We’re in the midst of the How to be Lucky Challenge. There are four qualities that lucky people have, according to Richard Wisemen in his book The Luck Factor.
Lucky people…
- Are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities.
- Make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition.
- Create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations.
- Adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.
Today we’re talking about learning to listen to our intuition.
It’s easy to write off intuition as being woowoo or unreliable, but the truth is intuition is an important part of our decision making process.
Intuition is a right-brained activity. As we’ve seen, it’s important to develop the kind of attention and awareness that the right-brain has.
This awareness sees the big picture, can hold a lot of information at a time, can see multiple solutions and is much more flexible than decision making that comes primarily from a left-brained, detail oriented approach.
These two decision making processes are called Intuitive and Reflective.
The Reflective process is controlled, effortful and rule based using logic. We understand this decision making process and feel comfortable with it, because we can see exactly how we got to the answer.
The other decision making process is Intuitive. This system is:
- Automatic
- Effortless
- Associative, connecting one idea to another
- Rapid
We often aren’t as comfortable with our intuition or gut feelings, because we can’t see the process of how we came to the answer. It happens so quickly, pulling from information that we’re not conscious of.
When to use the Intuitive Process
If you’re trying to decide which internet service plan to go with or which paper towels to buy, rely on the Reflective Process.
If you’re dealing with a situation with a lot of information and variables, it’s best to use the Intuitive Process for making the decision. Research has shown that our gut feelings make better decisions when the decisions are complicated and nuanced, such as which house to buy or who to marry. (This doesn’t mean we don’t look at all the facts, of course, but that once the facts are gathered we let our intuition weigh in.)
How to Tap into Your Intuition
Here are a dozen ways to tap into your intuition:
1. “I know you don’t know what to do, but if you did know, what would you do?”
One of my favorite techniques is to ask myself that question. This idea comes from Andy Andrews.
There’s something about that question that gets right to the heart of the matter, so the intuition can come forward.
Whenever I ask myself that question, it never fails that an answer begins to emerge. It’s an answer that’s been there all along, but I just couldn’t see it. That’s intuition at work.
2. Use mindfulness and meditation
Practicing mindfulness and meditation can help us quiet the mind and allow our intuitive insights to come to the surface. You can do this at any point during the day, by coming fully into the moment and quieting your mind.
3. Journaling
We’ve been keeping the Lucky Artifact notebook as a way of paying attention to our days, our thoughts and the things around us. This is a great way to help us tap into our intuition.
Longer form journaling is also very helpful for this. I’m a huge fan of “morning pages”, popularized by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way. The idea is to write three pages of stream of conscious writing every morning. The goal is to keep your hand moving across the page. It’s amazing what insights can come out of this practice, especially if you’ve been feeling frustrated or blocked
4. Spend time in nature
Being in nature, whether it’s a park, backyard or forest, really helps calm the mind. Add a walk or a hike to it and that’s a great way to let your intuition rise to the surface.
5. Trust your gut
Earlier in this article we discussed the Intuitive Process of decision making. Begin practicing trusting your gut on things that are lower stakes to build trust in yourself.
6. Get Creative
Getting creative with drawing, painting, playing an instrument, or doing a craft is a great way to get into the right side of the brain where our intuition lies. Especially if you’re able to get into a flow state, where time slips away and you’re only focused on your creative project, you may find that afterward ideas will rise up from your intuition.
7. Listen to your body
How do you feel when you think certain thoughts or consider different options? Pay attention to the physical feelings in your gut and heart. Do you feel tight, free, closed off, open or some other sensation? Those feelings are clues from your intuition.
8. Practice mindful listening
When we’re in conversation with someone and we’re truly listening to them, without trying to craft what we’ll say next, we’re practicing the art of picking up subtle clues that will help us understand people and situations. This is valuable for building our intuition.
When we can truly listen to others, we can also begin to listen to ourselves.
9. Visualization
Try visualizing different scenarios to see how they feel to you in your body. This can help you understand which path aligns best for you.
10. Seek quit time
Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, suggests doing at least one boring task a day with nothing in our ears and not talking to anyone. This is a chance to let our minds off the leash for a while. We’re not thinking of anything particular or trying to focus on anything.
An example is when we get great ideas while taking a shower or running the vacuum or doing dishes. Our mind is let loose to wander, while the body is busy with other work. That’s a magical combination for letting our intuition come forward.
11. Practice Gratitude
Gratitude helps build positivity in our lives, which also helps us trust our intuition more.
12. Sleep on it
If you’ve been puzzling over something, ask yourself for an answer right before going to sleep at night. Your subconscious will get to work on the issue and you may have a new idea in the morning.
Intuition and Luck
As we continue with the How to Be Lucky Challenge, write down any intuitive insights you have in your Lucky Artifact notebook. Beginning to build a list will help you see just how useful this intuitive part of your mind can be. A big part of being lucky, involves making intuitive decisions.