How To Trust Your Intuition When Making Important Decisions

Have you been struggling with making the right decision?

Does the simple fact that you must decide cause you fear and anxiety, and you end up overthinking about it until you're all stressed out? That is because, in our society, we are not taught how to make decisions that lead to a happy, meaningful life.

If you want to learn how to make the right decisions that will ultimately lead to living a purposeful life, keep on reading, as I will teach you how to use the most powerful tool you have when it comes to making decisions – your intuition.

Making the right decision is an important step in living a happy and fulfilling life. Albert Camus once said,

“You are the sum of your choices”

I believe that this is true.

Every day, we are faced with decisions, and each of them shapes our lives in one way or another, as each decision is, in itself, a path that you can choose to follow or not follow.

I'm talking about all sorts of decisions – from choosing your career at a young age to choosing to leave a certain relationship or job when you're on the verge of your middle-age crisis, and so on.

You're always one decision away from a completely different life

Try to see each decision-making moment as a crossroads. If you choose one path, it will come with certain advantages and disadvantages, with good and bad, gifts and losses, etc.

If you choose the other path, the outcome will be totally different. Now, the question is, how do you know which decision is the right one for you?

It seems impossible to anticipate the outcome of a certain situation, as life is full of unpredictable events. However, you don't have to do that to know which decision is the right one for you. As you learn to tune in to your intuition, the right path will be revealed for you, naturally and effortlessly. 

What Is Intuition?

Bruce Kasanoff recently published an article in Forbes magazine in which he declared intuition to be “The highest form of intelligence we possess”.

One of the world's most intelligent man, Albert Einstein, wrote about intuition:

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift”.

So, what is intuition? 

In psychological terms, I would describe intuition as “the ability to know something that you haven't perceived through any of your conscious senses, to receive information that has not been revealed to you in any tangible, physical way”.

Psychologist Carl Jung described intuition as “the ability to tap into the collective consciousness and decode the information it comprises”.

This means that the existence of intuition as a sixth sense has been noticed by psychologists and scientists all over the world, and it is little doubt left over the fact that we do have a sixth sense that works differently than the other five (vision, smell, hearing, taste, and the tactile sense).

This sixth sense manifests itself in the form of gut feelings, hunches, or instincts, which we undoubtedly all feel inside our bodies at certain times.

In spiritual terms, I will say that intuition is the voice of your soul – the Soul's GPS, if you'd like.

In other words, your Spirit Guides and Guardian Angels are nudging you in the right direction by sending you energies and feelings deep inside your soul felt as the abovementioned “hunches”, “gut feelings”, or “instincts”.

Where Does Intuition Come From? 

From a neuropsychological point of view, intuition resides in our subconscious mind and is governed by the right side of our brain, which is also responsible for emotions, empathy, creativity, imagination, and talent.

The subconscious mind is way more powerful than our conscious mind, and it dictates our response in most situations we encounter. 

We know so little about the power of our intuition and how to use it for our own good because society mainly focuses on the abilities of our left brains.

These are language, mathematical calculations, and memory – basically all the linear, conscious processes of the brain.

Educational systems worldwide teach children how to write and read, memorize and calculate, recognize certain things, and so on, but they deeply neglect the intuitive-imaginative and emotional side of our brains. 

From a spiritual perspective, the origin of intuition is our “Divine essence” – which is our soul.

Our souls are charged with light and wisdom and always receive messages from our spirit guides and guardian angels. All we have to do is stop living in fear and listen to them. 

How To Know Your Intuition From Fear?

When we're faced with a major decision, it's always a battle between our conscious and our subconscious mind.

Our subconscious mind, which also contains our intuition, is deeply connected to our power and Divine Essence, has access to the collective consciousness, and tries to make decisions that might seem unconventional at times but are always in accordance with our greater good. 

On the other hand, our conscious mind is governed by all societal norms and ideas that were transmitted to us by our parents. And by ideas, I mean all the conditions, the “what ifs “, fears and irrational thoughts that they might have had.

Now, this does not mean that our conscious mind is bad or inferior to our subconscious mind in any way because we do need both of them to function properly. The main question is how you find the balance between them when you are making an important decision. 

If you ever found yourself agonizing over a decision, overthinking every possible implication and outcome, and not being able to finally make a decision that you are happy with. In that case, it means that you did not find that balance.

Not only did you not find the balance between the subconscious (emotional-intuitive) and conscious (analytical, reasonable) side of your being, but you still lived in fear under the weight of all the negative conditioning that was transmitted to you over the course of years. 

What Does Intuition Feel Like?

The first step towards making decisions based on your intuition and not on your fear is to distinguish one from the other.

Now, you must be wondering what intuition feels like compared to fear.

Well, that's an easy distinction to make because they feel very different. 

When your intuition speaks to you, you will feel happy and at peace.

An idea will pop into consciousness that will make you feel at ease and give you the inner knowing that everything will be okay if you follow it.

What your intuition tells you might often contradict a few societal norms and rules, but it will feel right at the deepest level, leaving you feeling that if you follow that path, things will somehow turn out really well.

Your body will send you all the signals that indicate it is the right path – relaxed muscles, a state of joy, and a powerful feeling of self-confidence. 

In contrast, when your fear is driving you towards a certain path, you will feel anxious, perhaps even angry or worried.

Your body will send you the signals that this is not the right way – the muscles in your body will tense, your palms might feel sweaty and you might have an uncomfortable sensation in your stomach.

When you're about to decide out of fear, your mind will make all the justifications for it, such as:

“You shouldn't leave this job because you will not manage to make ends meet.”

“It's safer to work a 9 to 5 job than it is to run your own business.”

“You shouldn't leave him/her because you're already in your 40s and might end up all alone” and so on.

If such a thought is fueling your decision, then it's your fear deciding for you. 

Why It's Important To Listen To Your Intuition When Making Important Decisions

Ultimately, before delving into the actual method teaching you how to make decisions based on your intuition instead of fear, it's important to understand why you do this in the first place.

Intuition is connected to the collective consciousness, which means that it has access to what other people think or feel about you, to what is going to happen, and to the energy of a certain place or person.

Also, intuition brings messages from our Guardian Angels and Spirit Guides, who are constantly trying to steer you in the right direction.

As light beings, they might know the outcome of certain situations way better than your over-analyzing, quite limited conscious mind. 

The knowledge of your conscious mind is limited to what you see or hear because it works through your basic five senses, whereas the knowledge of your subconscious mind is unlimited, as this is connected with all the knowledge and data from the informational field of the universe.

Therefore, by listening to your intuition, you tap into a different type of wisdom and knowledge.

You may not know the outcome of certain situations, but your subconscious, your Spirit Guides, and your Guardian Angels sure do!

How To Trust Your Intuition When Making Meaningful Decisions 

Ultimately, we've reached the final stage – which is teaching you how to listen to your intuition when making an important decision!

If you've read this far, congratulations because you are about to change your life for the better!

Learning to make a decision based on your intuition may not be easy at first, especially if you were raised in an environment where only the rational mind was nourished and you were taught to analyze everything from its perspective.

Tuning into your intuition will require the courage to stop listening to fear, stop overthinking, and make decisions solely based on reasoning. 

Now, I don't want to say that intuition is the opposite of logic.

Not at all. In fact, intuition is based on a different type of logic and intelligence, and it has the power to steer us towards decisions that make more sense in the long run. 

If you are facing a major decision right now, follow the next three steps to know what your intuition is telling you about it: 

Improve Self-Trust, Confidence, And Self-love

The conscious mind is full of fear and anxiety, as it has been absorbing a lot of negative conditioning from other people and situations that shaped you the way you are.

The Intuitive mind, on the other hand, is anchored in courage and faith, as it is your higher form of intelligence, directly connected to Divinity and the collective consciousness.

Therefore, to make sure that you're not making the decision that fear dictates, try to take a break from the situation and work on your self-esteem and self-confidence.

I recommend three ways of doing this:

The first way is to see from which situation in your past the fear comes.

Where and when did you learn that you must be afraid?

Release all the beliefs you have acquired in those situations and learn to trust yourself again. 

The second way to improve your self-esteem and self-confidence is by using affirmations.

It may seem like a cliché, but affirmations work if you believe in them.

The third way is, of course, to ask for the help of a therapist if you cannot release fear and anxiety on your own. After doing all this work with yourself, you are ready to hear what your intuition is saying.

Try The “Decision-Making Meditation”

When you've released all the fears and insecurities that were preventing you from hearing your intuition and you have finally gained confidence in yourself again, you are ready to try my “decision-making meditation”.

Just like any other meditation, it starts with relaxation.

Get comfortable in a silent and safe environment, play your favorite meditation music, and relax each muscle of your body.

If you are a highly spiritual person, you can also light a candle and ask for your Spirit Guides and Guardian Angels' help.

You can even use a few affirmations for enhancing self-confidence at the beginning of your meditation or whatever feels right for you.

The bottom line is that you are allowed to get creative with it as long as you still stick to the main structure.

The core of this meditation is when you place your left hand (connected to the right side of your brain) above your heart and visualize both or all different paths you could take.

Visualize each of them as if it has already happened, in as much detail as you can – where you are, what you are doing, with whom, how you look, and so on.

Listen To Body And Gut Feeling

After visualizing one possible path, see how you feel about it in your heart and body.

Your whole body will be sending signals regarding how beneficial a certain situation is for you.

If you have an unpleasant, heavy feeling in your chest or stomach, or if your muscles clench and you feel instant rage or fear, that's most certainly a no.

If the opposite happens, you have a pleasant feeling in your heart, even if you cannot explain why, and your body relaxes and starts to feel good; that's a yes. 

Some people can hear their intuition as a “voice” inside their mind speaking to them quite clearly, saying “yes”, “no”, or “hell no” about a certain situation.

Intuition has many ways of speaking to us if only we are willing to listen.

My intuition, for example, is quite vocal in terms of telling me who to remove from my life, and it is right one hundred per cent of the time.

Every time I didn't listen, I had to put up with unpleasant consequences.

Once we start “exercising” our intuition, it will speak to us more and more, and it will become a faithful guide throughout life.

Remember that the best decision is the one with which both your heart and your brain resonate.

At the end of the “Decision-making Meditation,” you should have reached a decision that is in perfect balance with your reasoning and emotional side, and most importantly, you have the right feeling in your heart when you think about it. 

A person who makes decisions listening to their intuition and taking their own needs and desires into consideration is most likely to live a happy and fulfilled life.

In contrast, a life built on fear-based decisions can only attract more fear and other negative emotions, which will ultimately lead to a depressing, unfulfilling life. 

I look forward to receiving your feedback about the decision-making meditation in the comments section and would love to read your stories about how listening to your intuition improved your life radically!