What is intuition?

The dictionary definition of intuition is ‘the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning’. 

I like this because we have learned that our thinking brains (the reasoning parts) are very useful but can be limiting. We know that human brains suffer from cognitive bias, one example of which is confirmation bias, which means favouring information that supports your existing beliefs and discounting information that doesn’t. Therefore having access to your intuition, bypassing reasoning, gives you a whole new, and much more interesting, way of being in the world.

Your intuition is inner wisdom that is designed exactly to your specification, I believe it’s your best guidance system. I like to think my intuition is the part of me that is in tune with the energies in the universe that my brain doesn’t understand. Energy is subtle, so we need to actively make space to tune in. Developing a clear channel to hear your intuition, and a practice to take action on its guidance, is a way to live your life with oodles of delight, wonder and grounded confidence.

How I experience my intuition

Intuition shows up for me as full body decisions – I was recently making a HUGE life decision and the word ‘decision’ sounds like its something that happens in your head – right? My head was not the leader of this decision, although I did of course engage my brain to analyse the information related to this decision, I felt the NO in my body weeks and months before the time came that I needed to act on it. My therapist said ‘this is a difficult decision to make’ but it didn’t feel difficult at all, the life situation was very difficult, the experience, the pain, the grief etc. But the eventual decision itself was not difficult because my body (which is where our intuition lives) was so clear on the answer.

The next natural question is – how do you tune in to what your body/ intuition is saying? And that is a very good question. I believe we all experience our intuition in our own special ways, and in more ways than one. For me, I experience a yes in my body as a rising feeling in my stomach, and I experience a no as a falling feeling in my stomach. I also get a knowing, I just know XYZ is right for me and I can’t really explain why – but I know. Have you ever had that feeling?

How you can start playing with your intuition

I highly recommend starting small, so pick something inconsequential and give yourself a decision to make while tuning into your bodily sensations. For example think about what you could have for dinner, come up with 2 different options, let’s say spag bol or chicken salad. Then take a breath and imagine the spag bol, what do you feel in your body and where? Now do the same for the chicken salad. Which option felt better and more appealing to you and what did that feel like in your body?

Playing this simple intuition game will start to connect your awareness with your physical sensations and you’ll learn what an intuitive yes and no feels like for you. With a little practice your intuitive guidance will become more clear and you can up the stakes bit by bit.

A little story about intuition…

To give you another example of intuition in the real world…a few days ago I was having a bit of a funky day. The day started well and as it went on I started to feel emotional and wobbly for no apparent reason. I did a few things to sooth myself, like a have a salt bath and go for a walk, and the sad and scared emotions stayed just under the surface. I carried on with my day, then in the late afternoon I received some difficult and upsetting news. All of a sudden the feelings that had been brewing bubbled over and I understood why I was feeling wobbly; my intuition had sensed the incoming news and my subconscious had already started responding before my conscious mind understood why. 

Hope this gives you some food for thought and a fun intuition tool to play with, sending love xx