"I knew I should have gone to that party. Then I would have been able to get to know her better in a comfortable place amongst friends."

"If I had stayed home like I wanted to I wouldn't have missed that call and I would have gotten the job."

"I wish I listened to myself and bought him that gift. Then he wouldn't have had to buy it for himself."

Do you ever hear yourself say one thing and end up doing another only to regret the decision later on? Well, you're not alone if you said yes. Most people pay little, if any, attention to that small voice inside them that says, "Make the call now." or "Go that way." or "Wait just one more day." Instead, they listen to the conversation that takes place in their mind and don't always end up happy with the outcome.

I'd like to suggest to you the idea of listening to the voice that comes from your gut. That's the voice of intuition and it's almost always right. Actually, I'm going to listen to my intuition right now and be bold enough to say, it's always right. Whenever I've listened to that voice it's never led me in the wrong direction and I've been thrilled with the results, even though at the time, I had know idea why I would go against what my mind was telling me.

Dr. Joyce Brothers says, "Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level." There's no doubt when learning to work with your intuition there's a certain amount of trust that has to take place. When you're guided soley by your mind you think you know what's right, but when you're guided by your intuition, you know what's right.

It's a feeling and your feelings don't lie. That's the trust you want to start to develop. It's between you and your feelings. That feeling shows up in your gut and when you find yourself saying, "I'm not really sure why I made that choice, I just listened to my gut," you're really talking about your intuition.

Here's a story of how trusting my intuition brought me more than I could have hoped for. I met a coach who was an expert in marketing, someone I was looking for at the time. After a lengthy conversation on the phone I decided to work with him. We set up our weekly sessions and I gave him my credit card so we could start in 2 days. The following day I kept having a funny feeling about working with him. I had no explanation for it but the feeling persisted while my mind was working overtime with reasons why I should work with him.

Finally, the feeling was so overwhelming, I couldn't ignore it any longer and I decided to cancel the sessions. I emailed him my cancellation and was completely honest about how I was feeling. Being the gentleman he is, he immediately refunded my money and wasn't the least bit upset about me changing my mind. The next day, I received an email inviting me to be part of a coaching group with some wonderful coaches who worked on the inner and outer process of marketing and attracting clients. The days we were to meet each week were on the same days I was to meet with the coach I cancelled with and the new opportunity was much more in tune with my way of being!! It turned out to be an amazing experience and I never questioned my intuition from that day on.

Here's a recent experience a client of mine had when she listened to her intuition. Sue was at home reading when that small voice said, "Go to the grocery store now!" She thought that was really odd because she planned on going to the store in an hour so she ignored what she heard. Again, the voice showed up with the same message and her stomach did a flip. We had talked about intuition during our last session so she decided to act on it even though she was quite happy reading and it made no sense to her.

At the grocery store, as she was pushing her cart down the aisle, Sue saw a woman she had been trying to reach for days. Sue thought the woman was ignoring her calls because this woman decided not to do business with her. When the woman saw Sue, she was thrilled. She explained she had been out of town and misplaced Sue's number. They chatted for a bit and closed the deal right there in the cereal aisle.

The next time you get an inkling, don't be so quick to push it aside. Start paying attention to what's really going on inside and have some fun making decisions from a place of not knowing why, but just feeling right. So what if you don't have a logical explanation for all of your choices. Intuition often feels illogical. If there's people around you that tell you you're crazy for making a specific choice, that's okay. Let them know you realize it seems nuts, but something deep inside you says it's the right thing to do and you really want to just go with your gut right now. Remember, this is about you and your life. The more you develop your intuition the more you'll see miracles happen in your life every day.

"Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next." -Jonas Salk

Copyright 2005, Linda Salazar all rights reserved. This article may be reproduced in its entirety as long as all credits are included.

Linda Salazar
Certified Personal Life Coach, Author, Speaker
310-375-4800
Awaken The Genie Within