As we left our hotel room and walked down the hall, Anne asked me if I had checked the room to see if we had left anything behind. I said, “Yes, I checked.” Then as we were joking around in the elevator, she asked me again. I said, “I checked but not as thoroughly as I normally do.”
Asking this was unusual for Anne because normally she relies on me to do this with my flashlight. I check under everything.
“It’s probably nothing, but I just thought I’d ask,” she said as we approached the ground floor. We were on a tight schedule and needed to hit the road. But now, I was doubting myself. Was this fear or my intuition talking?
I turned around, leaving Anne in the lobby with our luggage, and headed back up the elevator to our room.
I checked the bathroom, the closet, under the bed and in the couch cushions. I found nothing. Then, as I was ready to leave, I looked over at the couch again. I had the niggle to look behind the couch and under the curtains. There, within the folds of the dark curtains, was my money pouch. Wow. I had a rush of relief.
My initial reaction was to be angry at myself for having missed it the first time. But then I realized I needed to give thanks for finding the pouch with 100 Euros in it. We had just exchanged dollars upon our arrival in Spain, and this was our traveling money.
While riding back down in the elevator, I focused on gratitude. I thanked myself for taking the time to go back upstairs and check the room again. I gave thanks we hadn’t checked out of the hotel and left town yet. I gave thanks for finding the money.
When I arrived in the lobby, I told Anne the good news. She shared she felt guilty for questioning my final room check. She said she only spoke up because she felt increasingly uneasy as she moved further and further away from our room.
She said that while she was waiting for me in the lobby, she got an image of the window and the curtains, but she brushed it off thinking she was just remembering the nice view. Then I told her exactly where I found the money pouch, and her vision made sense.
She was so glad that she spoke up and that I double checked in places that didn’t make sense, like within the folds of the curtains. We acknowledged we both got a niggle, took action in our own ways, and experienced a positive outcome.
Practicing grounding, being alert and niggle ready came in handy just a few days later.
As we were exiting the Madrid metro and into the sunlight, a man came out of nowhere and was suddenly behind Anne. Being on high alert for pickpockets, I felt something was not right and turned around quickly. I saw Anne’s backpack was open and his arm was moving away from it.
I grabbed his arm firmly and said, “Back off.” This shocked him. In English he said “I want to tell you your backpack is open.” This was a response we had heard before from a previous pickpocket.
Anne was so surprised by the speed of this interaction that she started speaking French. She does this when she gets startled. It’s odd, but she does this. As we were in Spain, speaking French made no sense to this pickpocket.
The man was visibly startled and confused. I let go, and before a moment had passed, he was gone having disappeared into the crowd.
The niggle (my intuition) alerted me to be present and ready to act quickly. Nothing was stolen. Twice now we took care of ourselves with our intuition.
You, too, can be niggle ready!
Niggles can be subtle. By being present, you give your mind the space to interpret what you are experiencing. Is it fear or is it intuition? With practice, you can befriend your intuition.
After hearing our story, may you notice more of your niggles and take action!