How to know when your intuition is talking to you
Most of my clients want to be more intuitive. They’ve had intuitive or psychic experiences that were profound and impactful. And they want more. Makes sense! But how do you know when your intuition is talking to you? First of all, not everyone “hears” their intuition. Some people get a felt sense or experience a physical sensation in their body. Others experience instant knowing through visions or dreams. Some people actually hear a voice in their head that is their intuition. If you don’t know how you experience your intuition yet, don’t worry. Intuitive development is a practice. It's normal to not be good at something when you're new.
Four reasons why you can’t connect with your intuition
There are many reasons why you might not be able to connect with your intuition, and here are a few common ones.
Anxiety. Most of us experience anxiety throughout our lives. For some of us, it’s chronic and something we have to manage. And that’s ok! But in my experience, anxiety is one of the biggest blocks to connecting with your intuition. If you focus on what could go wrong, how people perceive you, or the state of the world, there is no room for your intuition. It’s important to develop a relationship with your anxiety. Listen to what it’s saying. Hear it out. Pay attention to it. Think of it like a three year old - if you try to ignore a three year old, they will get louder and louder! A little attention can go a long way in managing your anxiety.
History of trauma. You may be familiar with Bessell Van Der Kolk’s The Body Keeps The Score. If not, here’s the cliffs notes version: Trauma is stored in your body. When that trauma gets activated or triggered, it’s like tunnel vision. We can’t see anything else. Hearing or sensing your intuition also requires you to be in a generally calm and open. This is next to impossible if you are experiencing trauma symptoms like hypervigilance. Trauma is anything that was too much, too fast, or too soon, according to Resmaa Menakem. Memories that you might not consider traumatic now got stored as trauma in your body. There are therapies like IFS and EMDR that can help to resolve and release trauma so it’s not so overwhelming.
Your relationship with your body needs healing. As one of my favorite healers Josie Rosario says, your intuition needs a place to land. That place is your body. If you hate being in your body, your intuition has no one to land. Your body is the receptor of your intuition. No matter how you experience intuition, you still have to be in your body to receive that information. Remember that your relationship with your body is first chakra work. Receiving intuitive information is 6th and 7th chakra work. We have to care for our first chakra (our bodies) if we want to get up to the 6th or 7th. It is possible to bypass your body and occasionally receive intuitive information. But if you want consistent access to your intuition, it is important to heal your relationship with your body.
Fear. If you’re like many of my clients, you’ve probably had an intuitive experience at some point in your life. It may have been when you were young. You might have even told a caregiver about that experience, because you didn’t know what to do or it felt scary. Depending on how they reacted, this could be impacting how you relate to your intuition now. Many clients I work with were told these experiences were scary or bad. Or their caregiver didn’t know what to do with this and ignored it. If you’ve had an experience like this, you are not alone. It’s so much more common than most people realize. You could be unconsciously blocking your intuition due to early messages about your abilities.
How to connect with your intuition
Here is a simple practice for connecting with your intuition:
Step 1: Identify what is present. Notice physical sensations, thoughts, and any energy around your body.
Step 2: Notice how you feel towards whatever you notice. For example, if you feel some tingling in your chest, check in with how you feel toward the tingling. Do you wish it would go away? Are you frustrated by it? Do you feel curious about it? Do you have compassion for why it’s there?
Step 3: If you feel anything other than compassion, curiosity, or a general sense of openness, see if you can ask the other part to step back. For example, if you feel frustrated by the tingling in your chest, ask it to take a step back so you can learn more about the tingling. If it’s not willing to do that, ask the frustrated part what it wants you to know. Connecting with parts will help you tune in to your intuition.
Step 4: If you do feel compassion, curiosity, or openness, ask that tingling what it wants you to know. It might show you images, scenes from a memory, or it might tell you something. You might see something in your inner visuals. This is all intuitive information.
There are lots of other ways to connect with your intuition. I find getting to know our parts to be an effective method. If this practice resonates with you, you might want to check out Internal Family Systems or IFS therapy. You can practice connecting with parts and help them into roles that are more effective. For example, a part that criticizes you can become an inner cheerleader.
I hope these tips for how to know if your intuition is talking to you were helpful! If you want more support, head over to my contact page and schedule a free consultation.