Knowing what your intuition is telling you is one thing. Trusting it to the point where you wonder if you’re delusional and headed for financial ruin is another.
Sometimes our intuitive guidance is clear. We have a feeling, a knowing, or a desire that drops in like truth. But what if following it means stepping away from what feels safe? Often our guidance asks us to make a change or do something that makes no sense to the people around us (or sometimes even to us).
Learning to trust my intuition has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. I’ve come to see it as a process involving five things: hearing the guidance, understanding our desires, trusting the timing, taking action and surrendering the outcome.
1. Hear the guidance
At my Kundalini yoga teacher training in India, we gathered around a bonfire beside the river. I got down on my knees and prayed for the freedom to follow my path. As I did, my body filled with energy, and I knew that I already had this freedom; I just had to trust it.
I’ve started to realise that we often hear our intuition; we’re just not sure we can listen. Why is that? Well, listening might mean doing something differently, like leaving a job, disappointing someone we love or letting go of something we’ve worked hard to create.
That can be frightening - seriously.
2. Learn to recognise intuition versus fear
One of the hardest things I’ve learned is distinguishing intuitive guidance from fear.
I’m an overthinker. When I’m frightened, my mind gets loud. My body becomes activated, as if I’m preparing to run. I can get caught up in every possible thing that could go wrong.
Intuition, on the other hand, arrives calmly. It’s steady and strong. Even when it’s telling me something uncomfortable, there’s a calm sense of knowing with it. It might be that it’s time to leave, that we’ve gone too far or need to turn back. While fear tends to be loud and panicked, intuition is slower, surer and stronger.
A question that might help you hear your inner knowing is, ‘what does my heart know that I’m not quite ready to follow?’ I’ve found it shows us exactly where our work is. Journal on that one if you dare!
3. Understand what you really want
Sometimes our heart speaks through desire. We might find ourselves longing for more freedom, connection, creativity, adventure or time in nature.
But how do we know it’s a true desire? We’re constantly being marketed to and sold versions of what life should look like. And many of us have been conditioned to put our desires last, prioritising everyone else’s needs. It’s not surprising we’re left confused! We need to build the muscle of listening in.
For me this meant starting small.
What would I most like to eat right now?
If I could show myself some love today, what would I do?
What makes me feel like a queen (or king)?
Would I like to sit in the sun? Have fresh linen on my bed? Spend an afternoon making something?
I start by paying attention to what I want more of in this moment.
A vision board can be a great next step. Find words and images in magazines and bring them together to capture the feeling of the life you’d like to create. Often we recognise it when we see it. I like to flip through fast, and see what grabs my attention enough to pause.
Once we start identifying our desires, we can look for ways to give ourselves more of them now. For years, I’ve wanted to spend more time immersed in nature, having breakfast surrounded by trees, gazing at the stars. I thought this was something I’d have to wait until I was retired to achieve, but I did my best to start giving some of it to myself immediately. On weekends I’d walk along the river. After work I’d take the train to the beach for a swim. Making more time to be outside and doing this mindfully, with gratitude. I’d say to GUS (god, universe, source) Thank you, thank you. More of this, please.
Rather than trying to create from a place of lack, I gave myself as much of what I was craving as humanly possible. I believe the more we allow ourselves to have what we want, the more capacity we build to receive it (and actually enjoy it when it comes). So many times we are the ones holding ourselves back by not allowing ourselves to sink into pleasure and relish in the abundance of our lives.
4. Trust the timing and be ready to act
We don’t always need to know when or how something is going to happen. I had a mortgage, around $6,000 to my name, and a strong feeling that it was time to leave my job. I asked my inner guides: What will I do? The answer I received was: “Clean for people who can’t clean for themselves.” Not exactly the grand spiritual business expansion plan I might have hoped for!
But I followed the guidance. And what I see in hindsight was that this work was a bridge. It was something supportive for that particular period of my life, a stepping stone towards what was coming next. It also gave me an opportunity to untangle some of my identity from work and make room for something new. And something new did come. A casual job that was beautifully aligned with my business and interests, followed by a move I’d been dreaming about for years.
Sometimes guidance comes in the form of energy shifts. When my move to regional Victoria was in the process of being born, I felt like I simply couldn’t live the way I had been anymore. What had felt okay and manageable for years suddenly felt like I couldn’t do it one day longer. The energy to keep going had left my system and it was time for a radical change.
I assumed I’d need years to save and plan, but things started moving FAST. The first house my husband and I looked at was an immediate yes for both of us. The bank allowed us to borrow, my husband was able to arrange a work transfer, and within three months we were here in our country paradise.
Sometimes things come together much faster than we imagine but we do need to act when we feel in our bones “it’s time”.
5. Surrender the outcome
This might be the hardest part.
We hear the guidance and we’re ready to bravely take steps towards it. But can we let go of needing to know if it will work out exactly how we hope?
When we’re following our path, we want to believe everything will fall into place easily. That the right opportunities will arrive, the money will come and we’ll be carried along by life in a state of bliss. It can be like this! But sometimes we’re asked to walk through a patch of blackberry bushes covered in thorns, to get to what we want on the other side. What if moving to the country means taking work that isn’t ideal for a while? What if creating the life we want requires us to let go of an old identity, a familiar income or a sense of security?
These things are part of the leap - not the final destination.
Often the thing stopping us from moving forward is that we’re afraid of what it might cost us - like being liked, fitting in, maintaining connection, safety, love, security, the life we’ve worked so hard to build.
Our nervous system can be finely tuned to detect threat. When we’re about to step outside what’s familiar, the alarm bells can go off. Oh boy - do they. It can feel like we’re going to die. Our mind gets loud and our protective parts start screaming because they sense they’re losing control to something they don’t fully understand (the forces of intuitive guidance).
It feels like taking a leap, hoping there will be ground on the other side to catch us, but really having no certainty in the rational mind. In the early stages of following that inner guidance, there can be a sense of “can I really trust this”. But the evidence starts to pile up.
I remember wondering whether my guides wanted me to be homeless! Destitute even. Maybe there was something I needed to learn about hitting rock bottom and humbly asking for support. Thankfully, the learning so far hasn’t been in losing everything. It's been in becoming willing to follow the guidance without knowing how it will all work out.
This Kundalini mantra for courage has soothed my frazzled nervous system countless times.
What does your heart already know?
Sometimes we need a little confirmation that we’re not completely making it all up. This is where astrology can be incredibly helpful.
At its best, astrology backs up what you’re already intuitively feeling. It helps you understand the chapter of life you’re in, recognise the opportunities in front of you and say yes to the things that feel most like you.
How can I make money by existing as my authentic self? Can I pause? Can I travel? Can I take a different direction? Can I bet on myself?
There is a certain amount of delusion required to create something extraordinary. Not everything needs to make sense on paper before we begin.
Astrology can act as a map for the unfamiliar territory we’re entering. It can offer some reassurance that we’re not alone, that we’re wildly supported and that many brave seekers have walked these paths before us (although none quite like us).
I think it’s important to surround ourselves with people who are walking their own paths, too. If everyone around you is prioritising security, convention and staying exactly where they are, it can be difficult to imagine another way. We need people around us who are taking risks, following their intuition, creating unconventional lives and backing themselves. These legends remind us what’s possible.
It might look like throwing caution to the wind from the outside, but it might be the greatest investment in yourself you’ve ever made.
Living an intuition-led life
I’ve started living as if the purpose of my life is to follow my intuition.
I listen in, then move towards what feels alive and exciting. I often ask, if I were the main character in a movie, what direction would I want her to take? To stay safe? Or to expand into her next chapter? If I’m honest, I do have a preference to live safely and comfortably forever after, but I’m no longer afraid of starting again.
If we look around at what we have now (our businesses, our lives, our homes, our relationships) this is all the result of our past decisions and actions. When we’ve grown, some of these things may no longer be a match for where we’re headed and need to drop away. I’m open to it all.
Life feels much less scary from this viewpoint and my anxiety quietens down. I’m ultimately moving into more ease and life feels like one big fairy tale. The evidence starts to pile up that I’m moving in the right direction. The synchronicities and signs get stronger.
Over time, these experiences help convince the rational mind that following an intuition led path can lead to a life full of riches beyond our wildest imagining.
We don’t need to know exactly where we’re going if we can trust our hearts and take the next step.
What does your heart know that you’re not quite ready to follow?
