Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 364 of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast! I’m glad you’re here and I hope you’re loving the episodes! Don’t forget to subscribe to the show and also give me a 5 star rating if it’s resonating with you…I have a podcast coming out Monday on a different vibe…it’s all about ChatGPT, you don’t want to miss it. It’s fun.
OK, Have you ever been doing something when you had a subtle feeling inside you that “if you do that, it’s not gonna end well” but then there was a louder thought that says just do it. For example, Maybe you’re carrying your coffee to the table and in order to not have to make two trips you want to take your plate, your phone, your glasses, and your fork along with your full cup of coffee…there’s a voice in your head that says “you’re gonna spill something if you do that” but then another one that says, “it will be fine”. And so you try to carry it all at once and. You spill it. And you say now I knew that was gonna happen. And you absolutely did know it but that other thought of just do it, won out and because of your rushed plan you ended up with coffee all over the floor or worse, your entire breakfast and the coffee on the floor. You might have guessed I had this experience just this week.
I opted to go with the louder voice and it didn’t end well. Deep down though I knew I didn’t need to be trying to carry it all at once.
I’m finding that the more I follow my deep intuition the better my life is. I can think of many times in the past where I didn’t follow my gut and wished that I had. I listened more to the loud impulsive voice in my head instead of that deep down feeling that hey maybe we should think on this one a little more.
That deep down intuition is our inner guidance system sort of guiding us through our life, this type of thinking comes from our frontal brain or our intelligent brain. The loud verbal impulsive thoughts are often coming from our primitive brain.
I dated a really nice man when I was in my 30’s who would have been a wonderful provider, he was funny, well liked, stable and just a really great guy. He made me laugh but we didn’t like the same things, he had very different interests from me. He was what they call a great catch and I knew I would be well taken care of and part of me said I would be crazy to leave but deep down I knew he wasn’t right and so I ended it with him and now Im with someone that felt right from the moment we first talked. Our intuition is so valuable and the more we listen for it and really hear it, the better off we will be.
What I mean by hear it is hear it from the part of the brain that will listen.
In order to hear it from the part of your brain that will listen, you have to be aware that you are having it. You can’t be on autopilot.
So. Let’s first of all figure out if you’re living your life on autopilot. Here are a few hints that you may be. First of all do you ignore personal growth or prioritize comfort over growth? (Im thinking no if you’re listening to me regularly) Do you often feel disengaged or bored in your life, to the point where you just follow your routines unconsciously. Do you try to ignore or suppress your emotions avoiding self awareness? Maybe you aren’t fully present with your day to day just sort of going through the motions. Your thoughts are the last thing you want to be aware of because they aren’t very nice about you or the people around you. Doesn’t sound like a fun way to live, but it’s reality for a lot of people today. That’s why you see over eating, over drinking, over consuming and drugs becoming more and more prevalent.
Self Awareness is the key. This morning Jeff Warren from the Calm app was guiding us through a meditation where we stayed present to a specific sensation in our body while also opening our eyes and looking at our surroundings. It’s harder than you think. I have found myself being so lost in my thoughts that I have no idea where I even am, I know you have too because it’s part of being a human. The key though is catching yourself when you’re doing it and bringing yourself back to the present.
I was having a conversation recently with someone that I barely knew and they were a little louder than I like but also just non stop talking. Come to think of it it wasn’t a conversation it was a one way street. I noticed at one point while they were talking, my thoughts drifted off to other things but then I realized it and thought you know what, this is a good time to practice staying present in a situation where I would not normally stay present. Guess what? I managed to not only stay present but was able to ask questions and we ended up having a really nice conversation. I almost think they could sense the shift in my focus and relaxed and then the conversation became much more of a two way street.
The point is self awareness is one of the main qualities of living intentionally. Self Awareness and autopilot don’t coexist very often.
But once your self awareness grows and you start noticing your thoughts, you’re going to realize that you have a lot of them but not all of the thoughts telling you to do something or not are your intuition guiding you. Some of them are just sentences in your head. It’s important that we know the difference. I’ll give you an example. You wake up and you had planned to go to the gym but the voice in your head says just “stay in bed”. And it’s loud. That voice is loud. But then you also have this feeling deep down that going to the gym is what you really need and want to do for so many reasons. So they are both voices in your head but one is more of a vibe or a feeling and one is a loud verbal thought. I read once that intuition is not like the waves on the surface of the ocean but more like the tide beneath those waves. I feel that. I feel like my intuition is more of a deep feeling of I really should be doing “this”. I was at a seminar in California in 2005 and when we were asked to write a letter describing my soulmate, I couldn’t do it because I knew the man I was dating was not going to fit that letter, I wanted to go home. My thoughts were loud about wanting to go home to my comfortable stable life but deep down, my intuition deep down was that I knew I had to stay and write that letter and I did and Im forever glad because I met the man who is now my husband after that moment and he fit that letter perfectly.
We all have those thoughts of “they’re gonna laugh if you write your book” or You aren’t smart enough to do that job or Im too old to lose weight. We have them but you know what? there’s a reason we are even having them its because deep down somewhere in the deepest part of our soul our inner guidance system is trying to get us to live our fullest life. Don’t ignore it or poo poo it. That’s where the good stuff is.
We all have an inner guidance system and we all have a primitive brain trying to drown it out. It’s not doing it to hurt us, it’s doing it to protect us, but so much of that protection is unnecessary in our modern life. And a big part of living a full human life is doing things that are out of our comfort zone and our inner guidance system knows the sky is the limit and often we have to step out of our comfort zone to get there, we have to get out of bed, we have to stay at the seminar, we have to write the book, or take the job, or have the children. Deep down you know what to do.
My challenge to you this week is to listen and feel for your intuition. Yes you’re gonna have conflicting loud thoughts but the more you get in touch with yourself, the more you drown those loud thoughts out and make room for the deep seated knowing that you were meant for more. And when you follow that and you succeed you will proudly be able to say “I knew that was gonna happen”. Share this with 3 people meant for more. I love you guys, I’ll talk to you in a few days!
