Clearly, I should have listened to my gut this morning.  I was on my way to Tim’s for tea for Hubby and coffee for myself.  A long line greeted me at the drive thru, however, it’s usually quick and I was in no hurry.  I had left early enough to adjust for the line.  I get to the drive thru window and a sign had been posted.  No debit.  Of course, there’s no debit at the drive thru this morning because I don’t have any cash!   I get to the window and ask if I can place my order, park and come in to pick it up.  Of course, I can’t do that because that would be too easy!  I drive on past the window and look at the extensive line blocking the parking.  My answer was “Fuck this,” and I drive out.  I go to the OTHER Tim Horton shop that is only a walk-in.  I refer here to, ‘listening to my gut,’ because at the sight of the line as I was initially driving up to the first coffee shop, my head was saying ‘fuck that and go to the other Tim’s.’  I didn’t listen and here I was fifteen minutes later, driving to the other Tim’s.   I get there.  Virtually no line.  They also have no tea.  Ugh.  I wait.  Half an hour later, I arrive home with tea for Hubby.  My lesson for today was listen to your gut.  (And…. I can hear the Starbucks fans yelling at me…)

We always have situations where that little voice in our head is telling us something different than the oftentimes, easiest route.  It says to go the other way, or something about this situation is wrong.  We have the free will to choose.  We can either listen to that little voice or our ‘gut’, or we can choose to go the easy way.  Maybe the easier more convenient route seems logical or more practical at the time, then it turns out costing more time or more energy in the long run.   If we stop and listen for just a second more, we could have saved ourselves pain or time or money by listening to our ‘gut’ or our intuition.  It’s rarely wrong. 

Listening to our intuition takes practice.  We have to be able to trust that little voice to lead us in the right direction.  Often times, we doubt what that voice is saying because we doubt ourselves.  We don’t trust enough in our intellect or in our logic or in our understanding of the situation to trust that inner voice.   It’s screaming to be heard and we ignore it because we fear the outcome.  We fear its wrong and we’ve made the wrong choice.   Making mistakes is an essential part of growth and if we never make a mistake, if we never take a chance on something that makes us challenge ourselves, we have allowed complacency to move in.  That would be boring.

 Today’s lesson for me was minor.  It cost me time but I had time to spare.   I try to impart the wisdom of listening to your intuition to my daughters.  Your intuition or ‘Spidey-Sense’ tells you when someone is ‘off’ or maybe the situation feels wrong to you.  Then get out.  If it feels wrong then it is wrong.  For you.  You may think because you see others seemingly enjoying themselves and they may well be, that you would be making the wrong choice by leaving or by not participating.  But maybe they feel something about it is wrong too, but are not listening to their gut.  Maybe they’re afraid they’ll miss something or that people will ostracize them because they made another choice.  You have to trust in yourself to listen to your inner voice and make the choice that’s right for you.   I’m not saying to run away from things or situations that challenge you.  I’m saying if a situation or person seems to be going in a direction that’s immoral, illegal or unethical then you have the obligation to decide what’s best for you. 

And your true self, your true inner voice already has your back and knows the answer.  

You just have to listen to it. 

Opening ourselves up to listening to our voice and to trust in ourselves takes practice, but it is well-worth the work.  Fear and self-doubt should take a backseat to listening and acting upon our instincts. 

Obviously, I have some practicing to do myself.  Or, I can send Hubby to get the coffee and tea next time.  We’ll see if he listens to his inner voice along the way….