Tapping Into Intuition: Make Your Dreams a Reality

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Untamed" by Glennon Doyle. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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What are the most effective ways of tapping into intuition? How can using intuition help you make positive changes in life?

Embracing your intuition involves being guided by a deep sense of inner truth. According to self-help author Glennon Doyle, when you deeply understand yourself, you can make confident decisions.

Keep reading to learn why tapping into intuition is key for changing your dreams into reality.

Imagining a Better World

Doyle asserts that when you see injustice, destruction, and violence, you instinctively understand that the world isn’t as it should be. You know this because you carry within your imagination a more beautiful vision of what the world could be. 

Doyle says that you must do everything you can to make your vision of the world a reality. Those in power are interested in preserving the status quo—they constantly send messages to support this status quo and prevent you from questioning it, messages such as: 

  • Don’t look too deeply into injustice.
  • Don’t feel too strongly about social and environmental issues. 
  • Don’t imagine a more beautiful world. Just stick with the program and don’t complain. 

Because she received this messaging, Doyle was discouraged from tapping into intuition, taught to be complacent with the status quo, and became apathetic towards progressive causes. Captivity limited her imagination and its power.     

However, once she learned to tap into intuition, she understood its powerful ability to break through the apathy of captivity and inspire positive change.

Tapping Into Intuition for Women

One reason that these limiting messages are so pervasive in women’s lives is that they are intended to preserve the patriarchal systems most women live within. Patriarchy is a social system based on gender inequality that reinforces men’s cultural, political, and moral authority and subverts women’s attempts to claim this authority. Women receive the message that they shouldn’t fight for change because doing so would challenge the status quo: a male-dominated social system. 

While Doyle contends that when you see injustice, you instinctively know the world isn’t as it should be, seeing the injustice in the first place is often difficult. Patriarchy-supporting messages are so pervasive that we rarely think to question their validity, underscoring the importance of using your imagination to think outside the box.

Exercise: Imagine Your Future

Doyle recommends expressing your wildest dreams for your life and the world so that you can act on them. This exercise will help you tap into your intuition and articulate your dreams. 

  • Write down your five wildest dreams for your future.
  • Write down your five wildest dreams for the world.  
  • What is something you can do today that will set you on a path to making these dreams a reality?
Tapping Into Intuition: Make Your Dreams a Reality

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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Glennon Doyle's "Untamed" at Shortform .

Here's what you'll find in our full Untamed summary :

  • Glennon Doyle's story of freeing herself from society's rules and expectations
  • Why you should rebuild your life using emotion, intuition, and imagination
  • A look at how young women are taught to repress their emotions and desires

Emily Kitazawa

Emily found her love of reading and writing at a young age, learning to enjoy these activities thanks to being taught them by her mom—Goodnight Moon will forever be a favorite. As a young adult, Emily graduated with her English degree, specializing in Creative Writing and TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), from the University of Central Florida. She later earned her master’s degree in Higher Education from Pennsylvania State University. Emily loves reading fiction, especially modern Japanese, historical, crime, and philosophical fiction. Her personal writing is inspired by observations of people and nature.

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