend to dish it out to make a point that almost every time our gut starts rumbling something is not okay. I tell it to alert the carefree amongst us to it, to try to make them listen to their inner wisdom.
So, just a few days ago a friend’s daughter came to me and asked me about this story, and if it’s really true. She told me she has an acquaintance she likes and she would love to know better but that now that person acted sort of strange and some of her friends told her something is wrong with that one, and she doesn’t know what to do.
In her face I could see all the doubt. I asked her to tell me all about it, not so much because I needed to know but more because talking often helps us realize what we think and feel. It’s a way of giving our subconsciousness some space to step out into the light and make itself known to our consciousness.
When she had finished her report it was pretty clear what had happened. The acquaintance had crossed some limits out of clumsiness. The friends around her were mostly jealous because she was so interested in that strange person. She herself was insecure because it is in her to mistrust rather than to trust.
Put all of this together in a pot and stir gently. What you get is a soup of doubt, concern, bad intentions and misunderstandings. Eat of it and everything goes haywire.
She looked at me with those big round eyes waiting for advice, all of her insecurities and hopes written all over her face.
So here is what I told her: Remember your first impression of the person in question, go back to the initial feeling. What did your intuition tell you? What did your gut whisper have to say? I’m sure you knew if this person is okay or not in the very first moment your eyes met. Go back to this, remember without listening to all the doubt you’ve been eating.
Trust your inner voice of wisdom because that is the only one who won’t lie to you.