Who do you turn to when you’re feeling stuck and not sure what next step to take? How do you recalculate a path that seems, as least in the moment, to be a bit like Ground Hog’s Day? Where do you look when the seas of your life are rocky? Who do you engage with when life is going great, and you want it to only get better?

I’m sure many of you reading this have a trusted friend, mentor, coach, or pastor but what if I were to suggest that the most important person to turn to first was you? On the path to making the ideal vision for your life real, you truly are the only one in the driver’s seat knowing all the inner and outer workings. Even when you’ve opted to gather advice, is there a resonance, a way you know which to follow and which not to? If you are a person of faith, there is also God, but how does He get his messages to you, and how do you know it’s Him?

This inner advisor I’m coining your inner CEO (get to know yours at the guided meditation below), but is also referred to as your inner wisdom, that still, small voice, your intuition, a feeling and a knowing that you just know. It’s all vague, confusing, and not really taught to us throughout life. It has a language and a feel all its own yet there are no courses to learn it. In my experience it’s meant to be listened to with curiosity and engaged with. It doesn’t command, it doesn’t use fear tactics, it truly is the quiet one in the back nudging you in everyday moments on your highest and best path. 

My own life experience of re-building my relationship with my intuition has brought more clarity, stronger boundaries, a more vibrant me, joy, better romance, adventure, etc. All this after decades of being a codependent people-pleaser who never felt good in her own skin (it’s super hard to tune into you when you’re extra tuned into the needs of others). I share a few more details of this here. And I truly believe that when we have the tools to blend analytics and intuition business will be more efficient and successful as will all of our relationships. 

So, where does one begin? Like any interview or first date, you simply begin by getting to know and getting comfortable on topics that have no repercussions. The most important thing to do is to engage, to ask, to wonder, to listen, to learn. All senses that seem archaic in our busy modern world but are that much more important. 

Here are some examples to begin simply engaging with your inner wisdom:

• On a walk, ask your intuition which direction to go at certain intersections
• Out to eat and you can pick any table, let your intuition guide you
• Not sure what to make for lunch, open the fridge and ask your intuition where to start, or try it out for dinner every night for 30 days with the challenge below.
• Picking flowers to bring to a friend and all are just so beautiful, your intuition knows exactly which will light them up

As you build your relationship with your inner wisdom it’s also important to follow these next steps to ensure clarity. And to remember your intuition is always calm and rooted sounding and feeling and always always leads with love. 

If you prefer to listen to video. Check out this playlist on youtube for the 4 steps.

Step 1: Clear out the clutter

What & why: Physically, mentally, energetically, & spiritually, clutter is distracting, heavy, and just noisy. The most important step I take every day is to do a simple visualization that ensures, as a highly sensitive person, I’m not holding onto other people’s gunk. All humans do it, not just the 20% of us that are wired to take in the world at greater detail. It’s how the science of energy and atoms works, things just stick to each other (who remembers high school science classes?).

How to: Every morning before you get out of bed with your eyes closed envision a stream of bright white light. Next envision yourself walking through that light and as you do it’s removing anything that’s not yours, is heavy, and no longer serves you. Leaving a stressful situation and feeling off? This is another great tool to do as you’re on your way out. You can also do the above at night before you fall asleep. 

Step 2: Be intentional

What & why: Intention targets our focus. It ensures we are aiming in the right direction and all of our energy is aligned behind it. Without intention it’s easy to get lost, distracted, and veer off the path we’re forging for ourselves. 

How to: Every morning after I clear out the clutter, I ask in my heart and in the notes section of my daily planner, “how can I best serve today?” Yours can be the same or something that’s more pressing in your life right now. Another example could be, if you’re focused on finding a more fulfilling and financially rewarding job, set the intention to be guided as to the next best step you can take today and let your intuition nudge you along. 

Step 3: Listen to your body

What & why: When we create space to listen to our bodies and the little cues they send us, we’d learn that our bodies are wired with millions of years of knowledge. Our bodies are always talking to us, but we’ve spent most of our lives not letting ourselves feel. There’s even a whole movement now focused on embodiment. But what does this even mean? Feel suddenly exhausted after leaving someone but you thought you had a good time? Tense up at the thought of heading to a certain restaurant? Cannot seem to get motivated to head to your favorite workout?

How to: Begin to notice what your body is saying to you, begin to ask yourself how you feel before, during, and after. Marie Kondo talks about this when purging. How do you feel when you hold this item you’re determined to keep for x, y, z reason?

Step 4: Movement mobilizes possibility

What & why: When we follow the previous 3 steps & engage with our intuition with curiosity, we can begin to build a rapport with the actions it nudges us to take. We begin to learn it’s nuanced tones, feelings, and language. 

An example of this could be, you’re out to dinner and the host wants to seat you at a table, your intuition nudges to wait, you notice this and think what’s the big deal plus you don’t want to irritate the host so you follow their lead. You’re about to order dinner when a couple is seated next to you, they’re fighting and they ruin your cozy dinner and you can’t even hear the others you’re with. 

So you didn’t act on this one, but you learned a lot. 

The next time you’re out to dinner, the same thing happens, but this time you’ve learned. You ask your intuition if you should wait. No. Huh no? Suddenly you spot a table open by the window. Ask. Ohhh. If you’ve ever worked in the service industry, this can be uncomfortable, but muster up the courage and ask respectfully and with grace for what you want. You do and you have the best dinner and catch a stunning sunset. 

How to: As you notice your intuition, begin to engage with it with curiosity. Allow it to slowly but surely nudge your life in the direction you’ve always desired to go. Whether you act on it or not begin to track your learnings so you trust to act on it more. These tiny shifts of movement in a new-ish direction open your line of sight and mobilize more possibility. 

I’ve always noticed and noted when someone who’s built an inspiring life can see back to that tipping point when they followed an intuitive call and with persistence kept going. It really makes me wonder why we don’t teach more about this beautiful intuitive gift we each have within us, and how to use it for the good of all in our every day choices. 

Below are additional resources that have helped me:

• A Still, Small Voice by Echo Bodine
• Atomic Habits by James Clear Because intuition speaks to us in small moments, learning the brain and habits adds more tools to your toolkit
• Colette Baron Reid, a spiritual teacher who’s been through the trenches always has a great way of explaining harder to explain things. Here’s her take on intuition.
• A meditation created by me

Have a story where you listened to your inner knowing and it opened up a beautiful new world for you? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.