“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” – Albert Einstein
What's Your Life Telling You?
The universe has a funny way of giving us exactly what we need to learn and grow. It's right here, in our lives. (More on that here: Be(e) in Your Life.) We often resist what life offers us though. Active procrastination is a form of resistance I've perfected — overcommitting to a variety of productive activities as a way of avoiding the one thing I need to prioritize. I'll get around to it, but I need to finish these 99 very important commitments first.
Other times, we suspect the universe is trying to tell us something, but… what? It's not always clear. I can't claim that I'm completely fluent in the language of the universe. That sure would make life hella easier! But, we all have a handy built-in translator app. It's our intuition. Now, before you say "I'm not intuitive" or "Nope, sorry, I'm team logic" and move on — everyone has intuition. We just need to remember how to use our gift.
Get A Round Tuit
The gift of intuition reminds me of a party favor from a hippie gathering I attended as a kid. Before you get too excited, it was just a pin with the word "Tuit" printed on the small, round button. Everyone was wearing them. I asked the host what "Tuit" meant, staring at him blankly for an awkward amount of time before the "around to it" pun clicked and I cracked up. I was totally in to it (Tuit!), driving my parents bonkers by loudly declaring "Tuit!" and whipping out the pin when I was procrastinating or when I heard "to it" in any capacity.
Oddly, the pin "mysteriously" disappeared and its devastating loss was forgotten after a few weeks, but still I can't see or hear the word "intuitive" without noting the embedded Tuit.
If life is trying to tell you something, it's time to get around to it. Remembering the gift of intuition can help. The Tuits can stay in the 1970s where they belong.
Everyone Has Intuition?
That's right. Everyone has intuition because we’re all made of energy. When you break down anything to its absolute core, it's a cosmic dance of energy and space. This includes us. We transmit energy. We attract energy. We receive energy. We're a blend particles and waves, and our life experience is a reflection of the energy inside and around us. Our thoughts are energy. Our emotions are energy. Our bodies are energy. You get the point, literally everything is energy. Intuition isn’t magic, it’s simply energy, like everything else in the universe. Intuition is energy that we perceive with the very same senses that we use to experience the physical world. In the words of one of my teachers, Jeffery Allen, “Intuition isn’t a sixth sense, it’s your five senses with the gloves off.”
You might not have psychic visions, or hear a voice telling you all the secrets of the universe, but we've all felt that "gut feeling" when something isn't right, when our "Spidey sense" kicks in. That spontaneous "knowing" is our body sensing and interpreting energy. It's our intuition talking to us. Most of us have also experienced an answer to a question or a solution to a problem pop into our head out of nowhere. That's intuition too — our mind sensing and accessing energy that results in a spontaneous creative solution.
Yes, It's Your Imagination
Sometimes intuition feels like you’re just making it up. There’s actually a good reason for that! Intuition is engaging with energy and imagination is how we access and interpret that energy. When I first learned this, my mind was blown. I wondered, if imagination was involved, how could I tell the difference between wishful thinking and intuition? How could I trust my intuition ever again?
Intuition isn't magical thinking. It's not thinking at all. It's knowing. Our thoughts are energy too, but our thoughts are filtered through our unique blend of experience, perceptions, beliefs, and desires. Intuition comes from beyond us. It's unfiltered knowing, a broader universal understanding without our localized filters mucking it up. Intuition is also different from instinct — our instinct is focused on short-term survival, as opposed to long-term thriving. Both are valuable and necessary tools. Instinct keeps us aware of the safe path. Even when we're not in physical danger, our body's instinctive fight-or-flight reaction can still kick in, potentially leading to decisions based on stress response vs. intuition.
Our bodies know the difference between deep knowing, wishing something to be true, and instinctively reacting to fear. We can tell the difference by paying careful attention to what's going on in our mind and body. When we tap into intuition, we feel grounded. There's no adrenaline rush, stress, or anxiety. We’re perceiving from a place of calm neutrality. It feels right in our heart and in our gut. There's a lightness about it. If we’re feeling worked up by strong negative (or positive) emotions, if we’re spaced out (chemically or otherwise), or if we’re super-serious and trying to force it, that's not intuition.
Use Your Gift
We all have the gift of intuition, but it might be a little rusty. Luckily, anyone can learn how to recognize their intuition, cultivate it through practice, and actively tap into it. When we remember the gift of our own intuition, interpreting the language of the universe gets clearer and life gets easier. The hard part is trusting what our intuition tells us and acting on it, but that can be learned too. My advice: start small. Use your intuition to make relatively inconsequential decisions and build up to bigger decisions once you've had more practice.
Here's how…
Pick a Scenario: Identify a simple decision you need to make; something without irreversible consequences (e.g. Do I paint the wall grey or green? That's relatively simple. Do I quit my job and sell my house? Not simple.) Also, don't try this with anything related to money. You'll be tempted (e.g. gambling, lottery numbers, etc.), but neutrality is key to the process, and no one can be neutral about money. Just sayin.
Visualize Options: Close your eyes and visualize several doors in front of you (two or three are good). Behind each door is a different option. Open the door you want to explore first. Imagine yourself walking through the door and down a path. As you walk, imagine seeing the option come to life. Engage your five senses to make it real. Once you've experienced the first option fully, walk back out the way you came, choose another door, and repeat. Observe each option with neutrality, letting go of any judgment or fear that comes up. It helps to have some fun with it. Keep it light!
Get Curious: How does each path feel? Check in with your body. What sensations come up, and where do you feel them? Is there a path you didn't think of before — maybe something in the middle? Imagine a new door that you didn't notice before and explore the path behind that door. What option are you most drawn to? Visualize walking through that door again and notice anything that you didn't see before.
Make a Decision: Choose a door and check in with what you're feeling. Do you feel calm, grounded, and neutral after making your decision? What does your heart tell you? What does your gut tell you?
Take Action: Follow your intuition and see what happens. How did it work out? Keep in mind that mistakes are part of learning. They're not failure. That's why we start small! Keep practicing and see what changes. Notice how your intuition develops and becomes stronger and clearer.
More to Explore!
As you practice observing, developing, and trusting your intuition, you'll notice it kicking in when you're not actively trying to use it. Start to become more aware when this happens, observing the details around the experience. It could be your higher Self trying to get your attention, or your subconscious (if you're not into the woo-woo stuff). If your intuitive sense is kicking in, unprompted, notice what your heart and your gut are saying in the moment. Is there something about the situation that isn't right? Something you need to know? What is your life is trying to tell you?
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