Three Types on Intuition (And How to Listen)
When you learn to act on your inner guidance, you follow the natural flow of energy. This flow of energy is always available; it is the current that creates the world. When you become attuned to your intuition, you more easily create what wants to happen. Quite simply, your intuition is our link to your higher self, and the mind of source. Our higher self makes us feel joyful when we are following our higher path, and heavy and resistant when we do not. The best way to begin follow your intuition is to begin paying more attention to your feeling state when you have a decision to make or a problem to solve. It means paying attention to the nudges, or the feeling you get when you know to do something and do not know exactly why. As a culture, we have been taught to rely too heavily on our mind—and have been taught to suppress the vast information that lies within our intuition. Our practice then is not to disregard the mind, but rather have the mind become a servant of the heart and our intuition.
Intuition becomes easier to detect and use through regular practice.
Intuition comes from the higher self in the form of nudges, feelings, insights, synchronicity, and inner knowing.
Inner guidance is effortless, and is the easiest way to move through life, thus achieving all the things you have been asking for. When you are first learning to operate in this manner, at first it can be tricky to tell between guidance, fear thoughts, and wishful thinking. So, in an effort to simplify the inner guidance that comes to us, I have found it easiest to divide it into three ways of knowing.
NEGATIVE WARNING
1) The first type of intuition is a negative sense or a warning about an action you are thinking about taking. The kind of inner guidance that gives you warning signals usually comes through the emotion as anxiety or a feeling in the pit of your stomach. You might have decided to go in a certain direction, but you feel tense and anxious when you think of your decision. These bodily signals are important to pay attention, and can keep us away from unwanted trouble. To develop this inner knowing, it is important to pay attention to how you normally feel, and then pay attention to unusual anxiety or nervousness. When felt, it is usually best to hold off on taking a certain course of action. Remember, you do not have to know why it is the wrong decision. In the past, I would feel these sensations in my gut and choose to take action anyway. I did not yet trust, and did not fully understand how to decode the messages.
A few years ago, I found a job at a very reputable publishing company. The job had everything I thought I wanted. From the outside, it seemed to promise a new life, success, friends, and many social engagements. I did not have a job at the time, and this opportunity felt like a dream come true. However, during the interview process, I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something about the woman who was interviewing me did not feel right. She seemed to have success, money, and intelligence. Yet, the experience left me with an anxious feeling in my stomach. I went home and told my mother “I just didn’t know.” I did know. I knew that for whatever reason I was unable to articulate, my higher intelligence, my gut knowing, my inner being was giving me a clear message to say no. When I was offered the job a few days later, something did just not feel right. Despite these intuitive warnings, I took the job because my logical mind told me to not lose out on the opportunity. Needless to say, this job was a nightmare from the onset. It was a disaster. It did not fulfill any desire I thought I had, and created a ton of stress in my life. I ended up leaving after six weeks.
Now, even if I do not have a logical reason as to WHY something doesn’t feel right, I trust this feeling in the pit of my stomach.
A method to help tune to this type of guidance is to examine when something happens that you do not like. When I look back the experiences that did not turn out well, I can trace the feeling of anxiety/gut sensation I had prior to taking action. Begin to look back at your experiences with neutrality and find out how you felt before taking action.
FUTURE PATH GUIDANCE
2) Inner guidance about a future path often comes to you in quiet, reflective moments.
This type of intuition can be a thought seemingly out of nowhere—a picture, a flash of insight, a dream, or a daydream.
These higher visions seem to grow on themselves when we become quiet and tune into them. I have found the best method for accessing these steps is through a consistent meditation practice. A meditation practice allows the mind to quiet enough to receive the higher wisdom available to us in the moment. Another helpful practice is to ask the question, “What wants to happen?” Then, trust the impressions that come to you. The action your inner guidance will give you will feel like the next step. It will not feel rushed, and it will not feel chaotic. It will be a steady stream of information with which you can create. My inner guidance often directs me through flashes of pictures. Most often, I receive flashes of insight during meditation, but it can come through any creative activity, and in the waking state. Through practice, you can begin to access your inner guidance in any moment in the waking state. When you get an idea, the logical mind typically wants to overanalyze it. Your mind might say something like, “Will this lead me to my next job?” or “Will this help support me?” Even if the guidance doesn’t feel like a direct answer to the problem you are working to solve, your inner guidance perceives the easiest way to lead you.
RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME
3. There is intution that leads you to the right place at the right time. This comes by knowing your normal thoughts and then paying attention to those that are slightly different. For example, each day you take your normal route to get to work. On one particular day, you have a feeling to use the back roads. Even though you had not heard the traffic report for the day, your intuition gives you the nudge and you take a different route. Later you find out that there was a huge accident on the freeway, and you were able to avoid sitting in a traffic jam. Pay attention and begin to act on these nudges. After a while, your line of communication will become more clear. With practice, you will be able to discern when you are being guided.
Most importantly, when you feel like you are forcing something to happen, or if you feel like you are forcing yourself to do something, you are not following your intuition. By this, I do not mean the small tasks we must do every day to keep our house running, like doing the dishes, etc. It is important to realize that we can find peace in mundane activities. By forcing, I’m talking about the bigger more concrete things. For example, when I left my last job, for a while I kept thinking I needed to go back to the same profession. But, it felt heavy. It felt like an obligation. It felt like the thing I had to do. When I began to pay attention to the feeling of lightness and joy, I was able to access my next logical steps—creating a business, writing, teaching yoga. These steps gave me the sense of peace, of knowing that I was creating from an integrated, higher wisdom.
