I know a woman who has a handful of psychics at the ready. When she’s trying to figure out what to do about something, she consults with the first one. If she doesn’t like what the woman has to say, she goes on to the next one. And on and on until one of them says what she wants to hear.
A friend was telling me about a psychic he had just seen. “She’s amazing,” he said. “She was right on about everything. I asked her if I should stay in my relationship and she said No. I feel so relieved. I was torn but now I know what to do. It was worth every penny. You really should see her. She’s pretty booked up but I can get you an appointment. She and I had a powerful connection.”
“Thanks so much,” I said. “I’m glad it worked for you but I don’t turn to anyone else for answers any more. I keep my own counsel.”
In my past, I’ve gotten several readings from psychics. Back in the early seventies, there was a time when they were all the rage and some of them came highly recommended. They could tell you what had happened in your past and what was coming in the future, but none of them ever read me correctly. Maybe I just didn’t meet Mr. or Mrs. right. That happens in romantic relationships so why wouldn’t it happen in psychic ones?
Whether or not a psychic is accurate in seeing the future is not what this blog is about. It’s about trusting your gut, no matter what is going on. It’s about turning to yourself to see if you have a bad feeling or a good feeling about something or someone. Trying to trust yourself might end in failure but how else will you learn?
Decades ago, I was staying with a friend who lived in a building on Fountain and Sweetzer Avenues. It was 10:30 PM and she was out of town. I parked my car and grabbed my keys out of my purse when suddenly a bad feeling came over me. I didn’t want to get out of the car. I stopped a moment. I had just broken up with a boyfriend and I wasn’t feeling so great. That had to be what was behind this negative feeling. I decided to ignore it. I refused to let fear run the show.
The problem was that I was mixing up fear and awareness of danger. I got out of the car, put my purse strap on my shoulder and I was walking up the street to the building entrance when two men came running down the street, heading straight for me. I felt danger and I thought I recalled someone saying to look danger straight in the eye. I locked eyes with one of them. I saw pure hatred coming off of him and he pulled back his arm and punched me hard in the face. I felt my purse slipping off my shoulder. I grabbed at my face with my hands as they fled.
I don’t need to go into what happened next. I got help. What matters here is that if I had trusted my gut and stayed in the car for a few minutes, I might have avoided something that created trauma in my life. I’m not suggesting that we always know when something bad is coming our way. But I am suggesting that if you’re lucky enough to get a warning in your gut, trust it. It’s there for a reason.
Trusting your gut is the same thing as trusting your intuition. When you feel something in your gut, your chest, your bones, it’s real. It’s not insecurity or fear like I thought it was when I got mugged. It isn’t overthinking. It’s paying attention to your inner compass that has led you through your life. You might want to use a wise friend as a sounding board but you don’t need to ask them what they think you should do. Only you know that. It takes courage to remember that you are the authority here but when you start trusting yourself, it’ll get easier as you go along.
When I look back, I see that I have trusted people who were not worthy of my trust. The saying goes that you can’t know what you don’t know. But you can learn what you don’t know by paying attention. You can shed light on your blind spots instead of looking to someone else to tell you what to do. You can develop the ability to feel what is inside you and find the courage to chart your own course. Mentors are wonderful but only if they don’t tell you what to do. Their job is to provide a sounding board and bring you back to yourself. When I hear someone say, “I know you better than you know yourself,” I walk away. No one knows you better than you know yourself. You just have to believe what you feel and trust that feeling.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. To map out a course of action and follow it to the end requires courage.”
When you don’t know what to do, you don’t have to call a psychic. Take a break. It’s like an incubation period where your thoughts are forming and informing your conscience mind. Sometimes the understanding comes quickly. Sometimes it comes so slowly, you’re afraid it never will, but if you have the patience to wait, you’ll get your reward.
Johann Goethe said, “As soon as you trust your gut, you will know how to live.”
Very nicely done!