Let Your Intuition Lead You Into the Next Chapter of Your Life

I'm learning to listen to mine and it's leading me to places I never dreamed I'd go

Photo by Nikola Johnny Mirkovic on Unsplash

Henri Nouwen’s book, The Inner Voice of Love, is a personal journal he kept when he was severely depressed. He had no intention of publishing it, but his friends convinced him to years later. I’m currently reading and discussing it in an online group.

These words jumped out at me as I read them and I continue to ponder how they relate to my life now:

You know that something totally new, truly unique, is happening within you. It is clear that something in you is dying and something is being born. You must remain attentive, calm, and obedient to your best intuitions. …

The stage sets that have for so long provided a background for your thoughts, words, and actions are slowly being rolled away, and you know they won’t come back.

In my case, those stage sets were not rolled away slowly; they were removed abruptly without warning. It took a year or so for me to know with absolute certainty that they would not be coming back. I’m still adjusting to losing them.

Since you’re reading a newsletter called “Changing Lives,” I’m guessing you’ve also had some stage sets that used to provide backgrounds for your thoughts, words, and actions rolled away. Whether you chose to leave them behind or lost them unexpectedly, you had to learn how to live without them. You may be still figuring out what you want to replace them with and how to do that.

If you’re anything like me, you first try to think of logical replacements. You do some research, weigh the pros and cons of various options, and choose the one that seems to make the most sense. You plan a course of action and take steps in that direction.

If that approach works well for you and yields the results you hoped for, congratulations! You chose well and I’m happy for you.

It failed miserably in my case. More than once. Over time, I realized that allowing my rational mind to overrule my intuition and determine what I needed to do even though it wasn’t what I wanted to do made things worse instead of better. I started to listen to and occasionally even trust the messages I received from that inner voice. It told me to let my former beliefs and choices die and give the new ones growing inside me a chance to be born.

I’ve gradually become more attentive and obedient to that voice. I’m still struggling with the “remain calm” part. Occasionally I can pull it off, but not for long. My anxious mind craves stability and security, even though neither is fully possible regardless of the choices I make. There are so many factors beyond my control, and I hate that!

At the same time, I’m much happier when I give myself permission to leap without knowing where I’ll land. I discover exciting new places I didn’t know existed and had not planned to visit. I enjoy the journey more when I spend less time worrying about exactly where I’m going or how and when I’ll get there.

I’d love to say this new approach to life has solved all of my problems and I’m now living happily ever after. This is real life, though, not a fairy tale, so challenges remain and a happy ending is not guaranteed for me or anyone else.

All any of us can do is be more attentive to that inner voice clamoring to be heard and let our best intuitions lead us into each new chapter of our lives. There will be plot twists we can’t predict and characters we don’t like. There will also be delightful adventures and other incredible experiences we would have missed if we had played it safe and only done what seemed safe and sensible.

So what is your intuition telling you to do? Are you listening to it or allowing some other voice to overrule it? Which voice do you trust to guide you into the next chapter of your life?