How to Listen to Your Intuition with Sarah Ban Breathnach
Do you struggle to listen to your intuition? Do you wonder how you can hear it better? Today, I’m interviewing Sarah Ban Breathnach about how she used her intuition to write her New York Times bestselling book Simple Abundance, which inspired Oprah to start a gratitude journal, and what advice she would give to someone who’s trying to listen to their intuition better.
Who is Sarah Ban Breathnach?
Sarah Ban Breathnach was described as the Isaac Newton of the simplicity movement by the Sunday Telegraph (London). USA Today said she speaks to the very soul of frazzled modern women who suffer from a lethal surge of impossible expectations. Time Magazine has called her "the Martha Stewart of the soul".
Sarah’s ground-breaking book, Simple Abundance*, has sold over five-million copies in the US, topped the New York Times Bestsellers list for two years and has been translated into 28 languages. Simple Abundance* is also responsible for introducing two concepts—the ‘Gratitude Journal’ and the term ‘authentic self’ into the American conversation. Sarah’s follow up, Something More*, debuted at number one on the bestseller lists of the NY Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Publisher’s Weekly and has sold over 1.2 million copies to date.
Oprah Winfrey has called Sarah’s work “life-changing” and Sarah has been a frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show and OWN’s Super Soul Sunday. She inspired Oprah to start a gratitude journal. Additionally, Sarah has been a contributing editor of Good Housekeeping and a nationally syndicated columnist for The Washington Post Writer's Group, and was named as one of the 50 women redefining what it means to be fifty today by MORE Magazine.
Intuition: Morse Code of the Soul
Sarah says, “I think that intuition is the Morse code of how we hear the spiritual.” That to have the life we want is as simple as plugging into that intuition which is our invisible guide. But she didn’t always know it. Sarah had a moment where she was “whining in my head” and feeling very down and ungrateful.
She released a prayer into the Universe and received an answer that said,
“I want you to sit down here and give me 100 reasons why you're grateful for your life exactly as it is right now. And money can't be on the list. So, wow, six hours later, I needed to go pick up the carpool and as many pots of tea I had over, you know, 100 blessings and I was very, I was humbled. And I felt bad that I sounded like an ungrateful brat. And that's when gratitude became…a spiritual science experiment.”
When the Gratitude Journal was Born
When Sarah felt inspired to conduct her own spiritual science experiment she said,
“I started to write little moments of what happened down. I wrote on post it notes, I wrote on index cards, I wrote on the back of envelopes, just whatever I could find...So then I thought, why don't you just put them in a journal. So it would be easier than having to look for all of these papers. So that's what I started to do. And then after about two months, I noticed that I was feeling calmer. I was more content, but the outside world had not changed.”
She felt inspired to start a gratitude journal at a time when:
“Everybody in the country was really tightening [their] belt. People were losing their jobs 1000 a day and it was very scary. So downshifting was the only game in town. But downshifting sounded so punitive that what I was feeling felt so buoyant. And I realized that gratitude was the buffer. That was the buffer. And I thought, Oh, well, if you do this for two months, you're you're going to be different on the inside. And that's when I knew I had a book.”
Women are Artists of the Every Day
Although Sarah felt divinely inspired to create Simple Abundance* that didn’t mean the road ahead was easy. It took 5 years and many rejections later before the book became the success it is today. For those moments you may feel discouraged she says,
“There's going to be some days when you feel like crying yourself to sleep. And what I learned was when you hurl faith across the room and just stop and feel so alone and so desolate, and in such despair, gratitude really sits at the end of our bed, waiting to comfort us. I just wanted other women to know that that's really the motivating force behind the dream.”
She believes that women are artists of the every day. That what you create whether it’s positive encouragement, writings, a website are your paint colors. “Every day is the canvas of our lives.” It’s our job to show up. Show up even when we don’t feel like so on those days when the creative within us shines we’ll be ready.
Sarah’s Spiritual Practice
Aside from having a consistent gratitude practice Sarah also enjoys a morning routine. She said she feeds the cats, fixes a pot of tea, and like to read women’s stories from bed. It gives her a sense of connection to those who have gone before. As well as hope. That if women could be placed in the most dire circumstances and make it through then so can she. She also enjoys being in a garden and doing other types of creative home activities.
Affirmation
I am connected to my intuition. I allow myself to receive and follow its guidance so I may direct my life according to my highest self.
Do This Today
Plan a time every day over the next week that you’ll sit and create. Even if it’s ten minutes. Allow yourself to give space for your creative dreams.
Writing Prompt
Write at the top of the page "How can I better connect to and hear my intuition? What may be stopping me from using it in my life?”
Resources
Buy Simple Abundance here*
Buy Something More here*
Click here for your morning routine guide!
*This is an affiliate link. Purchasing through affiliate links helps fund The Good Space at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting us!
