The Power of Intuition: How to Rediscover Your Inner Guide
We were all born with the gift of intuition. Whether you believe it’s a mystical voice from a higher power communicating to you or your subconscious trying to poke through, we’ve all experienced the small voice in our heads trying to tell us something at one point.
Unfortunately, many of us learn to ignore that voice as we get older. We learn to prioritize function and practicality over gut feelings and intuition.
It’s not our fault.
The whole world seems to praise logic and fact over imagination and feeling. We are told to think rationally and stop being so emotional.
How often have you wished you’d listened to your gut on an issue, or said, “Dang it. I had a feeling that was going to happen. Why didn’t I listen?!?”
Well, my friends, I say forget that and the horse it rode in on.
Call it what you want…source, our highest self, intuition…we were all born connected and trusting this voice. If it has grown quiet, it’s our job to reconnect and invite her to speak a little louder.
Our intuition is meant to guide us toward our purpose on this earth. If we can’t hear her, we’re destined to flail about chasing someone else’s dream until we’re too exhausted and disenchanted with life to fight anymore.
You deserve so much more than that.
Each of us has incredible potential and a genuine purpose here in this life. We’re charged with finding that purpose, and our intuition is the key.
Here are five ways you can turn up the volume on your intuition and reconnect with your inner wisdom.
Meditate
As someone who used to roll her eyes at the thought of meditation, I can understand if this sounds cliche. But how the hell are we supposed to hear our small voice if we’re running at full throttle with the volume turned up on the rest of the world?
One characteristic of intuition is that it seems content to sit back and be ignored if that’s what we want. It is only quiet if we ask it to be quiet. Once you start to make time to sit with yourself and create space to hear your intuition, you’ll be surprised at how loud and clear she will become.
I’m not even saying you have to meditate daily. If you’re busy, you’re busy. But even a few minutes daily can make a huge difference in your ability to identify what’s really important in life. Make time, even if it’s just a few minutes to sit in silence, and you’ll be rewarded with a stronger connection to your inner voice.
Pay Attention to Your Dreams
We do a lot of unconscious processing when we sleep. This is one time when the barrier between the conscious and subconscious parts of our brain is permeable. It’s the perfect time to receive messages from our guides or intuition.
When we’re falling asleep and our guard is down, that’s when we’re likely to receive unexpected messages from our highest self.
The key to building your intuition through your dreams is to consider their contents beyond simply saying, “Hmmm, that was a weird dream!”
Try this:
Put a notebook and pen near your bed. A voice recorder can work well, too (if you’re sleeping alone).
After crawling in bed and getting comfortable, state that you’d like to remember your dreams. Keep thinking this to yourself until you fall asleep.
As soon as you wake up from a dream, start writing. Dreams often fade from memory quickly.
Review your dreams later and ask yourself if there’s anything relevant. You don’t have to analyze them to death, but if there’s something that stands out ask yourself if there’s something you can take away from that.
Often the way we show up in dreams, or emotional themes can give us some clarity around issues in our waking life. Paying closer attention to these subtle messages can give your intuition the green light to open up further.
Follow Your Intuition
One of the fastest ways to give your intuition the middle finger and turn down its volume is to ignore it. Believe it or not, your intuition is trying to get your attention all the time. Have you ever felt the sinking feeling in your gut, or felt chills down your spine? Often a subtle physical sensation is our intuition trying to get our attention.
Listening to those cues to build your confidence in your 6th sense. Start with small situations of minor consequence. This could be as simple as taking a different way home than you normally would. You don’t always have to have a reason why you do something. It could be your intuition guiding you away from disaster, or toward something great.
Show your highest self you’re listening and she’ll reward you by sticking around and piping up more often.
Practice Mindfulness
Believe it or not, we’re on autopilot most of the time. We’re programmed to execute the same patterns day in and day out, and not just in our physical actions.
Without realizing it, most of us think the same thoughts on a daily basis. This can be really dangerous if we’re unconsciously repeating self-fulfilling mantras that lower our vibration or hold us back from achieving our highest good in this life.
Practicing mindfulness is a simple way to start bringing your unconscious scripts to the forefront so you can analyze whether or not you agree with them. Sometimes we’re running such an old script it doesn’t even apply anymore, but we’re just running it in the background anyway.
Much like meditation, quieting the noise in your head creates space for you to focus on the thoughts that are living there. The difference is you can practice mindfulness anywhere you are at any time of day without needing to sit still or chant.
I find driving and waiting in line at the grocery store are two places I catch myself thinking things I’m not expecting. Some of those things are intuition creeping in to give us a hand or warn us about something. We can hear more of her advice if we are actively listening to it.
Nurture Your Creativity
For most of my young adult life, I wondered where my creativity had run off to. I remembered being daring and imaginative as a child, and couldn’t seem to grasp any of that magic as a grown-up.
Turns out it was (almost) squished out of me by life and our rule-loving society. The educational establishment doesn’t help when there are mostly right and wrong answers, and we’re supposed to grow up and become proper adults.
But guess what?
Your creativity (and mine) is alive and well, and all you have to do to access it is to get back in touch with who you really are.
That probably sounds harder than it really is.
The easiest way I’ve found to access and nurture my creative mind is through a practice of tapping into my subconscious with a non-dominant journaling technique. Non-dominant handwriting has been used for years in psychology and art therapy as a way to rediscover and nurture creativity.
Writing with your non-dominant hand gives you easy access to the right hemisphere of your brain, where your spirituality, intuition, and creativity live.
Practicing non-dominant hand art or writing on its own can be a great way to build your relationship with your creativity and intuition.
Getting back in touch with your intuition is an easy way to connect with your highest self and nurture your spiritual growth. It’s your birthright and the source of your inner knowing. Start small and learn to trust yourself and your intuition and you’ll unleash your imagination, creativity, and the magic that is unique to only you.
The article originally appeared on GlowellMag.com
