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Question for you, how often do you trust your gut? In hindsight, it is often much easier for us to understand what our intuition was trying to tell us, But in the moment of a big decision, listening to your gut and trusting your intuition isn't that simple. That is why I brought on The Stress Less Show this week intuitive development coach, Colleen St. Michaels, to help demystify the power of intuition so that we can start to listen to what our gut is telling us in the moment and act on what it is trying to tell us.
Colleen first discovered the power of intuition within herself before learning how to teach others to do the same. By trusting her intuition, she was able to create a life for herself that was completely unimaginable in her situation before.
“I was in a very unhealthy marriage for many years. I was starting from ground zero after losing a home, my whole finances, my whole situation, and left to tend to my children and figure it out. If it wasn't for my intuition that was guiding me in the work with my angels, I can't say I could be where I am today.”
Now through her work on her own intuition, she is able to help dozens and dozens of clients tap into their own intuition and start to build lives filled with passion and fulfillment spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, and even professionally.
it's all of her experience Colleen has amassed a couple of powerful insights on intuition that I am so happy she shared with me this week. Read on to learn what your intuition really is and how you can begin to tap into it!
What is Your Intuition?
We've all heard people talk about intuition or tell us to listen to our gut when we’re trying to make decision, but what does that really mean? Often, I find that not a lot of us really understand what our intuition actually is. Fortunately, Colleen breaks it down for us in a really helpful way. To start, she emphasizes that there are two voices that are working within us at all times. One is our intuition, the other is our ego.
“Your ego is never your amigo. It's not saying nice things to you. It's bringing up the past, disappointments. It is shaming you. It is placing you into this very negative place within yourself.”
We are often very attuned to when our ego is speaking to us. As soon as we are faced with a decision or opportunity, we can hear it loud and clear, filling us with doubt, and confusion. However, our intuition is also there inside of us too.
“Often, we don't want to listen to our intuition, but it's always speaking.”
Colleen highlights the importance of remembering that our intuition is not something we have to create or learn from scratch. It is something we already know.
“When you're learning to develop your intuition, always know that it's in you. It's remembering how to use it… Remembrance that we came to this world with this internal gps that was imprinted within us to help guide our personal journeys.”
How Do We Know When Our Intuition Is Telling Us Something?
Before we can act on our intuition, we have to first be able listen to it. Listening to our intuition is something that many of us struggle with. We often have so many conflicting thoughts and voices in our heads that trying to decipher between our ego, our fears and our intuition can seem impossible. The key, Colleen stresses, is to remember that while our ego tends to say negative and confusing things to us, or intuition speaks much more consistently and in a language much deeper and almost foreign to most of us.
“Our intuition speaks through either the physical self or your emotions...You feel calm [and] most people feel uncomfortable feeling calm because they feel like that's not prepared. When we are in that state of calm - even if it's just for one breath - we're then aligning ourselves and tuning into ourselves.”
In order to focus in on this intuition, it helps to incorporate mindfulness in our day to quiet the ego in your brain.
“You can't find answers in chaos. So just pause, breathe. Take that breath and then ask yourself the investigative question: what is not aligned with my life?”
When we start to quietly and calmly consider this question inside of us, we allow our intuition the chance to guide us as we continue through our lives. Only by allowing our intuition the chance to speak to us, can we begin to listen and harness the power it has in shaping our lives.