Do you consider yourself to be an intuitive person? Some people don’t think of themselves as intuitive, but they will admit to having a gut feeling or an inner knowing. You’ll often hear people say,

• I knew I should’ve done that;

• All the red flags were there;

• Hindsight is 2020; or

• I had a funny feeling!

The truth is everyone is intuitive, and this inner knowing is a great guide to live by. So why do we sometimes ignore this feeling? It could be because you don’t totally trust yourself, so you either don’t hear your inner voice or you choose not to listen.

Here are 2 ways you can develop trust and hone the intuition skills you naturally have:

Get Quiet

Developing trust starts with quieting your mind down long enough to tune in to how you feel in your body. Your body knows the answer, not your head. This is why you’ll hear some of the greatest thought leaders, like Ekhart Tolle, tell you to drop out of your head and into your heart.

Intuition is the “feeling” you get walking to your car late at night when someone pulls up to ask you for directions that tells you deep inside that this person doesn’t really want directions, so you run the other way. This actually happened to me years ago, and my intuition was right because as soon as I ran back to the theater I was walking out of, he sped off.

But we don’t just have to trust our intuition during a perceived emergency. We can learn to trust our intuition every day for even the smallest of things, like driving. Sometimes, I’ll leave my navigation system off when I’m going somewhere for the second or third time, and I’ll use my intuition to decide where and which way to turn. Playing around with something simple like driving is a great place to start developing that trust, because you don’t have too much attachment to the outcome.

When you’re quiet, you’re also better able to follow what feels good. The best thing you can do for yourself is to close your eyes and tune in to how you FEEL. What is your body telling you?

When you stop and go within, you break away from those all-consuming thoughts and worries about how you’re going to proceed. You stop questioning whether you’re ready or good enough. Questions like:

• Who am I to do this?;

• What if I’m rejected?; and

• What if I fail?

no longer rent space in your head.

Release Some of that Negative Self-Talk:

Trusting becomes easier when you release that negative self-talk that likely isn’t real or true to begin with. Aside from quieting your inner critic, it helps to slow down those constant thoughts or, as Deepak Chopra talks about, creates a gap between them. You can create this gap or space through meditation.

Know that your thoughts are usually just a story you tell yourself; and for the most part, they’re unconscious, meaning you don’t even realize what you’re thinking about.

Where these thoughts and stories become a problem is when you let them stop you from following your intuition through to completion or from going after your dream. You give up on the very thing that was nudging you forward, or you don’t even get started.

In the book Leveraging the Universe, Mike Dooley writes that your dream doesn’t end until you quit. When you worry about how it’s going to happen and judge your success based on what you presently see in your life, you lose steam and may put a stop to that initial idea.

I believe that those little whispers and nudges are actually the ticket to the next stop on our journey. I also believe that if you have an idea or desire to do something, then you CAN have it or achieve it; otherwise, you never would’ve had the urge to begin with.

Somewhere among all those thoughts are million-dollar ideas and solutions you’ve been seeking. They could be the answers you’ve been searching for, or this inner wisdom might be leading you to the answer in a roundabout way.

For example, a colleague suggested I start a MeetUp group. Because this idea sparked curiosity and excitement, I set up a group, which led to a business connection, which led to two new clients.

So be present, and take a few seconds to absorb an idea and notice how you feel. Perhaps you can take a few minutes to meditate on it or just close your eyes and take a couple of deep breaths.

Believe, persevere and move in the direction of your desires and dreams. Move one tiny step at a time if you must, but move forward, always following what feels good. Listen to your intuition, and trust that you know more than you think, because you do. Hindsight is always 2020!