In the quiet moments and when everything is well I hear you loud and clear... sometimes though in the busy moments, when everything is loud and I need you, you're gone....
Intuition, a phenomenon of the mind, describes the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. The word "intuition" comes from Latin verb intueri translated as consider or from late middle English word intuit, "to contemplate". -- Wikipedia
It's interesting to me that the word intuition comes from intuit meaning initially at least to contemplate. It makes sense to me then that when we are quiet and take time to be with ourselves and contemplate or meditate or just be, without doing... that the voice inside of our heart or gut can speak to us with a voice more easily heard.
Every freelancer, biz owner, solopreneur or entrepreneur I have worked with has at one time or another felt an intuitive pull towards or away from a client or a job. All of them at one point has failed to listen and been bitten in the bum by it later.
So how do we turn up the volume on our intuition and how do we know when it's good information, worth trusting and taking a punt on without reason?
These are my five top tips on strengthening intuition:
1. Spend some daily connecting to yourself and your breath. Call it sourcing, meditation, quiet reflection or just being. Call it what you want, but gift yourself half an hour each day just to be with yourself and your thoughts and feelings. Listen or watch them without judgement, allow them to pass through you and allow yourself to recognise the sensations as they arise. Meditation will clear your mind of distractions, allowing your internal voice to be heard with more clarity. Your intuition may speak to you in sensations, words, sounds, or pictures, as you become more attuned you will be more able to discern.
2. Listen. Actively allow yourself to receive your intuitive voice and give it space to be heard. Actively tell yourself that you will value it's voice and that it is a welcome insight.
3. Talk to yourself. Ask yourself questions. Sometimes I find writing the question down and then answering with my other hand allows an internal activation of my intuitive voice.
Which leads me to 4. writing -- or journaling. Intuitive impressions are often subtle and can evaporate quickly. Our trust in them isn't strong to start with and so the fleeting message is lost and gone. Actually writing it down gives you something to come back to and also activates the RAS (reticular activating system) at the base of your brain which sets itself the task of finding evidence to support your thoughts.
5. Trust yourself. How do we trust? We just do it, and then gradually increase the levels bit by bit when all is well. So jump in, make the decision to trust your intuition and allow it to prove to you just how wonderfully trust worthy it really is!
What else do you find works for you? Where do you find your intuition shows up for you? I'd love it if you shared in the comments...