I believe in women’s intuition. Call it what you will — the little voice, your gut feeling, or a sixth sense — it is real, and it helps us.
Experts say that we only use something like ten percent of our brains. So what’s the other ninety percent up to? Some part of your brain is recording and responding to stimuli that we may not consciously notice. Could this be the source of intuition? Your brain and body responding to something on a subconscious level? Don’t dismiss those feelings of intuition — you could be responding to signals that aren’t triggering your conscious mind.
Pay attention to your body. Tuning in to certain physical responses can help you understand what causes them. For example, my left eyelid twitches like crazy when I am stressed. I may not even realize I’m feeling pressured until my eyelid starts to go off! Physical reactions to emotional problems can clue you in that something isn’t quite right.
Don’t ignore your dreams. Sure some of them are just your brain’s way of blowing off steam — those flying donuts I dreamed about sure aren’t a warning about a pastry invasion. But a dream of being chased could be your brain’s way of saying there’s a little too much responsibility going on and nowhere to escape to. While you sleep, your brain is processing tons of information from the recent past. You may wake up with a solution to a problem that’s been plaguing you!
Trust your gut — when something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Something on a subconscious level is setting your warning meter off! Starting a new job and feeling miserable from the get-go? That could be a warning sign that your subconscious knows you aren’t in the best situation.
Again, I’ll use myself as an example. My first full time job out of college was working in Philadelphia for a non-profit organization. I was very excited about the idea of the organization — providing books to city schools to help promote literacy. I was happy about the salary and benefits. Yet I was miserably unhappy and came home crying my first day. Three months later, I resigned; the things I was being asked to do were not the things in my job description. Did I know on my first day that I was going to quit? No. But something wasn’t right and it translated into me being miserable. Once I figured out that the job itself wasn’t the right one for me, I made the choice to leave. But my intuition knew it was a bad fit from day one.
The bottom line? Trust your gut! Your body may be reacting to something your conscious mind just doesn’t know yet.