Intuition is defined as ‘the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning’. It’s what some people call their gut feeling or a hunch. But for many this ‘knowing’ is hard to cultivate and to trust.
You know that feeling. You are in a situation where you get the sense that something isn’t quite right, and then you have to make a conscious decision based on that sensation. Often, you might ignore these insights and do whatever it is anyway.
Later down the track when things don’t work out and you look back, you realise you knew all along, and should have trusted your intuition.
On a more positive note you’ve probably all experienced those moments of making a sudden decision based on intuition that has had excellent results!
But it’s often hard to tell the difference between thoughts, feelings and intuition.
So how can we train and cultivate intuition so that we can use it to help us make decisions from a deeper level, that place of inner knowing?
Intuition is our sixth sense. And in the past, before life got really busy, we were naturally more in tune with, and trusting of, this sense.
Along the way our intuition became weaker as our rational mind became the driver of our lives. The good news is, just as we use our other five senses daily (without thinking) we can also strengthen our sixth sense.
On my Self Mastery Card of Intuition, I suggest that intuition is guided by the Divine or our Higher Self, we simply need to learn to listen to it.
5 steps to unlock your intuition:
1. Meditation
Creating peace and quiet on a daily basis, cutting out the noise and the chatter of others, social media and life in general, is crucial to coming back to our centre, and communing with our intuition.
Once you regularly make time for being rather than doing you can start to recognise your higher self / intuition again.
2. Noticing
Start to notice moments when you think your intuition is trying to tell you something. Become aware of how you feel around certain people, whether their energy feels pleasant or not. Perhaps someone gives you a bad ‘vibe’ or their energy feels draining. That’s your intuition speaking to you.
Each time you make a decision in your day, notice if you are already using intuition to decide or whether your choices are purely rational.
3. Play
Play with your intuition. You know when you think of someone and then they call? Or you were just wondering if someone was going to email you back and you hear your phone ping? That’s your intuition.
Practise this! When the phone rings, see if you know who it is before you answer. If your favourite sports match is on see if you can anticipate who will win. One of my teachers used to play with a deck of cards, and every day she would practice intuiting which card she would turn over to develop her skill.
The more you play, the more you are training your intuition ‘muscle’.
4. Questions and answers
If you have a decision or a dilemma that is weighing heavily on you, take a moment to actively connect with your intuition. Formulate a clear question in your mind and then meditate for a few minutes. Many times we are looking for the answer but we are unclear on the question. The more specific you become the more clarity your will find.
Write down anything that came up for you, even images or words and see if these answers mean anything to you. If it doesn’t work the first time, try again. Doing this regularly will allow you to start to recognise how and when your intuition is speaking to you.
5. Journal
If you can make the time, journaling is an excellent way of keeping track of how your intuition training is going. Write down moments when you know you used your intuition; keep notes of any flashes of insight and if you can remember them write down your dreams.
My favourite journaling activity is to meditate for a minute and imagine I am an Angel, my Higher Self or the voice of Intuition. Then I simply write from that perspective. If nothing else it awakens my imagination and I am always surprised by what I have written.
Enjoy the process and soon following your intuition will be second nature!