Intuition is your internal guidance system. It’s a higher intelligence that reaches far beyond the rational mind which is often restricted by self-limiting thoughts, beliefs and cultural conditioning. Intuition reconnects us with our instinctual way of knowing and perceiving what is right and wrong for us. What is a ‘yes’, aligned with our personal truth, and what is a ‘no’, choices that cause us to go against ourselves and our truth.
Making the choice to strengthen and reclaim your intuition, is choosing to align with your unique truth.
How does intuition work?
Simply put, intuition communicates through subtle messages and signals that are heard and felt in our bodies. Think of a time when you experienced churning or heaviness in your gut on your drive to a job you dislike. Or the light, fluttering sensations of joy in your heart when creating something you are passionate about.
Perhaps you have experienced hearing an inner voice warning you ‘NO!’ when something just doesn’t quite feel right. Or a powerful ‘YES!’ When you have a strong resonance with someone special.
These are just some of the ways intuition communicates to you.
From a young age, most of us were conditioned to predominantly function from our intellect, the rational mind. We are taught to go against the instinctual rumblings within, the gentle voice and sensations nudging us to look beyond the ordinary, mundane life. But so often we repress our intuition, and it becomes ‘dulled down’.
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Intellect vs Intuition
Intellect is: the faculty of thinking, judging, abstract reasoning, and conceptual understanding; the cognitive faculty.
Intuition is: the power or faculty of attaining direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.
Both Intellect and intuition play important roles in our lives and they are each there to serve a purpose. However, it’s important to know the difference and identify that although intellect is an integral part of being human, the mind can only take us so far, it cannot be the only thing we rely on to live a meaningful life.
The truth is your intuition holds an intelligence far beyond intellect. If you purely rely on intellect to guide you though life, you may find yourself feeling completely disconnected from yourself. Leading a life which can feel meaningless, confusing and overwhelming. Disconnection from your intuitive self causes you to live out of alignment with your true desires and purpose.
Is it possible to Reclaim Your Intuition?
The good news is, yes you certainly can. Your intuition might be repressed, but it hasn’t disappeared. It has and always will be there, just waiting for you to reclaim it and step into your personal power.
Like myself, you too can learn to reconnect and strengthen your intuition and reintegrate it as part of your daily life. Your intuition will become your wise ally, helping you navigate through life. Leading you closer to alignment with the life you truly desire. It’s the yearning voice within, just waiting to express itself through you.
Take me for example, I went from someone who struggled to even make a simple decision. My internal guidance system was completely suppressed and I experienced severe anxiety, fear and depression for much of my life.
The big shifts started to occur when I began trusting in myself, and following the guidance of my intuition, without question. Turning inwards for answers and allowing myself to walk off the ‘beaten track’ in search of my truth. Through the process of reclaiming and strengthening my intuition, I have become more aligned with myself, my truth and my purpose in life.
Here are 8 simple techniques that have helped me reconnect with my intuition. Tune into them and focus on the ones that resonate with you. I recommend practicing one or two a day, paying attention to the subtle increase in your intuitive abilities over time.
8 Ways to Strengthen and Reclaim Your Intuition
1. Inner voice awareness
Before you are able to use your intuition, you must first learn to recognise when it’s communicating with you. Intuition usually isn’t loud or demanding – it’s subtle and communicates in different ways for different people.
Get to know the ways your intuition speaks to you. Sit in a quiet space and ask your intuition, “How would you like to communicate with me?”
Then sit patiently and notice. It may come in the form of visions, a gentle voice or message, you may experience body sensations – a stirring in your gut, goosebumps or shivers.
Intuition can also communicate through your emotions or alternatively it can simply provide a deep sense of knowing, it’s a way of knowing with every cell in your body, although it may not seem rational to the thinking mind. Try to trust and acknowledge its wisdom.
2. Breathwork Practice
Breathwork is an intentional breathing practice which assists with reconnecting to your centre by turning your attention inwards. It’s also a powerful practice for relieving stress and anxiety. Here’s a simple breathwork technique you can use for tuning into your intuition.
3. Intuitive Journaling
This style of journaling isn’t a mental process, it’s more of a channeling. It may feel awkward at first but the most important thing is to trust and put aside any self judgment.
Before you begin, take a few deep breaths and turn your attention inwards. Set an intention for your journaling process, you might ask a question or wish to receive some insight.
Begin writing and allow whatever needs to come through to be channeled on the page. If your rational mind jumps in, judging or analyzing, gently allow it to pass and express the words that want to be written.
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4. Natures wisdom
Nature is a wise teacher, because it’s purely instinctual. It simply exists. Spending time in nature allows you to reset and cultivate a mindfulness connection to the source of all life.
Pay attention to the plants and animals, they instinctively know their true nature. Allow yourself to be fully present and notice what you can learn about intuition from mother nature.
5. Shake up the ‘norm’
Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” It’s up to us to find magic in our daily lives and intuition is a powerful tool in doing so.
So often we get stuck in the repetitive routine of life, we forget we have a choice to ‘shake it up.’ Set aside a day or a couple of hours to explore life intuitively. Tune inwards, receive guidance and act on it. Maybe your intuition is telling you to get creative – paint, draw, write.
Perhaps your body wants to move and dance or you want to go out exploring in the bush. Follow the trail of hunches that come though intuitively and weave some magic into your life.
6. Meditation
When you meditate you silence the chatter of your mind. This allows space for your intuition to be heard more clearly. The more you practice, the stronger your intuition will become.
7. Get creative
Intuition loves expressing itself through creativity. When you are connected to your inner source of creation, your intuition is strengthened by allowing the creative process to guide you.
Try not to plan or be rigid around what you want to create, allow it to come from an instinctual part of you. This will help quieten the cognitive mind so intuition can flow.
8. Intuitive games
Strengthening your intuition doesn’t need to be all serious, have fun with it by setting yourself fun little challenges. Here are some examples:
Guess the text/call: Your phone beeps, take a moment to tune in and guess who the text/call might be from.
Guess the card: Grab yourself a deck of cards, pick out four cards and lay them face down. Spend a moment tuning into the energy of the cards and see if you can guess which cards you picked.
The more you practice and stop doubting yourself by following your intuitive hunches, the stronger your intuition will become.
Did my article resonate with you? Want to discover more about how to enhance your life with intuition, creativity and live with an open heart? Join my Facebook group – Heart Wisdom Warriors, a fun and supportive community where I share my teachings, insights, workshops and offerings to help you truly embody an intuitive, creative and heart led life.
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