My latest article is about learning to trust your intuition. Whenever I've gone against my intuition I've tripped up, so I've learned to respect this inner guidance!

Trusting Your Intuition

Hi Lauren, I enjoyed your article! Joy

Hi Lauren,

Great article! I can relate. As an HR manager, I do a lot of interviewing and help a lot of supervisors with interviewing and candidate selection. There are times when certain candidates just raise a "red flag" for me. They look great on paper, they may have even had good answers to the questions, but there is something about them. A phrase, stray comment... Whenever I decide to ignore that "feeling" it always comes back to bite me. Every - single - time.

A couple of times I tested it. I didn't tell the hiring supervisor my concern because I didn't want to "taint" their opinion of the candidate. They hired the person and my concerns came into fruition. I even hired staff reporting directly to me when my intuition was screaming "don't do it!" Well we all know how that tale goes.

Anyway, great article and thanks for adding validity to "that feeling."

Thanks Joy and Dianne

Yes absolutely you can make excellent choices when using your intuition, which some 'equal ops' types would no doubt be furious about!

Some years ago I was in the position of being party to a recruitment process where I would be working closely with the chosen person, but the candidates were only being introduced to me, I wasn't part of the interview. I felt a clear warning vibe about the 'stronger' candidate, but was not listened to when I expressed my concerns. Suffice it to say my vibes were spot on about her!

I have learned, the hard way, not to discount the utterings of what I call "the little voice". Through trial and error (and error and error, lol), I have learned to recognize when it's The Little Voice speaking up, and when it's just a stray thought. I have lived to regret ignoring those impressions when they crop up.

I was talking to a friend a few years ago, and she described how she was driving home from work -- a long commute -- when she noticed the battery indicator on the dashboard flicker on briefly. She was on a highway that, had she continued, was about to lead her onto a bridge that crosses the Delaware River.

She got a strong sense to get off the highway and pull into the nearest parking lot. Specifically, she wanted to avoid being on the bridge if the car should suddenly break down.

Fortunately, she heeded the warning and took the next exit ramp, instead of crossing the bridge. She did manage to make it safely to a parking area where she was away from the rush-hour traffic. But not before the car started playing up terribly. Once she stopped in the parking lot, the car refused to start again. Turns out the alternator went kaput.

If she had ignored that urge to avoid the bridge and get off the highway, the car most likely would have gone PFFT while crossing the bridge, which would have caused a monster traffic jam at best, an accident at worst. When she described that internal urge to me, I said, "That's it! That's 'the little voice'!" I'm always glad to help others identify when their own version of The Little Voice is manifesting itself. There would be far fewer headaches in the world if everyone recognized and accepted that we all have this capability -- and then listened to the voice when it speaks up.

Lovely article Lauren. I liked the way you have explained that how can we learn to listen to our intuition.

Absolutely! That little voice has come in for me to help with everything between avoiding minor irritation to absolute catastrophe. Potentially it is a true life saver, so listen up to your Self folks!

It took me a very, very, very long time to discern my intuition because as a child, I was raised to doubt myself. The well-meaning people around me taught me to seek outwardly for advice and direction, namely THEM. LOL. I was just a child so what did I know? They made me feel as though I was crazy when I saw ghosts or felt and knew things that I shouldn't have known.

It was very hard for me to trust my own feelings when I was raised to be a pleaser and put everyone else's feelings before my own. It didn't help at all that I am empathic so I absorbed everyone else's energies around me, including their feelings.

This really made my life confusing and difficult. When things got really hard, however, there it was: that little spark inside. I finally get how to discern what is my own intuition and what is incoming feelings from others. It helps immensely although I still slip up on occasion and think, "Ugh, why didn't I go with my first gut feeling?"

There is a still small voice that is so so quiet and my own thoughts are loud. I'm finally getting it. I have to be still to feel the true peace that comes with following my intuition. No doubt.