“In recent years, the subject of intuition has emerged from obscurity. Intuition is increasingly recognized as a natural mental faculty, a key element in the creative process, a means of discovery, problem solving, and decision-making. Once considered the province of a gifted few, it is now recognized as an innate capacity available to everyone not a rare, accidental talent, but a natural skill anyone can cultivate. A key ingredient in what we call genius, it is also an important tool when applied to everyday life."
—Intuition Magazine Online
This quote explains the importance of intuition, which is an incredibly valuable tool that you might want to add to your toolbox. I have found that developing, using and trusting my intuition has allowed me to be and do more and have more access to real powerful information and direction than I ever thought possible.
When I first started to write and speak about the things I have accomplished in my life, people would ask me: how did you do that? I had to step back and ask myself that same question. My answer was always the same: I don’t know. I just feel my way through things instead of thinking about them. I have something inside me that I trust, a belief that a sense of knowing will come to me when I need it.
As I sought further to understand how I’ve done what I’ve done, I discovered the idea and power of intuition. I hope this article helps you explore and cultivate your own intuition for greater results.
Defining Intuition
The concept of intuition is elusive. There are perhaps as many definitions of intuition as there are people who have given thought to this experience. The Oxford English Dictionary defines intuition as 1. Immediate apprehension by the mind without reasoning. 2 Immediate apprehension by a sense. 3 Immediate insight. Another source defines it as “Instinctive knowing (without the use of rational processes) from within, a clear knowing. Immediate knowing of something without the conscious use of reasoning."
How Intuition Works
We receive messages through our intuition in many ways: you might gain useful information from one of the examples below or from a combination of them all. As you look at these four examples, see if you can recognize the way you receive intuition.
Clairvoyance - (clear seeing or clear vision) is experienced when an individual discerns objects, people, or situations, not with the physical eyes, but with an internal sense sometimes referred to as the "third eye". Such "visions" concern something beyond one's physical view, e.g., in the next room, down the street, or a thousand miles away.
Clairaudience - (clear hearing) is the ability to receive thoughts or information about a person or situation through an auditory sense instead of a visual one. This information is actually inaudible to the normal hearing range. It can be experienced as delicate sounds such as music, bells, or singing. It might also manifest as a knocking, siren, or other attention-getting sound. Most often, it comes as a voice that is literally heard either directly in the brain or through the auditory sense, as if it comes from beside or behind the person.
Clairsentience - (clear sensing) is probably the most frequent way intuition manifests in our lives, through hunches, gut feelings, or a sense of knowing without knowing how one knows. This "sensing" is often accompanied by a physical sensation -- for some people in the solar plexus, for others in the heart area. Some feel a prickling of their skin. The physical sensation can vary with each person.
PERCEPTION OF VIBRATION - Intuition can also manifest as the discernment of energy or vibration, which can take many forms.
( These definitions excerpted from: "Awakening the Real You - Awareness through dreams & intuition" Nancy C. Pohle and Ellen L. Selover
My Experience with Intuition
You have probably had many experiences in your life where intuition was at work, but perhaps you didn’t name it that way. Here are a few examples of intuition from my life. See if they can help you can identify the working of intuition in your own life..
In 1992 I was looking for a location in my hometown to start a gourmet coffee shop.
Daily, I would drive into town past this little Mexican restaurant and somehow have this very strong feeling that that was where it should go. I dismissed this idea for several reasons, one of which was that something was already there. I spent the next 12 months looking at a dozen locations that somehow did not work out. In the meantime the Mexican restaurant had gone out of business. I decided to take another look at the space. It was just too small and needed a ton of work.
So again I went on my way to look for the ideal space and all along something kept telling me that the coffee shop was going to go in that little space. (It made no rational sense.) After long deliberation I decided to hire a consultant to help me find a location that would suit our needs. Their suggestion was to go in the very same building block as the small space. As luck would have it, we could not get that preferred space. After almost 14 months of looking, you guessed it, we ended up going into the small space that made absolutely no sense. To this day even after expanding into a space next door and selling that business, it is still thriving and a landmark of the downtown area!
Have you ever called a friend and they said they were just thinking about you?
Or how about when a mother knows something is wrong with one of their children?
Or how about when you walk into a room and know something is not right. (You can sense something.)
People could be arguing and you can just feel the tension in the space. (This is what I call reading the energy.)
These are all examples of your intuition sending you valuable information, if we would only stop and listen to it.
One more example: Have you ever known that something was just perfect?
When I was looking for land to build our new dream house, we had one important restriction to make it work: we wanted to stay in our hometown so our kids would not have to leave their friends and my wife the community she loved. One small problem: there was no land left in our town.
One day I received a call from a broker friend of mine saying that a family estate was to be sold off and developed. I had never considered this land an option because it was all ledge and un-buildable. Regardless, we went to take a look. There were no streets, no utilities, not even a guarantee that there would ever be. As I stood on this big ledge overlooking the highest point to this potential development, I knew this was where I was going to build our new dream house. I gave the broker a check right there on the spot.
If you don’t believe me, you can ask my wife Pattie. I came home telling her the news that I had just bought our land, and she looked at me in disbelief. When I showed her the land, needless to say she was not as excited as I was to be the proud owner of the biggest rock in Danvers. Nobody could see what I saw. At the time I didn’t even know that my intuition told me without a doubt that this was where we were to build. We had many—and I mean many—problems with that land and the building of that house, but I never had any doubts that it was the perfect spot for us. When you are armed with that much certainty nothing can stop you. We have been living in that house now for 12 years.
Two ways to tap into your Intuition
1) Next time you are stuck or worried about someone or something Take a step back; get quiet and ask yourself what should I do? Just listen Try not to judge what comes up!
Even if nothing comes right away just be patient.
When I get out of my own way, some kind of answer always comes. If I can trust my own intuition, it usually gives me a great idea to follow. I don’t try to make sense of what comes up, even if it is to just make a phone call or go somewhere or take a walk. Some message comes from a place that does not make any sense, but what I have learned is to trust it more and more every day. It always works when I let it!
2) When you have a feeling that something is just perfect or that something or someone is not right, follow that feeling. Start to listen to these messages and practice trusting your inner knowing. The more and more you put into this practice, the more you’ll get out of it. Put some time into this and it will bring you so much more than you know.
Think about how you could practice increasing your intuition today.
Steve Kennedy is a professionally trained and certified co-active coach with a passion for "The Game of Business." With over 25 years' experience in creating, building and managing a dozen successful businesses, Steve's ability to partner with clients and adapt to their culture has been key to his success. Steve understands the challenges people face in the business world. Steve just authored an exciting new book titled, 'Winning the Game of Business: The Entrepreneur's Quest for Ultimate Success'. To find out more about Steve visit: http://www.winningthegameofbusiness.com
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