Intuition. What is it exactly?

Hello Lovely,

If you have been following me on social media for a little while you will have probably noticed that there are a few words I use a lot. Higher Self, Inner Knowing, True/Authentic Self and Intuition.

What do they mean?

Intuition is “the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning” or knowing something without logic or proof. More simply, it is a gut feeling that you just can’t ignore. Higher Self, Inner Knowing and True or Authentic self are all different ways of referring to our Intuition. I often will say Higher Self and Intuition fairly interchangeably, but I am talking about the same thing.

How do we tap into them?

You have most likely experienced listening to your intuition, even if you didn’t realise it at the time. A voice or feeling (often in the gut) that says “don’t get into that car” or maybe “drive a different way to work” and then you hear later that there was an accident the normal way that would of held you up. “Call a particular person” perhaps or “go to a particular event” etc. Whatever it is you will have had a feeling in your body that you just had to listen to.

Sometimes it is the opposite, we don’t listen to our inner voice or our body and then something undesirable happens. Leaving us wishing we had just listened to that gut feeling.

Is Intuition the same as being psychic?

Intuition is different to having a psychic awareness or ability. Being Psychic is really receiving information, whether it is visions, voices or feelings, about other people’s lives or situations to relay to them. While your intuition might give you a feeling about a particular person, it won’t give you insight or visions about their lives. Intuition is an inner feeling or guide and is about you.

Intuition doesn’t really care that Sally’s late grandmother wants to say hello to her. It cares about helping you to be your authentic, beautiful self and to make choices that are safe and right for you.

How do I know that I’m not just making stuff up in my head and that it really is my Intuition that I am hearing?

To understand what is Intuition we need to look at Intuition’s companion, The Ego or Inner Critic. Ego also gets referred to as our Inner Mean Girl Or Guy, so if you think of The Ego as the Inner Mean Girl, then our Intuition is our Inner Support Girl. Everything that is Intuition always comes from a place of pure love. It does not judge and it wants you to be your best self.

The Ego on the other hand comes from a place of fear and judgement. The Ego wants things to stay the same as it feels safe where it is. Even if your Intuition is trying to tell you that maybe something isn’t a good idea, it isn’t going to put you down or come from that place of fear while doing so.

Intuition can often be felt in the body. It is where we get the saying “Gut Feeling” because this is often where we feel it. However it is good practice to pay attention to how our whole body is feeling and this can help to differentiate between what is Ego and what is Intuition.

If an idea pops into your head how does that feel, for example? Maybe it feels exciting or you feel curious about it before the Ego steps in with feelings of doubt and so you then ignore or don’t follow that idea. For me I often feel when a situation isn’t right in my stomach, but when I have a fear that is Ego based rather than safety based then I will feel it in my chest or throat instead.

So how can I tap into and listen to my Intuition more?

Having a regular meditation practice can really help us to tune in to our Intuition. It helps to calm the mind, quieten the Ego and gives space for us to pay attention to it and seperate out what is Ego.

Taking a few deep breaths when we start to feel or think about something can help to clear our mind and focus on what our bodies are feeling.

Tuning into our bodies and becoming aware to what they are trying to tell us (don’t worry I’ll talk about this in another post). Often the messageor feeling will keep coming up until we pay attention them.

A big part of listening to our Intuition is trusting. Trusting what we are getting through our thoughts and feelings. Trusting because sometimes we can’t see the bigger picture or the how of things, but our intuition/Higher Self still knows the way.

To help listen to our Intuition we need to:

Get quiet and allow ourself to feel what is happening in our bodies.
Have a daily mediation practice
Know that all guidance comes from a place of love.
Trust that those reoccurring ideas and feelings are something we need to stop and pay attention to,

It takes time and practise to get really in tune with your Intuition, but trust me, once you start you will wonder how you ignored it for so long. Maybe you have started but need a bit more guidance and support?

You can always contact me here to talk more about how you can tap into and follow your Intuition.