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8 Signs You've Lost Touch With Your Intuition

Author:

Lissa Rankin, M.D.

March 10, 2016

Physician and New York Times bestselling author

By Lissa Rankin, M.D.

Physician and New York Times bestselling author

Lissa Rankin, M.D., is the New York Times bestselling author of "Mind Over Medicine," "The Fear Cure," and "The Anatomy of a Calling." She is a physician, speaker, founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute, and mystic. Lissa has starred in two National Public Television specials and also leads workshops, both online and at retreat centers like Esalen and Kripalu.

Photo by Stocksy

March 10, 2016

Dr. Lissa Rankin is on a mission to merge science and spirituality. A certified MD and expert in integrative health Lissa is a thought leader in mind-body medicine. This week, we'll be featuring some of her advice on how to feel your absolute best, inside and out. If you're inspired to learn more, check out her new course: Getting Back to 100 Percent: A Six-Step Process for Radical Self-Healing.

Your intuition can help you make spiritually aligned decisions, protect you from danger, act as your inner doctor, and help you live your best life. But how do you know if you’re tuned into it or not? We all have the capacity to listen to our intuition, but sometimes we’re at the mercy of forces that block our ability to interpret it clearly.

Here are eight signs that your intuition may be blocked:

1. You feel confused often.

If you lack mental clarity and often struggle to make good decisions, it's a surefire sign that you’re not tuned into your intuition. When you communicate with your intuition regularly, a combination of your inner knowing and outer synchronicities can team up to help you make aligned decision that steer you toward the highest good for all.

2. You lack flexibility.

When you’re out of touch with your intuition, you may feel rigidly tied to a calendar — so much so that you ignore the warning signs telling you it's time to cancel a commitment. When you follow your intuition, you have to be willing to go with the flow. Sometimes, this means changing plans based on the guidance you're getting.

I’m not suggesting that intuitive people are complete flakes, but sometimes intuition requires you to say “no” when you previously said “yes.” This happens less when you’re really tuned in because you tend to intuit the “no” from the beginning.

Intuition rarely feels rational.

3. You feel blindsided by people.

You trusted him. You trusted her. He was your lover. She was your best friend. Then they slept together. OUCH! What happened? When you’re not tuned into your intuition, you may feel blindsided by betrayal, even though all your friends saw it coming a mile away. If you insist on only seeing the best in people and blind yourself to their shadows, you may be blocking your inner knowing. Intuition gives you red flags that warn you when something is coming.

4. You wrestle with regret.

When you’re out of touch with intuition, you make decisions from your mind or your ego, and regret is a common side effect. Intuition helps you make regret-free decisions because it guides you in the direction of the greatest flow, ease, integrity, and alignment with your soul’s unique journey.

5. You tend to be a chameleon.

If you can change yourself to be like the jocks when the game is on, like the churchgoers on Sunday morning, like the mindful yogis in yoga class, and like the party girl on Friday night, you may not be fully tuned into your intuition. While flexibility is a great quality, there are no masks to wear or personas to throw on when you're really following your intuition. Intuitive people are always true to themselves, and they're unapologetic about it.

6. You dismiss your instincts as “crazy” or “irrational.”

Intuition rarely feels rational. One day I was at the mall and my intuition told me to walk into the Gap. Now, no offense to Gap lovers, but I don’t like the Gap and never shop there. I could have easily dismissed my intuition, but I’ve learned that things don’t go well when I ignore a strong hit, so I walked in the Gap just as someone was having a Code Blue. I’m a doctor, so something in the unseen realm was telling me my services were needed and I’m grateful to have been used as an instrument of love.

When you ignore your inner guidance — even when it seems crazy — you shut yourself off from opportunities for personal growth and miss out on the chance to be someone's miracle.

You start to see seemingly miraculous things happen when you follow your intuition.

7. You give your power away too easily.

When you’re not tuned into intuition, you’re far more likely to expect someone else to make decisions for you — even the important ones. As a doctor, I saw this all the time in the hospital. Patients who were not tuned into their intuition would give away all of their power and ask their doctors to make every decision. Those who are tuned into their intuition might question doctors a bit more, or they may instinctively sense what lies at the root cause of their illness.

8. You doubt yourself.

Discernment is key when it comes to tuning into spiritual guidance. I never trust people who tell me their intuition is perfect. But with that in mind, I can assure you that when you’re tuned into your intuition, you experience much less self-doubt. Over time, as you start to see seemingly miraculous things happen when you follow your intuition, you’ll develop evidence-based faith. You’ll learn to feel confident about your intuitive guidance, and you'll be left with far less self-doubt.

Lissa Rankin, M.D.

Lissa Rankin, M.D., is the New York Times bestselling author of Mind Over Medicine, The Fear Cure, and The Anatomy of a Calling. She is a physician, speaker, founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute, and mystic. Passionate about what makes people optimally healthy and what predisposes them to illness, she is on a mission to merge science and spirituality in a way that not only facilitates the health of the individual, but also uplifts the health of the collective. Bridging between seemingly disparate worlds, Lissa is a connector, collaborator, curator, and amplifier, broadcasting not only her unique visionary ideas, but also those of cutting edge visionaries she discerns and trusts, especially in the field of her latest research into "Sacred Medicine." Lissa has starred in two National Public Television specials and also leads workshops, both online and at retreat centers like Esalen and Kripalu. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her daughter. She blogs at LissaRankin.com and posts regularly on Facebook.