I think that this "intuition" is not just limited to women & I have also realized that through this intuition, it's God's way of giving me direction that I need to go in. I don't believe that it's just instinct.

I have so not listened to it through most of my life & have regretted every time I didn't listen......so I am learning to figure out exactly what that voice is saying & to act on what I hear.

Previous examples that I specifically remember:
1)That little voice inside said......don't get married to this guy (35 years ago) there are too many things that bothered me about him even though he was very nice........counter voice (my Mother) he's the nicest guy you have dated...he will grow up & grow out of these immature things that bother you. He never did & I finally was able to take the action I should have taken then, 33 years later, I walked out & moved 2200 miles away.

2) Driving back to California after moving myself to Kentucky (separating from my husband), I was packing my truck with things I needed to take care of & do while I was in California. I had a catch all bag & threw everything into because I was several days late leaving including my valuable flute. As I was throwing everything into the back seat of my truck that little voice told me take my flute out of the bag & put it under the seat. My other voice said, you already packed everything on top of the seat & the flute's at the bottom of the bag....no one will bother it anyway because they won't see it at the bottom of the bag anyway.......well, when I came to Albuquerque, I was exhausted after running out of gas on the highway. Gave my debit card to pay for the room, parked my truck on the back side of the hotel down from my room....next morning I went out to my truck & found my truck had been broken into.....the only bag that was stolen was the catch all bag that had all my receipts & my flute at the bottom of it. My computer wasn't stolen, nor was my GPS......found out the next day that my ID had been stolen off my debit card & realized that the bag that was stolen was to cover up that because of all the paper information they figured it would look like the information was stollen from there & not from the debit card I used. Sadly, I never got back my flute & the police were very unwilling to help or even pursue the information I gave them on who it was that did this because it fell under ID theft.

3) In the middle of the ice storm, it was day 4 of no electricity & freezing house. I was caring for my neighbors horses as he couldn't drive there from where he was living at the time with his new wife. I came back into my house so hot & sweating from hauling hay & breaking ice in the water for 22 horses.....the house was freezing & my cloths were drenched from sweating. I started to shiver uncontrollably & was resistant to take off my cloths because I was already so cold & freezing. The little voice inside told me to get those dang cloths off immediately & wrap up in a cold blanket & only then would I be able to get warm. That saved me from going into hypothermia & probably not surviving through the storm.

There were many other times where in the past I wouldn't listen to my internal voice & would always regret not listening or not figuring out exactly what I needed to do when I did listen to it.

I have learned over the years that I need to hear the voice & figure out exactly what it's telling me & exactly what I need to do in order to act on what I am being told. It's so complicated as there are so many options in action at times to act on what that voice is saying, so it's not just hearing it & taking action, but determining exactly what action will take care of what that voice is saying.

Still working on it & will continue to work on it for the rest of my life...but much more aware of making sure that I do take the specific action when it's obvious & taking the time to think through what the voice is saying.

4)I was just offered a free horse & a place to keep it for free other than the cost of caring for the horse & the winter feed & the water it needs (even was offered the use of tack so I didn't have to go out & buy tack as mine is being used on my horse that is in training in California that I am waiting to bring here.....need to get fencing & shelter)......my intuition said that if I were to take them up on the offer, I would end up jepordizing the money I need to bring my other horses here & bring them is my highest priority because Izzy is my filly that was born from my mare, a bond I can't let go of. I am listening to my voice & not taking the free horse. I truly believe that just like there is "no free lunch", there is "no free horse"...lol.

I am learning to listen & then I am learning how to take action & not be pressured by what others want me to do that is counter to that voice.

Ugh, life does get complicated.....but it goes much better even when there is stress of sticking up for what that intuition says. Many times I think we are too nervous to stand up to others when they counter what our intuition is saying.

5)I had several financial situations that came up this last month & my intuition said, you need to at least ask about getting your money refunded. I get so stressed about asking for thing like this. It started off with the IRS applying my refund to my back taxes rather than sending it to me & just continuing my monthly payments to them as the contract specified. I needed the money to pay the CPA for doing my taxes this year.....intuition said call the IRS & see if they will let me not pay this month's payment so I can pay the CPA. Was I going to be too nervous to ask the IRS? I called & their computer was down so had to call back, but they told me to call back because they would take care of it if everything looked good with my account.....sure enough, they waived this month's payment so I could pay the CPA. I was waiting for that refund also to pay my electric bill.....by the time the check didn't show up, it was Friday, what had every month before that been the last day to pay the bill before incuring the late fee. My internet was down because of a storm, so I had to call in the payment at the last minute & found out the cut off was the previous day so was charged the late fee. Intuition said, only pay the amount without the late fee & call to ask them to remove the late fee because of the circumstances. Would I be too nervous to call about it? It took me a couple of weeks & a couple of times of calling after they had already gone home for the day, but finally I got them contacted & they did remove the fee. Not having the money in my account because of not receiving the tax refund, I ended up with an NSF charge on the hold they put on my bank account when I paid that electric bill that night & a couple of other bills I had to pay that day. Internet was down because of a storm that night & couldn't transfer the funds from the emergency account. I went into the bank first thing the next morning (internet still down) & got everything transferred & organized. When the internet came up that was when I saw the NSF charge to hold the money even though I got it transferred over in time to cover it. Intuition said to call & ask for the charge to be reversed because of the circumstances......would I be too stressed to call? Worst they could say was NO & best was YES. Got up my nerve to call & they reversed the charge. That internal voice gave me the direction I knew I needed to take, but the stress of confronting those situations made following through on that intuition soooo difficult. But I forced myself to take the action my intuition told me to take, & was successful on all counts.

Everytime I take an action that follows my intuition & it turns out positive, that reinforces more & more taking the action the next time I hear that intuition voice.

Ah, if only it were easier to listen to that voice & hear what it's really saying & then figuring out what action to take & then getting the strength (or guts) to take the action.

There is so much involved with our intuition, but definitely NOTHING we should ignore, or be too nervous to take the action we know is needed.

So much for my novel on my view of intuition.