Six common mistakes when working with intuition
Over the years I have experienced and witnessed my clients navigate the pitfalls of following their intuition. Working with your intuition can be tricky enough without falling into some of these common mistakes I’ve seen time and time again.
In today’s article, I share six of the most common mistakes I see people make when following their intuition.
The biggest mistakes to avoid when following your intuition
MISTAKE #1: Thinking more than you’re feeling.
All too often, I see people thinking about intuition more than feeling into it. Intuition is about feeling, not thinking. To feel, we must practice being in our bodies. Sadly, many of us are quite disconnected from our physical bodies, disconnected from our emotions and disconnected from our physical sensations, generally speaking.
It’s a mistake to deny yourself enough time and space to connect with not just your physical body, but all Four Bodies (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) to truly understand its wisdom.
Intuition is not a thinking exercise, and especially if you're reaching for higher guidance from your Spiritual Support Team, or spirit guides,deflection can quickly transport us back into our heads instead of our intuitive heart, which isn’t useful.
To counter this mistake:
Spend more time connecting with your four bodies through embodiment practices. Learn how your physical body communicates with you.
For example, emotional embodiment looks like allowing all your emotions to be present, so they pass, rather than dismissing or overriding them.
Allowing your emotions to be present, without judgment, provides space to interpret what the emotions want you to know. What’s underneath the emotion? That’s where the intuitive data is.
MISTAKE #2: Believing intuition will guarantee an outcome.
I hate to break it to you, but following your intuition does not guarantee the outcome you want.
Intuition will guide you where you need to be to learn—and sometimes learning is not easy. Of course, intuition can steer you into really wonderful experiences, behaviors and relationships, but it can equally take us into places that our mind will interpret as painful, difficult or what our mind thinks is “the wrong place”.
Intuition doesn't guarantee easy. Intuition doesn't guarantee happy ever after. But intuition does guarantee soul growth and expansion.
Where intuition leads us may not be what our mind wanted. Following our intuition requires a huge amount of trust that we are always in the right place at the right time.
All too often, I hear some version of: “Oh, I followed my intuition, but it didn't work out because…”, or, “Oh, I thought I had to leave my job, but that didn't work out. So I got my intuition wrong.” Maybe you have your own version of this, too?
But that's not what intuition's for.
Just because your intuition prompts you to change jobs, or leave a relationship, or make some other change doesn’t mean that your Happy Ever After exists there. You may be closer to it, but you may have other things to learn or experience along this next stop.
Ultimately, intuition asks us to move through our inner world to heal and transform physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The clearer our energy flow, the clearer the flow in our outer world, which will mirror what’s inside for us to heal.
To counter this mistake:
Become comfortable in the unknown. However, the mind dislikes the unknown. The mind wants safety, security and guarantees. This is not the goal of intuition —it is working on behalf of our Higher Self and Soul, which is very comfortable in the unknown.
Being comfortable in the unknown requires a lot of practice, patience and surrender. This is why tools like meditation are useful.
MISTAKE # 3: Confusing intuition and fear.
Intuition is often confused with fear, because fear can very sneakily mask itself to appear as intuition.
Quick reminder:
Tapping into intuition and true guidance feels loving and expansive, even if it’s outside our comfort zone, or risky.
Fear wants to keep you safe, or small. It will feel constrictive or focused on the potential downsides.
Of course, there are times where fear can accompany the guidance, but isn’t the true guidance. Once we have an intuitive nudge, we may find the fear is secondary.
Let me give you an example. When I worked in PR, I eventually intuitively felt it was time to leave.
My intuition said, “This is no longer the right place for you, you need to leave.”
My fear said, “You cannot leave, you don't have another job. You need money, you need a plan.”
Intuition knew I need the change and prompted me outside my comfort zone; fear wanted to keep me in perceived safety.
To counter this mistake:
Tune into both your head and heart, which often mirrors intuition and fear.
In The Little Sage Intuitive Living course, I teach students how to understand both their head and heart, and intuition and fear, by looking at what each is saying. We can then process the fear (from the limitations, old beliefs, mindset issues, old energy etc) to clear the way to trust our intuition.
By identifying your fears, you can break them down so you can take action despite the fear.
MISTAKE #4: Expecting intuition to be what you want to hear.
Sometimes our intuition brings us some tough love. It may ask us to make tough choices and tough decisions. We may need to do some deeper healing physically, mentally, emotionally or energetically.
The more we follow our intuition, the more likely we will eventually be guided into the inner work for our souls growth and transformation.
Our intuition will challenge our beliefs, our perceptions, our understandings of ourselves or our world or the people around us.
Usually there is a reason we have buried our feelings, or adopted some limited mindset —so, it’s not always easy to dive into those layers. But, when I guide my students into them, the biggest transformation and breakthroughs occur.
It can be hard to hear we have to address something that hurt us, or challenged us. Sometimes that needs deeper support (ie through therapy), but sometimes it can just take a shift in our mindset.
To counter this mistake:
Start small. Act on the small pieces of guidance you’re given then build up to the bigger, deeper more resistance-inducing guidance.
But, you also don’t have to go it alone. You can seek out therapists and healers to support you. This is one of the biggest pieces of feedback from The Little Sage Intuitive Living program —the support through your biggest blocks is invaluable.
MISTAKE #5: Treating intuition as a fling rather than a long term commitment.
When we think of building a relationship with our intuition, we must realise this is not a fling but a long term commitment.
In a world obsessed with instant gratification, the idea of a long term commitment, or lifestyle change, can feel overwhelming.
I just mentioned in Mistake #4 the importance of starting small and working up to the bigger intuitive choices and decisions. When the stakes are lower, it can be easier to take action, right?
Starting small helps you build that relationship, as well as trust and confidence in your intuition. When the big decisions come, it is quite difficult to trust someone or something that we haven't taken the time to truly get to know.
To counter this mistake:
Give yourself time to become familiar with your little sage, your intuition and to cultivate this kind of relationship. Over time, you’ll observe patterns and repetition, but also tangible proof of your impressions coming to fruition.
MISTAKE #6: Expecting insight at the moment of your convenience.
Building on the last point, our relationship with our little sage and intuition is not a relationship of convenience.
You can't pick and choose when you listen to your intuition.
Sure, while you're learning in the beginning to trust your intuition, it can feel a bit uncertain. In the beginning, it may feel more of a convenience to call on intuition at more opportune times.
But, there eventually comes a time when you know, at a much deeper level, that your intuition is asking you for a commitment.
If you choose to opt out then —and you do still have a choice!—please know, your results will be anything but convenient!
Our intuition and our Spiritual Support Team is always there, always serving us. But without cultivating a deep, trusting relationship, we will not get the results we want.
To counter this mistake:
Sooner or later, you’ll have to commit.
And, it’ll probably mean facing your fears, stories and limitations around following your intuition to begin with —see Mistakes #3 and #4.
Your intuition is here to take you on an inner journey. Your intuitive guidance will move you through what I call the Guidance Cycle, prompting you to Clear, Heal, Restore and then Create/Maifest from the higher frequency. But, that process happens across all four bodies —we mut clear, heal and restore physically, mentally, emotionally and energetically, before we can create/manifest across the same four bodies, too.
This is a big focus in The Little Sage Intuitive Living, where I lead students through this process, by helping you pinpoint where you are and what you need in any moment.
Are you making one of these mistakes with your intuition?
Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list, but these are the most common mistakes I’ve seen people make (or have made myself!).
Consider which mistake you’re making and then consider the steps you could take to counter the mistake.
