How to Put Your Intuition into Practice

On Making Decisions with Intuition

I have made the best decisions of my life fully embracing my intuition … and the worst ones when I ignored that little tiny voice inside.

Intuition is a gift that each of us possess, and like all gifts – all abilities, all talents – some go to waste and others rise to great heights and sweet achievements. The choice is yours, and that is good news because the power lies within you.

Intuition is for real and whether you believe it or not does not change the fact that it exists. Let us explore the amazing depth and power to our intuition with the help of my friend and author, Angela Artemis and her book which I read this summer, “The Intuition Principle” (this is not an affiliate link – I adore and worship Amazon, that’s a fact, but I can’t stand the tax debate that brought down Amazon Affiliates in my state. Just sayin’!).

I used to think that only some of us are gifted with intuition and that it is a sign of weakness to make decisions based on how one feels. Then I got older and realized, as usual, how foolish I was yet again! Tell me, when is the last time you made a decision that did not FEEL right in your heart of hearts and it turned out to be a grand choice?

Intuition may not seem all that important to you if you trouble yourself with cultural pressures, the popularity contests in high school and college (even years later), the images from media and the advertising world, and the other nonsense that pulls us away from true harmony with the self at the expense of so much suffering later.

BUT when it comes to making decisions about what to do with the rest of your life, with your career, with your relationships, the societal and familial pressures that seep into our subconscious are irrelevant. It is our intuition alone that can play the pivotal role. Turn to your intuition in these times, turn inward and ask yourself what feels right. I turn to my internal compass to tell me if each decision feels right, and that subtle change has led me into the greatest choices of my life since I started to consciously apply it. Can you start to do the same?

The worst decisions of my life used up zero units of intuition, driven mainly by pressure to be successful and seek approval, you know, the “rational” choices! It was chasing the buck, fighting for the next promotion, and getting caught up in the corporate culture and rat race hell. Every now and then, common sense would appeal to me, and I would shut off these noises long enough to hear my inner voice which screamed, “Leave, this corporate world behind. This is insanity. This is wrong. This is not real living. This is not worth it…..”, and time and again, I would ignore my own plea for help and continue in the same misguided path. At least now, I have turned those mistakes into real career tips for you! 🙂

The three greatest decisions of my life are entirely based on my intuition: Marrying my husband, leaving my corporate career when I did and opting out of the procreation process, ya know, the baby thing. A lot of heart, a lot of gut, a lot of “this feels right” went into those decisions. I did not seek approval or permission from my parents when I made those choices. I did not care how it would “look” to the outside world one second. Each of those decisions came under scrutiny, pressure, and question, but one day I realized that I am the only person who knows what is best for me, especially at my age. So I dusted off the layers of guilt, I pushed aside the heavy weight of doubt, and I stepped fully into embracing my own path. How did you come to one of the best decisions of your life?

On The Intuition Principle, The Book

I loved Angela’s The Intuition Principle. The book is practical, friendly and useful. It is a testament to Angela’s depth of knowledge on this topic, and it balances inspiration with guided steps to help you develop your own intuition in your day-to-day life. She tells us what is intuition first. Then she shows us how to use our intuition, and the benefits of using it, and also how to guard it so others don’t mock your new abilities or impact the essence of your decisions with the wrong influence.

Best of all, Angela makes intuition accessible to you. It is not just reserved for a few special people. She gives you a step-by-step guide on how to enable it in your life.

I asked Angela 3 questions that are of deep interest to me, in regards to career, dreams and meditation. May they be helpful and relevant to you as well:

1. Angela, I work with people in the corporate world who find themselves in “midlife career crisis”, for lack of a better world. They don’t know what to do next, yet they know they don’t belong where they are. They are frustrated and unhappy. How can they use their intuition to help them out of this situation?

Farnoosh, when we are at a cross-road in our lives often, there is a lot of internal strife around the situation. We want answers and to know that solid ground exists for us in the future. “Not knowing” makes us tense and this can block our intuition. In order for our intuition to guide us we need to relax and let ourselves daydream about the life we dream of having. Daydreaming relaxes us and that is the environment intuition thrives in.

Ask your intuitive mind to guide you to next step in your life. I highly suggest that you develop a meditation practice too, for it is the straightest path for hearing this guidance. Be patient and repeat this request in meditation daily. By reinforcing this request daily you will absolutely be led to the new direction you are to take in life. Should a “hunch” arise to call someone you haven’t spoken to or you feel “pulled” to go somewhere for no apparent reason — do it. This is how your intuitive mind arranges those marvelous coincidences that lead you to new “door-opening” opportunities.

2. Angela, I have always been really in tuned to my dreams, and I really enjoyed the section on dreams and how to record and remember them even better. Do you believe dreams foretell the future (I have had proof that they do at times) or are they more of a reflection of our present situation? And what’s your advice for those of us who dream stressful and unhappy dreams?

Dreams can and do foretell the future. It’s happened to me many times. Most often our dreams reflect our current life situation. If we direct them to, dreams will give us intuitive guidance as to how to solve our problems.

Dreams are a barometer of the state of your physical, mental and emotional life. If you are experiencing stressful and unhappy dreams you need to start directing your dreams to provide intuitive insight as to how to alleviate all that stress. You are probably struggling with issues and facing problems in life in order for it to be showing up so regularly in your dreams. Follow the method I’ve outlined in the book for how to request solutions via your dreams. Once you address the source of stress in your life your “bad dreams” should go away too.

3. Angela, what is the power of meditation in developing our intuition? Can we still develop our intuition to practical and useful levels without daily meditation?

The power of meditation is that it teaches you to quiet the mind. When your mind is not crammed full of one thought after another you will hear your intuition. Intuitive thoughts are quiet and soft and easily drowned out by constant mind chatter. A guided meditation program is a fast and easy way to develop the habit of daily meditation.

You can develop your intuition without daily meditation but, it might be “hit or miss.” Sitting quietly and “listening” attentively for your inner wisdom helps you develop the ability to ask and receive answers when you can best hear them. Anytime you ask for intuitive guidance — you will get it whether you are meditating or not the questions is: Will you hear it if you are busy, stressed and running ragged each day? In the beginning it’s best to develop a practice of quieting the mind. Later, after you’ve grown accustomed to identifying this “voice” you’ll easily hear it no matter what you are doing.

Now over to you, my Intuitive Reader. As you may know from my post about On Writing, Stephen King refers to you as the Constant Reader. Whichever title you prefer is fine so long as you share, share away your thoughts on this thing called intuition!