Hi friends! I hope you had a great 2 weeks. I am back from a weekend with family in NYC. While there I had the incredible opportunity to hear Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, speak for a charity event my husband was invited to. Somehow I got to go too! The night left my head spinning - thinking about mainly the mission of my business and how that is truly what drives me day in day out. He said over and over again that he looks for business owners that are driven by a mission, not the money, when he thinks about buying a new company. It was heartening to hear. The silver lining is that in his experience it's the ones that have the WHY that always make more in the end anyway. He also talked a lot about going with your gut - how in his business his gut (or intuition) often guided him - to start prime for example and devote a huge amount of investment into developing Alexa and Echo. It was fascinating to hear because I imagine him to be surronded by amazing business professions and of course he is one himself, and here he is talking about his intuition. YUP I LOVE IT! So here is my take on intuition, a few of my favorite resources and why I try every day to take space out to listen to my gut.

 

I would love to talk a little bit about the importance of making time for ourselves and following our intuition. There's one interview that had a big impact on the way I see this as well - Elizabeth Gilbert's interview with Glennon Doyle for her Magic Lessons Podcast. Listen here.  It's super funny and rings so true. Glennon talks about having an hour of her own - that's all she needed to launch her blog which became hugely popular. I love the idea of an hour of your own - we may not have a room but we can all find an hour I think. 

 

In this interview Glennon also gives some advice along these lines - I learned to just listen to myself and that's it. My feeling is that she's talking about our intuition (or call it whatever you like!) here. It's that feeling in our gut or our hearts where we just know or feel and inclination towards something that we can't totally explain. I've started to tune into my own intuition more and use this gut feeling to make more decisions in my life. I don't ask others for as much business or parenting advice. I've let go of what other people think I should do and I am trying my best to just listen to me. I've found that I have the best answers for myself. If I fail, it's still a win because I learn and grow. 

 

I first came across this idea on the Jess Lively podcast (which is a little woo woo for some people - of course I love it!) Here is a link to a blog/podcast she made about how she writes to her intuition. It's beautiful. I also like to do this when I'm unsure about a big decision or am feeling badly. I'm still not great at it but it helps. Part of it is just slowing down to listen and not rushing so much. I watched a great documentary about this too called Innsaei - check it out for more. You can imagine, hearing Jeff Besoz speak about intuition, after I've been interested in learning more about it for years, was pretty cool!

 

Next I'd love to talk a little bit about morning and nighttime routines. About 2 years ago now, when my first son was one and I was pregnant with my second, I started to wake up early. I had read a book called the Miracle Morning, that gave me the idea. That book doesn't resonate with me too much anymore but the habit stuck and it has truly changed everything. I now make a point to get myself to bed by 9:30/10 so that waking up at 5 is no problem. It gives me this quiet time to get in touch with my intuition or as my podcast guest Elizabeth Duvivier talked about - sacred morning energy. This feeling of not being rushed and just taking a little time out for myself, to start the day in a calm, peaceful way. My routines have changed a ton since even a few months ago but what I do now is meditate for about 45-50 minutes. It's a lot, I KNOW! I definitely built up to that. If you're new to it and thinking about giving mediation a try, the Headspace App is a great place to start. Meditation, just like knitting, forces me to be present in the moment and relax. I just sit and am able to observe my crazy monkey brain, which is really helpful because then I can notice it and change my thinking. It's out there but truly it's helped me. The biggest example of this I can give is something that cuts close to home in a deep way. I have a lot of fear and stress around money. Some of you who have listened to the podcast for a while know why. When I sense finances getting tight or I start to worry about how I will pay my business's bills a particular month, I now (through meditation I think) am able to really observe what my brain does. I STRESS A LOT. My body locks up and I go in circles, check my accounts endlessly and just generally go nuts. None of it is productive and it keeps me from doing good creative work. So now I try my best to not emote based on money. I'm not saying I do nothing to make the situation better, but I chose not to get emotionally upset when I sense things getting iffy. I'm not great at it but I'm really trying to make this effort and it's helping. By choosing not to emote based on money, I can react more calmly and keep myself in a better, happier place. This is just one way mediation has helped me. I can think of a bunch of others where I'm just able to observe my mind now in a different way than I ever could. So that is my morning routine now, just that. I used to do a lot more but these days the kids are up by 6:20 and I don't have a ton of time. I'd love to hear what you do an if you have a morning or night routine. I wish I did a little more gratitude journaling. AND I'm sure my knitting is also a form of meditation in this same vein. In fact some mornings I skip my meditation and just knit. 

 

OK so what I would love to know is, what's your relationship with your own intuition like? Do you listen to it or do others play a bigger role in how you make decisions for yourself? Is this idea totally crazy and out there for you?! It was for me about 6 months ago, so I get it!  Let me know what you think in the comments below. As always, thanks for reading guys.

Hugs ~ Amy