How To Tap Into Your Intuition – And Why

“Intuition enlightens and so links up with pure thought. They together become an intelligence which is not simply of the brain, which does not calculate, but feels and thinks.” (Piet Mondrian)

Introduction

As society becomes more “evolved”, there is a greater emphasis placed on habits, logic, and mental toughness, and processes. Modern society can also feel a little bit empty and meaningless.

The problem is, we often ignore our intuition in order to fit in. We choose comfort over pursuing our purpose, and we choose a life that we think will impress others instead of living a life we find fulfilling.

Our intuition is a form of wisdom that is specific to us. Your intuition is different, for example, from your neighbour’s. Your intuition can guide you to where you should be.

Whatever you call it, whether that’s a gut feeling, a connection to God if you’re religious, or a wisdom that you’ve developed throughout your lifetime, most people recognize what intuition feels like.

You have intuition, because we all do to a greater or lesser degree – but have you been using it? Have you been training it?

In this guide, you’ll discover more about intuition, how to develop it further, and how to use it effectively.

These are the topics I’ll cover as a way to learn more about intuition and how it can benefit your life:

1. What is Intuition? There are many definitions of intuition, but what is yours? I’ll present the most common ideas and let you choose for yourself.
2. The Value of Intuition. What can intuition do for you? Does it have any real value, or is it just another distraction to avoid?
3. Obstacles to Intuition. There are a multitude of things that can make accessing your intuition more challenging. This section will provide the most common obstacles as well as effective solutions.
4. 11 Intuition-Boosting Exercises. These exercises are designed to help you develop your intuition. I hope you’ll be both challenged and amused as you carry out these exercises. Train your intuition and see what happens.
5. Using Your Intuition to Make Effective Decisions. When the quality of your decisions improves, the quality of your life improves, too. Learn how to use your intuition to make beneficial choices.
6. Using Your Intuition to Find Your Purpose in Life. You’ve been misled by society and your consequent urge to follow its norms. If you don’t enjoy your life, this is the section for you – you can finally find your purpose in life.
7. 9 Tips to Use Daily to Enhance Your Intuition. This final section will provide some ways to bring using your intuition into your daily routines.

“As hackneyed and clichéd as it sounds, follow your heart. We are all given intuition and instincts, and sometimes it is hard to follow those instincts with the fears and pressures that surround us – but you have to do it.” (Michael Feinstein)

What Is Intuition?

Intuition means different things to different people. For example, it depends on where you are in the world and whom you ask – and the definition has probably changed over time too.

Wikipedia defines intuition as “the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning.”

Consistent with that definition, Plato considered intuition to be derived from pre-existing knowledge that all people potentially have access to. This is along the idea of a shared consciousness – what one person knows is available to everybody, even across time.

Freud, on the other hand, had little to say about intuition, but made it clear he didn’t believe it was a viable means of acquiring knowledge or information.

In modern times, there are also many differing opinions on intuition that range from the supernatural to the idea that intuition doesn’t really exist. (Since there is no concrete evidence of anything supernatural existing, you could argue these are the same.)

Others insist that intuition is the brain rapidly evaluating your current situation, your goals, knowledge, past experiences, and values to provide a recommendation. This recommendation is provided in the form of a physical sensation that varies from person to person.

Perhaps this is the difference between our older, reptilian brain, and the more recent, mammalian brain. The former evolved out of a need to survive, while the latter is newer and is where our thinking abilities reside.

How you choose to view your intuition is entirely up to you. But there’s no doubt that most people do experience gut feelings, hunches, an instinct, a sixth sense, or an inkling. It’s just that some seem to be more in tune with these than others.

The real questions are, should you follow or reject your intuition, and how do you develop and use your intuition if you decide that it is valuable?

“We have no reason to expect the quality of intuition to improve with the importance of the problem. Perhaps the contrary: high-stake problems are likely to involve powerful emotions and strong impulses to action.” (Daniel Kahneman)

The Value Of Intuition

Intuition has great value, but only when used properly and regularly. Your intuition is always available to you and can greatly enhance the quality of your life. And once you understand its power, you’ll find yourself using it daily to make positive changes in all aspects of your life.

See how your intuition can be of great benefit to you:

1. Intuition can enable you to make wiser decisions. There have been several studies demonstrating that people who include their intuition in the decision-making process make faster and higher- quality decisions compared to those people who rely on logic alone.

   Imagine making better decisions in less time! The quality of your life is largely the result of the quality of your decisions. The world is very cause-and-effect in nature. Your decisions are the cause, and your life is the effect.

2. Your intuition can help you to open up to new ideas. When we rely on logic alone, we reject many ideas that should be at least considered. After a certain age, we tend to rely too much on what we know and reject that which is unfamiliar. Intuition allows the unknown to become a possibility.
3. Your intuitive voice can help you avoid disaster. Think about all the times that your intuition saved you from doing something stupid. Then consider all the times you ignored your intuition and misery was the result.

   Our brains are very protective, and your subconscious will do all it can to help you avoid making a foolish choice.

4. Your creativity will increase when you learn to use your intuition. Creativity and intuition are closely related. Think about the most creative people you know. They are much more likely to follow their gut than to rely on logic and rationale.
5. Your intuition will help you to find your purpose. Your intuition is trying to tell you what you should do with your life. It knows what you like and don’t like. It understands the great potential you possess.

   Your true purpose in life isn’t a secret to your intuition, which means if you get in touch with your intuition, you’ll discover your purpose.

6. Your relationships are enhanced when you grow your intuition. Your intuition doesn’t just put you in touch with yourself, but it also enhances your ability to read and respond to others in your life.

   You become much better at understanding others and noticing their emotional states. Your intuition will also help you to make more effective choices regarding how to react and relate to the people in your life.

7. Relying on your intuition can boost your happiness. Better choices lead to a better life. Your intuition allows you to avoid many of the avoidable challenges in life. Plus, finding and living your purpose can certainly add a lot to your happiness.

Your intuition is free and always available to you. It has tremendous power when used appropriately. Better decisions, greater levels of happiness, and increased creativity are just a few of the benefits you can expect to receive if you listen to your intuition on a regular basis.

“There is a universal, intelligent, life force that exists within everyone and everything. It resides within each one of us as a deep wisdom, an inner knowing. We can access this wonderful source of knowledge and wisdom through our intuition, an inner sense that tells us what feels right and true for us at any given moment.” (Shakti Gawain)

Obstacles To Intuition

Your intuition is often quiet and subtle. Distractions and stress are just two of the obstacles you’ll face when learning how to tap into your intuition more fully. Eliminating obstacles is an important part of becoming maximally effective at anything.

These are some of the obstacles you need to remove if you want to get the most from your intuition:

1. Diet. Your mind and body need to be operating well if you want to be able to sense your intuition clearly, in the same way you need to put the correct type of fuel in your car.

   Anything that negatively alters how you feel can throw off your intuition. A healthy diet is always the best policy, for a number of reasons. Think about the foods that don’t work well for you. A few possibilities include:

   Alcohol

   Caffeine

   Gluten

   Processed foods

   Notice how you feel after eating a food and make note of it for future reference. Then, avoid those foods that don’t allow you to feel your best.

2. Doubt. Intuition requires trust. If you keep ignoring your intuition, it might decide to stop trying to help you. Follow up on your intuition in a responsible manner. Be brave and give your intuition a chance. Start small and grow from there.
3. Fear. Fear is a major obstacle to intuition. For example, your intuition might be telling you to approach a particular person and strike up a conversation. However, your fear of rejection might be a more powerful force in your decision-making process than your intuition. The only way to become bold is to move forward in spite of your fear. (You might find this article helpful.)
4. Insufficient sleep. Intuition is referred to as a gut feeling for a reason. It’s a subtle feeling. It’s subtle enough that you might not notice it if you’re exhausted. Get enough sleep if you want to tap into your intuition fully. (You’ll find plenty of articles that discuss sleep here.)
5. Lack of practice. Practise reaching out to your intuition and noticing the messages it provides. You have to practise something to become good at it, and intuition is no exception. Use your intuition throughout the day. There are several suggestions on how to do this later in this guide.
6. Need for certainty. Certainty and intuition rarely go together. There’s often a vagueness to intuition, so if you need certainty, you’ll rarely benefit from your intuition. Be prepared to act on less-than-complete information (which is often a driving force behind procrastination). Give your intuition the benefit of the doubt. It’s not necessary to understand everything in order to take the next step.
7. Scattered mind. If your mind is unsettled, tapping into your intuition may prove to be very challenging. A calm, centered, and relaxed mind is optimal. That means you need to remove as many distractions and sources of stress from your life as you can, and only look to your intuition when you are relaxed and focused.
8. Stress. Stress can be another powerful blocker to intuition. Your mind is all over the place, and your body is stressed. The message that your intuition is trying to deliver might not be noticed in all the noise. Learn how to relax. Experiment and see what works best for you. (Check out the articles about stress here.)
9. Your preferences. Our wishes can taint our intuition. For example, if you have the opportunity to date two people, but one is much more attractive than the other, your intuition might not be able to overpower your preference. Our desire to have things be a certain way is always an obstacle to making a smart decision, so try to be open to new possibilities.

You’ll notice that many of these obstacles are common in life. It’s challenging to hear or listen to your intuition if you’re suffering from financial stress or if you have too many distractions in your life.

So, review the obstacles in this section and do your best to remove as many of them as possible from your life.

“Intuition is the key to everything, in painting, filmmaking, business – everything. I think you could have an intellectual ability, but if you can sharpen your intuition, which they say is emotion and intellect joining together, then a knowingness occurs.” (David Lynch)

11 Intuition-Boosting Exercises

If you want bigger muscles, you must train them. If you want to have a great memory, you have to train it. Building your intuition requires training, too.

The following exercises will begin the process of building your intuition, but you must use them to reap any benefits:

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