How I Trusted My Intuition

I booked a one-way flight. This is how I used inner wisdom to beat overthinking.

Photo by Edu Lauton @edulauton on Unsplash.

Chances are you've followed your intuition with success. So, why don't we listen to our internal wisdom more often? There is a lot to consider with intuition: slowing down (for a moment), trust, and flexibility. Read on to see how intuition recently worked for me.

In deciding to book an immediate flight to see Dad, I hadn’t gone down a rabbit hole of second-guessing. I had long been practicing trusting my intuition to serve me.

I sensed the situation as it was in the present moment. On the phone, my father did not sound well. There are no manuals to guide us in this part of life. I knew that to trust my intuition, I couldn't view deciding to travel as right or wrong. The decision to visit Dad just had to feel right for me.

My husband said he'd support whatever choice I made, giving me leeway to fly impromptu across the country. My daughter, who lived in Pennsylvania, offered the guest room in her house.

I allowed my reasoning mind to support me, deciding to make the final call in the morning. There was no rush to book the tickets before then. The risk of rising ticket prices entered my mind, but I let that thought drift away. I reserved the flight the following day when my internal guidance remained consistent.

Intuition is often called the sixth sense. I wish we had learned more about this innate guidance as we did about our five senses: taste, touch, hearing, smell, and vision. (Today, neuroscientists enumerate many more senses, such as our sense of balance, but I diverge.)

My intuition is my inner awareness that I've learned to rely on. A 2024 Inc.com blog about science and intuition cited a neuroscientist who discovered that when decisions are complex, “we often make better decisions by trusting our gut feelings than by engaging in lengthy deliberation.”

I once talked to my son about using intuition at his job. He is an analyst for an investment firm, and at my suggestion, he said, "Mom, I can't do that with numbers." Touché.

Later, he told me about a work situation and how he had resolved it. "How did you know that would work?" I asked in surprise.

"I knew," he said. "I just knew."

"That's your intuition, son," I replied.

However, life can still get messy in the unknown. I packed for a trip, not knowing how long I would be away; I had only booked the departure flight.

In my former home state of Pennsylvania, I watched Dad’s usual cheer and humor return, his positive attitude amplifying the speed of his recovery.

Then, an internal question surfaced. When to purchase the return flight?

Knowing that his path forward was stable, leaving Dad to return to my Florida home still felt hard. The future was unknowable—at least to my wondering mind. My inner voice knew all was going well.

I briefly pondered extending the return for five more days, but I trusted I was making a good choice departing in two. I didn’t allow much space for my mind to worry, question me endlessly, or make me feel guilty.

Instead, I allowed "reasoning" to play politely again with my intuition by allowing for this: I could always change the flight if the situation changed.

"Even if a flight change costs more money?" Reason asked me.

"Yes, even so," I responded within. I trusted the current situation that much.

A daily practice of slowing down kept me grounded and clear. While staying at my daughter's, a hurried mind would have had me rushing out the door to visit my dad. But I didn't do that. I took the only time I had in the morning to meditate and journal. I let go of any thoughts that I should be there already.

(I will pause here and share that awareness is essential. You can’t shift from overthinking if you are unaware you are overthinking. A meditation practice helps. You become aware of incoming thoughts and release them.)

But, even so, I like it when life reassures me. So, I have learned to trust signs and am always surprised when I get them.

I use signs to feel assured I am on the right track. I first started noticing signs toward the end of my career. Repeating numbers like 1111 and 1010 made me curious. Why was I seeing these repeating numbers all of the time? Today, I understand these signs as reassuring messages from life that I am supported.

And, of course (you may already know), the more we expect to see something (good or bad), the more we see it. (A good reason to expect good things.)

So, if something in life catches my attention, I look at the life event with interest. Life's reassurance came to me this time when I looked past my daughter's backyard.

When I arrived in Pennsylvania, Hurricane Debby had flooded the streets surrounding my daughter's neighborhood. (Ironically, Hurricane Debby hadn't affected my area in Florida.) A surprise pond had appeared, the outcome of Debby's rain, just beyond my daughter’s yard. Over the days, I watched as ducks splashed-landed into the water. Debby had created chaos for people, but the ducks seemed happily unaware.

The day I decided to book the flight home, I looked out the back bedroom window toward the newly created pond and was intrigued by another change in the view.

Universe, are you telling me it's okay to go home? The thought had struck me.

I took the view as a yes. Pond Debby was receding.

The situation proved temporary for me and the ducks. The ducks would soon be flying away, too.

Believing in the connection of life, I had graduated from seeing repeating numbers to seeing nature's story reflected in my own.

It’s time to head home.

I knew. I just knew.