Intuition 101: The Basics of Tapping Into Your Inner Wisdom
In the self-development space, intuition has become quite the trend. It’s a skill we’ve recently discovered within ourselves, and now, everyone wants to 'unlock' it. Admittedly, there is still a large number of people doubting it’s existence and dismissing it as 'woo-woo.' But I would bet that even those skeptics wouldn’t turn down access to their intuition if it were handed to them on a silver platter. But let’s start simple.
What is intuition?
The Collins English Dictionary defines intuition as 'the ability to know or understand something without reasoning or proof,' but more commonly, we think of it as our inner wisdom, inner voice, or gut feeling. It’s that knowing that oftentimes helps us make important decisions in life, the ones we don’t regret. And luckily, this inner knowing isn’t something rare or mystical—it’s a natural part of being human. In fact, we’re all born with it. Now you might wonder, why accessing it is so difficult?
Why Accessing Your Intuition Can Be Difficult
The simple answer is: it’s a skill we haven’t learned. Much like you won’t excel at tennis if you've never played before, accessing your intuition is something most people haven’t practiced. I’d even like to go a step further in saying that many people have been trained not to trust it. What do I mean by that? Most of us grew up in a world of rational adults denying either the existence of intuition, or their child’s ability to just “know things” or both. As a result, many children were silenced or told they were wrong when intuitive information came up. You might remember those situations, especially those relating to people, maybe you had a sensing that your parents relationship was falling apart (”no, honey, everything’s fine”) or you couldn’t trust someone, but you weren’t heard (“that’s not true, be nice to him”). And so instead of harnessing that skill of learning what is intuitive information and what is not, most people gradually unlearned to trust their intuition.
It’s never too late to learn to access your intuition
The good news is, that it’s totally possible to relearn to access your intuition. But it’s something that takes a little time and especially, trial and error. However, I started this journey 5 years ago (went a bit crazy on intuitive trainings in the meantime, but that’s me) and even though I am much more intuitive now than back then I saw improvements from the beginning. In fact, I realised it was knowledge that had always been there and even served me already in many situation and life decisions. The hardest part was to tell it apart from other thoughts and feelings, especially fear and wishful thinking.
How to Recognize Intuitive Information
Everyone experiences intuition differently and I encourage you to find your way. But there are a few universal characteristics of information, that truly comes form within. Here are a few (I could go on about this forever, so future writing will be coming)
Intuitive information often comes as a quiet, calm voice or a simple knowing. It’s not anxious, nervous, or worried; it just 'knows.' If emotions like anxiety or overwhelm are attached, it’s likely not intuition. However, anxiety or other emotions can kick in later (once the intuitive information sinks in and you translate it to what it means to you). In that case, pay attention to timing. If you had this knowing early and then anxiety kicked in later, it could still be intuition.
Intuitive information can be uncomfortable. It wants often pushes you outside your comfort zone, for example not to take a job when you really want that raise or not to see someone, when you really want a relationship. When your intuition tells you 'no,' but for some reason, you really feel compelled to do it, you will engage your rational mind to find reasons why it is a good idea. You will talk to people or research hoping to find locial reasons to be able to do it.
Intuitive information doesn’t always make sense. You might have an impulse to do something for no apparent or satisfactory reason. If that feeling doesn’t go away, it’s often a sign you need to do it. In almost all cases, the reason will be revealed at some point. It’s simply information you don’t have yet or an experience you have to make. And here again, these are often experiences outside your comfort zone.
How to Practice Intuition in Daily Life
This is something many of you might be interested and and I will for sure write more about it. Here are a few tips to help you begin practicing intuition.
Learn from the past. Notice when you followed intuitive inputs (or when you didn’t) and how things turned out. Which decisions in your life felt “just right”. How did you know? Maybe a job you ended up not taking because you didn’t feel it or the moment before a breakup when you knew that this wouldn’t be the relationship of your life.
Practice with irrelevant decisions. The fewer emotions involved, the better. Start with simple questions like, 'Should I take an umbrella today?' Then, pay attention to other intuitive clues, like, 'For some reason, I should leave earlier that usual today' or 'I should check if my metro line is closed.
Keep a journal. Or take some notes on your phone. The mind learns better if something is written down, so when you keep notes of the small decisions you took based on intuition you will be able to verify it later. This will help you to better recognize your intuition in the future.
A note of caution: Intuition is a great source of information, it’s essential in building self-trust and I encourage everyone to strengthen that skill. However, it’s just one source of information amongst others. Many highly successful people such as CEOs and investors use their intuition for important business decision, but it’s not their only source of information either.
