Learn How to Listen to Your Inner Voice From Emily Fletcher

Intuition is powerful.

You “just know” when a person doesn’t have the right intentions for you. It is that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. It is why a mother sometimes “just knows” when there is something wrong with her children. Intuition even helps people avoid fatal accidents. That is the extent of its power.

But when making important decisions, listening to your inner voice gets tricky. Fear gets in the way. You choose “security” over “passion”. Can you get past this fear?

Emily Fletcher is a leading meditation expert and founder of Ziva Meditation. She has talked about meditation at organizations like Google and Harvard. MindBodyGreen ranked her among the top 100 women to watch in wellness.

In an interview with Vishen Lakhiani, she teaches how to listen to your inner voice:

1. Meditation Creates Space For You to Listen

When you are in your car going fast on the freeway, can you read the small letters written on the signposts? No. The same is true with intuition. The small voice in your gut.

When you’re too busy, it is hard to listen to your inner voice. You have to stop being reactive and come to stillness. From a place of ‘doing’, you have to come to a place of ‘being’.

In this state of being, you can listen to your inner voice and find the desires that are seeking your attention. But why give importance to those intuitive desires?

2. Your Desires Are Nature’s GPS

Fletcher explains that your intuitive desires are messages from nature. Nature sends you directions in the form of your desires. If you follow the directions, you will find happiness and fulfillment.

Fletcher says that nature chooses you only if you are ready to act on your intuitive desires. It is important to say “yes” to opportunities when they knock your doors or you will never get what you want out of life.

Fletcher has helped “NBA athletes, Oscar-winning actors, hedge-fund managers, celebrity chefs, entrepreneurs and the real superheroes… stay at home moms” with this intuitive wisdom.

Her approach includes asking these four questions to discover your intuitive desires.

• What’s the most pressing need of the time?

• How do my gifts best serve the need of the time?

• Which of these gifts do I want to use?

• Which of these gifts do I want to use now?

Intuitive desires carry gifts of happiness and fulfillment. But not all desires come from nature. Some are “addictive longings” which come in the form of hard-to-control urges.

3. Addictive Longings Vs. Intuitive Desires – Know the Difference

The urge to eat chocolate, get a Starbucks coffee, or buy the latest iPhone are all addictive longings. They please your senses, not your spirit.

You fall prey to these desires when there is no gap between the stimulus and your reaction. As soon as you notice the desire – to eat chocolate, drink coffee, or buy the iPhone – you get it as soon as possible. You fall into the reactive mode.

You can get out of the reactive mode into a calm state using meditation. In the calm state, you can listen to your inner voice and find your intuitive desires. These desires that lie deep underneath your soul come to the surface.

4. Don’t Hold Back When Inspiration Strikes

Fletcher shares a beautiful story about Michael Jackson to show how intuition works.

Michael Jackson is one of the biggest legends in the history of pop music. He knew that when you get creative ideas, you have to take action.

Michael Jackson used to call his manager in the middle of the night to discuss creative ideas. One night, Michael Jackson called his manager and said, “Fireflies. We need fireflies in the stage show. Note it down.”

His manager, baffled by the request, asked if it could wait until tomorrow. Michael Jackson replied, “If we don’t do it now. Prince will do it.”

If Michael Jackson didn’t listen to his intuition, nature would pass on the masterpiece to someone who was ready—Prince. This is the power of listening to your inner voice. It gives you creative ideas for your success and fulfillment. You need to take action.

5. Take Baby Steps, Don’t Try to Control The Outcome

If you are making an important change in life, it is impossible to see the entire path in the beginning. In such situations, people usually give into their fears. They go with the safe option.

Let go of the “death grip” on your desires, Fletcher says. Let things unfold at their natural pace. Your job is to take baby steps toward your desires. Why? Because once you move ahead, you will gain more clarity. And soon the entire path will be visible to you.

As Fletcher says, it is like completing an “energetic download”.

Keep taking baby steps toward your intuitive desires and soon you’ll see the entire path.