Using Your Intuition

Have you ever had a gut feeling that you can’t shake?  Or you just knew something was going to happen a certain way, without really understanding why?  This sensation is simply your intuition speaking to you.  Our intuition is our internal alarm system that guides us from our heart.  Our intuition is connected to the life force energy of the Universe, and with practice we can hone this very natural ability and use it to improve our lives.  

​We all have the ability to sharpen and maximize our intuitive skills. Unfortunately, our culture does not encourage the use or even acknowledgment of the inner voice. Too often our deep feelings of intuition are met with skepticism or disbelief and we can subject ourselves to ridicule and shame by even discussing them. Much more emphasis is placed on logical, linear thinking where we seek out information from the physical world in order to make decisions that shape our lives.  Gathering information for decision-making is necessary, but it is not the only tool that we can use to create abundant, joyful lives. 

To begin to develop our intuition we need to become aware of how it tries to speak to us. The truth is that our inner voice is in constant dialogue with us.  Our problem is that we don’t know what it is saying, or how it is trying to say it. That is why we begin by deliberately becoming more aware of how our inner voice sounds.  Is it a thought in the head, that once there, cannot be shaken?  Is it a sick feeling in the pit of the stomach that gets worse when we try to ignore it?  Is it a prickly feeling at the back of the neck, where it seems as if the hairs are standing straight up?  It might take a little while to begin to recognize how the mind and body respond to your intuition.  When you observe something like this happening, stop and pay attention.  Ask questions to yourself relating to the situation at hand and see how the mind and body react.  Allow the inner self to speak to you.   

Next, we need to trust our intuition.  Once we become familiar with how the inner voice gets our attention, we then need to trust what it is saying.  The issue here is that sometimes it doesn’t seem to make any sense.  There are two reasons for this.  One is that we can’t begin to imagine the wonderful things that our higher power can bring to our lives.  We get wrapped up in only being able to see one or two, sometimes three, outcomes to each problem or situation.  So when our intuition pushes us in an unfamiliar direction, we naturally resist. The second reason is that sometimes our inner voice seeks to protect us from something in our path. We have all heard stories of people that have experienced extreme feelings of dread before getting on an airplane or on a boat, and escape a tragedy by honoring those feelings, but most often our higher self is protecting us from smaller things such as avoiding a pothole that could result in a flat tire. Our intuition shows up in a nudge in a completely different direction than what seems natural or familiar.  Trust is key when it comes to listening to our intuition, as trust will ultimately guide our actions.  

Our intuition is trying to speak to us for a purpose - so that we can take appropriate action.  Taking action is the final act of developing our intuition. We can take a course of action that is based on information from the physical world, and combine it with our intuition to make choices and decisions that are to our highest good - body, mind and spirit.  By listening, trusting and then taking action based upon our intuition we can create a path of greater prosperity and happiness. 

    Only with the heart can we see clearly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
                    ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery, THE LITTLE PRINCE