Intuition

There’s a new local coffee café, where I’ve been going to work and write.

 
I’m excited about this place – it’s pretty, trendy, and I can get an Americano that’s at least seventy five percent as good as what I ordered in Australia.

 
This is an accomplishment, considering most of our coffee in the States tastes like dirty water.

 
(America, we do a lot of things right, but coffee isn’t one of them. I had no idea…)

 
This week, I entered conversation with one of the barista’s about the owner, and their coffee distributer, and we chatted for a minute about how fantastic the coffee was in Australia.

 
I sat down with my coffee, still smiling about our conversation and decided to dig through my saved, unpublished blogs in my “Australia” folder.

 
I found one entitled, “Intuition.”

 
I remembered what inspired this blog – and why I decided not to share it.

 
As I read, I was transported back.

 
I could feel the sun on my face as I sat outside that café in Brisbane.

 
I remembered the Australian barista who convinced me to try a dirty chai latte, saying “ah, you have to try it love. You won’t regret it,” in a thick Aussie accent that would have convinced me to buy just about anything he was selling.

 
I remembered my turquoise beach cruiser, with the little basket on the front, propped up against the light pole to my left.

 
And I remembered the deep revelation that accompanied a dream I had the night before, illustrating the magnitude of a toxic relationship that I was departing, from the other side of the world.

 
As I read my own words, I thought about why I landed at the topic of intuition.

 
I was re-evaluating a lot of things in my life –

 
Where was I going?

 
What do I want?

 
What’s the state of my soul?

 
And the state of my relationships….

 
I was angry at myself.

 
Because, I found myself in a situation where I knew things weren’t healthy.

 

I remember reflecting, as if to timeline my experience.

 

And that’s where my anger came in.

 

All along the way in this encounter – from the very start – I knew : “something’s off here.”

 

“This isn’t quite right.”

 

And it continued to be revealed to me, but I didn’t want to accept it.

 

That’s the thing about intuition – it doesn’t always reveal the things we want to be true.

 

Intuition is a powerful force.

 

It can lead us to amazing things.

 

It can lead us to opportunity.

 

Love.

 

Friendship.

 

Success.

 

A new location.

 

A new experience.

 

Intuition can also serve to warn us.

 

To protect us.

 

To lead us away from.

 

Our intuition is the thing we know without knowing. Our hunches, gut feelings…our instincts.

 

We know when something’s wrong.

 

We know when something’s right.

 

We know things that we can’t always articulate.

 

Intuition arrives in different forms –

 

Sometimes, it’s a whisper.

 

Sometimes, it’s loud.

 

Sometimes, our bodies recognize it before our minds in the form of an increased heart rate, a feeling of uneasiness, or the recognition of something familiar.

 

Intuition speaks when we feel someone’s energy.

 

When we find ourselves at a crossroads.

 

And, when our senses provide us with information, that would have been inaccessible otherwise.

 

Much of the struggle is when we fight that knowing. That’s when we enter an inner battle.

 

So….I started to think about the times we choose to ignore our intuition.

 

Why?

 

Probably many reasons, but here’s what I came up with….

 

Doubt and insecurity.

We question ourselves – our intelligence, our ability to read people and situations, our ability to make good decisions.

 

Logic or popular opinion.

Sometimes what’s right for us doesn’t make sense to others. It doesn’t fit the mold, or go with the majority. To be honest, sometimes, what’s right for us doesn’t even make sense to us at the time. We just know it’s right.

 

We are easily manipulated.

We allow other people to tell us who we are, what to think, what’s right, what’s real, how things are and should be. We allow others to drive our car.

 

Trauma.

This one’s too deep to explore, but it’s more than relevant.

 

Excitement, attachment, or addiction.

Sometimes we instinctively know that someone or something is toxic for us and we pursue it anyway? We feel terrible, but enslaved. ….Yeah, that takes me back to trauma actually.

 

It looks good.

We choose the wrong schools, the wrong partners, the wrong jobs – we go against our intuition, because it “seems right” or “looks right.”

 

We take on all the things….

In the case of my dream….we take on someone else’s stuff, negating the evidence that our intuition is in fact on point. No doubt we need to own ours, but we also need to stop there.

 

We are too emotionally invested.

We’ve fought for something. We’ve placed too many expectations on something – and we don’t want to back out now. Maybe we care too much. Or we’re stubborn. 

 

There are many things that could cause us to dismiss our intuition, but think about the times that you listened to your intuition.

 

How did that go for you?

 

Think about the times that you denied or rebelled against your intuition.

 

How did that go for you?

 

We are hardwired with an intuitive spirit for good reason. Intuition, when listened to, is a guiding force helping us to learn the lessons we need to learn, meet the people we need to meet, experience the things we need to experience, and live the lives we are meant to live.