As a teacher and holistic practitioner, I have the opportunity to work with many people. Over the years, learning to tap my intuitive side more deeply for wisdom and personal guidance has been an interesting journey of discovery. Many students and clients will be amazed when I share the information received. I’ll laugh and say, “I used to look like that too,” until I realized that being intuitively gifted was not something that was passed before birth to a select group of more evolved beings. We all receive this gift.
How we have chosen to work with this is strictly a personal decision. So if you are one of those sitting on the sidelines, salivating for others who can easily access your inner guidance, thinking that you were not selected for this role. Drop the restrictive belief! It is something you can do, but you must make the decision to do it.
As one begins to work steadily, it becomes easier to learn to access this inside information. So now I would like to share some of the things that I have found helpful in triggering this process, summarized below:
1. Intuition is not a special gift for a select group of people. It is a gift that we all receive as part of our birthright. Some choose to open the gift and work with it, others choose to put it on a shelf and forget about it, others may be afraid to open it, allowing it to remain a secret until later … Think about this analogy and how you can apply to you …
2. Accessing the ability to receive intuitive information is easier than we think and is already in use in our day to day. We may not give you credit when we have used this information, simply because it may have been received from us under very normal circumstances, rather than appearing with all the comforts.
Now just think about it … have you ever planned to go somewhere and suddenly changed your mind for no apparent reason, or decided to change the direction or route you were taking? Only to have found out later how lucky he was to have missed an accident or traffic jam. We will never know how many people were using the intuitive guide on September 11, 2001 when the Twin Towers were hit, and for some reason they had decided not to be there when they normally would be.
How many times in your life have you had a creative idea, an inspiration, or a solution to a problem that appeared out of nowhere? We have all come across this experience, which is intuition in action.
Have you ever had what feels like a knee-jerk reaction to something or someone in relation to one of your children? This again is intuition.
Want to take a nap and wake up in an hour but don’t have an alarm clock? Just say before I fall asleep, I want to wake up in X minutes. The message is relayed to the subconscious, which will wake you up at the designated time.
Have you ever found yourself saying, “I had an epiphany today!” Or maybe you heard someone say it … this is the direct result of inner guidance or intuition at work.
Every time you say, “I can’t explain it, I just have this feeling about …”, you are expressing yourself intuitively.
The next time I start saying “I have no intuitive ability.” stop and take a moment to examine some ordinary events in your life and you will be surprised to find that it is just the opposite, more intuitive than you think.
3. When you think about the examples mentioned above and remember yourself in similar situations, try to remember exactly what state you were in when it happened.
If you remembered having a creative idea or inspiration, what were you doing? Were you stressed or more relaxed? Were you involved in an activity that required your full concentration or were you in a comfortable and calm atmosphere?
Generally, when a person is in a more relaxed state, when the logical and talkative side of the mind calms down, this opens the gateway to communication with the subconscious, allowing the intuition to be recognized and heard. If you are someone who describes yourself as unable to shut down mental talk, try this: be a detached observer, listen without attachment to the talk. I like to describe it as if you were sitting in front of a television watching CNN, just watching the tag lines go by at the bottom of the screen … eventually the incessant thoughts will stop coming, and you will be staring at a blank screen .. .
This is also like daydreaming – giving your mind permission to relax and take a break. It takes time to cultivate the ability to get to this state, but the more you practice, the faster you can get there with each attempt.
4. Not all intuitive abilities are the same … as mentioned above, we are all gifted with this ability, but the way we perceive it is not the same in everyone. For some it will be like watching a TV screen with clear images, for others it may be more like a quick slide show, others may experience it as if they are listening to a radio, and still others, it may affect them as a feeling. One way is not better than the other. These modes of expression may vary from time to time. The best thing you can do is learn to trust intuitive information as it enters. Sometimes the understanding is known immediately, but other times it will become apparent at a later date.
Here’s an example of a time recently when I received an intuitive message …
I had just finished my morning walk in the park, got in my truck, looked at my water bottle and thought “Oh, I’ll drink it later!” I drove about 1 minute to the grocery store located right next to the park where I had just been. As I approached the store, an elderly couple would come out. The wife said to the husband, “If you wait until you are thirsty to drink, then it is too late.” I mentally thanked the woman for the message, did my shopping, and then drank the bottle of water as soon as I got back to the car.
Do I think this was a coincidence? Surely! But I see a coincidence as something that is destined to happen, not a random event. This was an intuitive message for me, sent through this couple as a reminder of something I was working on to increase (my water intake).
These messages can reach us in several ways: through the lyrics of a song, a message on a billboard, an overheard conversation, a magazine advertisement, etc. The trick is to be open to receiving them … fine-tuning your consciousness …
So maybe for the next several weeks, you can work on fine-tuning your awareness … you might be surprised at what you’re learning!