That deep instinct, the gut feeling, the knowing without having a logical explanation, your intuition has been trying to get your attention from when you took your first breaths to this very moment you’re reading these words.
Defining intuition is tricky because it’s not black and white, and feels quite different across the board. Some people say it’s a gut feeling, others say it comes from their third eye, others have a completely different way of connecting with this part of themselves and may not even know what it is they’re connecting with.
Creating a relationship with your intuition has the power to connect you deeper to yourself, your truth, your purpose, and Source energy, whatever that may mean to you. Strengthening this practice opens up an opportunity for you to create the life that was meant for you by listening and trusting. This article aims to help you find practices to strengthen your intuition so you can live more in flow with your own unique path.
Defining Intuition For Yourself
Whether you feel like a spiritual being or not, intuition is within you.
I was listening to a podcast series recently dissecting the meaning crisis explaining how intuition can be thought of as our inexplicit learned pattern recognition, aka, our subconscious ability to detect what patterns we recognize around us.
What’s interesting is the moment we try to add explicit learned behavior to this, it no longer exists in the same way. There’s an innate ability as humans that we hold to detect patterns that we have had since the Paleolithic ages to protect us and keep us safe.
I love this explanation because it doesn’t need to be this “psychic ability” that only special people are born with, we all hold it, it’s a matter of connecting with it without trying to force it.
How you connect with your intuition and define what this means for you is entirely up to you. The best place to start is by figuring out where your intuition comes from. Locate the sensations that arise when you have a “knowing” feeling. When doing this, find a situation or a moment that this felt really clear it was hard to ignore. Once you lock down this moment or memory of this moment, curiously explore it from the lens of wanting to understand how you “knew.”
- What sensations came up physically in your body?
- What were you doing when you heard the loudness of the answer?
- Why did you listen to this message? Or why didn’t you?
- Have you felt this feeling before? Make a short list of other times this has come up for you.
By investigating your own pattern of ‘intuitive’ feelings, you open up your lens and bring awareness to the idea that you have this inner knowing that is waiting for you to pay attention to it more frequently. Whether you feel connected to it or not, it is always there.
Why Your Intuition Can Be Your Greatest Gift
There’s a unique opportunity that exists when you start to strengthen your relationship with your intuition, you open yourself up to the flow of life.
Intuitive listening means you get to release the need for external validation for answers and tune inward. Imagine if the decisions you made were for you based on your path, that’s where intuition can become a powerful force in your life. When you no longer feel the need for others to accept your decisions and you can release the desire to make the right choice, you open yourself up to new possibilities.
Leaning more into this inner knowing also decreases cognitive load and time dwelling on if you made the “right” choice. Since this is much less analytical and logical, you’re releasing energy from these brain functions to give more space to what simply feels right for you. It’s not always the approach, but in a lot of situations, it can be.
The more you release the need to force each piece of your life into place, the more you allow and opening of space for magic to enter your world. Following the flow of life by leaning into your intuition is a great place to start this process.
Pay attention to what starts to happen when you follow these directives:
- What experiences are you having?
- Who are you meeting?
- What type of energy are you feeling?
- What is happening that might not of if you weren’t following your intuition?
How to Activate Your Intuition
Now that you have a better understanding of what your definition of intuition is and why it’s so important, you can begin your journey to activating and strengthening your intuition.
Here are some practices that are useful when it comes to activating your intuitive senses so they can be an ally for you throughout your life, helping you connect with the deeper energy of the world around you.
1. Meditation
Scattered thoughts and monkey brain make up most of our conscious waking moments as humans. Meditation is an opportunity to quiet the noise and get curious. When performing meditation, finding a practice that works for you is the most crucial part. For some people this is sitting completely still, and for others it walking or moving around through dance or intuitive movement.
The idea of meditation is not perfect silence of the mind, but the continual return to a single point of awareness without judgment. Not following your thoughts, but noticing them as they arise and letting them go like clouds passing overhead.
The more you tune into this idea that you are not your thoughts, you are the observer of them, the more you can settle the energy within and feel more in touch with the inner wisdom of your being.
Some of my favorite meditation apps for new meditators are:
- Chani App – An astrology x meditation app that’s extremely approachable and has great tools for mindfulness practices. Also doubles as my favorite astrology app by a landslide (sorry co-star…)
- Insight Timer – The #1 free meditation app with so many types of meditation offerings and guides
- Calm – Really well-done and customizable guided meditations and guided meditation series meant for beginners.
2. Visualization
A visualization practice can be helpful when trying to strengthen and activate your intuition. This can be as simple as sitting in meditation with the intention of visualizing a specific outcome or part of self you want to connect with more.
For the sake of this practice, imagine your intuition as a being that you can connect with. It doesn’t have to be a version of you, it can be a higher power, or something else that feels fitting for your specific point of connection.
As you bring this being into awareness, notice where in your physical body you feel this being and bring awareness to that place.
From here you can choose how you want to continue, whether that’s being with this being and feeling them, asking them questions, or simply continuing to explore more of what they feel like, who they are, and how you can form a relationship with them. There’s no right or wrong answer, simply connect and continue to explore.
3. Following Your Intuition and Seeing What Happens
When you hear the call or get a nudge from your intuition to do something, say something, or explore something, follow that nudge and pay attention to what happens. Keep a note in your phone about these intuitive pushes and also what happens when you follow them. You may start to notice that these feel random but are far from it when they push you closer and closer to the things you desire and want.
4. Body Scans
A body scan is a slow and intentional practice to help you feel each part of your body one at a time. This can help you tap into how your physically feeling and notice sensations you may not typically notice. Doing these regularly can provide a new sense of awareness of your physical being, giving you a greater opportunity to notice when parts of your body feel off or particularly charged.
This is important for strengthening your relationship with your intuition because it allows you to get out of your head and into your body where your intuitive voice may live. If you voice doesn’t live in your body at all, this practice is still useful for getting out of your cognitive and logical mind.
5. Nature Grounding
Putting your bare feet on the ground, preferably in nature on the grass or dirt, or even in water, activates the parasympathetic nervous system, calming you down and allowing your whole system to settle.
There are many benefits to grounding or earthing, but in the case of connecting you with your intuition, this practice allows for a deeper connection with yourself and the Earth through the electrical current the Earth holds. With this calming effect taking place, there’s less noise, giving you a chance to tap into your own channel and listen to what’s happening within.
6. Asking Your Intuition Direct Questions
Don’t be shy about asking your intuition direct questions. I suggest starting with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions to start to get a sense for this voice or knowing.
When practicing asking questions to your intuition, it can be supportive to pair this with either meditation, visualizations, body scans, pulling oracle or tarot cards, or grounding to give yourself the space and calmness to hear the answer. Trust the answer that comes through and do your best to not over analyze it, putting yourself in the logical brain.
Honing your intuition is a practice and it takes patience and time to feel confident in it.
7. Working with Tarot or Oracle Cards
If you’e looking to surrender and trust that the universe or whatever you believe in has got you, Tarot or Oracle can be a great place to start. Notice that pulling cards in this way is not an end all be all, rather a simple practice to begin to trust the path and what the cards pull forward for you. Practicing pulling cards and asking questions can be a useful tool to feel internally what your intuitive senses are feeling before you even flip the cards over.
My favorite part about working with cards is that they can help you find new perspectives or awareness you may not have gotten too so quickly. This practice pairs well with tuning into your intuition by also trusting when a card isn’t for you. When this happens, notice what sensations show up in your physical body so that you can start to make a connection with these sensations when you’re not sure if your intuition is saying ‘yes’ or ‘no.’
I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into the illustration of an oracle deck coming in Fall 2024 that I’m itching to publish! You can pre-order the Illuminate Oracle Deck here.
8. Intentional Psychedelic Work or Other Altered States of Consciousness
Working intentionally with psychedelics or altered states of consciousness, like breathwork, is a profound place to strengthen your intuitive listening skill. Journeys of any kind can be used to explore parts of you that are typically blocked or inaccessible in normal waking states of consciousness.
The key to journeying with psychedelics is intention and integration, where you give yourself a lens to look through during your journey and then the framework to bridge the gap between what you’ve uncovered in your experience and how it can be reflected and applied into your daily life.
This requires an analysis of what’s happened to you by your own intuitive interpretation. Psychedelic experiences are often abstract and not meant to be taken at face value, so trusting your intuitive interpretation is necessary. Psychedelic integration coaches are great to lean on when doing this work since they can help guide you and make sense of your experience alongside you by asking you the right questions and giving you tools to continue to explore your thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Microdosing psilocybin is a great tool to connect you with your intuition because of the subtleties of noticing that it allows in your daily life. It may be as simple as knowing that when you’re making decision you need to take a few deep breaths and find a quietness within to know if it’s right for you. Microdosing can show you these patterns in a way that also allows you to form habits around them with increased neuroplasticity effects alongside consistent integration. Of course like any tool, it requires knowing how and when to use it to achieve the results you desire. I highly suggest if you go this route to work with a coach who can help you alongside your protocol and in your integration work as well.
I offer free 60 minute discovery call to find out if microdosing is a good fit for you. Book a free call here.
9. Free Write Journaling
Even the simple act of journaling can be a tool to help you connect with your intuition. My offer is to ask questions and then journal on them without thinking too much about what you’re writing. The idea is to let the pen roll or the keys type with as little logical thinking as possible. Channeling or tuning in in this way can help you access a deeper layer of self that may not come through when you’re journaling regularly.
Practice this exercise of asking a question and writing for 2-3 minutes without thinking and see what happens. As you get more skilled you can increase the time you do this for and watch the magic of your intuitive voice start to unfold.
10. Movement with Intention
Moving whether it’s on a walk, a run, in a yoga or pilates class, any type of movement that connects you to yourself can be a profound way to experience your intuition. Our bodies hold so much data in our muscles, fascia, and cells, and when we’re moving the energy around in these places, it can give us access to information that we may not have been aware of.
The important thing when using movement to tap into your intuition is to set an intention of awareness, otherwise you may not remember what came through or even notice it at all.
I love this practice so much because it’s additive in many ways, such as helping anchor a habit you may already have like exercising with one you’re looking to form like intuitive listening. Have a play with this one and see how connecting with your physical body in this way brings forth new information.
11. Dream Analysis
Dreaming is an altered state of consciousness that we all have access to, even if we’re not normally dreamers. Your subconscious mind is what’s responsible for your dream state, showing you parts of your psyche that are not always available when you’re in normal waking states of consciousness.
To use this tool to access your intuition, practice setting intentions to remember your dreams before you go to bed. This practice may take time and may also require you to write down your dreams the moment you wake up to train your brain to begin remembering them.
Once you get to the point where you do remember your dreams, you now have the opportunity to get more specific with your intentions, this can be a great opportunity to ask questions and analyze the symbolism of what comes through and feel what it feels like for you. The answers are typically not black and white, and are often abstract, which is supportive in this process because similar to psychedelic journeys, it requires your intuitive analysis based on how you feel.
How to Treat Your Intuitive Practice Like a Game
In my own exploration with intuition as well as my exploration with clients, I’ve discovered that intuition has a high likelihood of being accessed through the gamification of it. If we think of the world around us as a game, we can release the pressure to get it right. It’s not about getting it right or wrong, it’s about seeing what works and then trying something new when it doesn’t.
I see this come up most often when we’re breaking patterns that our intuition is trying to guide us out of. Pattern disruption often comes up in the form of ‘tests.’ Have you ever been frustrated that you continue to date the same type of people over and over again, and even though you know it you still find yourself doing it? The next time someone comes along that fits this ‘pattern’, consider looking at it as if it’s a challenge or a ‘test.’ Note: whether you pass or fail the test isn’t necessarily the point, the point is knowing that it’s a test and that you now have an opportunity to change it. What if this time you noticed this test and despite how much you wanted to fall back into your old pattern, you chose another route and you didn’t continue your relationship with this person.
In this whole process, you’re in touch with your intuition whether you know it or not, it’s giving you information and alerting you that this moment is happening, and you have a chance to listen to what it’s saying and choose something different no matter how scary it is. There’s a reason we have the saying ‘hindsight is 20/20’ something within you knew, it’s simply a matter of learning how and when to trust this voice.
Let’s say you don’t pass this ‘test,’ and you continue on with your pattern. When you think of it like a game, you can guarantee that this test is going to come back around for you because that’s how games work, there’s no shortcut to the finish line.
I love this practice because in my opinion it lessens the pressure and shows you that you are always going to have opportunities to change if you want to change, and it gets to happen on your timeline when you’re ready.
Even the simple noticing that this is indeed a ‘test’ is a great sign that your intuition is online, and that you get to choose whether you’re ready to listen to it or not.
Maybe dating is not the best start for this practice, since it can be a very emotional and overwhelming process, but try it with something lower-risk that you keep saying you want to change but don’t actually change and see what happens.
Intuition and Living a More Creative Life
“When clues present themselves, it can sometimes feel like the delicate mechanism of a clock at work. As if the universe is nudging you with little reminders that it’s on your side and want to provide everything you need to complete your mission.” – Rick Rubin, The Creative Act
The more we can practice listening to our intuition, our connection to Source energy, the more we can tune our antennae to what’s meant for us. The nudges and the tests and the practices are all methods to help you see and understand the clues or the breadcrumbs that are meant for you.
There’s an opportunity to trust your own filter of the world as you find your intuitive voice, and when you do this, you’ll realize that this antennae is specific only to you, giving you a unique perspective on the world that no one else has. This is a powerful understanding because when you realize this, you’ll see that you can co-create the life you want simply by listening and trusting that what’s for you won’t pass you by.
In this practice, creativity comes alive because you’re living life through your unique lens. You have an opportunity to turn this voice into tangible and valuable things in your world. You can use this practice to access the flow state of life where you’re listening and doing over and over again and watching what wants to be created come to life.
If we haven’t meet yet, hi! I’m Alexa Joyal—Psychedelic integration coach and deep believer that having a relationship with your emotions will set you free. If you like my content and you want more of it in your life, here are a few ways you can connect with me:
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