Whatever normal life looked like is gone forever. How are you coping? Which systems or ways of being are you leaning on to help you navigate through these uncertain times?
During periods of crisis—like a pandemic—so many of us rely on logic, science, and rational thinking to better understand and make sense of what’s happening. Relying on data, statistics, and “facts” might give us some semblance of security and control for a short while, but it can also crank up our anxiety levels.
This is why we must take moments to pause and check-in with our intuition during these difficult times.
“Intuition is an inner knowing or sense,” says Jona Genova, Reiki Master, Crystal Healer and Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Teacher, and CEO, Samadhi for Peace. “It can be experienced through a feeling in the body such as tingling in the belly or goosebumps or knowing sense in the mind’s eye.”
Our intuition is often confused with anxiety, but the trick is that anxiety feels chaotic and shifting, while intuition is very clear and stable.
Here’s how to use intuition to navigate through tough times.
First, create a relationship with your intuition.
To use intuition effectively, we need to first understand how it works within us. Most of us operate life on autopilot, making it tricky to understand and communicate with our intuition. Your relationship with your intuition—how it speaks to you and how you interpret its information—is intricate and unique. Genova suggests first documenting the synchronicities and hunches that show up in your life.
“Got a hunch about something? Write it down. Check it against how things play out. Through this process, you’ll learn the language of your intuition and hone your communication with your intuition. You’ll also learn to discern anxiety from true inner knowing.”
Try it for a week. Take guesses about what you have no control over and see how your predictions turn out. The more we practice and engage with our intuition, the more we will learn how it talks to us, helping us trust it.
For example, you might choose a favourite stock and predict whether it will rise or fall within the following week. You might use your intuition to predict the weather, the cosmos, or even the outcome of this week’s NHL games. Or maybe you will use your gut to predict who will text you today. Find things that you can expect with tangible results. Have fun with it!
Use intuition as an opportunity to be thy self-care guide.
It’s tough to truly nourish ourselves when we’re super stressed with all that’s happening around us. We often run on autopilot without taking the time to check-in and identify the areas in our life that need the most TLC.
Intuition is a potent tool that knows us better than we know ourselves. By slowing down and connecting to our inner voice, we can take the time to ask:
- How do I feel right now?
- What do I need (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially, financially)?
- How can I fulfill those needs in a genuinely holistic and nourishing way?”
Then, follow what comes up for you. Maybe you feel an internal prompt that you’ve been ordering too much take-out lately, and your body is longing for healthy home-cooked meals. Or perhaps you finally realize that ruminating over your ex isn’t serving you anymore, and it’s time to finally let those old thoughts go in order to allow someone new into your life.
Notice those thoughts and trust what you experience.
Use your ‘second sight’ to see solutions.
When you need to make some fast decisions during a crisis, tapping into your intuition, rather than relying on analytical skills, can be your best friend.
“Being in a heightened state of arousal actually corrupts our ability to problem solve,” says Genova. “We’re fatigued, and because of the kind and amount of stress we’re under, our field of view is very narrow. Intuition can help us to get outside of that narrow window.”
One study said that the “childlike, imaginative qualities based on intuition” is the key “to fast and efficient problem-solving.” Another study found that people who tend to pair intuition with analysis in crisis situations end up making better choices. Intuitive decision-making is all about channelling past experience in moments of quick thinking.
In times of difficulty, rely on what you know to be true and what worked for you in the past when making a quick decision. Throw out the pros and cons list and lean into what feels right in that moment.
For example, maybe your logic tells you it’s risky to take on a new client that doesn’t have much experience. Still, your intuition reminds you that the client’s brilliant idea feels exciting and is something that actually fits with your business strategy.
Remember: intuition is calm and clear. It will kindly tell you what to do.
Intuition can help you open up to oneness.
As for why intuition is so critical during a crisis like the current pandemic, Genova says it’s because now is the time to evaluate priorities and decide what is most important to us, which intuition can help us do. By honouring our truths, we can help build a better world.
“We’re being given the chance to unlearn so much of what we’ve been programmed to believe,” she says. “Now is the time to connect with people you love and trust, including yourself, your ancestors and the invisible forces that are supporting you. Your experiences are pure creativity. Take this time to live in that space of creativity, dreaming up the life and society you want to be a part of. Let intuition help you with that.”
When the world is upside down, it’s easy to feel disconnected from others and the world around us. It’s easy to give in to fear and doubt. Intuition guides us back to our oneness with each other and the Universe. When we begin to develop a trusting relationship with our intuition, we start to realize that our answers lie within and that we no longer have to depend on forces outside of us to provide direction. With intuition, we are being guided towards a more benevolent lifestyle where abundance, not scarcity, abounds.
Take time every day to get quiet and connect with the energy around you.
Go outside and admire the beauty and abundance of Mother Nature. Observe others and notice just how similar we all are. Take a journal (or your phone will do!) and ask yourself a couple of questions that you would like to know answers to. Feel into what comes up for you, and then write it down. Trust that you are being guided.
Intuition doesn’t need to make sense; it only needs to feel right to you. When we connect deeper with ourselves, we learn to trust that we are being guided by a force greater than ourselves. As a result, we can rest assured that the people in our lives are meant to help us as we are here to help them. We can form more meaningful connections with our community, support each other and find more peace and clarity even within these murky times.
Go forth and trust it.
