How do I know if my feelings are intuition/guidance come from the ego?
It takes practice to hear our inner guidance and even more practice to trust it.
I wish I could say that we can learn it overnight, but many of us have been guided so far away from our inner voice that it takes time, commitment, and practice to trust it again.
But there are things we can do to get there.
When we don’t “hear” our intuition
People often say that intuition is quiet, and sometimes it is.
But the reason we don’t hear our intuition or inner guidance is often that it’s covered over by a lot of inner noise (thoughts, emotions, and reactions).
Therefore, it is essential to take moments where we quiet the mind and go within, for example in meditation, so that we can begin to listen internally.
When we quiet the mind, we have the opportunity to hear what is hidden underneath the surface, and to listen to our inner voice instead of the conditioned thinking or the voices of other people and the world.
It is also very beneficial to do inner work where we release or ”remove” the old programming that’s causing all that inner noise – because that programming is in the way of our intuition.
This means we become aware of old beliefs and ways of thinking, acting, and feeling and begin to free ourselves from them.
When we do, our inner world becomes calmer, and it’s easier to hear our inner guidance.
It is easier to hear our intuition when our inner world is less crowded, so to speak.
When the inner guidance is loud
However, sometimes the inner voice is quite loud, and we don’t need to meditate or do much inner work to hear it.
It’s just that many people don’t listen unless they have proof on the outside, or unless others agree with what their inner guidance is saying or calling them toward, or away from.
Most of the time, there is no immediate proof other than what we feel or know. And it can feel very uncertain to trust and follow that guidance, at least if you are new to it.
But those times, it’s not so much that we don’t hear the inner guidance or that we don’t know how we feel about something. It’s more about that we haven’t learned to trust ourselves enough – so we second-guess ourselves or talk ourselves out of our inner guidance.
And if we don’t do that ourselves, others tend to do it – and we tend to let them.
So here, it’s more about practicing trusting our intuition.
Practice
Here is an example of a first step.
If you feel that you can’t trust someone even if you have no evidence of them not being trustworthy – and even if everyone else thinks they are great, listen to that inner feeling.
Trust the feeling that something is off.
You don’t need to know why. And it doesn’t mean that they are necessarily a bad person. But if you don’t feel good around them, trust that.
That’s a first step.
However, the inner guidance is never unkind, not to you or others – so it’s not about judgment.
Keep practicing
And then, keep practicing.
Become aware of what you feel around certain people, and become aware of ideas or insights you are receiving. And see what happens if you follow them.
The more you listen, the stronger the inner guidance becomes – and it’s also easier to know when it’s guidance and when it’s the mind/ego.
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This post was from the Q&A (July 14th) – where I answered your questions on intuition, how to know when to stay in or leave a situation that’s not working, and what I like and don’t like about today’s popular spirituality.❤️
If you want to read the Q&A, follow this link.
About Hanna Stenefalk
