4 Exercises to Strengthen Your Intuition

What if your YESes were YESes, your NOs were NOs, and there was no drama in between?

Do you waste too much time and energy making a decision? Are you always going back and forth between option A and option B? Have you ever ignored a gut feeling and later regretted it?

If you answered YES to any of those questions, keep reading. If not, this email isn't for you. I'll see you in my next newsletter :)

For those of you sticking around, I know it's because you desire to strengthen your intuition. Here are 4 ways to do so:

1. Spend quality time alone. By this I don't mean time alone spent scrolling your phone, watching television, or even listening to podcasts. I mean you alone with your thoughts and only your thoughts. On an everyday basis, this could look like meditating, journaling, hiking, or running. On an intermittent basis, this would include things like camping, going on a silent retreat, or solo road tripping without distractions. Your intuition is always speaking to you. But are you listening? If you want to strengthen your intuition, you have to give yourself the time and space to hear what it is telling you. And then act accordingly, which brings us to the next point.

2. Make decisions within a set time frame. Even by limiting how much time you spend making less impactful decisions like deciding what to have for dinner, which scent of deodorant to buy, or what movie to watch, you strengthen your response time and your ability to trust your own decision-making process. For these types of situations, set a timer and make a choice in less than 5 minutes (1 minute if you're feeling really up for a challenge). When it comes to the bigger decisions in life, the ones that will make a much larger impact--like changing careers, geographically relocating, or deciding to get married--give yourself 2 weeks. Any more than that and you're wasting valuable time and energy.

3. Regularly reflect on your decisions. This is related to tip #1, spend quality time alone, except it is time set aside with the specific focus of evaluating your choices. Ask yourself the following:

• What is working?

• What is NOT working?

• What have I learned so far?

• What do I want to change going forward?

At a bare minimum, take a grand inventory of your life once a year (popular times to do so include the end/start of the year, birthdays, and anniversaries). However, if you're off track of where you want to go, even by a small amount, you're gonna be a lot farther off track at the end of a year than at the end of a month. Which is why monthly reflection is better. And even better than that? Weekly reflection.

Struggle to make time for this? Join my upcoming Yin & the Power of the Pen yoga-journaling hybrid series and commit to weekly reflection every Monday for 8 weeks and you'll create a habit of gaining clarity on your life.

4. Finally, decide you've got your own back, no matter what. You won't always look back and be glad you made the choice you did. Sometimes you'll feel like you "got it wrong." Don't beat yourself up in those situations. Instead, choose to always view them as growth opportunities. Reflect (see tip #3), take stock, reassess, and then choose again. Because the reality is, you will almost never be satisfied forever with a decision you make today. Whether that's the color you pick out for your kitchen or where you work or even who your friends are. You change over time, and your decisions will need to be evaluated and remade accordingly.

Remember: Trusting YOUR intuition is YOUR SUPERPOWER. And the only way to use it is to use it!

Which of these tips did you find the most helpful? Hit reply and let me know.

With fierce love,

Chazz