Intuitive development is not about “making” intuition happen. Intuition is always happening. However, our ability to hear our intuition is often blocked by the many other voices occurring inside and outside of us. Learning to sense your intuition is a discernment process.

Typically, we each have a natural way of “hearing” and receiving our intuitive “hits.” Unlike the five senses, your sixth sense does not have a specific physical organ associated with it to do its job. This can make your sixth sense seem elusive and unreliable. The nose obviously is responsible for smelling and the eyes for seeing. We can rely upon this. How then does your intuition guide you if it doesn’t have a specific physical organ with which to do so? Consider this, intuition utilizes all the five senses to communicate its messages to you.

If the nose smells, skin touches, tongues taste, ears hear and eyes see, then your intuition can deliver you messages through your sense of taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell. If you smell a rotting egg you might plug your nose, your sensing organ for smell. Whereas, if your intuition suggests, “something smells funny here,” you wouldn’t necessarily plug your nose; although, it is your sense of smell, metaphorically speaking, which guides your intuition.

Here is another example of how your intuition works. Consider the sight you have when you dream at night. Your eyes are closed, yet you are “seeing” colors and images. If you haven’t experienced this, try the following. Close your eyes (after you read the instructions here) and imagine a juicy red apple in your mind’s eye. Imagine you have a laser that points to the apple. The laser strikes the apple causing it to get larger, and larger, and larger, until it explodes. This is an example of using your inner vision to see.

What’s your style? How do you naturally receive your intuitive “hits?” Do you feel it in your gut? Do you have visions? Do you hear a guiding voice giving you direction? A beginning step for your intuitive development is to identify how you already receive your intuitive guidance.

Read the from the list below to identify your natural style:

Sound

Clairaudience, clear hearing, is the ability to hear intuitive guidance through your inner ear. Guidance may present itself as an “inner” voice speaking. No, you are not crazy if this happens. Often the voices speak in word phrases or short directive sentences.

My most natural style of receiving intuition is clairaudience. One summer I was on a road trip with a group of friends. As we were driving through New York, one of my friends, Jesse, was overwhelmed with emotion as he remembered his brother, Christian, who had died unexpectedly over 15 years ago and had been buried in a cemetery located just off the next exit. Jesse moved to Los Angeles soon after his brother’s burial and had not been back to the cemetery since that time. Grief struck, at the time of the funeral, Jesse did not remember the name of the cemetery or its precise location. We spontaneously took the exit and began to hunt for the cemetery. After almost an hour of driving around, with no luck, we gave up looking. As we arrived at the road leading to the freeway entrance ramp we, amazingly, ran into the cemetery grounds. Pulling into the cemetery, we were daunted by the task of finding Christian’s burial site. We parked the car and the group of us wandered aimlessly looking for his tombstone. Jesse was distraught. As I watched him frantically run through the thousands of headstones I stopped, breathed, and tuned into my intuition. I asked for help and guidance to Christian’s site. I received instructions, step-by-step, which said, “go the right, then the left, and take another right.” Within two minutes I was at Christians site. This experience was a true testament to the power of clairaudience and its value.

Sight

Clairvoyance, clear vision, is the ability to see through your inner eye. Inner visions are filled with images, pictures, and symbols. Seen through the “screen of the mind,” the inner eye projects images to your conscious mind the same way a movie projector projects images onto a movie screen. These images can help propel you forward, inspire you to try new things, or simply offer confirmation that you are on the right path.

Images are unique in their symbology to you. It is important to take the time to let the images unfold their personal meaning to you. You may not initially understand the image; but with consistent attention to your inner and outer worlds, the meaning will be revealed to you.

Several years ago, before traveling to India, I asked my intuition to help calm my fears about traveling so far from the United States. I repeatedly received a vision of a pre-teen Indian boy leading me around some type of schoolroom. The vision made no sense to me when I first saw it. Three weeks later while I was on my trip, with Habitat for Humanity, I met the young boy from my vision. He was an orphan from the local orphanage who would be helping us build homes. We developed an immediate friendship. He showed me around the school grounds, taught me much about his life in India, and helped me to feel comfortable in a foreign land. Now, the image made sense!

Touch

Clairsentience, clear feeling, is about receiving intuitive information via your feeling body. Ever hear of the saying “trust your gut” or I have a “knot” in my stomach? These are both metaphorical ways of referring to your inner feeling body.

The best way to build your “gut” knowing is by practicing following it. Start with small choices. Such as what to make for dinner or what party to attend. Then build upon following your “gut” to make larger life decisions, such as leaving an unfulfilling job or relationship.

Smell

Clairalience, clear smelling, is the ability to sense an odor from which the source of the odor is not anywhere present. While this form of intuition is less common, it is not less important. Our sense of smell can evoke memories we may have long forgotten. Can you remember the smell of your grandmother’s cooking? One single aroma and you may be transported in time to a favorite location or memory through the sense of smell.

In times of sadness over the loss of a loved one, people have reported smelling a scent associated with their loved one though they are alone in a room. Or during times of grief and prayer, people have reported smelling “heavenly scents,” which comfort them as though an roses of angels is looking out for them.

Taste

Clairgustance, clear taste, is receiving information via a sense of taste. The taste buds can generate an actual taste in your mouth even though you have not eaten something. Different mediums have reported tasting alcohol or cigarettes in their mouths when channeling information about a spirit who crossed over due to alcohol or cigarette consumption.

Did you discover your natural intuitive style in the list above? Continue to awaken your intuition by paying attention to subtle communications through the five senses. Keep a journal of the daily messages you receive. Have an intuitive story to share? Comment below and let us hear about one of your intuitive adventures.

in • tu • i • tion — 1. The direct knowing or learning of something without the conscious use of reasoning; immediate understanding. 2. The ability to perceive or know things without conscious reasoning. -Webster’s New World College Dictionary

When is the last time you listened to an intuitive hunch? When is the last time you didn’t listen to an intuitive hunch, and wished you had?

Intuition is a powerful tool, which the higher self uses, to guide you on your life path. Intuition leads you to connect with many practical and important parts of your life: Such as, meeting your soulmate, developing an enjoyable livelihood and expressing your creativity.

Learning to follow your intuition is a skill. It is a specific language, such as learning to play the guitar or the piano, that requires practice and training. Its vocabulary transcends logic and works non-linearly. Although intuition functions outside of logic, it is far from illogical.

In fact, intuition is a highty intelligent and well-organized form of communication. Albert Einstein once stated, “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”

Do you make these 5 common mistakes when following your intuition?

Mistake #1: Lack of knowledge. The first mistake most people make is to overlook the amount of training and practice it takes to develop the ability to follow their intuition for real life success. Random “intuitions” absolutely do happen; however, to effectively and practically rely on intuition, reliably and repeatedly, requires training.

Can you imagine picking up a guitar for the first time and strumming a song, in tune and with the correct beat, without first learning the individual chords and melody that compose the song? It is not likely to happen. A guitar player must first learn through practice how to move his/her fingers and construct chords before playing a song. Step one in learning to follow your intuition is training and practice. Begin by reading books and articles on intuitive development, attend classes to develop your skills, and/or choose a friend to be your intuitive buddy and practice development exercises together.

Mistake #2: Wishful thinking. The second common mistake people make is confusing personal desires with intuition. Your personal wishes are a driving force in each action or inaction you take. Fantasizing and wishful thinking cloud true intuition from being heard. Have you ever wished for a job, a lover, or an opportunity that you felt convinced would come your way only to later be disappointed by the reality of the situation? Learn to detach from personal outcomes. Once your personal desires relax into the background, the voice of intuition can more easily surface.

Mistake #3: People pleasing. Mistake number three is overriding personal feelings, inner guidance, and knowing in order to fit in, please another, or not rock the boat. Often times you may receive a signal or guidance of what to do or where to go and overlook the guidance because it would involve disappointing another person.  Following your intuition requires you to develop a strong sense of self with the ability to go your own direction even if it upsets or inconveniences the people around you.

Following your intuition will often inspire and support others in surprising and wonderful ways; however, it also involves setting boundaries and going new directions, which may disappoint others.

Mistake #4: Over-analysis.Mistake number four is over-analyzing information. Intuitive hits will not stand up to analysis; therefore, they may be dismissed.

Consider this story. About five or six years ago a friend and business colleague, Mark, was publishing a raw food cookbook. He was trying to obtain a celebrity testimonial for his book from Woody Harrelson. Woody lives on Maui, as do I. Mark figured I might have a connection to Woody and asked if I could help him. While I wanted to help Mark, after I analyzed the request, I turned him down. I do not know Woody or anybody that does on a personal basis. I did not linearly see how I could achieve this. Mark continued to ask for help, and I continued to say no. After his third request, I stopped and tuned in. I greatly respect Mark’s intuition and ideas. I thought, “My analytical mind may not know how to obtain this testimonial; but, I trust that if Mark has asked me a few times, which was not really his nature, I would trust that something bigger was at hand.“ At this point, I figured I could simply follow my intuition and see what happened. The next day I meditated, calmed my mind, and asked my intuition what was the best step to take to obtain the testimonial. I was guided to what to say and where to send an email with the testimonial request. Within two weeks, I had a testimonial from Woody Harrelson in my inbox for Mark’s book. (See Woody’s testimonial: “Recipes so good you may want to eat this book.” on book cover photo above!)

Mistake #5: Control. The fifth common mistake people make is trying to control life. Intuition operates in a way that requires letting go of control.

I like to plan my schedule daily, weekly, and monthly. While I plan room for “flow” in my day, I typically like to know what I am doing next. One day while I was driving home after an appointment with my tax accountant, I felt inspired to go to the hospital to visit a doctor who was also a friend of mine, Dr. Manoukian. I hadn’t seen Dr. Manoukian for a few months and felt a “call” to connect and say hello to him. At first, I discounted the inspiration because it was not a “scheduled” stop; and, I assumed Dr. Manoukian would be busy and felt hesitant about interrupting his day. But, nonetheless, my intuition kept guiding me to go. I surrendered control, let go of my schedule, and went. As I arrived at Dr. Manoukian’s office, I could see he was there, finishing a report. When he saw me, he warmly smiled, welcomed me, explained he had just a few minutes before his next patient, and asked what brought me to the hospital. I explained the inspiration and after we chatted for a few minutes, it was clearly revealed to me why I had been inspired to drop by. Earlier that week, I had been working in my garden and had been advised by a permaculturist that I needed to get woodchips to use as mulch in the garden. I put the woodchips on my mental list of things to do and committed that before the week’s end I would have the woodchips. As we chatted and caught up with each other’s lives, Dr. Manoukian shared that he was building a new home and clearing the land to build. He had just purchased a mill and had piles of woodchips to share. He invited me to come by and pick up woodchips for my garden.

As you can see from the points and stories illustrated above intuition is an important skill to develop. Take time to practice and develop your sixth sense. It is well worth your while. What has your experience with intuition been? Do you have an intuitive success story to share? Intuition grows through storytelling. Share your stories in the comment section below.

Step one in learning to follow your intuition means first learning how intuition operates . Here you will discover 10 simple tips about how intuition works.

1. Intellect will invalidate intuition because it does not understand it. Intuition is not to be understood. It is to be experienced. Remember the intellect sabotages intuition. It will override, discount, contradict and ignore intuition.

2. Learning to understand how intuition communicates is like learning a foreign language. It takes practice!

3. Trusting your intuition is a lifelong art that begins with little steps. Intuition is always speaking. It’s a matter of if we are listening to it or not. Learn to stop. Listen. Pay attention and encourage your intuition.

4. Following intuition is a practice that requires and leads you to gain comfort with insecurity and unknowing. It can be fun and surprising.

5. Intuition is something we already possess. It is something we are simply reclaiming.

6. To build intuition you must practice with small choices. What will I wear today? What will I eat for lunch? What route will I take to drive home from work today? Receive the message. Follow your guidance. Take action.

7. Journal daily in your intuition notebook to record when you feel in the flow, a feeling associated with following your higher guidance, and when you feel low energy, blocked, unhappy, feelings associated with following shoulds, habits and cultural expectation.

8. Intuition will require you travel an unfamiliar path, one that the personality often resists. Things may not make sense to the logical mind. In fact the logical mind may scream and shout.

9. Following intuition requires you to follow what “feels” right even though it may make no logical sense. Not subject to reason or ordinary explanations. Following intuition requires you to be ‘unreasonable”

10. Learning to discern between imagination, intellect, inner voices (inner child, inner critic) emotional body, habits/patterns, fear is a healthy and natural part of discerning the voice of intuition.