Bringing Your Intuition Online

We forget that our intuition nudges us in the right direction

About a year ago, I noticed a growing trend in the self help space. It was a reminder to “trust your intuition”. The problem is that so many of us have forgotten all about our human intuition. Too often, we give more weight to our preferences than our intuition.

It’s a bit like reading your horoscope for the day and picking out the parts you like from it and focusing solely on that. You spend your day scanning for the “chance meeting with a stranger who has a hot tip” or “waiting for the perfect moment to have that hard conversation with a family member”. We’d prefer to have these golden opportunities fall out of the sky and into our lap.

Have you ever found yourself having to make a tough choice and as you ponder both, you feel this magnetic pull for one over the other? You might believe that this is your intuition — but is it? Is it really your gut instinct or just your personal preference in that very moment? Might it be the choice that is on the path of least resistance?

When was the last time that you felt some tingling goosebumps during a conversation with a friend, or when read something striking in a book, or made a small choice and just knew it was absolutely the right one?

If you feel like it has been decades since you had goosebump moments, it just might be that you’ve lost touch with your intuition, your gut instincts.

Once you awaken your intuitive powers, you will likely experience more goosebump moments, just like you did as a kid. Who wouldn’t want more of that?

Here is the main reason that we have lost touch with our intuition: We are too distracted, unfocused, have short attention spans and have forgotten the importance of self-check-in. How do you feel in your body when you are comparing the choices you could make?

Just a simple role play practice in your head can help you jumpstart your intuition. Imagine yourself choosing the triple dip ice cream cone for a mid-afternoon snack. Spend more time with that role play than just the first few decadent licks of ice cold creamy goodness. How does your tummy feel when all three scoops have landed in it? How do you feel an hour later? Are you drowsy and in need of nap? Or are you fired and wired, feeling a burst of energy and a second wind filling your sails? Did you make that decision and then make it a good decision; or do you have some regrets? Do you wish you’d chosen only one scoop? Do you wish you’d decided on a bowl of fresh strawberries instead? Do you feel like you sabotaged your promise to eat healthier? Or did you use this ice cream decision as an intentional savoring opportunity? Did you enjoy this ice cream with friends and find yourself laughing and feeling like a kid again?

This simple little role play has no right or wrong answers — the entire process is to help you see how your decisions feel in your body, not only in the present moment, but also over time (say, the stretch of a few hours). Noting that sometimes the triple dip ice cream cone is absolutely the right decision and other times, it is not, is rich. Not just in calories and taste, but most importantly in noting “variability”. Dr. Ellen Langer, author of The Mindful Body, tells us that we need to pay closer attention to lots of variables when we are working on improving our mindfulness. Any decision can be the right decision, if we factor in variables and support our choice with the right mindset and benefits.

Taking your kids out for ice cream and savoring the moment is absolutely the right decision sometimes. Scarfing the triple dip cone down mid-afternoon because you are starving, frustrated and on the run might be the wrong choice.

In his book, Contemplation, author Richard Rudd has a very simple routine we can build into our daily lives to help us bring our natural intuition back online. It is the practice of that self-check-in.

Richard equates this short, simple practice to a pit stop in a car race. Short and sweet, but oh so impactful.

He says we have three bands within ourselves to diagnose - and we can do it in under a minute: your physical body, your emotional wellbeing and your mental state.

Ask yourself - are you in the green, yellow or red zone in these three areas.

Green is peaceful.

Yellow is satisfactory.

Red is imbalanced.

Whenever I do this practice, there are two things that I rely on. One is pausing. I simply stop what I am doing or thinking. I tap the brakes and take a deep breath and long exhale. It only takes a split second. The second is grounding myself by feeling my feet securely planted on the floor or ground. Dr. Paul Conti teaches us that when we can feel any part of our body connected to the ground, the chair, the car seat - that is salient. Salience captures our full attention. Feeling my feet securely on the ground shifts something in me. I can feel it. My self-awareness dials up.

Then I can do that self-check-in: Am I holding tension in my body? Is there a feeling in my tummy like butterflies or anxiety? What’s my emotional state - am I feeling resentful, annoyed, resistant? What is my mental state? Am I thinking clearly or overwhelmed with TMI?

Richard Rudd teaches that this simple practice of checking in on your physical body, emotional well being and mental state — awakens and hones our ability to tap into our natural intuition. We can more readily pay attention to our gut instincts.

The role of your intuition is to be a guide. Consider your intuition like a modern surgical probe that can quickly get to the heart of the matter. Your intuition knows which area of your most amazing body and brain needs deeper attention.

Sometimes it is an easy fix. Your intuition can tell you immediately that your body budget is running low. You might need some food, hydration, or a cognitive break.

Sometimes you may need to examine your emotions a little longer and deeper. Is it possible that you were emotionally triggered and reminded of a past event; now it is overshadowing the present moment. Can you get unsnagged and shift your emotions?

On occasion, your mental state is problematic. Your negativity bias may be dialed up too high. Can you dial it down and reframe your current situation with more equanimity?

These quick pit stops can work wonders for improving our quality of life and helping us stay more balanced in how we meet others, make decisions for good outcomes (both short and long term) and vastly improve our ability to pay attention to what really matters.

There is good reason for us to want to bring our gut instincts and intuition online.

In today’s social culture, we have been conditioned to let our attention hop around like Mexican jumping beans. We reach for our phones the minute we have time on our hands - even if that time is quite short.

Use that time wisely — to bring your intuition on line instead.

When you are in a line at the grocery store or coffee shop, take a pit stop. Imagine a traffic signal and do that self-check-in. Are you in the green, yellow or red in the three bands of self-awareness?

How are you feeling in your body? In your emotional spectrum? And in your mental state of mind?

Just a few self-check-ins throughout the day will hone your intuition.

Prepare to feel some goosebumps and delight in them!

You just might feel a intuitive nudge so strong it makes you skip a step!