Listening to your Inner Voice – How to Develop your Intuition

Are you aware of your inner voice? Do you pay attention to it? Ok, so you probably have two inner voices – the one that softly whispers ideas and suggestions to you and pulls at your gut to do something (or not do something) and … the other one. This second one makes you question your first thoughts with cries of “are you mad?!” and wants you to stop before you step outside of your comfort zone, even if that means living a life of mediocrity instead of one of your dreams.

Sadly, the latter voice is the one most of us are aware of and pay attention to. The more gentle one, that one is our intuition and is often ignored (if we can even hear it at all). The great pity here is that it’s out intuition that really has our best interests at heart. Of course the other voice, our shadow voice, also has our welfare at heart too, but in a more protective way, it wants to keep us within our comfortable limits. Obeying this voice can lead us to feeling unfulfilled at a soul level and slowly you may develop a nagging feeling of general discontent, which can have a rippling effect on your mood, self esteem and ultimately your physical and mental health as you feel that something is missing and that you are not reaching your full potential.

The gentle voice of your intuition will, if listened to, stretach you beyond your comfort zone, but never more that you are capable of. It will challenge you, but also support you. It always has your best interests at heart, at every level: physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. It will not only gently nudge you in scary directions which will yield huge and unimaginable rewards, but it will also gently nudge you when it’s time to stop or turn around.

When you tune into your intuition and allow yourself to be guided by it, you will be surprised at how much easier things become which you may have previously considered challenges. Also, how good it feels to be at ease with yourself and all your life experiences, even the ones you wouldn’t choose!

If you are not listening to your intuition, learning to tune into it will require time and patience. At first, you may be unsure which voice is which (especially as your shadow voice often sounds very reasonable) and using your intuition is very much like using a muscle – you need to use it regularly in order for it to be in the shape you want.

So how do you get to know your intuition better? First of all, start to watch out for hunches, feelings or ideas that crop up. Pay attention to the voice that accompanies it. Is it gentle, positive, supportive? If it’s aggressive, domineering or demeaning, it’s more likely to be your shadow voice. Maybe you are getting a warning feeling, is it a loud and threatening one (shadow) or an insistent knowing one (intuition)?

The scary thing about trusting your intuition when it’s new to you, is that it’s not based on any logic and often what it suggests to you cannot be justified, making it seem irrational. But with practice and trust, you’ll learn that knowing that something isn’t the right thing to do, is in your best interests. It’ll be easier to shrug off your own shadow voice and that of others and allow you to pursue dreams and avoid heartache.

The key to developing this essential trust in your intuition is to start small. Don’t make life changing decisions based on your intuition if you are not familiar with it (you might still be confusing your two inner voices). Do ask your intuition to guide you with smaller decisions and wait for the gentle knowing feeling to arrive. Don’t expect an instant answer, but watch out for it as it will come and you will know it when it does. Over time, as you tune in more and more, you will find you suffer less and less with worry or anxiety. You’ll trust all will work out well and often you will find it works out better than you could ever have imagined.

How to unlock your intuition

When you feel strongly about something without really understanding why, that’s probably your intuition. Sensing something clearly is basically what we refer to as a “hunch” or “gut feeling”. This is the time when you are overwhelmed with a feeling and you just can’t explain it and all you can say is “I just know”.

Why not try these ideas to help develop your intuition:

Meditate

Meditating means finding peace in yourself. If your mind and heart are cluttered with too much baggage and hurt, you wouldn’t be able to quiet that part of you that could eventuallly initiate intuition. There are so many ways to meditate: take a yoga class, or just simply practice some breathing exercises. Take a look at my meditation and breathing blogs for more on this.

Think Positive

A worry free, fear free state could do so much to improve your intuitive ability. By staying positive, you attract good energy and are more able to easily recognise imminent feelings, events and opportunities.

Let Go

What does this mean? If you are on the brink of making a huge decision, let go of all the inhibitions and head to a quiet place where you could find letting go has brought you. Sometimes you just have to listen to the voice within you and that voice won’t come out unless you let go.

Don’t force it

After letting go of the inhibitions and all those things that stop you from thinking and feeling clearly, never exepct an answer right away. Never expect that the “hunch” will fall on your lap immediately. Give it a little time, then you wil be surprised that suddenly you have your answer.

Trust your first impressions

When you see someone for the first time and have an impulsive thought about them (good or bad), chances are that impression actually holds true for you. Most of the time, first impressions are brought by intuition.

Stay happy

Happiness attracts immense power and such power includes intuition. In tapping into your intuition, your motivation must be happiness and contentment. Given that premise, intuition will fall to you easily.

Intuition is helpful, because sometimes it leads you to something that cannot be achieved otherwise. Decisions are easier done if armed by this gift. Develop intuition now and reap the benefits you could have never imagined.