Friends and clients alike have asked me, “How do you know when you’re tapping into your inner wisdom and not your ego-driven self?”

It’s an important question to ask if we want to learn how to truly honor ourselves. How will we know if we are tapping into and following our inner wisdom vs. tuning into and following what our smaller, ego-selves think we should be doing?

But beyond differentiating between our inner wisdom and ego-driven self, I think we need to back up a step and ask, “What gets in the way of tuning into our inner GPS?”

Because more often than not, there are things in the way of us being able to even tap into the wellspring of power and guidance that lives within us.

It’s important to create clearer communication with our inner knowing before we start asking if it’s inner knowing or ego.

Once the lines of communication become clearer, you won’t question which is what. You will be able to better trust what is you, and what is something outside of you trying to tell you what to do.

Here are 3 things that can get in the way of you tuning into your inner GPS.

• Your gut health – Your gut and your brain are intimately connected. Research shows that a healthy gut microbiome is essential to balancing moods, eliminating brain fog, and helping us to mentally focus. But when you have an imbalance of bacteria in your gut, the pathogenic bacteria can make you feel anxious, overwhelmed, and fearful – even when there are few reasons for you to be feeling that way.

 

Tuning into your inner wisdom becomes very challenging when the bacterium in your gut is trying to steer you away from your inner knowing. If you are dealing with gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, skin issues, fatigue, mood swings and more – you may very well have a bacterial imbalance in your gut that is crying out for attention. An often-overlooked bonus of healing your gut is a deeper, clearer, more powerful connection to your inner GPS. Yes, please!

• Good Girl Conditioning – Good Girl conditioning teaches women to place their focus NOT on what they are feeling or experiencing, but on what other people must be thinking about them. It’s also an effective way to strip someone of their innate wisdom and knowing, teach a woman to place her innate power in the hands of those around her, mistrust her own ways of knowing, and gaslight her own felt experience.

 

Too many women have forgotten how to stay connected to their own sensual and embodied experience. Instead, they make the people outside of them the expert. Learning to shirk Good Girl Conditioning and replace it with deeply personal truths takes time, guidance, and a desire to live the life that was meant for you. And it’s SO worth it!

• Fear – Fear loves to corral us with all the cautionary tales and very reasonable reasons why things might not work out – especially when we dare to step out of what others expect of us. Fear can also take on many forms. It loves to masquerade as self-preservation, protection, comparison-itis, expectation, not-enough-ness, doubt, worry, misplaced compassion and care, and wanting to “fit in”.

Fear frequently shows up as a mean-spirited, irrational, responsibility-shirking excuse maker, and it loves to argue with your inner knowing and make what you know to be true seem silly, childish, and unimportant. Fear loves to keep you where you’re at – even when where you’re at is hurting you.

So, it’s essential to know when fear is speaking and shutting down your dreams, desires, and imaginings. Because where do you think your most magical, uninhibited, and full of possibility thinking comes from? It comes from the same place you hear the deepest wisdom and truth echoing from within. Learning to befriend your fears will help you tune into your inner GPS in ways you might not currently know is even possible. It’s a skill every woman should have in her back pocket.

How well are you able to tune into your inner GPS and hear the guidance from within?

And, if you can hear your inner wisdom, do you trust what you hear?