Are you ready to let your intuition lead the way?

On the importance of embracing our intuition and finding ways to use it as a practical tool in our day to day lives and work

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Hi there, I’m Selina, a Career and Life Design Coach, author and podcaster. I’ve been helping people design lives and careers they love for almost two decades.

When I’m not writing here on Substack, I’m coaching clients all over the world, from my little green office in South East London. If you’re curious about what my coaching programmes could do for you, you can come and check them out over here

Are you ready to let your intuition lead the way?

Growing up I was told stories of my great grandmother who famously used her strong intuition and telepathic abilities to navigate life living in the remote grasslands of Argentina.

Without a phone and with an irregular postal service that she had to ride into the nearest town to pick up, she relied on her telepathic abilities to know when visitors were coming.

It wasn’t unusual for her family to find her setting the table for four extra people. When asked who was coming to visit, she would shrug and say ‘I’m not sure, but I feel like four will arrive today’. Sure enough later that day, a horse and cart would appear, with four family members.

What I loved about these stories was how matter-of-fact they all were about it. Her telepathic abilities weren’t treated as something strange or other-worldly. She wasn’t viewed with fear or suspicion. Nor was she revered for having some magical gift bestowed upon her. It was treated as an ability like any other and put to good use. 

In fact it was viewed as so normal that the whole family would be roped into parlour games in the evenings that had them all tapping into their telepathy. 

I loved these stories as a child. I’d never heard of people talking about intuition and a sixth sense in such a down-to-earth way. And I’d certainly never heard of people using it in such a practical way either. 

It fascinated me that my great grandmother would not only have had these hunches, but that she trusted them implicitly. 

Receiving information telepathically was no less reliable to her than if she’d received a letter through the post.

I’m still blown away by it if I’m honest. 

I wish I knew more of my great grandmother’s story. How did the eleventh daughter of a Scottish Presbyterian immigrant family, living in Argentina, come to believe in her hunches and trust them so much that she allowed them to become a useful and practical tool, used boldly out in the open with her family, who also seemed to trust implicitly in the messages she would receive from beyond the physical realm?

Particularly when they came from a Western culture and religion that denied the existence of these kinds of abilities and for many centuries burned and drowned the women who dared to use them.

I’ll never know the answer to that, but I’ll forever be grateful for having these stories of my intuitive great grandmother passed down to me, because years later they would give me the encouragement to not only finally acknowledge and recognise my own intuition, but use it in down-to-earth practical ways too.

Growing up as an intuitive child isn’t easy

Intuitive kids have a heightened sensitivity and it’s with this heightened sensitivity that they receive information about the world and the people around them. Absorbing other people’s emotions like a sponge, feeling it in their body, knowing things that they haven’t been told, getting in trouble for blurting it out, intense dreams bringing them messages they don’t understand, remembering past lives, seeing ghosts and having conversations with people who have died and then the look of shock on adults’ faces when they tell them about it, are all common experiences of intuitive children.

These experiences alone can be pretty unsettling and overwhelming as it is.

But if you’re raised in a Western culture, then you also have to deal with the fact that a lot of people are going to think that you are making it all up.

Just look at what the Cambridge dictionary has as its definition of a sixth sense:

“an ability that some people believe they have that seems to give them information without using the five senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste”

I mean that says it all.

They may as well have added a laughing emoji of disbelief at the end of it.

The fact is, the Western mainstream world just doesn’t believe that knowledge can be achieved through anything other than learning or experience. It refuses to believe in a world that exists beyond the one that we can all see, smell, touch, taste or hear.

And so when you are naturally intuitive kid and have your spidey senses switched on, not only are you having to navigate receiving all this uninvited information that you’re picking up on, but you’re also being told directly or indirectly that what you’re experiencing isn’t real.

Is it any wonder that a lot of intuitive kids end up feeling anxious, overwhelmed and like they don’t fit in?

And so many people I know experienced this growing up. About a third of people are said to be intuitive. We’re not a rare breed.

But we’ve been made to feel that we don’t exist. That we’re making it up. Or, worse still, that there is something wrong with us. And so we’ve learnt to shut up about it.

The only people I openly talk to about my intuition are the ones that I have clearly identified to be fellow witches.

In fact I felt nervous at first about writing this piece. Talking openly and publicly about intuition feels risky.

But then I realised, the only people that are going to have read this far are the witches. I will have lost everyone else the moment I said telepathy.

Most intuitives don’t feel that they fit into the traditional world…

…and we don’t.

And why would we want to? The traditional Western world doesn’t value or even believe in the power of intuition. So, let it limp along on logic alone, living from the neck up, limited to just the five physical senses, losing out on the very real magic that comes from allowing our intuition to lead the way.

It’s their loss.

Those that choose to embrace their intuition can achieve great things.

Just check out some of these famous scientists, artists, innovators, spiritual guides and writers that celebrate the power of their intuition:

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

Margaret Atwood: "Intuition is seeing with the soul, and writing is the act of articulating what our intuition knows."

Serena Williams: "I trust my instincts and believe that my intuition is my greatest ally on the court."

Marie Curie: "I am among those who think that science has great beauty, and our intuition is the key to uncovering it."

Georgia O'Keeffe: "I have made it a rule to always listen to my intuition and paint what I feel."

“Intuition comes from that voice within and is a great gift for inventors” James Lovelock 

Jane Goodall: "Intuition is a powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. It guides me in my work with animals."

So you see, when we dare to embrace our intuition and let it lead the way we are in good company.

And it’s not just what we can achieve, when we let our intuition lead the way, that’s important, it’s how we get to feel when we do.

When you let intuition lead the way, you get into what is called a flow state or being in the zone. It’s like riding a wave. Your awareness expands beyond the five senses and your receptors open up so that you feel like you are being guided. Your thinking, rational, logical side of the brain is still fully engaged, but not in charge. It’s the servant, not the master.

For me it happens most when I’m coaching. It’s why I love coaching so much. Because it’s in those conversations, that my intuition gets in the driving seat and a part of me has to surrender to it. When that happens there is a freedom, flow and power to the conversation that feels like magic. The conversation flows to where it needs to go. My intuition guides me to guide my client, helping us to get to the crux of the problem and the heart of the matter so that we can the find the right path forward for them.

I love it. I feel like coaching was the work I was born to do and on reflection I think that’s because it allows me to embrace and use my intuition and put it to good use.

Using it as a practical tool in my daily life, just like my great grandmother did before me.

How to tune back into your intuition and let it lead the way

I’m not an expert in getting people tapping back into their intuition, but these are things I have found have helped me on my own journey:

• Find people or cultures that embrace the power of intuition in a grounded and very real way. Hang out with them a lot.

• Spend time doing the things that get you in the zone and in that flow state - creative activities, dancing, singing, music, problem-solving, gardening, connecting dots, finding patterns…you’ll most likely instinctively know what does it for you

• Cultivate self love - the more you love and accept yourself, the more you will believe in the hunches and messages you receive

• Morning pages - the practice from the Artist’s Way where you write three pages of stream of consciousness writing - the more you do it the more you’ll find your inner intuitive voice kicking in

• Write letters from your wise older self - it helps you to practice trusting that all the wisdom and guidance you need can be found within when you surrender and allow the words to emerge on the page in front of you

• Get the healing that you need. The more you heal yourself, the more present you can be in the moment and the more powerfully you can connect to your intuition.

• Get out of your head and into your body - if you’re stuck living from the neck up you’ll be disconnected from your intuition. The more you do things that help you get back into your body (usually by moving your body - dance, yoga, sport, exercise, tai chi, qi gong) the easier it will be to connect with your intuition

• Do things that ground you and calm your nervous system. While I’ve found a wonderful way to make use of my intuition, I’m still not brilliant at not being a sponge for people’s intense emotions outside of the coaching zone. My anxiety can still go pretty high and so I do yoga and meditation every day, spend lots of time in nature and read to decompress, ground myself and calm my nervous system on a regular basis. Find what works for you and do it often.

Now, over to you

Do you recognise yourself in this? Do you consider yourself intuitive? How do you receive information intuitively? Do you use your intuition in a practical way today? Or did you experience it as a child and then hide it away because you were told it wasn’t real or wasn’t acceptable?

I’ll be in the comments or in my inbox if you wish to share. Because the more we talk about our intuition, the more we normalise it and the more we normalise it, the more we’ll use it. And the world will be a richer place for it.

x Selina