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An excerpt from Stop Checking Your Likes 
by Susie Moore

Your intuition is the inner pressing of the wiser you. It’s the still, small voice inside giving you direction. It’s the oldest, wisest part of you. Notice how every time someone gives you vacation recos, they’ll describe the best activities based on what they did. Their intentions are good, and suggestions are wonderful if you’re feeling them! But sometimes the pressure to “do all the things” in a new city is exhausting. You end up needing a holiday from your holiday. So if you got to Rome and you don’t really feel like seeing the Vatican, the Colosseum, or that “must-visit” gelato bar...don’t! So what? If you’d rather just drink Sangiovese, shop, eat pasta, and take in the atmosphere, then do that! It’s your holiday. And it belongs to you. The same goes for choosing a career, a city, even a couch.

Think of a time when you’ve trusted your intuition, even though it seemed to make no sense at all. What happened? Think of a time when you went against your intuition, because it didn’t seem sensible to follow it. What happened?

Direct Message

Think for a second and take a deep breath. What is that knowing? That something inside? That voice?

It’s your wise AF inner guidance. And no one else can tune in to it but you. It can help you with a million things — from choosing the right career path to meeting your life partner even to saving your life. Yep. It’s that vital.

Your Inner Pilot

You can listen to advice, yes. You can talk things out with people you trust. But only you can ever ultimately know what’s best for you at any moment. The question you want to ask yourself is, In this moment, am I letting my intuition guide me? No one knows what’s inside you, the same way that you don’t know what’s inside others. Your desires, intentions, and instincts are not felt by anyone but you. You have an inner pilot ready to drive your beautifully unique life forward...you just have to use it. It’s your greatest treasure.

Living a Self-Directed Life

Can you stop second-guessing yourself  ? Even the most extraordinary among us, those we look to for guidance, have ordinary problems just like we do. Other people don’t know better, even though it can seem that way sometimes. And they certainly don’t know best when it comes to knowing what’s right for you. I’ll never forget the time I heard a well-known spiritual teacher say onstage, “I’ve written six self-help books and I’m a f*cking mess!”

This is where self-approval will save you a thousand times. When you can rely on your inner like button, you’ll be living a self-directed life. And unlike all those people on their deathbeds wishing they’d lived a life truer to themselves, you’ll reach that stage with far fewer regrets. And the sooner you can get there, the better for you. You don’t have to wait until you’re on your deathbed!

When you trust yourself, not only will you make better, aligned decisions, but you’ll have far more fun, too. Your inner guidance doesn’t just want to keep you safe. It wants you to have a rich, full, healthy, vibrant, playful life! Because the basis of a good life is joy, freedom, and personal progress. That is what the universe is always supporting. And using your brain, tradition, or societal rules alone can hinder that.

One January morning, when my regular yoga class became a mat-to-mat experience, I had to laugh a little at the universal New Year’s enthusiasm. But in this particular class, the teacher said something cool to all the newbies in the room: “If you lose your balance and fall, that’s perfect. If you don’t know the pose and have never heard Sanskrit before, that’s perfect, too. Just copy the rest of us and try your best. If you’re confused and regret coming at any time — also perfect! Just enjoy yourself. Explore your body’s limits. Play around.”

And as the class kicked off, I was surprised by something: the experienced yogis seemed to have the least fun of all. I noticed their furrowed brows, their discomfort when toppling during a standing balance, and their rushing ahead instead of flowing with the breath.

As for the newbies, one of them asked, “Hey, what’s an asana?” They were just throwing themselves in wholeheartedly, and it didn’t matter that they didn’t know the terminology. They had the most fun, and probably got the best workout, too. A couple of them even went for it with headstands — something I never even attempt after nearly ten years of going to classes! And it worked, dammit!

Again, take a breath and think of a time when that brain of yours entirely led the way. What happened?

Now take another breath and think of a time when your heart led you fully. What happened?

Reflecting on that for a moment, do you want more of those heart-driven, intuitive moments to create your life? Probably, right?

There’s nothing wrong with using your head. It’s an amazing decision-making filter that keeps you safe and helps you make sound decisions. But the brain isn’t pro-experimentation.
It’s not willing to look stupid, take a risk, or make a mistake. Our heads like routine and the perceived security it brings us. But not every decision needs to be sensible. Pure sensibleness blocks opportunity. The universe gave us a brain and a heart. We need to use both in making decisions.

So what’s the heart like as a guide? Well, it doesn’t overthink. It feels. It goes where it’s called. And who knows where that can take you? Maybe something as unexpected as a successful headstand (that would’ve taken your brain more than a decade to arrive at).

Instant Intuition

If you’re still feeling stuck, here’s a potent Instant Intuition technique that will help you make the right decision:

Sit down comfortably.
Take a few deep breaths to clear your mind and settle the body.
Close your eyes.
Visualize your first option. See yourself moving forward with this choice. Picture it happening in the present moment in vivid color. Imagine the activity, the outcome, the ripple effects.
Keep breathing, and notice how your body feels and responds.
Now visualize your second option. See yourself moving forward with this choice. Picture it happening in the present moment in vivid color. Imagine the activity, the outcome, the ripple effects.
Keep breathing, and notice how your body feels and responds.
If there’s a third and fourth option, keep going until you’ve covered them all.
Which option made your body relax? That’s the best decision for you.

See? Your body will support you in making the right choices. Your body houses around 30 to 40 trillion of the most intelligent cells on earth! Respect them!

Anything that creates a spark of curiosity within us or generates some desire that typically lies dormant is often our intuition guiding us to say yes to more. Human beings are different from all other animals. We have the gift of higher consciousness and the ability to make choices using both our instincts and our intellect. We have this wildly helpful thing called instinct, and a brain that’s smarter than any computer that exists. We can feel and think. We can understand doubt, process it, and use our intellect to reason. And when you use everything that’s available to you, you’ll never have to blame anyone else again. You realize how powerful you are in creating your life. And you won’t let yourself down.

Susie Moore is the author of Stop Checking Your Likes and What If It Does Work Out? which was named by Entrepreneur as one of the “8 Business Books Entrepreneurs Must Read to Dominate Their Industry.” A former Silicon Valley sales director turned life coach, she has been featured on The Today Show, as well as in O Magazine, Business Insider, Forbes, Time, and Marie Claire. She lives in Miami, Florida with her husband Heath and their Yorkshire Terrier, Coconut. Find out more about her work at www.Susie-Moore.com.

Excerpted from the book Stop Checking Your Likes. Copyright ©2020 by Susie Moore. Printed with permission from New World Library.

A week ago while visiting my husband's mom in Virginia, a strange thing happened to me. On this particular evening I was reading the book "Phenomenon" by Sylvia Brown, and was about to turn in for the night. I bookmarked my page and noticed the next chapter was entitled "Astral Travel." Though I was excited to read about it, I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I went to bed thinking I would read it the next day. I drifted off to sleep in a matter of minutes, and then suddenly I felt myself leaving my body. (I felt sort of half awake at this point). It began with my hand and arm leaving my body, and then it was as if I was moving at a thousand miles an hour in a black, swirling hole. It scared me! Then Slam! I felt as if I was thrown back into my body with a great force. I woke up frightened and unsure about what had really happened. Was I dreaming because of the book I was reading, or did I actually have an experience where "my body" caught my spirit leaving and then freaked out? Any thoughts or advice would be really helpful. My date of birth: 6-4-70 - Karen

Dreamchaser:

Over the years, I have mentioned this very subject over and over in this column. I am glad to talk about it again, however, because it happens so frequently to people.

When we go to sleep, our soul leaves our body and goes to where it most needs to be in order to fix whatever happened today and prepare for tomorrow. Sometimes it works very hard, and sometimes it just plays by itself or with other souls.

Dreams, by the way, are the journeys that our souls go on every night. Sometimes we remember our soul work, and sometimes we don't. Either way, our souls DO leave and travel and learn every single time we are asleep. Scientists have yet to prove why our bodies need sleep; it's because our souls must have time to do their work when our human mind is not in the way.

What happened in your case was that your mind was not fully asleep yet. Your logical, human mind was still relatively conscious of what was going on around you. When your soul lifted off, your human mind was aware of it.

Usually our souls wait until REM or deep sleep to lift off. When your soul realized that your mind was still active, it jumped back into your body. That was the SLAM you felt. When you woke up, your human mind was searching for a "logical" explanation as to what had just happened.

This can also work in reverse, by the way. Our souls can wake our bodies sometimes before our minds kick into gear. Have you ever woken up and not known who you were, where you were, what was going on, etc.? Then it took a little while for you to shake out the "cobwebs" and come back to reality? That is when your soul pops back in before your human mind is awake, clear and ready to be cognizant of what is happening.

Your mind was running on high gear because you had been reading new information. You were learning and growing and evolving, and it was exciting for your mind to filter into your soul and back up. The cycle was working, but you were too tired to stay awake and read more.

Your human mind was ready and wanting to learn about astral travel. Your soul was saying, "Go to sleep so we can integrate what you have already learned." Part of you was ready to sleep and part of you was ready for more exploration. The two were running on conflicting schedules, and you caught it happening. So in a way, the book caused this, but it happens on a nightly basis anyway. Because you were conscious, you just happened to catch it happening this time!

You can learn how to astral travel while you are awake. Keep reading! I wish you many more conscious experiences with astral travel!

*****

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.