If Only I Let My Intuition Avoid This Car Accident
I Was Not Paying Attention
My Story
It was the season of rain. Torrential, merciless, and relentless rains in the states of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh in India.
After a few days, things got worse as many small villages were flooded, houses drowned in water, agriculture fields were destroyed, and electricity towers fused before allowing the dark to take over.
The situation was bad and people were coping in their own ways. The transportation via roads and trains was shut.
Luckily, before it all started, I had arrived at my parents’ house and was planning to work from home for a few days. My hometown was not affected as much, and I continued to work from home until I thought I could not. I was supposed to go back to the office, but the conditions of the road were questionable.
My parents were not happy when I told them about my plans and tried everything in their power to stop me. Like a grownup adult who thinks she knows better than her parents, I indeed declined all their requests. In my head, I was just being a professional who needed to head back to the office as promised.
My parents gave in but hired a driver to drive my car. It was an eight-hour long drive and they told me it would be better to have some help. I agreed.
So, the next day, I was all set when the driver arrived. A lean and rather talkative man in his 30s. He told me he was a professional and had been driving around all the hilly areas with tourists.
With no other choice, I handed over my car keys and trust to him.
A few miles into the journey I began to feel uncomfortable. While driving, he kept fidgeting with different buttons and functionalities of the Car.
That was not enough to make me nervous, he claimed to take a shorter route and entered small neighboring villages. With most lanes and roads flooded with water, soon we lost our way.
Thanks to some kind people, we found our way out and that’s when I began to lose my cool. In retrospect, my dog Kira kept feeling anxious the moment she jumped into the car.
2 hours later, we had managed to cover only 20 miles. I had a feeling how this journey would end but I continued to ignore it.
As we managed to exit the maze of several small villages to take the national highway, we got sucked into tight-knit traffic.
And then it happened.
His phone rang. He looked down. I got anxious looking at him. The car was on the move. The road was packed. A medium-sized trolley was ahead of us and in a split second, my brand-new car rammed against the trolley and almost stood up straight on its front tyres. Luckily no one got hurt except I hit my head on the windscreen but was immediately pulled back due to the seat belt.
Indeed, my fears had been realized. I knew I should have headed back way sooner. Except now, we were returning with a crushed bonnet and spirits.
My parents were right all along.
You don’t need to be a parent to conclude that the given situation was nonideal for traveling. It was obvious yet I refused to acknowledge it.
I was arrogant and despite getting so many chances to return, I continued the journey.
I should have listened to my intuition.
Here are a few reasons why we ignore our intuition-
- Sometimes we genuinely cannot hear it. With packed schedules and goals to chase, the noise on the outside silences our inner voice.
- We don’t trust ourselves. As we are conditioned to look for answers and validation outside, the inner voice loses its impact. With no way to validate our inner feelings, we refuse to acknowledge them.
- It tells us something we don’t want to hear. When intuition goes against our sought-after plans and desires, we try to muffle it. Then we put our brain to work and come up with 100 reasons that it is just a feeling and not a logical explanation to follow.
- We worry about impacting others. Whether other people are directly involved in our plans or are mere audiences, we fear the impact of changing our decisions. Not only it will challenge our discretion but the obligation of explaining it to others can be rather exhausting.
What should have I done?
The simple answer is I should have listened to my intuition.
Many people call intuition the sixth sense. They say when you have an intuition, your body speaks to you.
Here are the signs that I ignored as my intuition was trying to speak to me:
- Nervousness, high heart rate and headache
- I could not have my breakfast that day
- Continuously thinking about calling my manager to recheck if this can be avoided.
- The apprehension of handing over my car keys
- My parents’ sad and worried faces
Intuition is the ability when you know something is right or wrong before any reason hits your mind.
It’s a gut feeling that keeps calling into you until you take the action it is asking you to. It is also a form of self-awareness and becoming one with your feelings. Once you start believing in yourself and give your intuition a chance, it becomes stronger, and your self-awareness strengthens.
If you still doubt your intuitions and looking for validation, here are a few signs to follow:
- You just know it in your body before your mind starts to speak to you. The feeling of restlessness, and nervousness, there are reasons that your body sends you signals.
- It won’t stop bothering you until you take favorable action.
- Your sleep gets disturbed and unsettling thoughts make their way in the form of vivid dreams. It is your subconscious mind trying to test your resolve. I almost did not believe this until my therapist confirmed that our unsettling thoughts interfere with our sleep.
- You lose your focus and get caught up in deep thoughts in the middle of the day.
- You learn to assess people’s energies and eventually their intentions.
Lastly, trusting intuition is a process that needs to be given more chances than we already do.
Once you start your journey, your past experiences accumulate to solidify the foundation of your gut feelings, and as Steve Jobs once said:
“Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect.”
TC,
P.
