How To Trust Yourself When Making Life Decisions

Have you ever had a decision to make where you know what you need to do but your personality is trying to talk you into the opposite decision?  It’s fun when you’re having this argument with yourself and I’m having one of those moments right now.  There’s a decision that I need to make in the next few days.  How I decide could take me in two different directions. Basically, in a situation like this, you need to trust yourself when you make decisions like this and that’s not always easy to do. Luckily for me, my Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy training has taught me just the skills I need to do that. Now, I have to figure out what will be the best for me and follow through with my choice.

What about you? Do you know what to do when you’re at a crossroads and need to make a choice?

These types of major decisions pop up from time to time in our lives. For some of us, this can be an incredibly stressful time. Not knowing what will be the best decision and not trusting yourself to choose wisely can be emotionally painful.

Do you trust yourself when you make difficult decisions?

Do you make the decision just by your gut instinct?  Or do you sit down and write down pros and cons for the decision?  Do you ask the opinions of others?  Do you rely on just yourself? 

There are so many ways to approach a decision.  None of them are right or wrong.  I guess it depends on the situation and your personality as to what works best for you. I personally rely on my yoga therapy training to help guide me to make my choices. You might have different techniques that work well for you.

This is how I make decisions from an embodied state of being.

This morning as I took a few minutes to think about my path forward, I automatically went back to some of the Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy training that I’ve done over the years.  First, I got my body moving to get it warmed up. Then, I checked in with my body and noticed what I was feeling.  I thought about what my truth is right now and what it would look like to implement that truth.  I noticed my choices and thought about where they would lead me.  I can also picture where I want to be in the near future.  I just have to decide how to get there.

Going through this process was actually kind of comforting.  I knew that I had a way to clarify what my options were and what might be best for me in this moment. In fact, my body already had the information I needed. I simply had to pause and create space for me to listen to it.

We all have that internal guidance. 

The key is to listen to that guidance.  So many of us have spent years, decades or even our whole lives ignoring our own inner wisdom.    However, when you do listen to it, you’re living in alignment with yourself.  When you’re in alignment, you’ll find that life is easier and you’re able to accomplish what you want and need to do. 

When you ignore that internal guidance, you’re out of alignment.  That’s when things just don’t go so smoothly.  No matter how hard you try, road blocks will keep appearing in your life. For me, life just feels harder when I’m out of alignment with my own truth.

Pay attention while you’re making those decisions, but also pay attention afterwards as well.  Learning to trust yourself means also learning to pay attention to the results those decisions deliver. So, notice what those results of the decision are.  Is life flowing more smoothly or did you just run into a whole bunch of roadblocks?  What you can learn about yourself after the decision is just as important as what you connect to before the decision.

Although I have a few days to make my final decision, I know which way I’m leaning.  I think that I’ll spend the next few days continuing to check in with myself to see if I still feel as I do now.  Taking a few days to just sit with this decision can be a good thing.  It lets me  practice awareness of my situation and my thoughts and feelings. When I’m ready, I’ll make a final decision that’s informed by facts but also by my internal wisdom.

Do you listen to your internal guidance as well or do you choose to ignore it? 

I know that this skill isn’t something that we’re taught in school. Learning to trust yourself isn’t natural to many of us, but it is a skill that you can learn. It’s a skill that can serve you very well throughout life. It starts with simple awareness of your body and goes from there.

Intrigued? Want to learn more? Let’s chat about how yoga therapy can help you make better decisions.

And remember, it’s never too late to live healthier & happier!

Becky is a Yoga Therapist & has been teaching yoga since 2006. She loves to match people with a yoga practice that helps them to feel better every day & believes that there is a yoga practice for everyone. Click here to sign up for her mailing list & get all of the important news & tips first!