Whether you live with an autoimmune condition, chronic pain, or chronic stress listening to your body is one of the single most important things you can do to help manage a healthier lifestyle. There is so much outside noise that often gets us caught up and we tend to ignore our wants and needs both consciously and subconsciously. The key is to tap into our intuition. Your intuition can be a feeling of knowing, without actually knowing how you know it. Get it? It can be a combined gut feeling based off past experiences as well. Either way, our intuition is hard to actually describe in a set definition because “we just know”. To maximize living your life in a way that feels best for you, listening to your intuition can be very powerful and life-changing.
Meditate
Meditation is one of my daily routines. It took me a long time to enjoy meditation. Now when I skip a few days, I feel completely off. Even 2-3 minutes of meditation really helps center myself. In addition, using meditation as a tool to get in touch with your intuition can help. Meditating has endless benefits from focusing and centering to living in the present moment. Try this chakra meditation to get in touch with your intuition.
Setting Boundaries
If you are a people-pleaser this can be hard to do but worth it. Setting and having boundaries in your life and all of your relationships are important to tapping into your intuition. Why? Because you are listening to what YOU want rather than what others want or think you should want. Especially as women we often think that setting boundaries can translate to us being “selfish”. In order for us to live to our truest potential setting boundaries will help us achieve that life. Also when setting boundaries we often think we have to justify the reasons why we put ourselves first or say no to something but then we get into this never ending trap of making excuses when we don’t need to. I absolutely love this exercise to setting boundaries for all relationships.
Journaling/Writing
I understand not everyone is a writer or keeps a journal but I really encourage you to write as you go through life. Either on your phone, laptop, or notebook writing is truly a way to slow down. Often we don’t even realize what our bodies need until we slow down. That’s the key is to slow down and listen. I used to write when I was either angry or sad now I write as much as I can and my body and mind tells me what I need through writing. You would be surprised to read what words come out in your writing. That’s exactly what your body wants. Try this: Grab a piece of paper and set a timer to 3 minutes then pick up your pen and start writing with no intention. Write whatever comes to mind or not. Eventually you can practice this daily until it becomes part of your routine.
