Intuition is an elusive concept to a lot of people. It isn’t tangible, it isn’t concrete, and there is no science that can help us reconcile our truths with it, but you likely still have a curiosity about your intuition, thinking to yourself, “How do I tap into my intuition? How do I trust it? What does it feel like? Is it real?”
Intuition can be defined as your gut instinct, an inner knowing, something you feel or hear within yourself. It is defined in the dictionary as “the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.”
Intuition feels elusive because our minds want to take control and let reason govern our choices and responses. Our minds are built to process our rational beliefs, designed in a way to undermine our knowing of may actually be true, if also unquantifiable by the paradigms through which we are taught and conditioned to “understand” our world.
Intuition is also something that takes time to build. It is developed through a greater understanding and trust of the self, meaning that you have experiences in your life where you learn from your own choices and decisions. You begin to recognize when you didn’t listen to your own instincts, when there was a knowing, a clue, a tip that you ignored or chose to move in opposition to. It is a wisdom that gets developed by age and experience. It is an intelligence that that matures with life.
Clarity comes with experience. We have to get to know and trust in ourselves, in the same way we do with those around us. We have ideas of who we are and what we want that shift and evolve over time. Intuition is the opposite of holding tight to who you think you are and who you think you should be or what you think need. Intuition is that part of us that asks us to let go of the way we THINK things should be and trust that there is something greater at play that we may not understand or want to hear. Wisdom doesn’t have to make sense: it asks us to trust in the journey instead of holding tight to ideas.
I know for myself that if I am heavily emotionally connected to something, or dealing with strong emotions in any form, that I am unable to hear my intuition clearly. My thoughts will sabotage my inner wisdom. I recognize that sometimes I just don’t have the answers because there are other parts of me at play that I can’t fully understand.
Intuition feels different for many people. For some people it can literally be a gut feeling. For others, it is that moment where your whole body gets a tingling of knowing. It can be felt in your heart, it can be a sensation, it can be a voice inside that you don’t know where it came from. It often comes first, it is that first instinct. Because of that, our minds jump in and can disrupt that knowing, because we try to rationalize with our intuition. We try to gain control by listing off all the “logical” reasonings of why not to listen to it.
Allow yourself time to connect to your intuition. This may be a new idea for you, or something you have been working with for a while. In either case, it is something you will need time to connect to, to refine, to learn to listen to. To trust, when you want to push towards more logical answers. Be kind to yourself, as you will make mistakes. You will veer off course. It is part of getting to know yourself better. So be kind with yourself always.
Over time, you will find that your ability to build a steady relationship with your intuition will help you gain a trust in yourself. Be gentle, and remain open to the instincts that come up. It will create more ease within because you understand yourself; even when things don’t make sense, you know that your gut is guiding you in the direction you need to go.
with heart
Noelle
How To Tap Into Your Intuition
