Strengthening Your Intuition

Recently I read the story of a woman who narrowly missed being the latest victim of a serial rapist/killer. She was able to fight him off and he ran away, but not before he stabbed her repeatedly. Amazingly, she lived to tell about it. What fascinated me about her story was the fact that she started feeling uneasy before she even knew there was a threat to her safety. She was jogging in a public park on a beautiful day, and there were plenty of people out enjoying the nice weather. She had no reason to feel uneasy, yet she could sense that something wasn't right. It turns out her attacker was waiting for her up ahead in a more isolated area. By the time she knew for sure, it was too late. How did she sense something was wrong, before she had even seen this man? Intuition.

What is this sense called intuition? And how come it works some of the time, but not all of the time? I think that sometimes we are meant to go through certain experiences, for the purpose of spiritual growth. These experiences aren't always pleasant, but they're necessary. So of course we don't receive any insight that they are about to happen. Knowing ahead of time wouldn't serve us. On the other hand, sometimes we receive little warning signs and we don't listen, and we end up paying the consequences. How many times have you heard a victim say, "I had a bad feeling about that, but I ignored it. I thought I was just being foolish."

For most of us, our intuition runs on autopilot. We don't even think about it until it pops up a red flag. Did you know you can learn to harness this ability and use it for other situations too? You don't have to wait for a crisis to hit before your intuition kicks into high gear. Believe it or not, everyone has intuitive ability. It was built into us to help us survive, just like an armadillo's armor and a porcupine's quills. The relative safety of our modern world has lulled us into a false sense of security, so our intuitive muscles have begun to shrivel from disuse. The good news is that strengthening your intuition is very simple to do. It just takes practice, like anything else.

What are the ways in which our intuition speaks to us?

The most common way is by "gut feelings." This can range from a queasy, nauseous feeling to a strong wrenching "tied in knots" feeling in the abdomen. Other experiences can include things like chills (when there is no apparent cause for them), a sense of simply knowing something that you couldn't possibly have known, or even hearing voices or seeing visions in your mind's eye - though those last few are less common for most people.

One of the simplest ways to develop your intuition is to become aware. At various times during the day or evening, stop what you're doing and pay attention to your body. Focus on your abdomen. How does it feel? Any tightness or feelings of uneasiness? What about your head, neck and shoulder areas? Any feelings of tightness in your forehead or the back of your head, or tension in your neck and shoulders? General stress can cause feelings like this of course, so it can be hard to discern whether you're sensing something intuitively or not. That's why practice is important. As you keep focusing in on various parts of your body, you will learn what "normal" feels like, what stress feels like, and what a danger signal feels like. There is quite a noticeable difference, once you get used to the feelings.

Most of us walk around in a mental fog. We have so much on our minds on a daily basis, it's no wonder we miss intuitive impressions much of the time. But they can mean the difference between life and death, or security and danger, or smart decisions and foolish ones. How many times have you walked through a dark parking lot, digging in your purse for your keys, not paying attention to your surroundings? How many times have you blindly trusted someone you just met, simply because they are the friend of a friend? How many jobs have you had that you ended up hating, even though you were so sure it seemed like the perfect job for you? Learning to use and trust your intuition can make all the difference in these types of situations.

Does that mean you'll never make an error in judgment again? Of course not. Sometimes it just happens, regardless of any precautions you take. But you will increase your odds of success and safety by a lot if you simply learn to "consult your gut!"