Listen To Your Intuition – You Make Sense

By Guest Blogger, Soul Full Happy Camper & Leader, Ella Bates

Are your days quiet enough to listen to yourself? Do you have a big enough awareness and an adequate portion of silence in your day to hear your thoughts?

A massive intention (and a huge incentive) to come to my first Soul Full Camp in June of 2018 was to create some quietness, some stillness in order to learn, listen and bond with both others and myself. My life was so noisy, so colorful and charged with energy, that I had literally forgotten how to be quiet and reflect.

Just today, I had a conversation with a friend about listening to our intuition, and it’s not until you have TRULY listened to it, that you realize you’ve likely experienced it before without being able to label it.

I shared with my friend about one of the first times I had realized that I had to listen to myself 16 years ago. It was also one of the biggest decisions I ever made in my life that what I know now, was a game changer for my future. My backpacking adventure around the world.

What was initially a thought of visiting Thailand and a quick pit stop into Singapore because I had heard it was beautiful, my Travel Agent muttered those magical words, “you know it’s cheaper”…… it was cheaper to get an Around the World Flight Ticket.

I was handed a fold-out map of the world and a list of all the destinations I could choose from (which was pretty much anywhere, imagine the overwhelm). I sat at our large pine dining table with a big marker in hand (it may have been a bingo dabber, don’t judge) and circled everywhere I had thought may be fun to visit. Then I realized that fun shouldn’t just be the only deciding factor, took a few minutes to imagine where would be a great experience and made the decisions.

As easy as that, I booked my tickets and I spent the next 9 months selling everything I owned and making plans in each country. Sounds super simple and straight forward right? That’s how I treated it, just like any other vacation I had planned. What to pack, how much spending money etc.

But it really wasn’t that simple, it was absolutely MASSIVE, it was a JOURNEY and for some, an unthinkable decision! A great big, huge, enormous journey that wasn’t like any other vacation I had took.

The day I realized this, is the same day I had such a chronic panic attack that my roommates called me an ambulance. By the time I found time to be silent, I had realized that this was the universe’s way of waking me up to reality and checking in to see if “I was sure”. I’d never been surer of anything in my life and from that moment on, I treated this journey with the massive respect it was due and embraced, not just the backpacking experience, but the planning journey and the reflections afterwards.

I could tell you in great detail, all about the adventures I had being chased by a Skunk in Copake USA, about the spider bite I got on my big toe that made it turn black in Melbourne, Australia or even when I ate a deep fried locust in Koh Samui, Thailand thinking it was a chicken wing, but that would be another blog all together.

What I will tell you though, it was THAT panic attack, the universe’s wake up call, that created my mindset of being intentional and mindful and listening to my intuition during that whole journey that kept me safe, blessed me with the most beautiful people to meet, opened up my soul to experiences I never would have had without it and gave me incredible knowledge to pass on to others as my stories to enrich their days.

Think back, you’ve likely had a similar experience where the Universe has knocked you off your feet, sometimes literally to allow you to TRULY open your eyes and ears and take in the reality of your situation.

We too often are complacent and just keep moving and sometimes even on autopilot, missing the beauty of the journey and missing embracing the questions and light that come with any life changing decision that our soul whispers to us.

When was the last time you had your eyes opened? That your intuition kicked in and you really listened to it?

Soul Full Camp was a wonderful opportunity to be in the perfect surroundings, with enough quiet to listen to myself and my thoughts and worries and joys. To have other mindful souls around me to share with. To learn awesome tools from expert mindful facilitators to be able to tap more into my intuition. So much so, that I am attending my third camp year, and will forever be an alumni to both my intuition and Soul Full Camp. Join me!

Ella Bates is a firewalker, a dynamic speaker. A mum of 2 beautiful kids and a mother to her passion in her business owning a Corporate Training Company. www.ellabates.com