A couple of months ago, I had a trip planned back to West Virginia to see my family. I was staying a week, so I decided to take my cats rather than board them. Consequently, I decided to drive my car rather than fly.

When it came time to leave that morning, I had a lot of uneasiness and felt like something was wrong. When I started out, I kept thinking I need to go home and check the house. Make sure everything is off and the place is secure. It wasn’t just a random thought; it was persistent and left me feeling even more anxious and uneasy.

As I got farther from home, the feeling stayed with me. About four hours into the 13-hour drive, my cat Bella, threw up all over the place. I had to stop and clean that up. She did it again a couple of hours later. She’s NEVER gotten car sick before and she’s had many road trips of various lengths.

The feeling of something being off was still with me. At that point I texted my brother that I felt like this was an “ill-fated journey” and told him I wanted to turn around and go home. I kept going though.

The entire time I was in West Virginia, I felt the same internal uneasiness and even though I was having fun with my siblings and nephew, I just felt like I needed to be home in Florida. I even started thinking about leaving a day or even two days early. Again, I pushed through it and stayed the full time I’d originally planned.

Even the morning I got up to start the drive home, I felt the same way. Something wasn’t right. My whole being was telling me.

Just three hours into my drive home, I hit something in the road, punctured my oil pan and just like that my engine was dead. Quite literally, I was stranded on the side of the road three hours from family and ten hours from home.

I’m sharing this story because I believe that my unease was my intuition.

It may sound completely out of the norm, but I am 100% sure that my internal knowing was telling me that something was off and that something would happen on that trip.

I don’t believe I have the ability to see the future or anything like that. But I do know that I’ve got a really strong intuition and if I take the time to listen, it gives me important messages.

Honestly, I believe we are all born with it. However, I believe that in today’s world the message and teachings are to look externally for the answers. Furthermore, I think that as children, we are taught to silence the insights we have, especially if they go against standard practices or beliefs.

In fact, I can remember as a child my mom telling me a firm no! There was no way that I could have had a dream about something before it happened and assuring me that I was confused. And to stop saying things like that.

I get it, it is unsettling and maybe even a little scary. I’ve been a little afraid to write this article because I don’t want to appear to “woo”.  After all, I’m an accountant by training, logic is part of my DNA. And this type of thing defies all logic.

I’ve had instances of that internal guide showing up for me with money too. I remember when I bought my first new car, I had a bad feeling about it from the time I left my house to go shopping, to talking to the dealer, to test driving the car and signing the papers. I thought that it was just nerves and excitement for finally getting my first new car.

But I cried all the way home and literally had a panic attack that night at home. It was so bad, that I called the dealership as soon as they opened the next morning and arranged to take the car back for a less expensive one.

Looking back on that time, I see now that my intuition was cautioning me to tune in for guidance. Once I got the less expensive car, my equanimity returned immediately, and that internal voice quieted

Another time, my logical brain was telling me not to go outside my budget to hire a business coach. I was really wanting a coach, and I believe that the coach could help me grow my business. But my budget just didn’t have room for it. I told the coach I didn’t have the money and thought that was the end of it.

My internal guide kept bringing it to mind. She kept urging me to hire the coach. I felt such a strong desire and it wouldn’t leave me. I resisted for a few days, but finally listened and hired the coach. I quieted my logical mind by reminding myself that I am good with money and I’ll figure it out.

And do you know what? I was able to collect a debt that a relative owed me and paid off my credit card bill for the coaching! And the experience was one of the best of my life. There were no regrets.

I think if we would all learn to develop and listen to our intuition a little more, we would make better money decisions. We just might find that we have even more money because the answer already lives in us.

How can we develop that muscle? Here are a few things I like to do.

1 – Tune into your body.  Our body gives us messages. All the time. After all, it is housing our soul, so it has direct connection to that inner knowing. And if we pay attention, we can learn to pick up on the messages.

For me, the feeling is almost always in my chest. It’s a feeling of tightness. My heart pounding a little differently. I remember that day in the car driving to West Virginia, I kept feeling that my breathing just wasn’t right. Like I couldn’t breathe or use my breath to recalibrate like I usually can.

It will likely be totally different for you, and that’s okay. Just start paying close attention to your body in moments where you feel an unease. And if you don’t notice it until later, look back on that time and see if you can pinpoint where it was in your body that you felt off.

2 – Ask your inner guide. When faced with a question of whether or not I want to make a purchase right now, I like to take a few deep breaths to center myself, close my eyes and ask myself. Is this the right option for me? Do I want to spend this money now?

This definitely takes some practice, because there are always, always, always warring voices in our head. The key here is to just ignore those questions and go deep within to your heart space and put your focus there (or the part of your body where you feel things).

3 – Trust yourself. In order to truly get value from these messages, you need to learn to truly trust yourself at 100%. You have to trust that you have all the answers already. You have to trust that you know what your next best money decision is and that you are capable of making it.

If you need to build this trust muscle, make a list of all the good decisions you’ve made and review it often. Next, make a list of all your bad decisions and then list how you overcame them. Because you did. And you’re here. You are person whose inner guide is trustworthy.

I believe we are all born with an inner guide, an intuition and all the things we need to make good money decisions (and all the other kinds of decisions too). And even if you grew up with the message that you should quieten that inner voice, you can learn how to strengthen it! What do you think? Have you ever experienced these intuitive nudges? I’d love to hear about it below!

Sherry Parks, CPA, is a Money Mindset Coach who helps women escape feeling trapped by their finances. She is passionate about helping women change mindset, emotions and actions regarding money, so that they learn to keep what they have and generate more. Check out her 5 Steps to a Better Money Story workbook or join her women-only Facebook group More Than Enough Sisterhood.

Image courtesy of Liza Summer.