I shared last week about my COVID test and what that taught me about prolonging a posture of dread, staying geared up for the worst, long after hard times pass.
That experience also served to remind me about the importance of letting our intuition work for us, because our guts don’t lie.
I knew in my gut I didn’t have the virus, but I was willing to go through intense discomfort to prove it to myself and everyone else.
No one asked me to prove it. How much unnecessary discomfort do I regularly put myself through to prove what my gut is already telling me is true?
What do we do if our gut tells us one thing but the evidence, the hard facts, appear to point in a different direction? On a good day I give it time, because time will often prove my gut right.
It takes boldness to act on intuition and even more so when there’s absolutely zero truth to support it. What would be the point of even having intuition if we are not going to believe it until the facts line up behind it?
The same thing is true about faith. Faith is believing in what we can’t see, not what we can already prove.
Faith and trust in our intuition are disciplines worthy of developing. Like anything, improvement only comes from repetition—consistently exercising our faith and intuition muscles.
History is filled with people who trusted their intuition and their faith, despite a lack of proof and appearing crazy. Columbus and all the early explorers. The astronauts who took us to the moon. The results of their convictions changed history. They literally opened up a whole new world for everyone.
When I'm not sure I’m hearing my intuition correctly, I pause and don’t take any action. I pray and meditate about it. I journal and ask myself some questions in third person, like: “My intuition is telling me this (fill in the blank). What else would it like me to know?” And then I wait for a response to take over my pen, because it usually does.
I also ask for external confirmation about what my gut is saying. When I’m open, I’ll receive that in all sorts of ways, such as a timely song, an unsolicited word from a friend, or a book passage that jumps out at me. I’ve even seen a street sign that grabbed my attention and randomly validated my instincts.
What small thing could you exercise faith on today? What internal nudging could you act on, or where do you need to let intuition offer you a trust-filled comfort, where previously there has only been doubt and fear due to lack of hard proof?
The answers are inside us and all around us if we’re asking the questions and staying present long enough to hear or see them. May you find presents in your presence today.
