In last week’s blog, I wrote about beginning to create awareness around intuitive insights. As you continue practicing the basic skills over time of grounding and staying present and start asking yourself easy questions, you should begin to feel a little more confident in discerning between your intuition and your mind.
This is not a race, it takes time to practice this, so be easy with yourself. If you’re not all the way sure, every time, of what your intuition is telling you, remind yourself that this is normal. Remind yourself that you are growing in your insight every day and that you’re doing a great job.
Pay attention to when you are grounded and present. Congratulate yourself on increasing your ability to be in your body, sensing what is happening around you. Even though this sounds easy, it’s not. It can be difficult to feel present and grounded, especially in challenging circumstances and when so many people are not feeling that way.
So notice, and stay in the moment when you are there. Remind yourself what a beautiful job you are doing in your practice of noticing your insight.
Being kind and loving to yourself increases your ability to hear your intuition:
- Notice when you are grounded and present and savor the moment.
- Pay attention when you are connected to your intuition and give yourself an internal (or external!) round of applause.
- Your soul is so excited about the connection you are building with it. Remind yourself of how exciting this is and get excited too!
- The more proud, and happy, and excited you can be about your growing abilities, the more they will continue to expand in your life!
As your confidence builds, expand your self-inquiry:
- We tend to block or run away from the bigger questions in our lives, especially if we already intuitively know the answer but are terrified to hear it!
- For example, it’s easy to ask ourselves what should be for dinner tonight, but can be much more difficult to ask things like “Am I truly still in love with my husband?” or “Why do I feel so bored and unfulfilled in my really high paying job?”
- These bigger questions are where your soul and intuition get really excited, and the ego acts up and tries to block us from even asking the questions, let alone hearing the answers.
- The ego says things like “You don’t even have time to meditate, you have work to do!” and “Who do you think you are to not be happy, look how good your life is!”
- It’s your job to look past this fear and practice tuning in again to that sweet calmer quieter voice internally that knows what’s best for you even though it might be scary.
When you ask the harder questions, remember that you have free will!
- Remind yourself, just because you hear intuitive guidance doesn’t mean you have to follow it.
- Listen to the answers though. If you can hear the voice that is just asking you to explore the idea of exploring new ideas, this helps the intuition flow and will allow new insight to flow through.
- If you stay in fear and don’t let yourself hear your guidance, you block the flow of insight coming into your life.
- This can be fun to practice in meditation. Begin by relaxing your body, remind yourself you are safe and have free will, and then gently float in a question that feels a little scary.
- Just begin noticing any feelings, thoughts or images without judgment.
- Remind yourself that you have free will, you get to do whatever you want. Even if your intuition is guiding you towards big changes, you don’t have to listen.
- Reminding yourself that you are in charge reduces the fear, allowing the answers to come through more easily.
- You generally will end up following your intuition but reminding yourself you don’t have to can increase your feeling of empowerment and allow your insight to be more clear.
- Continue this practice consistently until your energy is calibrated to the knowing that any answer is ok, there is no wrong or right, and anything is possible, because it is!
Pay attention to the signs:
- As your confidence and trust in yourself and your guidance grow, it becomes easier and easier to recognize what it has been trying to tell you all along.
- You become more able to hear, see, and feel the signs that have been there all along, guiding you along your path.
- Ask for signs to help guide and validate the direction your guidance system is directing you towards.
- True signs from your intuition will feel good, inspiring, peaceful and positive,
- “Signs” that are not really signs, from your ego or fear feel scary, tense, stressful and limiting.
- These signs are happening all the time, but there are some ways to make them clearer and more easily recognizable with conscious intention.
- An example can be asking for signs about moving to California or not.
- If you start seeing California license plates more, or meet someone new from California, or have a dream about being on the beach in California.
- These are signs to explore that direction more.
- If you start fearing how much more expensive it might be, or worrying about how global warming will make it too hot to live there soon, or how lonely or scared you might be in a new place.
- These are signs that you are limiting yourself with fear, that is not your intuition.
This is not linear, all cases are different, and again it takes time and practice to gain clarity. Intuition is subtle and soft and gentle. This lovely voice is different than the harsher and louder voice of the mind and ego.
It is a lifetime practice to get to know yourself and your truth. I hope you have fun and enjoy the way your life unfolds when you are in tune with your own unique wisdom!
Read more about Spiritual Counseling with Shana Olmstead.
