On Trusting Your Intuition
Last weekend I spent some one-on-one time with a good friend over a sneaky bottle of wine. She’s recently come out of a long-term relationship, and as you might expect, our conversation found its way there.
At one point she said something that stayed with me.
If she had been truly honest with herself, she said, she could have spared herself a lot of heartache. The alarm bells had been there from the beginning, she just hadn’t listened to them.
That comment sent me into reflection mode.
How many times in my own life, in relationships and beyond, have I sensed that something wasn’t quite right, or that the timing was off, and gone ahead anyway? How often do we feel a quiet nudge from our gut or intuition… and choose to ignore it?
And what might our lives look like now if we had listened?
It’s easy to ask these questions in hindsight. And I want to say this clearly: I’m not someone who lives with regrets. I genuinely believe that even the “wrong turns” shape us, teach us, and lead us to experiences we wouldn’t otherwise have had. Nothing is wasted.
Still, there are moments when the lesson isn’t obvious yet. When we can’t quite see why we had to go through something. And those moments can be harder to sit with.
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
So the question I find myself coming back to is this:
How can we learn to listen to our intuition more often and earlier?
And perhaps just as importantly:
How can we support others, especially younger people, in trusting that inner voice before years have passed?
I don’t have a neat answer yet. It’s a question I’m still trying to figure out.
What I do know is that these conversations matter. I told my friend that if she had shared her doubts at the time, maybe one of us, myself or another close friend, might have encouraged her to listen to what she already knew deep down.
That evening opened up space for a deeper, more honest conversation between us, something that doesn’t happen often, not because the trust isn’t there, but because some of us are more guarded than others. I hope it brought us closer, and that she now feels safe to share more of her inner world if and when she wants to.
As that space opened, I felt an urge to share something vulnerable of my own, a personal experience I’ve only spoken about with close family and a very good friend, after it came up in a session with my life coach over a year ago. I wasn’t looking for anything in return. I simply wanted to show her that I trusted her, without expecting anything back.
And then something unexpected happened.
She shared that she had gone through the exact same experience and hadn’t shared it with many people either.
I was stunned and deeply moved.
What started as a meaningful conversation became something more: a moment of true connection, rooted in honesty and trust. For me, it was also a reminder of how powerful it can be to listen to your instinct in the moment, in this case to speak when something tells you to speak.
Sometimes, when we follow that quiet inner voice, it leads us exactly where we need to be.
A few questions for you to reflect on
Where in your life have you felt a gentle nudge… and talked yourself out of it?
What does your intuition feel like in your body when it shows up as a yes or a no?
What might it need from you to feel heard more often?
If you’d like to explore this a little further, you could try a simple experiment over the next few days:
When a small decision comes up, pause for a moment and ask yourself:
“What feels most true for me right now — even if it doesn’t make logical sense yet?”
There’s no need to act on the answer straight away. Just notice what comes up and what shifts when you begin to listen.
If these reflections resonate, this is very much how I work in my coaching, gently creating space to listen to what’s already there, beneath the noise and expectations. You don’t need to have answers yet. Sometimes it’s enough to begin by noticing what’s quietly asking for your attention.