The definition of Intuition “is the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning”
Simply put, you make decisions through ‘feeling it’ and without analytical thought, something that science has had trouble quantifying. The truth of the matter is everyone has intuition and through practice can access and use it to make everyday decisions.
For example, have you ever had that feeling when you walk into a room and just get a ‘feeling’ about something, somebody or the place in general? That’s your intuition or your gut instinct.
You know the feeling, when you just know instantly whether the vibe in the room is friendly or unfriendly, or if there’s somebody who is particularly shy over in a corner, if there’s people arguing, even if you can’t see it, seeing what’s being said. It’s the part of our humanness that if we allow it can make the ‘instinctive’ decisions for us. This is how we used to live, before our analytical thought and our brains took over.
Now, this gut feeling, this inner knowing or picking up on a vibe, we can learn to make decisions from this, and the more you practice using your intuition the stronger it becomes.
Often, we notice when we haven’t listened to our intuition.
Have you ever done something and after the fact, you’re, like, “Man, I know I shouldn’t have done that?”
Maybe it was a relationship, a marriage for some of you. Or a job you took. Or turning left instead of right. Some decision you made or didn’t make or act on that, after the fact, you’re, “I knew I shouldn’t have done that. I knew no good was going to come out of that.” I mean, it can even be when we’re guided and we know that somebody is no good, they’ll be trouble, nothing good ever happens when we’re around them, we just know sometimes, and we don’t know why we know.
Learning to trust this is quite powerful, so we can learn to listen to it, but it’s usually so subtle, it is easily missed. But the best bit is you can learn to listen to it going forward.
By learning to listen to our
intuition, we’re learning to follow and live in our dharma, live in our genius.
When we ignore it and override this feeling, you might find life harder, more
of a hassle, heavy. It might feel wrong. Just life feels a bit more of a
struggle.
Some say it’s a connection to our inner knowing, some to a higher self, to a
higher consciousness, the connection to the divine, to angels. Whatever it is
for you, that’s what it is, and you can tune into that.
Interestingly, we tend to notice when we’ve ignored our intuition, and when we
are in the flow, in the zone, in our genius and everything is going well, it
feels light, life feels easy. Now, it doesn’t mean we’re not struggling maybe
because, you know, life sometimes sucks.
That
gut feeling will often come with other sensations. We’ll feel sick when we know
that it’s a tough decision and we don’t want to make it or it’s a bad feeling.
Also, the more we start listening to our own inner knowing, the more it will
become clear and we’ll be able to hear it, even when there’s distractions going
on around. It’ll be like … some people might feel an ache, or you might feel
a flattening, or just a restriction when we are being told not to do something.
Other times we’ll feel open and expansive. As we learn to trust that intuition
and follow it and not override it, it’ll just become clearer and easier for us.
But we’re forced as children to override it. Now, we all know, or we should at
least pick up on this, that children are good at just picking up on feelings,
picking up on this vibe. They’re so intuitive, but they come into the world and
we, as children, and adults tell children to… “Oh, you’re fine. You
ignore that. Don’t worry about this.” We override this innate knowing, and we teach
children, we taught ourselves to ignore it, just so that we could fit in.
Now generally most people think that women are more sensitive to this, but men and women all have this ability. Women are typically more in tune with their emotions and their feminine energy, which is essentially another name for intuition. Men tend to typically more tuned into the masculine energy, which is the energy of analysis and rational thought.
However, from a scientific perspective, women’s brains are wired to better integrate emotion and reason, as physically they are designed to bring life into the world, and ultimately are the caregiver. Whereas men’s brains have stronger links to co-ordinated action and perception. Source: www.smh.com.au
We all have it in us. We’ve just lost sight of it. We’ve turned off that inner innate knowing often from a very young age.
How can I learn to use my intuition?
The easiest way to do this is to just find a moment where you can be quiet and calm.
You don’t have to go and find quiet spaces, sit on top of a mountain top. This is the real world, but just to begin with, to make it easy for yourself, here’s a few tips.
Suggested Meditation
- Find time for yourself, sit quietly, calmly, comfortable. You can lie down, too, and just come to the breath, breathing in, breathing out.
- If you have a question you want to ask write it down, speak out loud, visualise or ask it in your head (whatever works and feels comfortable)
- Then using the ‘Ha’ sound when your breath and out this will help to release any tension we’re holding.
- So, on the inhale, breath in, exhale HA,
- Do this for three times and then just sit quietly, focus on the breathing, inhale, exhale HA.
- Now, thoughts are going to come, and thoughts are going to go. The secret is to not get attached to them, just watch them float away. So, we’re in the meditation, we decide to meditate for, say, maybe two or five minutes, up to 20. It’s up to you.
Then, when you come out of your meditation. Ask yourself the question again and you might find you just know the answer.
If you’re finding that you’re not quite getting there just with this simple
technique, you can add free flowing journaling after your meditation. So, after
you finish your meditation just write free-flow and just let whatever come
though. Most importantly don’t think, just writing. Just allow your intuition
to write through this. Then go back to see what you have written.
What would I use my intuition for?
As we become better at listening to our intuition, we feel more guided and even when we’re in situations where we’re struggling, maybe life is hard for whatever reason, you take on a level of inner peace as you follow your own navigation system.
- Paying attention to what’s going on around you is key.
- Notice what you’re picking up on.
- See how you think about it and how you feel.
You’ll start to see how you’re intuitively just realizing things that you may not have picked up and before.
The more you start to pay attention to not just your internal world, but your external world and how you are reacting in it and what you’re observing, you’ll start to notice more and more, and it’ll be like tuning in your radio, your antennae to pick up on the vibes.
Because so many of us are caught in our phones and on the computer, and chatting, so that we don’t take time to just sit and be still, even if we’re on the bus or taking a walk. We’re focused on what we have to do next. So just coming back to the present moment and being present as well.
You can use your intuition for pretty much anything. From big decisions to the small. Just stop, pay attention and ask yourself the question – and you may be surprised with the answer.
As you learn to trust that feeling it becomes the norm. Now, it doesn’t mean we have to blindly follow our intuition.
You also must use common sense with a balance of rationality because, you know, we do live in the real world and there will be times when it isn’t possible to do so – normally in a situation out of your control. Learning to listen to our intuition is like learning to follow our own internal guidance system, our own natural GPS. It’s our own compass.
It’s our own compass.
Learning to listen to our intuition is like learning to follow our own internal guidance system, our own natural GPS. It’s our own compass. ccent 5;