Tips for Awakening Intuition

Boundless wisdom is such a rich aspect of who we are. This infinite stream of knowing is available at all times to supply us with unlimited guidance and insights. Here are some tips to assist you in accessing your wisdom.  

Become clear about the value of intuition in your life, and have the intention to awaken your knowing. It’s helpful in this regard to make a list of ways that your life will be enhanced if you deepen your connection to intuition. For example, “My decision-making and problem-solving abilities will improve. I’ll feel confident because I’ll rely on my own authority more often.”

Explore your past and current relationship to intuition. Reflect on questions, such as: What does the word intuition mean to me? What messages did I receive from family, school, religion, or other sources? When have I followed my inner knowing? What were the results? What were some instances in which I went against my intuition? What were the results? What are the ways I receive intuitive messages, hunches, or insights? Is this knowing in my body, do I get “gut feelings,” see images, get sparks of recognition, or do I just know things? What keeps me from trusting my intuition?

Be willing to make mistakes. Trial and error is part of this learning. As with the development of any skill, there will be successes and failures until you are stabilized in your knowing. Even then, you may find that when you’re tired or aren’t feeling well, or a particular question or issue is highly charged for you, your attunement to your wisdom may not be as clear as at other times.

Practice embodied presence. When you are in the Now – all here and open to the truth of the moment – you have access to a larger field of knowing than your everyday awareness. No longer solely perceiving through a mental lens, your senses come alive, you become aware of sensations in your body, and you’re receptive to subtle energies and impressions. As you move through the day, notice when you leave the present and gently choose to return to the Now again and again.

Tune in to your body, feelings, and awareness in all kinds of situations, beginning to discern what you’re “picking up” about people and places. Do you experience an openness in your chest or warmth in your limbs when you’re in the presence of someone you like, perhaps someone you believe to be honest and kind? Begin to notice how different people affect you. What do you sense when you’re in a room where there is hostility or where there is ease and laughter? Do you get any messages when you’re driving, for example, what to avoid or where a parking place might be? Listen to your body when you go into a movie theater, asking yourself whether or not you’ll like the film; then, afterwards, see if you were right or not. You can do the same thing before eating or going to visit friends or family. Whenever you get a hunch or insight, write it down. Make notes about accurate “hits,” as well as hunches you ignored or found were mistaken.

Pause many times throughout the day. Here and there, slow down, perhaps briefly stop what you are doing, and turn your attention to the spaces between words, thoughts, and activities. Rest there for a moment and open yourself to the knowing that resides just below conscious awareness. At times, pose questions to your wisdom, then relax and listen or look as wisdom responds to your question.

Enter the flow state, in which you gain access to universal rhythms and energies, through creative expression. Pick up a paintbrush, do some free writing, or play the guitar, and notice how you shift out of the reasoning mind and into nonlinear states of being.

When you receive intuitive guidance, evaluate the information with your powers of reason and discernment, as you would the advice received from any source. Consider the information and make sure you are clear about the messages you’re getting in the context of your whole range of options. Ask yourself, “Is this advice truly wise? Is it really in my best interests? Does it make sense to me? Is it reasonable?”

I hope that you enjoy this process of coming into greater alignment with the infinite wisdom that is at your core. You will be opening doors that will enrich your life and the lives of those around you in so many wonderful ways.