Have you ever found yourself asking, “Is something wrong with this situation, or is that just me?”
That’s your intuition in action.
Trusting your intuition can be hard, because it requires you to trust yourself without anything to fall back on when you’re wrong.
However, following your intuition is one of the most important skills you need to master, because it can get you out of the most difficult situations.
This is why ignoring your intuition can often be dangerous.
Below are some warning signs you’re ignoring your intuition, and how to tune into it again.
Let’s jump in!
1) Being too affected by your bias
All of us have biases. Optimism and pessimism is a spectrum, and you either lean towards one side or the other.
However, leaning too far towards one side of the spectrum is not a good position to be in. Being overly optimistic or pessimistic is a sign that you’re letting yourself get too affected by your bias, and thus, are ignoring your intuition.
Being too optimistic can often turn into toxic positivity. This manifests when you tell yourself to “just look at the bright side of things” even if, realistically, you have to do more than just have a positive mindset in order to solve the problem at hand.
On the other hand, being too pessimistic can cloud your judgment as well. Expecting the worst out of every situation is only good when you’re doing it the stoic way, not in the the-world-is-going-to-end-tomorrow type of way.
To avoid either of these, try to listen to your gut feeling and what it tells you about the situation. By doing this, you are able to make sound decisions for the problem that needs resolving—sometimes, even taking calculated risks.
2) Avoiding taking risks
In life, it’s important to take calculated risks. This enables us to make the necessary changes in our lives that help us grow as people.
This is why there is a danger in never taking risks, because doing so means you remain stagnant, stuck in a rut, unable to create healthy changes for your life.
Refusing to take any kind of risk means you’re not listening to your intuition. Perhaps you’re always too stressed or anxious that any decision will make a change for the worse, which ends up with you not making a decision at all.
However, oftentimes, listening to your intuition can be beneficial, as this will tell you which risks are worth taking.
Try to rid yourself of your anxieties for a while. Perhaps you could try breathing exercises, meditations, journaling, or simply talking about your worries to a friend.
Then, listen to your intuition. What is it telling you? Should you take that risk?
But if you still find that the anxiety or stress haven’t quite gone yet, maybe it would better serve you to find the cause of your anxieties first.
If you feel you live life in constant dread, it may be a sign that you’re suffering from anxiety.
Having anxiety can totally ruin our intuitive senses, because our worries cloud our judgment, which then silences your inner voice of intuition.
When we’re always afraid something bad is going to happen, we tend to avoid taking risks or even making decisions.
3) You feel as if you’re on autopilot
Have you ever walked or driven a distance without too much thought, sometimes wondering how you got there without getting yourself into an accident?
This is what it means to be on autopilot. Sometimes, we feel that way about life in general—as if we’re not really living, just going through the motions. You don’t feel happy or sad, just numb.
Feeling this way is a tell-tale sign that you’ve lost touch with your intuition. The inner voice you have that helps you get through the toughest situations feels as if it has been lost, because you barely feel anything anymore.
In order to get back in touch with your intuition, it would be beneficial for you to listen to your feelings.
4) Ignoring or invalidating your feelings
When we’re making decisions, it’s important to not get carried away by emotion and to always try to stay rational.
However, that doesn’t mean you should stop listening to your feelings altogether.
For example, when you’re angry, there’s usually a deeper, underlying reason why you feel that way.
Are you angry at your family for causing you irreparable emotional trauma? If so, beneath the anger, there might be the fear that if you let yourself stop feeling angry, you might forget what they did.
Do you feel envy when a friend is able to reach their dreams? Listen to that envy, because it points you towards what you truly want.
Simply put, listening to your feelings enables your intuition to do its work. Your feelings are indicators of your desires and motivations in life, so don’t ignore or invalidate them—instead, listen to them.
5) You feel unmotivated every day
It’s perfectly normal to feel unmotivated on some days. In fact, all of us have lazy days, where we don’t really feel like doing anything—just lie in bed, eat chips, and watch Netflix all day long.
But feeling like this every single day for a long period of time is not at all normal. It means that you’ve stopped listening to your intuition, and you’ve forgotten what you want to do with life.
And if you don’t like what you’re doing with your life, it might even reach a point where you dread getting out of bed and doing your tasks because you despise doing them.
If you feel like this, one thing you can do is to take a day-off. No work, no responsibilities, just relaxation. What this does is it clears your head of its worries and stresses, unblocking your connection with your intuition.
And once that connection has been restored, trust me: you’ll be able to finally distinguish what you want to do with your life.
So if you feel you’re on the wrong track, that’s fine—now you know what you don’t want, which is a step towards knowing what you want.
6) You feel you’re on the wrong track
All of us need a purpose in our lives to keep going.
This is why it can be hard to continue living our lives when we feel like we’re not fulfilling our life’s true purpose.
If you feel you’re doing nothing but working a soul-sucking 9-5 corporate job, and think you’re better off doing something better somewhere else, don’t ignore this feeling—that’s your intuition telling you you’re on the wrong track.
Too many people ignore this feeling because making changes in your life is scary. It can take away your security.
But if you have the means and resources, and your gut is telling you it’s the right time, maybe it’s time to finally listen and stop living by other people’s expectations.
7) You live by other people’s expectations
A friend once told me that having others expect a lot from you is a good thing—it means they have faith in you.
While I agree that having someone believe in you is a good thing, living only to fulfill the expectations of others takes away our individuality and, consequently, confounds our true purpose in life.
If you choose to fulfill others expectations instead of following your own path, you’re ignoring your intuition.
To get back on track, try to listen to what you actually want. What do you desire to achieve from your own life?
Do not ignore these desires, because that means you’re ignoring your intuition.
Not to mention that when you live by the expectations of others, you only really feel a tiny bit of fulfillment when you get outside validation.
8) You’re hungry for validation
Do you never feel fulfillment unless others validate you?
Do you constantly seek approval from your friends and family?
This hunger for validation is a tell-tale sign that you’ve been ignoring your intuition.
You’re not living your life according to your own standards, but to that of others.
While it’s important to listen to other people’s opinion every once in a while to make sure we’re on the right track, the opinion that matters most is yours.
Even if you get the approval of your friends and family, at the end of the day, is that alone enough to make you truly happy?
Start listening to your intuition and stop listening to the opinions of others and, soon enough, you’ll also stop seeking validation.
9) You’re unhappy in your relationships
If you’re in a toxic relationship, or feel like you’re in the wrong group of friends, that’s a glaring sign that you’re not listening to your intuition.
Ask yourself: why am I with these people? What do they contribute to my life?
Do they make you happy? Do they make you a better person?
I’ve been there before, and it’s not a good feeling to have. It’s only when I listened to my intuition that I found the right people for me.
If you answered no to both of these questions, leave them. Listen to your gut feeling and find other, better people to be with.