Keeping In Touch With Your Intuition: Michele Snelling On How To Get In Touch With Your Intuition And When To Trust Your Intuition When Making Decisions

Meditation — this is one of my favorite practices to get in touch with intuition. Meditation allows us to bring space to our thoughts. This space is where intuition and the knowing live. The more you do it, the more comfortable it is and the more you trust the insights that appear in the spaces between the thoughts. In this practice it becomes easy to distinguish thought from intuition. Thoughts can feel heavy while intuition can be light and almost airy. Thoughts also take a bit to formulate while intuition drops in one instant and often contains quite a bit of info in the instant.

Intuition is defined as the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning. Where does intuition come from? Can it be trusted? How can someone tune in to their intuition? To address these questions, we are talking to business leaders, coaches, mental health experts, authors, and anyone who is an authority on “How to Get In Touch With Your Intuition And When To Trust Your Intuition When Making Decisions.” As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michele Snelling

Michele Snelling is an experienced intuitive and medium, renowned for her ability to connect with the spiritual realm and provide profound insights. As an aromatherapist, she skillfully combines her intuitive gifts with the therapeutic use of essential oils to promote holistic healing and has created her own line of custom blends. Michele’s compassionate approach and unique blend of spiritual and aromatherapy practices have transformed the lives of many seeking physical, emotional and spiritual support.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

I have had a deep connection to the spirit world for as long as I can remember. Seeing people, hearing things, knowing things there was no way I would know, these were all part of my daily life. At a young age, maybe 4 or 5, I would share some of these things with my mom and she didn’t say much about it. She didn’t say, that is bad or how awesome. She would say, Oh, ok. So, for a long time I thought this was normal for everyone. It wasn’t until I was in junior high that I realized this wasn’t common for my friends. We were playing with a Ouija board at a birthday party when I was 13, which I highly discourage. Someone asked a question and I answered it. The answer I gave showed up on the board. This happened 3 or 4 times & then they began to ask questions that there was no possible way I knew the answer to, not using the board, just asking me. I realized pretty quickly, by the look on their faces, that this wasn’t ‘normal’ for others.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer

I love this quote as it speaks to perspective in life. Not even so much as glass half empty versus glass half full. To me it is simply a glass containing water. Not defining it as good or bad but bringing a neutral perspective to life and its experiences.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho in the late 90’s and it was life changing. I had no idea of how alchemy could come to play in everyday life, and I was so in awe and inspired. Another book that has had a huge impact on me is A Course in Miracles. The concept of not holding tightly to life is so freeing. Learning to look at life, situations, events from a neutral space is how we fully experience our human life as the spiritual beings we are. Working through the daily lessons opened me to an entirely new way of thinking and expanded my willingness to learn and evolve. And the Wayne Dyer quote served to deepen the practice of finding neutrality in life.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Let’s begin with a definition of terms so that each of us and our readers are on the same page. What exactly does intuition mean? Can you explain?

To me, intuition is a part of each of us. Intuition is the knowing that defies logic and explanation. It is our internal GPS (guidance per spirit) that we are all born with, it is our birthright. I believe the purpose of our intuition or GPS is to guide us to our highest good, in all ways, in all situations from the most mundane decisions to the huge, life-altering ones. We are meant to have awareness of our intuition and to address it throughout every day. Just like the GPS that we use when driving, that tells us turn left in 100ft, our intuition does the same thing. It guides us to make choices that are in alignment with what we want. We want to be in the habit of addressing our intuition all throughout the day, from what to eat, what to wear, what to do or not do. The more in touch we are with our GPS the more flow and alignment our life has.

How would you define common sense? Are intuition and common sense related?

Common sense, to me, is knowing intuitively what to do in practical, everyday situations. It isn’t taught but rather known, an example of our intuition at play in our daily life.

How are they different from each other?

Common sense is at play with certain, practical aspects of life whereas Intuition comes to play in all aspects of life. We want to engage and address our intuition with both the mundane and the unusual aspects of life.

What are the positive aspects of being in touch with your intuition? Can you give a story or example to explain what you mean?

It is very important to be in connection with your intuition as much as you can, every day. The more we connect to our intuition the more trust we have in ourselves and our ability to know what is right, or not right, for us in any situation. This is our personal superpower and translates to a feeling of being in control & trusting life. We move from a space of feeling like life is happening to us to life is happening with us.

One example that always stands out to me happened many years ago when my husband and I were looking for a new home. We found a home and I immediately knew this was our home. The owner refused to work with us, and we moved on. I was confused but accepted the situation. We eventually found a house a friend was selling and began the process of buying it. A few weeks in I began to know it wasn’t right, my intuition was speaking loudly to me, but was worried to tell my husband as I didn’t have concrete reasons for my knowing. A few weeks later I wasn’t able to silence my feelings and told my husband what I was experiencing. We withdrew from the sale and 2 months later the owner of the original home called and offered us the home at a hugely discounted price. So, it was ours after all. Being connected to, and aware of, my intuition allowed us to be available for the home I knew was ours.

Are there negative aspects to being guided by intuition? Can you give a story or example to explain what you mean?

I experience this often for myself and my clients when I know something is or is not going to happen. I never like to be the bearer of bad news that something that is wanted most likely won’t be. But my agreement with God is that I will give the info as I get it even if it means it isn’t popular. This happens with myself all the time. My brain thinks I want something, but it isn’t going to be, and it can be hard. Hard to give the information and hard to receive it.

Can you give some guidance about when one should make a decision based on their intuition and when one should use other methods to come to a decision?

I like to use my intuition with all decisions. Where big life decisions are concerned, I believe it is best to connect with your intuition first and then your mind. I employ lists in these situations. I like to write down what my intuition says and then make a list of pros and cons that I think of. I allow the list to evolve over a few days as the mind needs space to work effectively. Once the list is complete, I think about each item and then feel about them. At this point I cross off the ones I know need to go and then repeat the process with the remaining items. This allows me to get the list to a manageable size and from there I use a combo of my intuition and my brain to make a choice. This is the time when I like to connect to my heart center and allow it to speak to me. When I name a possible decision if the area feels expansive it is a possible yes, if constrictive it is a definite no. It is a practice of finding the balance between the mind & heart and being confidant and trusting your decision.

From your experience or perspective, what are some of the common barriers that hold someone back from trusting their intuition?

Fear and lack of education are huge barriers that hold many back from engaging their intuition.

We are not educated from a young age on what intuition is and that we all have it. There is a lot of fear around intuition as well. People have the incorrect idea that connecting to your intuition means that you are going to see dead people and predict bad things. These are not the purpose of intuition. Again, intuition is our birthright and available to us as our own personal GPS (guidance per Spirit), guiding us to decisions and choices that are in our highest good. We are also taught to think versus feel, which moves us from the 1st brain, our heart into our brain. This is what feels natural to us so connecting to our intuition can feel foreign and unnatural. With practice and consistent effort, trusting your intuition will feel not only natural but exciting.

What are five methods that someone can use to become more in touch with their intuition?

1 . Meditation — this is one of my favorite practices to get in touch with intuition. Meditation allows us to bring space to our thoughts. This space is where intuition and the knowing live. The more you do it, the more comfortable it is and the more you trust the insights that appear in the spaces between the thoughts. In this practice it becomes easy to distinguish thought from intuition. Thoughts can feel heavy while intuition can be light and almost airy. Thoughts also take a bit to formulate while intuition drops in one instant and often contains quite a bit of info in the instant.

2 . Practice tuning in to your intuition — when I was first fine-tuning my intuition I played games with it. I would ask it questions all the time and keep track of them in a journal. I could look back later and see how it aligned. For instance, I would ask quite often which route to take somewhere. At times I would feel one route but my mind would argue with the intuitive answer and so I would go with the mind (maybe I was in a hurry). I always came up against a delay of some sort. I would log this in my journal, as a teaching tool and so that I could see it and remember it later.

3 . Earthing/Embodiment — connecting to the earth is a wonderful way to be in touch with your intuition. Walking barefoot in the grass, dirt and/or sand & touching trees, flowers and plants moves us from a place of thinking to feeling. This is the space where we connect to our intuition. When we are in nature we move from our mind to our heart and can connect to our intuition purely and without the clutter that comes when we are in our brain. When I am feeling overwhelmed, confused, experiencing spinning thoughts I get myself to grass with my bare feet as soon as possible. In a few moments my mind slows and I have the space necessary to discern my intuition from my thoughts.

4 . Water — we are mostly water, between 70–80% and so it makes sense that water would heighten our connection to our intuition and our intuitive insights. Water is relaxing and is also deeply connected to the water element in each of us. The element of water controls our emotions and helps to bring balance and harmony to either over-active emotions or under-active, numb, emotions. We need balance of emotions to be in touch with our intuition. If we are feeling too much, we won’t be able to discern what is or isn’t our intuition. The same goes for not feeling enough. When our emotions are in flow so is our intuition. The water has a calming effect on our mind and physical and emotional body and allows for deep intuitive connection.

5 . Breath — breath is life and how we breath matters greatly. We are born with a full, diaphragmatic breath. The first time we feel fear we begin to shallow breathe from the muscles of the upper chest and move into a state of fight-or-flight. This becomes a pattern of breath in life, on a daily basis and hinders our ability to connect to our intuition. Our intuition is highest when we are relaxed and in a state of rest-and-relax, which comes from diaphragmatic breathing. Our goal is to breathe from our diaphragm 80% of our day. The goal but generally not the reality. We want to practice proper breathing daily, which consists of deep inhales through the nose and fully expanding the belly, and then full exhales through the nose with a gentle contraction of the belly. I like to inhale to a count of 4 and exhale to a count of 6. I began by setting a timer for 3 minutes and practicing my diaphragmatic breathing daily. I try to be aware of my breathing throughout my day and adjust as needed, as many times as is needed.

You are a person of significant influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

My intention is to inspire a movement of neutrality. Neutrality is the space where we are fully in touch with our intuition and also peace & joy. When we can move from the place of definitions, opinions, labels and bias we find ourselves deeply connected to our heart center and thus our intuition. Opinions, definitions, labels and biases act as barriers to our being in touch with our intuition. The more space we can get from these human inclinations the more balance, alignment and flow we experience, which translates to greater self-trust & intuitive knowing.

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!

I would love to have lunch with Dave Grohl. First, music is so essential in my life and connects me deeply to my higher, intuitive self. I love Dave Grohl’s music, especially several Foo Fighters songs. He also has a wonderful sense of humor, which is important to me as I believe laughter is a fantastic medicine and we need it so much these days. I am so inspired by him and how he has handled the massive losses he has experienced. Of course, I only know what I see, and feel, but he has not let the losses of so many he loves stop him from living his purpose and experiencing joy. I would love to hear about his experience and share some laughs, which I know would be plentiful.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I would love to invite them to https://www.michelesnelling.com/msnelling where they will receive a gift from me and get insight into all my offerings.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!