What I Learned from Trusting My Intuition for 30 Days Straight

(originally posted on February 11, 2019)

Several months ago, I embarked on a 30-day personal challenge to listen to and act on my intuition all day, every day. I expected it to transform my life in some magical way … waltzing into my life like a fairy godmother and turning pumpkins into carriages and strangers into famous friends. I know it sounds crazy, but I really expected it to be the most magical experience. And the truth is, it was. Just not the kind of magic I imagined it would be.

I wanted magic and fairy dust and ease. My intuition wanted me to grow. And I had no idea how uncomfortable that was going to feel.

I learned so much throughout those 30 days. So much that’s deeply impacted my life and how I look at and choose to think about my intuition. And I want to share all of it with you.

Before we get any further, though, let’s address the big elephant in the room.

What the heck is your intuition?

Apparently Merriam Webster defines it as “the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference”. I would agree. That’s a lot of words, though, to describe a feeling. And that’s what your intuition is. It’s a feeling. It’s also a belief. It’s that sense of knowing you experience that often doesn’t seem rational. It usually feels like it’s coming from your gut, your heart, or somewhere deep down inside that you can’t quite pinpoint. But it feels so right. You can’t explain it. It isn’t logical. You just know.

Whether you’ve got a direct line tapped into your intuition at all times or this is the first time you’re hearing about it, I hope the lessons I learned from my own wild 30 day journey can shine a little light on this incredible wisdom that you've got hidden within you and inspire you to embark on your own intuition journey, too.

The 5 Biggest Lessons I Learned from Acting on my Intuition for 30 Days Straight:

1. Your intuition is always at peace. That doesn’t mean you always will be.

Inner-peace is an amazing by-product of tapping into and learning to trust your intuition, and honestly, it’s one of of my favorites. In a world that can feel really overwhelming, knowing that you can tap into this inner-peace at any moment is life-changing. And as you tap into your intuition more and more, you’ll undoubtedly experience this inner-peace I’m talking bout. Fortunately and unfortunately, though, you’re still a human being, which means you’re not always going to be tapped into that inner-peace. Part of being human means experiencing a full range of emotions (all the feels).

Learning to tap into your intuition doesn’t somehow make you immune to being human. There’s still doubt and fear and insecurity and sadness. Your intuition can’t take that away from you. Learning to tap into your intuition can show you that even amidst the doubts and fears, there’s a part of you that’s always at peace, though.

2. You don’t have to be some spiritual guru or expert meditator to tap into your intuition. Just close your eyes and breathe.

Tapping into your intuition isn’t an olympic sport. And while the more you practice the better you’ll get, you don’t have to have some wild spiritual connection or be a ninja-level meditator to be able to do it. Connecting with your intuition is a lot easier than you think, if you’re willing try. And by try, I mean take a few deep breaths, get quiet, and listen.

Your mind loves to work on hyper-speed, always eleven steps ahead trying to keep you safe and keep everything in perfect order. Your intuition, however, works on slowmo .. always guiding from a place of total peace and ease and certainty that all is well and will always be well. So, it has no need to rush or scream or go faster. If you’re anything like me, though, you’ve spent most of your life letting your ego lead the way, which always has a need to rush and scream and go faster.

So, slowing down to tap into your intuition can feel a bit like culture shock in your own body.

To hear the quiet whispers of your intuition, you first have to stop distracting yourself with fear and doubt. You’ve got to get quiet. This is where more frequent meditation and breathwork comes into play.

I said frequent. I didn’t say lengthy.

During these 30 days, I realized that tapping into my intuition didn’t require crazy long meditations. It required shorter moments much more frequently throughout my day: closing my eyes and taking one deep breath multiples time an hour or meditating for five minutes in between tasks. Those small moments sprinkled throughout my days are what made the greatest difference.

3. Your intuition has nothing to do with anyone else and everything to do with you. So, if you’re looking to please your ego or other people, you’re tapping into the wrong maple tree.

Ok. I’m not talking about a maple tree. You get the picture, though. And for someone like myself who spent nearly thirty years focused on pleasing everyone around me, this was and still is one of the most challenging and empowering lessons I’ve learned from listening to my intuition.

I want you to know that your intuition always leads you down the path that’s going to best serve your highest self, not your ego. It’s not about how much you can accomplish or who you can impress. It’s about how much peace and ease you can experience and becoming who you’ve always been.

Yes, it’s uncomfortable. Discomfort is the gateway to growth, though, and from the other side, I can promise you it’s worth it.

I went into this challenge thinking I would do some really “big”, crazy incredible things, like talking to a random stranger at Starbucks that would turn out to be someone famous, or launching some big, new project that would change the trajectory of my business. Spoiler alert: none of that happened. My intuition wasn’t focused on schmoozing my ego.

So, no, I didn’t meet anyone famous or sprout an idea for the next greatest business. What happened was really beautiful, though. I released some heavy stuff that had been weighing me down. I got to know myself … like really know myself. I saw a shooting star and a sunset all in the same drive. I found pennies on heads and danced in the middle of the street. I said no to others and yes to myself. I learned to choose me.

Your intuition won’t force you into alignment with others. Your intuition will flow you into alignment with yourself.

4. Consciously quieting the mind to hear from your intuition is a muscle you have to build. For most of us, that muscle has atrophied, and the only way to rebuild it is through slow, intentional exercise.

This was tough for my ego to admit. Before this challenge, I felt really tapped into my intuition. I felt like I was constantly listening to it, just not always acting on it. And it made my ego feel really good to believe that I had this constant connection - some spiritual superpower.

What I didn’t realize, though, was how wildly disconnected and untapped from my intuition I was throughout my days. It was a muscle I’d built, but only in the face of making really pivotal decisions. Honestly, I had only practiced listening to my intuition when the stakes were high, the stress was on overdrive, and I felt like I had nowhere else to turn. As I was moving throughout the rest of my life, I was totally disconnected and unaware.

Learning to tap into my intuition all of the time, not just when I was aware of a terrifying decision, required me to slow my thoughts and mental chatter way down. It required constant practice.

It’s one thing to trust and act on your intuition for big decisions, like buying a house, accepting a new job, or deciding to start a business. You’re aware that you’re making an important decision so you’re already slowing down to consider the pros and cons and can intentionally and consciously tap into your intuition.

Trusting and acting on your intuition throughout the everyday, though, requires the ability to be wildly present and aware and fully conscious, which I realized I wasn’t 90% of the time. I would make decisions from habit or comfort. I was going through much of my days totally unaware of why I was or wasn’t choosing something. It’s like I was operating on autopilot.

Consciously quieting your mind to tap into your intuition is a muscle you have to build. It takes time. It requires intentionality and practice, and it doesn’t happen overnight.

5. Believing you have an intuition isn’t the same as trusting it.

I spent years picking and choosing when I would trust my intuition … choosing to act on it when it felt more comfortable and choosing to run back to my ego when it got too scary.

It’s one thing to believe you have an intuition. It’s another to trust it. And it’s another thing entirely to trust it enough to act on it.

Self-trust takes time. If you’re at the point where you feel incredibly tapped into your intuition, but you aren’t yet acting on it, start small. You don’t have to trust your intuition with big decisions right away. Start with small ones that have less at stake, like what you’re going to eat for breakfast or what book to read next.

The more you trust your intuition with the smaller decisions and see how incredible it feels, the more comfortable you’ll become trusting it with bigger decisions. And learning to trust yourself is one of the greatest gifts you’ll ever give yourself.

Several months ago, I embarked on this 30-day personal challenge without a clue as to what would unfold. It taught me more about myself than I could have ever imagined, but more important than anything else, it taught me how to trust myself. It taught me how to trust the infinite wisdom that’s always available to me (and you, too).