Last Updated on June 15, 2009
Once you decide to start living life intuitively and from a self-directed place, you’ll undoubtedly run into a situation in which you’re being internally guided to do one thing and the people around you want you to do something else. If you’ve always approached life looking to please others, they’ll likely expect you to continue doing so and you may be tempted to give up your quest to live life on your own terms just to avoid confrontation.
How do you know when you’re doing this? When you say ‘yes’ to something, yet you cringe when you think about it, feel a tightness in your stomach or dread the upcoming experience, that’s your intuition screaming for your attention. Or maybe you’ll look for an excuse to get out of the event or passive-aggressively show up late because you really don’t want to be there.
Instead of going through all of that, learn to say ‘no.’ In fact, it’s important to get comfortable saying ‘no’ if you’re going to live a life from the heart since your heart is focused on your journey and not everyone else’s.
Check out these tips from FirstOurselves.com on drawing your line in the sand. Among them: Demand advance notice from people who demand things from you, come up with specific times when you can help people out (and stick to them) and practice saying ‘No’ without giving any reason at all.
Intuitive Action Item: The next time someone asks you to do something and that feeling of dread comes over you (don’t worry, it won’t be long before this happens), take a deep breath and say ‘No.’ If that’s too difficult, say you’d like to, but you need to check your schedule and get back to them. When you realize that the world won’t stop if you’re not at everyone’s beck and call, it will get easier to follow your own whims for a change.
