I’m one of those people who ‘knows’ that I should listen to the ‘inner voice’ or as we often call it, our intuition. But (you knew there was a ‘but’ didn’t you?), my thoughts and the decisions I make are often clouded by the emotional side of me.
I recently had a fabulous instance of listening to my intuition, to listening to that inner voice nagging at the edge of my consciousness. I won’t bore you with the details but suffice to say that one part of me was keen (the heart/emotional side of me) and the other was a little voice deep down saying ‘hmmm, I’m not so sure, you should think about it’. I decided to go with my intuition and it just so happened to be the right choice!
This brings me to an interesting point. The two sides of us speak to us in totally different ways. The one side speaks to us in images, images of excitement and possibilities perhaps, or images of sadness, negativity and deflation. The other side speaks to us in thoughts and words and pragmatic comments and I think these thoughts and words are our subconscious brain speaking to us from its wealth of experiences. Experiences of a lifetime.
The emotional/heart side of us is very colourful and understandably takes a large percentage of our current thought processes. The other side is quietly thinking away, analysing and noting things away in it’s memory.
Both sides to our cognitive behaviour are relevant to how we live our lives, They are what makes us ‘me’. They are what makes me ‘Jonathan Burrows’, they are what makes you ‘you’. Simple!
The importance of the small inner voice, our intuition, comes when we need to problem solve, to make the right decisions in our lives. This is especially important when it comes to our careers, relationship choices and major life decisions.
There needs to be a balance between the excitable side of us, the part of us that says “Yes, that job sounds fantastic!”, or “Wow she’s cute, I’d like her to be my girlfriend” and so on. Without this emotional and excitable side of us, we would not be complete human beings and it has a valid place in how we work. However! Decisions (in my opinion) should not be completely based on this side of our being (or at least, not this side alone).
To make correct decisions we need to use the Future Thinking side of us to enable us to get the best outcomes. Best outcomes? Those that make us happy, that put smiles on our faces long term not just short term emotional happiness.
Future thinking and listening to our intuition can reap rewards that make us think more highly of ourselves and in our capabilities. Try and think now of a time when you listened to your inner voice and how you felt about the decision you made when you realised that it was the right decision! You might want to imagine times when you have listened solely to your heart and then regretted the decisions later.
Finally, I’d like to hear your comments. I’m not an expert but someone who has thoughts like these and is trying to work out who I am and what I am capable of. Please respond with your ideas and thoughts to if you have them :-)
Kind regards
Jonathan