What to do the next time you have to make an important decision…

If I could go back in time, I would listen to my intuition more instead of allowing other people and their issues, drama, and priorities to negatively influence my choices. Even though I have learned to trust my intuition over the years, there are still times when I wish I had paid more attention to what my inner voice of wisdom was trying to warn me about before making decisions that affect my life, business, happiness, and peace of mind.

Think of your intuition as a gut feeling, instinct, hunch, or the voice of your best self.  Unfortunately, women and girls often ignore our intuition and allow outside influences to take us off course and interfere with our happiness and well-being.  Ignoring your feelings and inner wisdom can take you away from your goals and desires and lead to disappointment, pain, heartache, and drama. Sometimes we ignore our intuition or try to shut it down because we don’t have a logical explanation for it.

Instead, you can tap into the power of your intuition and use it as your own internal compass or GPS navigation system to guide you in the direction of your best self.  If something rubs you the wrong way about a person or a situation, pay attention to your internal warning signals instead of other people’s opinions about how you should feel or what you should do.

Here’s an example:

Aisha was really flattered when a cute guy named Damon asked her to go with him to a Homecoming party, but she got a weird feeling in her stomach about it, even though he drove a nice car and was really popular at school.  She told her best friend Kim that she wasn’t going to accept his invitation, but she changed her mind after Kim insisted that Damon was the greatest thing since the iPhone and told her that she could be missing out on a great boyfriend if she didn’t go out with him.  Aisha brushed off the weird feeling and spent her entire paycheck on a new outfit and boots.  She went to the party with Damon and he turned out to be a self-absorbed jerk who ended up making out with another girl at the party and leaving her stranded.

Aisha decided to catch a ride home with her friend Ryan, even though she smelled like weed and Hennessy and could barely stand up.  Aisha felt uncomfortable about it, but she got into her car anyway because she didn’t have enough money to catch a taxi and her feet hurt too bad to walk home in her new boots. To make matters worse, they got pulled over by the cops and Aisha was arrested even though she had never smoked marijuana a day in her life.

As Aisha spend the night in jail, she was heated and stressed out about possibly losing her scholarship when her school found out about the incident.  As far as she was concerned, it was Kim’s fault that she caught a case because she was the one who had pressured her into calling Damon. She couldn’t wait to get out of jail so she could go off on Kim.  It was too painful for Aisha to face the truth that she could have avoided the situation altogether if she had just listened to that inner voice that told her not to go out with Damon and the uncomfortable feeling that warned her not to get into the car with Ryan.

It can be hard to hear our wisdom when we are caught up in the excitement of a situation or distracted by our thoughts or other people’s opinions and expectations.

When was the last time you listened to your intuition?

The next time you are faced with an important decision, be still and listen to what your inner guidance is trying to tell you.

Honoring this special gift that we all have is an important step towards making healthy choices that are guided by self-love instead of fear, self-hate, and self-sabotage.

Affirmation:

“I honor and trust the voice of wisdom and guidance inside of me”

All my best,

PS: As I write my upcoming book, I will be sharing tips, advice, and inspiration to empower young women and girls to be their best selves. Let me know if there’s a topic, challenge, or issue that you want me to address for you or a friend in my book or blog.