Saying Yes to New Adventures and Trusting Your Intuition

I had the opportunity to visit Finland for the first time, to attend a conference in Lappeenranta. It was a wonderful experience, I learned from the conference, and I also had some personal experiences that I will always cherish. Here are the evening experiences that made the trip even more special, as I followed my intuition:

The day I arrived, there was a dinner outside with the conference attendees, followed by an opportunity to go to the sauna, and then jump on the cold lake, and back to the sauna. I had read the program, suggesting that we could bring a swimming suit if we wanted to experience it, and I did. I was a little insecure about it, since I had never done it before. It turns out that several people had done it and knew what to do. I trusted myself and asked as many questions as I could think of to one of the conference attendees who was leading us to the sauna, and who had done it before. Even though we had just met, I asked all the questions I could think of, as it was the only way for me to gather courage to do it.

The next evening, we had an option to come back from dinner through a 45-minute bus ride, or a 3-hour Midnight Sun boat ride. I chose the latter, even though I hadn’t slept much for the last few nights (couldn’t sleep on the plane, and then jet lagged, and the sun rising at 2:30am/3am didn’t help either). For some reason, in the boat, for a moment, I was called to go to the other side I was at, and to look at the sky. I saw the most beautiful shining gold bird flying. When another bird flew by, I noticed it was white. I figured that the first one was also white, but with the lighting at that hour (close to 2am, when the sun is about to start rising again), it was golden, and magical. I was thankful that I gathered strength to move, and had a wonderful experience. This night was the one I slept the most while in Finland, a record five hours.

Since the final day of the conference didn’t include dinner, I went to dinner with my colleague from New York, and her family. After dinner, although tired, and ready to “try” to get some sleep, I felt this desire to go out. The plan was to make it to the supermarket before it would close 15 minutes later, to buy some chocolate (I figured it would be cheaper than in the hotel). I never made it there though. As I was walking towards the supermarket, two friends I made at the conference, who also had gone to the sauna two nights before, and to the boat ride the previous night, saw me and invited me to join them at the restaurant where they were having dinner outside. I sat with them, planning to leave in a few minutes. The conversation was so great, that we talked for over an hour, and connected in a deeper level. I was so glad that I had followed my intuition to go back outside, as I had a great time with them. It turns out that even though we all live in different parts of the world, we have more in common than we could imagine. Or, as there is no such a thing as coincidences, we all connected through the over 200 conference attendees, because indeed we had things in common.

Some steps to take to be connected to your intuition when going on new adventures:

• Meditate whenever possible. I kept my meditation practice while in Finland, although sometimes it happened in the middle of the night, when I couldn’t sleep. If you have a practice of meditating at a certain time of day, and one day it cannot happen for whatever reason, make sure to pause when you can, and simply focus on breathing for a few moments.
• Write. I didn’t feel like carrying my actual journal to Finland, but I carried a small pocket size journal with me, and I wrote. I wrote about the trip, about what I was most grateful for, about the all the many synchronicities, and about the feelings I was experiencing. Writing helped me to stay connected to myself, as during the day, there was not much time to be alone.
• Say Yes. When there are new opportunities coming up, and they seem scary, connect with your intuition. Take some time to let go of any doubts and fears, and if it is something that you and your soul could benefit from, say yes and go for it.
• Set an Intention. I didn’t remember to set intentions every day, but when I did, it made a difference.  You can read more about keeping intentions simple in this article.
• Ask Questions. When you keep up with a meditation practice, it becomes easier to connect with those that are aligned with you. You can then more easily identify whom you could reach out to for help, when going on a new adventure.
• Reflect. Once you experience the adventure, make sure to take a moment to reflect on it. How present were you? How did you feel while doing it? Were you able to enjoy it? What are you most thankful for in this experience? When I reflected on the sauna/lake experience afterwards, I realized that I could have “done better”.
• Let go of regrets. If in fact, you ignore your intuition, or even if you follow it and you realize you could have been more present, more aware, less fearful, etc, let it all go. Know that you did the best you could with the information you had, and that next time you can do better or different.

During the 6-week webinar I’m hosting starting Monday July 7^th, I will be providing guided meditations, writing exercises, samples of intentions you can set up for yourself, and you will also receive support from me, and from all the participants. You will have the tools to practice connecting with your intuition, and to make aware choices for your life, career, and business. Learn more and register here.

Namaste,

Elisa Balabram