If you drive a car you’ll know that a red traffic light means; ‘stop’! By heeding this simple sign you’ve no doubt avoided many unpleasant collisions.

Human beings have been seeking, inventing and interpreting signs for millennia. Everything from looking for a famed albatross whilst sailing the high seas, compiling a personality profile from planets in the cosmos to creating ornate decks of cards to reveal the secrets of life.

The practice of divination is a time honored tradition. My favorite is using rune stones. Whatever method you use to tap into higher wisdom spiritual clarity and discernment is essential. As we wake up our higher potential our ability to interpret and intuit signs upgrades and matures.

Here’s an example of fine tuning intuition from a conversation with a client.

When the bus does not arrive

Gina* was making great progress. A scare with diabetes had been avoided. She’d changed her diet and made meditation a daily habit. She now intuited it was time to include body work in her self-care.

We explored her options. Aerobic exercise is great for cardio and strength building but what Gina needed was a practice that taught her how to stay present and connected in her body.

After considering Tai Chi and Qigong she decided to give yoga a try. There was a studio on her bus route between work and home, it would be a convenient and easy stop.

On the day of the first class, she waited, as she did every workday, for the number 49 bus. First one bus, then a second didn’t arrive. When a third bus pulled up to the bus stop it was full. As Gina waited for a fourth bus she concluded that all the missed buses must be a sign not to do yoga, so she didn’t.

When your gut is not to be trusted

I’ve lost count of the number of times clients come up with similar conclusions based on ‘signs from the universe’.

It’s true that Life teaches and guides us in every moment. Every event, the shape of a cloud, the call of a bird, is a potential symbol or sign. But this is not meant to baffle us or send us into complicated interpretations. The flow of life is designed to tip our senses into a state of awe and wonder.

Out of this state of awe, inspiration and clarity arrives to show us how to navigate to uplift and support us.

If you find yourself interpreting a situation as a sign to not take a course of action, check to see if this conclusion is arising out of a state of fear, contraction or tiredness. None of these states are conducive for clear discernemnt.

What’s always true

When Gina re-examined her decision not to go to yoga she recognized that her interpretation that the universe was telling her to miss yoga was born more out of irritation and disappointment than openness and inspiration.

Now that Gina was being honest with herself she was ready to listen to her heart. We sat in quiet contemplation for a few minutes allowing silence to amplify what Gina’s heart had to say.

“Commitment, commitment! That’s what the lack of buses really were saying to me. I need to increase my commitment to yoga, not abandon it!” she said joyfully.

The following week Gina showed up at yoga with fresh eagerness. It turned out that she loved yoga, it was what she needed to strengthen her ability to feel peace all the way into her nervous system.

The pregnant pause

The next time you get one of those ‘it a must be a sign!’ moments connect with your heart. It’s here that you tap into your capacity to wonder. Attune to the grounded common sense and higher intelligence that co-exist here. You can be sure that the your discernment about the moment will reveal itself clearly.

*name changed to respect confidentiality.