Intuition: Use Your Inner Guidance to Improve Your Life

I’m contemplating one of my usual arrays of decisions -- whether to sign up for a workshop, how to spend the holidays, and how to raise our two daughters. I decide  to first contact my foolproof source of guidance.  I ask, I wait, and soon I receive answers that make my life easier, more pleasant, and somehow more fulfilling than I had ever thought possible.  Worry seems useless and unnecessary.  How would you like to have a source of information that knew all the right answers for you, and in fact would tell you when you’re not even asking the right questions?  Each one of us has such a source available to us, and it does not entail calling our therapist, our mother, or the Psychic Hotline.  We each have access to our own intuition, or inner knowing, which in its purest form is never wrong and would never harm us.  What we each need to do is to learn how to hear this voice and to utilize it in our daily lives. 

 

 What is Intuition?

The definition of intuition varies depending on the source, but its essence remains the same whether the context of the definition is secular or more spiritually-based. Sonia Choquette, author of  The Psychic Pathway, states: “Intuition is the loving voice of God operating in your heart.  As a person evolves and matures spiritually, he or she can become self-regulating rather than regulated from authorities outside... If you reflect back on the teachings of all the greatest spiritual masters, you will recall, repeated over and over again, “The kingdom of Heaven is within.”

 

Trusting In Your Intuition 

Trusting that the inner voice will be there for you seems to be the first step in embracing this source of power.  Paradoxically, this embrace seems to be best conducted through a surrender of the ego or will.  Twelve-Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous teach that the first three steps to recovery include admitting powerlessness, believing in a power greater than ourselves, and turning our lives over to that higher power as we understood it.  This type of surrender is eloquently described by Shakti Gawain, in her book, Living in the Light.  “[visualization] was an important step for me as it took me out of the essentially powerless attitude that I had had previously...Eventually I lost interest in trying to control my life, to make things happen in a way that I thought I wanted them to be.  I began to practice surrendering to the universe and finding out what “it” wanted me to do.  I discovered that in the long run it really wasn’t that different.  The universe always seems to want me to have everything I want, and it seems to know how to guide me in creating it better than I would know how to do myself.  The emphasis is different though.  Instead of figuring out what I want, setting goals, and trying to control what happens to me, I began to practice tuning in receptively to my intuition and acting on what it told me without always understanding why I was doing what I was doing.  It was a feeling of letting go of control, surrendering, and allowing the higher power to be in charge.”

Choquette makes a similar assertion in Psychic Pathway: “Acting on your intuition is an act of surrender on the part of your ego-- not an unreasonable or foolish resignation, but a conscious and wise leap into the counsel of an infinitely higher form of reason than that of your limited personal awareness.”

 

Inner Focus vs. Outer Focus

In Western culture, learned behaviors and values often shift an individual’s attention to an external focus and outward achievements.  Appearance and  social and economic success are emphasized as a goal.  Even religion tends to be dogmatic, emphasizing the teachings of others and the rote memorization of prayers and creeds.  As Shakti Gawain writes, “The old world was based on an external focus - having lost our fundamental spiritual connection, we have believed that the material world was the only reality.  Thus, feeling essentially lost, empty, and alone, we have continually attempted to find happiness and fulfillment through external “things” -- money, material possessions, relationships, work, fame, good deeds, food, or drugs.”   In fact, from the time we are born, we are taught to value outside influences much more than our own feelings.  For years, babies have been put on schedules which train them to conform to a certain pattern of eating and sleeping at given times for the convenience of their caretakers, rather than having their own  inherent differences respected.    When children display any emotion other than happiness, they are often told, “you love your brother,” or “don’t you ever say you’re mad at Mommy” or “stop crying and cheer up.”  As adults we grow up into insecure individuals who mistrust our instincts, hide our true selves and look to others for acceptance and approval.  Shakti Gawain continues, “A strong body personality structure is not created by eating certain foods, doing certain exercises, or following anybody’s rules or good ideas. It is created by trusting your intuition and learning to follow its direction.  When your inner voice tells you what to eat, how to exercise, or anything else, you can trust that this advice will strengthen your ability to channel [your intuition], no matter how different it might seem from any previous ideas you had about what’s good for you.”

Sonia Choquette reinforces the need to rely on oneself. “Another way to stop confusion is to stop asking others for their opinion or input on your life unless it is absolutely necessary to have it  (italics added). All this soliciting often happens in place of checking in with your own Higher Self. ... “By making the decision to expect your Higher Self to guide you, you are placing both your attention and your intention directly onto your conscious station to your Higher Self.  This shifts your orientation away from the energy outside of yourself coming from other people or from appearances as the basis for you decisions and places it primarily on the guidance coming from your Higher Self and your guides.” 

 

Where does Intuition Come From?

Possible explanations for intuition include a conscience or internal compass, our subconscious mind, the voice of God or guides.  Carolyn Miller, author of Creating Miracles: Understanding the Experience of Divine Intervention quotes  Jeffrey Mishlove, Director of the Global Intuition Network as saying  that there have always been important thinkers who believed that intuition reflects a human capacity for extrasensory attunement to some abstract field of information at large in the universe.”  She adds, “Our subconscious mind holds a vast library of information that it stores.  However, this information can be accessed through need, visualization or relaxation, the subconscious will release back to the conscious mind necessary and helpful information.”

 

Intuition - Our Creative Channel

Another use of our intuitive energies is as a creative channel.  Millers sites the experience of  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and nineteenth century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who  both indicated that  their best works were taken down as in dictation.  Gawain adds, “By tuning into the intuition and allowing it to become the guiding force in our lives we allow the conductor to take his rightful place as the leader of the orchestra.  Rather than losing our individual freedom, we will receive the support we need to effectively express our individuality.  Moreover, we will enjoy the experience of being part of a larger creative channel.”  

 

Types of Intuition

Intuition manifests itself in several different ways.  Frances E. Vaughn, in her book Awakening Intuition (Anchor Books, 1979) describes four distinct types of intuition: 

1. Physical level - a strong body response in a situation where there is no reason to think that anything unusual is going on which gives messages about yourself and about the outside world.  For example, you may get headaches or stomachaches from a staff meeting-- this shows that you are stressed by it.    Or, perhaps a weird feeling in the pit of your stomach may be signaling danger-- a person or situation that on a conscious level appears safe.  This is often described as a “gut feeling”.

2. Emotional level--this includes feelings of being drawn toward someone or something,  without apparent justification, or a vague sense that one is supposed to do something.  Vaughn writes “Expanding awareness of the emotional level of intuition is often associated with an increase in synchronicity and psychic experiences,”  e.g., having a feeling someone will call you and they do.

3. Mental level- “inner vision” which follows the exhaustive use of logic and reason, and are associated with the kind of discovery and invention involved in technological progress.

4. Spiritual intuition - described as a state of pure awareness or consciousness that does not depend on sensing, feeling, or thinking.  Paradoxically, the cues on  which intuition depends on other levels are regarded as interference on this level.  There is a sense of a oneness between oneself and the universe, as Abraham Maslow wrote in 1966,  “the person reaches the ultimates of strength, self-esteem, or individuality, so also does he simultaneously. merge with the other, lose self-consciousness and more or less transcend the self and selfishness.”

 

Making the Shift in Attitude

In order to prepare oneself to receive intuition, there are several preliminary steps.  First, Choquette recommends simplifying one’s life and cleaning up loose ends in order to focus on the present and to remove the most distractions. This is, in essence, making space in one’s life for something new.   Next, she suggests making the four following decisions to one’s own subconscious:

1. You are open to psychic guidance (I am open to my intuition).  She states, “It is the shift that will allow your life to be assisted by psychic ability and by the divine assistance of angels, guides, teachers, and God.

2. You will expect psychic guidance.

3. You will trust psychic guidance.

4. You will act on psychic guidance.

 She summarizes as follows: “You are telling your subconscious mind and higher self that your trust and value its counsel.  But above all, you release yourself from living your life through the limited power of your ego and place the power of your life into the hands of your soul and into the hands of God.”

 

How to Develop Intuition

After creating the mindshift described about, there are in fact concrete steps one can take to improve one’s perception of intuitive messages.  These include meditation and imagery, journaling of intuitive feelings and dreams, and spontaneous writing.  These will be described in further detail as follows.

 

Meditation- its role and practice

According to Sonia Choquette, meditation “breaks mental patterns of vibrations, opens up awareness, and allows the soul to speak to you.  It is the process of emptying the mind, and then focusing inward.  Shakti Gawain states, “It’s so easy to lose our focus, to get lost in other people, external goals, and desires.  And the problem is, we do exactly that: we lose our connection with the universe inside ourselves. As long as we focus on the outside there will be always be an empty, hungry, lost place inside that needs to be filled.” Choquette comments on the resistance to meditation as follows: “Self-care is loving.  It will help you heal, open up, and become loving to others instead of being needy and manipulative. Self-care is wise, and the self-care of fifteen minutes of meditation will be what ensures your breakthrough in psychic awareness.”  Carolyn Miller says that meditation helps us to hear the voice of our higher power which is like a loving parent who will give advice but otherwise not interfere, due to the free will which is granted to us.  The higher power, if allowed, could help us to change our minds when we unwittingly create problems through our attitudes and beliefs.  She adds that by praying, and then listening for the answers through meditating, we can receive miracles.

 

Dream Analysis and Imagery

Frances Vaughn states that “Imagery is the universal language of the unconscious.”  Thus, it is an important part of intuition development.  Dream analysis is very important, especially since figures in the dream don’t necessarily represent other people-- they can represent parts of the self.  “Dreams tell what one needs to know, not necessarily what one wants to know,” adds Vaughn.  It is important for one to keep a log of one’s dreams over a period of time in order to receive messages from the unconscious.  These dreams must then be reflected upon in order to determine the imagery presented in the dream as it relates to one’s own situation.  Another outlet for our subconscious and its imagery is through spontaneous writing, or “free writing.”  This is when we just start writing whatever comes to mind for a specified period of time without allowing ourselves to stop and analyze or edit our output.  Freewriting has also been used a method to release one’s creativity, which as noted above, is also considered a manifestation of intuition.

 

Psychic Journal

In addition to the suggestions above, it is very helpful to keep a record of one’s intuitive feelings, the situation and environment surrounding the feeling, the type of feeling created by the intuition, and the outcome of the intuition in terms of its accuracy.  This will increase one’s awareness of psychic messages, and help to create a confidence in them.  By coupling this awareness with the quieting of the inner chatter created through meditation, one will develop a clearer understanding of the difference between true psychic messages and inner dialogues which are coming from the ego.  The ego will resist being quieted and send out fearful messages which one must learn to let go in order to receive the higher guidance.  Sonia Choquette adds a final suggestion to the profile of intuition-enhancing behaviors as follows:  “Intellectual blocks are mostly bad habits, inherited perceptions, and insecure disqualification.  The are usually cured through a sense of humor, of wonder, and of awareness.  So if this is you block--laugh, lighten up, and pay attention.  It all counts!”

 

Spiritual Maturity

As you continue to nurture your intuition, you will develop a newfound spiritual maturity which will manifest itself in behaviors which reflect it.  For example, Carolyn Miller states, “As you begin to awaken spiritually and look into the world more responsibly, you will wish to act rather than merely react to the world.  You will develop a spiritual maturity that will allow you to have more confidence in your judgment and your intuition.” Robin Norwood’s in her book Why Me, Why This, Why Now?  describes an evolution of the spirit which spirals through the stages of  Reacting to Life to Acting in Life to Serving Life.  We receive messages from our higher power which then guide to do the highest good not only for ourselves, but for everyone around us.

 

Struggles with Intuition

As you begin to use your intuition, expect to find some resistance from those around you who may have been holding your power for you.  Good resources on power struggles include the Celestine Prophecy and its related experiential guide and The Dance of Anger by Harriet Goldhor Lerner on moves and countermoves.  I will close with an affirmation and quote from Shakti Gawain’s book Living in the Light, which provides encouragement as we give ourselves permission to travel down this new path: “I am learning to follow the spirit within me wherever it wants to take me.  Every moment I check in, feeling the energy inside me and letting it direct me.  As you practice and learn to trust your intuition this will change [feeling unsure].  Increasingly, you will feel the flow until it’s there all the time.  Then you will find yourself right where you want to be at every moment.  You’ll be where the energy is the greatest for you, doing what you want to do and watching miracles being accomplished.  You will channel  energy that transforms others.”