When women learn to trust their intuition, it can change - and even save - their lives

How to turn your supernatural superpower into a secret weapon

“There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen,” Rumi

In the past year, I’ve had dozens of in-depth conversations with women from all walks of life who have figured out – or are in the process of figuring out – how to live lives that are fulfilling. And what I’ve gleaned from those conversations is that part of the process is learning to trust your inner voice — the one that tells you what you want and then gives you permission to pursue it. I’ll include more from these conversations in the book I’m working on (out in 2025), but I wanted to share one conversation I had recently about how a woman’s intuition can be life-changing — and even life-saving — when you allow it to guide you.

I first met Landis Carey when she reached out to me in 2012 via direct message. The mother of a newborn in New Jersey, she was devastated by the Sandy Hook School shooting and wanted to volunteer with Moms Demand Action. This was a big and bold step for Landis, who had been raised in a conservative, patriarchal family of gun owners; she worried about the backlash she’d face from loved ones who believed her activism was misguided. Ultimately, Landis chose to listen to her inner voice, and it told her to prioritize her passion for gun safety over the guilt or shame that might come from having an opinion.

For two years, Landis fully immersed herself in Moms Demand Action, and what she learned as a volunteer leader led to a profound personal transformation. She became more confident; she feared criticism less; she began to trust her values, abilities and desires. And she started listening to the inner voice that told her to volunteer in the first place, a decision that would save her life six years later.

in 2018, Landis had no symptoms of illness except fatigue, something that was easy to write off as the mom of three children under age six. But one night, as Landis and her husband got ready for bed, her inner voice told her to say out loud, “I think I have cancer.” Those words, which seemed to materialize from the ether, hung in the air between them until Landis said, “I’m not sure why I said that.” Landis’ husband, who didn’t want to imagine that his 37 year old wife was sick, suggested she was reading too many stories about other people’s illnesses online.

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Listen to Landis tell her experience, in her words, below.

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A few weeks later, as Landis woke up from a Sunday afternoon nap, she heard her inner voice again; this time it said, “It’s time to deal with this.” Landis instinctively moved her hand to her abdomen and pressed down hard. She felt a strange lump and knew immediately it was the “this” her inner voice was talking about; she knew it was cancer. The next day, she went to a doctor who told her the lump was probably not anything to worry about, but Landis insisted on an x-ray. Within days, specialists confirmed what she already knew: there was a cancerous mass growing on her pancreas.

The inner voice that told Landis she was sick goes by many names: intuition, sixth sense, perception, feminine energy. Oprah Winfrey refers to it as “the whispers,” Glennon Doyle calls it “the Knowing,” Martha Beck calls it “the force.” But at its core, it’s the ability to understand or sense knowledge immediately, without concrete proof or explanation. It’s the ability to move past rational thought and reasoning to tap into a deeper truth that lies below all of our layers of social conditioning.

This inner voice seems to be more readily available to women; perhaps due to eons of social conditioning that tells girls and women it’s ok to embrace their sensitivity while telling boys and men to reject any emotion considered too feminine. In fact, for centuries, women’s intuition was seen as dangerous; men believed their ability to predict others’ actions or to spot liars or to uncover the truth was dangerous. Women who admitted to having an uncanny understanding or foresight were accused of witchcraft and even burned at the stake.

Even today, women are shamed for trusting their intuition, something that’s discounted or dismissed as being too sensitive, too emotional, too dramatic, too illogical. Women are taught at an early age to ignore their inner voice and to trust in the opinions of others (aka, men) instead; this conditioning can cloud our judgment and make us doubt both our instincts and ourselves.

Over the years, I’ve tried to lean in to my own intuition and let it guide me. It’s protected me from dangerous men, it’s steered me away from untrustworthy colleagues, it’s urged me to check in on my children’s wellbeing. It’s led me to end relationships and start new endeavors. It told me to start Moms Demand Action, and then it told me to step away from my leadership role 11 years later. And I’ve found that it’s almost always correct; and even when it’s not, it’s more likely to be inconclusive than wrong, the promise of a clearer answer somewhere out in the future.

After my divorce years ago, I had a vivid dream that told me I needed to give my ex-husband all of the money I’d saved during our marriage in my 401K. The next day, I transferred my entire lifesavings — not an insignificant amount of money — over to his account. Both of our lawyers were confused, and to this day I still don’t know why my inner voice told me to do what it did. But that’s the thing with intuition; decisions based on an inner voice can be difficult to decipher and explain. I just did what I knew what I needed to do, and decided it was better to follow my intuition than to ignore it.

The more you silence your inner voice, the harder it will be to hear it in the future. That’s why Landis, who ended up undergoing a major medical procedure to remove her tumor, has continued to hone the inner voice that saved her life through meditation and journaling. “Today, when I write down questions, I have the answers before I finish,” she says. “My inner voice has become my most trusted advisor.”

Here are some ways to make your own inner voice your most trusted advisor:

Talk to it: Write about your feelings each day and notice your emotions and reactions. Or ask yourself questions and answer them from your intuition. For an example, check out the “Letters From Love” from

Elizabeth Gilbert

, who says: “I believe there is an ocean of warm, affectionate, and outrageously unconditional love available to us all — and that it is conveniently accessible from within. I don’t believe anyone is excluded from this ocean of love; it is only a question of learning how to hear it, how to feel it, how to trust it.” (You can read my own letter here.)

Look for answers: When you're trying to make a decision, don’t calculate the answer. Instead, ask yourself, "What should I do?" Relax into letting your intuition make the decision for you instead of your brain.

Daydream: What would you like to see happen in your life, personally and professionally? Don't censor the ideas that come to you. The more you tell your intuition to steer you where you need to go, the louder its guidance will get.

Create a mantra: Be aware of the voice in your head that tells you to stay on autopilot and listen only to your busy brain. Practice telling that voice to step aside because you want other guidance, too. If you’re looking for a yogic mantra related to intuition, try “Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo,” which means, “I bow to the teacher within.”

Sit quietly: By taking a break from the noise of technology and content consumption, you make room for clarity — with clarity comes more authentic choices. In the silence, ask yourself, "What should I do now?" The answer might be something you need but never give yourself, like a massage or a long walk, or a call to your best friend far away.

YOUR TURN: Tell me about how you tap into your intuition or about a time you followed your intuition and what happened as a result…