The Sacred Act of Trusting Your Intuition

To know yourself is to trust yourself is to love yourself

There’s a quote from The Silver Linings Playbook that lives rent-free in my head. Patrizio "Pat" Solitano Sr. (played by Robert De Niro in the film version) tells his son: “When life reaches out with a moment like this, it's a sin if you don't reach back.” There’s something hauntingly powerful about this simple statement brought to us by author Matthew Quick. When you feel something so deeply that it compels you to act, that, my friends, is divine intervention. Here’s the clip. It’s worth a watch!

This line is the catalyst for what I’m writing about today. I’ve spent a large part of my life feeling afraid. Afraid to fail. Afraid to speak my mind. Afraid to let my guard down. Afraid to let go. Afraid to be myself. And let me tell you, it’s exhausting to go through life that way. How in the world are we ever going to grow, learn, and evolve if we don’t let ourselves fail? If we always play it safe?

So many songs, movies, books, stories, etc. practically SCREAM this at us. So why do we ignore these messages, the keys to life spelled out so clearly in front of our eyes? Because we don’t believe it can be that easy. Hint: it is.

We get so used to hearing phrases like “listen to your heart” that they become trite, almost devoid of meaning. This turns the concept of trusting your intuition into a cliché reserved for fairytales and not “the real world,” which makes us practically immune to their significance. So, how do we “reach back”?

Taking Chances on Yourself is an Act of Self-Love

I always dreamed of being brave enough to do something different, something against the grain, but it never felt like the “right time”. Only in my more recent years have I realized that there isn’t going to be a right time. Life is happening right now and that is all I have. If I have the option to stay complacent and comfortable in the routine that someone else has deemed the “right way” versus doing something that feels instinctively right for me, I choose me. I would rather bet on myself than let the status quo define my measures of success.

When lying to yourself takes its toll

A few years ago, I couldn’t have made that choice. I wasn’t ready to jump yet. In the 3D world, I would need to save more money, get promoted at work, and generally have all the boxes checked before I was “ready.” But then my body started rebelling.

From 2017-2019, I suffered from severe panic attacks. This is something I would never wish on anyone. I started fainting/momentarily losing consciousness in public places. I experienced chest pains and a quickened heart rate. All of my muscles were tight and prone to injury. I didn’t fully understand it at the time, but my body knew something that my mind hadn’t quite caught up to yet.

The truth, for me, was that the corporate world was misaligned, point blank. But I kept blaming myself and my anxious tendencies and my kindness (among other admirable but softer traits that I now realize are my superpowers) for the repeated failure and illness. The cognitive dissonance was debilitating; on the one hand I relied on my corporate job to keep me financially secure and to appear like I “had my shit together” and on the other hand I was praying for a way to get out of it, to protect myself from predatory people, and to allow myself peace. Without all of this pain, though, I realize I wouldn’t have been able to get to where I am now and to share my message with others. So in the end, I’m thankful for those tough moments that made me stronger and redirected me.

Jumping with no safety net

So here we are. Last week I quit my corporate job. There was no ill will. No major problems. No better opportunity waiting for me on the other side. It was simply an instinct that I couldn’t ignore. This decision — to let go and dance with the unknown — is the scariest thing I’ve ever done. And yet, I know it’s the smartest decision I’ve ever made.

I realize that making a jump like this might be considered privilege to some, and that’s a fair point. We’re all on our own journey and have our own stories for why we’ve made the choices we’ve made. I started from square one and have built my life into what I want it to be. I’ve worked hard and I’ve saved paychecks and I’ve taken calculated chances that have led me to this very moment. This isn’t about money or power or influence; it is simply about becoming who you are and owning every bit of that process, no matter how messy it looks.

Here’s the moral of the story:
You are brave. You deserve happiness. You deserve more than you give yourself credit for. And, a reminder (for me, too) that what is coming is going to be so much better than what has gone.

Maybe we don’t need to have an exact plan. Maybe the trust we have in ourselves and the faith we have in a guiding force (in my case, The Universe) is enough to go off of.

Life can change in an instant, if you let it.

That’s all for tonight. Talk to you soon.

Xoxo

Sara DeLuca
The Elemental Coach