The Oxford dictionary defines Intuition in this way “The ability to understand something instinctively with out the need for conscious reasoning”. Intuition is an instinct. Instinct is defined as “a natural intuitive power, a natural or innate impulse, inclination or tendency, a natural aptitude”. Intuition is instinctual, a feeling, a knowing, a truth we sense, it is a sense just like our other senses, sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, we all have this ability to know what we know. We all have the ability to trust this knowing, it resides within us, it’s subtle but strong, it is a part of us, our inner guidance system and available to us whenever we choose to hear it. We all have this natural ability and the way to develop it is to use it, it takes practise, the more we trust it the more we trust ourselves, there is no need to debate it, it is a knowing. Being able to listen, to sense, to feel this brings greater understanding of what it is to be you, understanding yourself is not as easy as it sounds.
Knowing yourself is not as easy as it sounds…
Knowing yourself takes courage, being able to be honest with yourself and accept who you are is liberating and well worth contemplating. Knowing yourself will help you identify your inner dialogues, understanding your inner dialogues will help you distinguish which voice is speaking, which voice is influencing your interactions with life. You have a rich inner dialogue, being able to recognise anxiety when you feel it, distinguishing between self doubt and constructive questioning is very helpful, seeing what is holding yourself back and knowing your value will help you stop limiting yourself. Getting to know yourself more fully is worth the effort, and though it is uncomfortable at times, trusting and having faith in yourself develops with practise, the more you cultivate it, the stronger you become. Always present is another voice, a deep instinctual voice, as you develop a greater sense of trust and belief your life, you recognise the wisdom you have within you, if you listen, you’ll hear it and if you allow it to guide you through life you’ll be more adventurous. Everything begins with your inner dialogue and this why it is so important to recognise which voice is speaking and develop trust in the knowingness within you so it can guide you through every situation life presents you with.
Intuition, just like our other senses can be strong or subtle, just like a strong taste or a strong smell or a hint of either, sometimes it’s loud and screams at us and other times it is just a whisper, a subtle knowing but a knowing it is. It may just be something you sense, something that you can’t quite put your finger on but it is always there, niggling away at you, when you choose to listen to it, it becomes louder, when you choose to act upon it, it proves it’s worthy of this action, time and time again. If you allow it to guide you and you act intuitively you’ll know what you need to do. We all have stories in which something otherworldly happened (which of course intuition isn’t otherworldly, it’s internal and as natural as breathing), some unexplained knowing we felt that was so compelled by, we went in a different direction or changed our attitude, something had guided us to a more fulfilling outcome. Like when you found yourself attracted to visiting a particular place somewhere we wouldn’t normally go and found true connections with the people you met there or maybe you met the love of your life. Like the day you came home a different way, because you felt this urge to turn down a particular street and ended driving past your next home, or you avoided delays caused by roadworks or accidents. Like when you felt compelled to check out a particular store only to find the perfect piece or a great bargain. Or like when you successfully applied for a position in a field or career that just knew was right for you, regardless of your experience. There are so many occurrences you have experienced without really thinking about them, where your hunches, your inklings have positioned us in the right place at the right time. Being able to identify and accept this instinctual voice, recognising when you listened to it and when you acted upon it, you see it’s relevance in your life and acknowledge these occurrences were not just simple coincidence. You are guided by your instincts and experience synchronicities where you are positioned in the right place at the right time to be able to do what is right for you.
The trick is not to question yourself…
Of-course these synchronicities happen all the time, the smaller ones are more common happenings, like knowing the phone was about to ring, knowing who was ringing before you looked at your phone or feeling someone was coming to visit you and they did. It’s easier to intuitive trust yourself if you start to notice how your intuition is already working in your daily life, recognising when your intuition is guiding you will help you hear it when it is speaking. You will be able to recognise it and allow it to guide you confidently through any life defining changes like changing careers, moving states or buying houses, you will become more confident about the decisions you make. The trick is to not question why you feel you what you feel, just explore what you are feeling, explore what this feeling could mean and see where it might take you, living life intuitively is an adventure, you see the adventure life is.
When uncomfortable feelings occur it’s a little more difficult to discern, looking for warnings rather than opportunities won’t help you trust your intuitive voice as anxiety could be causing this feeling of foreboding. Anxiety is a tricky one, but as my wonderfully Autistic son tells me, sometimes the anxiety can be overridden by the excitement of what you are doing, especially if you are really into what you are doing. Anxiety can cloud your judgement and stop you enjoying your life, acting from fear or anxiety influences your choices and can hold you back, if you can learn to trust yourself rather than doubting yourself, life will get easier. Being able to identify how you feel when something feels right will help you trust yourself, when you start to see your life is an opportunity to explore who you are and get to know yourself more fully, life becomes more adventurous and less intense somehow. The more you trust yourself and the more you trust life, the more you trust what happens in your life, the stronger your inner guidance system becomes.
Welcome to the world of inner knowing…
There are moments when we feel like circumstances are changing, a feeling like something is about to happen or a sense that something isn’t quite right. Physical sensations that come with tuning in to our intuition like goosebumps or chills, like stomach knots or feeling sick, these are all part of recognising your instinctual knowing, the chills or goosebumps generally mean what you are you saying is real to you, the knots or sick feelings generally are something is not quite right. There is also that physical sensation of your soul dancing when you meet someone, your heart skips a beat, you blush, or you break into a sweat, you are experiencing a soul recognition. A soul recognition is when we meet someone we just click with, we feel like we have known each other forever, it is because we have known each other forever over lifetimes. These subtle recognitions come with soul connections and sometimes feel unbelievable but somewhere within you, you know they are true.
Our intuitive feelings are as real as our other senses and like our other senses, influenced by our individual perceptions. Similar to a persons perception of colour, take Aqua for example, blue to some and green to others. We as individuals are unique, so the way we perceive what we intuitive feel is unique as well, there is no one size fits all, how you intuitively sense is unique to you.
Welcome to the world of inner knowing, intuitive knowing, a world of subtleties and signals, a world of recognition and playfulness, life is an adventure and you are here to explore it.
Love life and life will love you back.
Mari.