Listen to Your Intuition

As you learn to listen to what your body is telling you, also learn to pay attention to your intuition. Whether you call it, God, your inner voice, spirit guide, intuition, or simply good judgment, often it will be your own personal insights that will give you the best direction. In order to live a healthy life you need to listen to your inner voice. I learned this lesson well when I was about twenty-five years old.

It was Valentine’s Day, so that meant it was winter and cold outside. I had been fighting a cold and I knew I shouldn’t go out, but it was Valentine’s Day and I didn’t want to disappoint my lady friend. Despite the warning I had from my body and going against my common sense, I went out that evening anyway. I of course had an enjoyable time with my friends, but the next day I was more ill than the day before. The night after Valentine’s Day, a friend called asking for a ride to some social event taking place that night. I told him I was ill and couldn’t do it. After pressuring me, I caved. I left my warm home and gave this person the ride he guilt-tripped me into. By the next morning I was in the hospital and stayed there for nearly a week.

I knew I shouldn’t have gone out those two nights. My body told me so. Wisdom told me so. But I didn’t listen and paid the consequences. I had forgotten a personal truth that my friend—now ex-friend—was ignorant to. That was, because I live with Sickle Cell Anemia, the smallest action can have the greatest of consequences to my health. Of course this is true for everybody, but it’s especially true for those of us living with a chronic illness.

So the moral of the story is, break your special friend’s heart on Valentine’s Day and tell your other friend to find another taxi service. Seriously, listen to what your body and your own good judgment is telling you. Doing so may keep you out of the hospital.