How to Use Your Intuition

Intuition:

What is intuition? Many have had inner sensations, gut feelings, a deep knowledge that comes from an indescribable source. Intuition is something which is very real and can be used in the same way that a person uses their knowledge of the roads of a city to find the right way to go. The issue people have in using intuition is that they often do not know what intuition is and how to use it. Intuition is a sense. It is a weak sense in most people and tends to be overridden by other feelings, senses, and thoughts which is what gives intuition it’s mysterious quality.

The difficulty in using intuition lies in understanding which feelings have which causes. Everyone has intuitions, but a person must be able to sense or listen to learn for themself what an intuititive feeling means and how it will affect you. It is certain that you have already had intuitions, however small, and I will aim to give some helpful hints into how to tap into these feelings and use them in your every day life. Please take nothing that I say as totally true or totally false. When speaking on a subject that is this abstract it is difficult even to know how to describe what is being talked about. Consider what is written here and see if it makes sense for you in your life experience.

Intuitions occur as a sense of knowing something without certainty as to why you know it. Obviously this can be very misleading, but with practice can become just as reliable as hearing your phone ring and knowing that someone is calling you. Bertrand Russell the famous philosopher once wrote that the only way people know the difference between imagination and memory is because of a feeling that a memory actually occurred. I argue that Intuition is very similar to memory in this way except that you know it is related to the future or the present, not the past. Intuition is an image in your mind or sensation that seems to feel true. If you truly are sensing an intuition than it doesn’t just feel true, it is true. What I will demonstrate here is that intuitive sensations can provide a very high level of certainty with some focus and training.

All day, every day, we are bombarded in our society by various external statics. In the modern world sensory overload is common due to the internet, television, and modern technologies. A modern city is filled with bright lights, loud machines, virtually everything in a city is there exclusively for it’s utilitarian purpose. Consideration for how all of these buildings and machines affect a person in their every day life is hardly at all taken into account. The result we have is that people are highly desensitized to their environments, especially in large cities. People have developed a natural tendency to block things out to avoid the barrage of everything that strikes into their field of attention.

Sadly this blocking out of information does not usually stop at the level of external commotions. If a person is conditioned to ignore their sensations they will do so even if those sensations are internal ones. This is where most people miss out on the possibility of tapping into their intuition. If you cannot accurately identify a sensation for what it is than you cannot possibly determine if it has any relevance to you. How can you know the stoplight is green if you cannot see the stoplight at all? To not only aid your intuition, but to improve your entire life, begin by quieting your home and finding ways to be internally still during the day. The goal of this is to quiet the mind and put your attention into a receptive mode where your senses are heightened. Taking time to just be in nature, to meditate, or to simply focus your attention on something like music or reading is a great way to sensitize yourself. This tends to give people a more calm demeanor after doing it for a long time. When they return to a hectic environment it does not affect them as much. Reducing your internal noise and slowing down your thoughts will dramatically enhance your ability to acknowledge when you have an intuition.

The way you will know you are feeling an intuition is not something that anyone can tell you. It is something you feel, no one else can sense it. This is what makes it a difficult thing to teach or to learn, with the benefit being that if you learn it you are the master of yourself. Therefore the only way to know if you are having an intuitive feeling is through practice. When you have a feeling and you believe it is related to something you should do but don’t know why, remember the feeling and the situation you were in. Remember the feeling the way you remember a picture. Not by describing it with labels but instead by simply putting your attention on the feeling and what that felt like. Simply remember this feeling and deal with your situation as you must. When this same feeling arises again take notice of it, take note of the situation you are in this time and see if there are any similarities between this situation and the previous one.

If you continue to practice this observation of feelings you will develop a sense for what the intuition is telling you and when it is accurate. This is an increasing of your sensitization as well as your knowledge of your inner experience. Over time you will start to notice new intuitive senses that you had never experienced before. Be careful to observe them and manage them well. There will be plenty of times you are certain that your intuition is true but things do not work out the way you had thought. Do not be disturbed by this. This could either mean you misjudged your intuition or that your thoughts were inaccurate. It makes no difference if you err, simply remember the error and keep it in mind the next time you face a similar situation. This information may help you to make a better decision the next time.

To begin this process try meditating or focusing very deeply on an uncertain situation you have in your life and see what thoughts or feelings arise. See if you sense what to do. Try this cautiously with very small situations at first and gradually build upon what you learn. Intuition when used for very small things can cause all kinds of synchronicities that can meaningfully change your life. This means a letting go of some smaller decisions on what you think is best and simply going with what you feel you should do. After a while of trying this you will be able to find a balance between thought and intuition.  The end goal is not to make decisions entirely on intuition, but to use it in balance with your life. Consider it as simply an extra tool to help you in finding the life experience that is right for you.

It may help to write a journal about your intuitions or what seem to be intuitions. Why you believe the feelings are intuitions and what they mean. Begin experimenting and see what it leads to. For some, these feelings are so strong and so exact at times that the message behind the feeling is consciously clear. In my own experience working in the U.S. I left for a weekend educational seminar and learned an enormous amount about nutrition and human physiology while I was there that changed my perspective of the company which I worked for. What I had learned showed me that I was working for a company which cared more about profits than helping people. When I returned to my place of work as soon as I stepped in the front door like I did everyday I had an immediate and extremely strong gut feeling which I knew was telling me to leave. I knew right away that I would not be able to stay there and go back to work as normal it was simply obvious.

Similar cases such as this are common among mothers who know without any external source that their child is in danger. Based on the work of Rupert Sheldrake, it appears that these strong intuitions happen frequently between any two people who have a strong relationship. And guess what, even with your pets:

The example I gave was of an intuition that was obvious and powerful. You may have these as well. Listen to them carefully, become comfortable with them and practice them in use.

Learning this valuable skill can lead to great circumstances. You may meet a person who brings a new experience into your life. You may leave a person or job that is providing you with an experience you don’t want. Or if you are like me, you may end up in South America. Using intuition to aid your decisions literally has infinite possibilities. Have fun with it and see if you can improve your life experience with it. To learn to use your intuition is simple, to follow it and watch your life unfold is an adventure.

Good luck!