Naomi’s Blog

Intuition – Inner Tuition

Where is your Iintuition?

I regard myself as an intuitive person I realise that it is too easy to treat intuition as some kind of gift- either you have it or you don’t. But this is a mistake. Intuition like other human qualities can be developed and strengthened.

It is often said that women are more intuitive than men and I feel that this is probably true. Mothering itself constantly calls for an intuitive response, crying babies, upset children, unvoiced requests and the vast range of emotions expressed purely through body language. These daily demands for responsive rapport build a personalised intuitive vocabulary. This is not to deny that men have exactly the same capacity for an intuitive response since it originates in the same evolutionary process but, whereas a women is more likely to act upon intuition, a man is less likely to do so.

I am often asked is being intuitive the same as being psychic, the answer is ‘No’ and it is a mistake to confuse the two. Psychics, mediums and clairvoyants usually speak of working together with intermediaries, helpers, guides, even angelic forces with whom they have developed a long standing and close inner relationship. Our intuitive sense is part of a wider framework rightly called our Spritual Intelligence which might be thought of as our compass in life.

So what purpose does this intuitive voice serve? Well the intuition is the voice of the personal radar system, it is a sense which reads people, surroundings and places. In evolutionary terms this immediate feedback is part of an instinctive survival kit. Even though we no longer face predators, enemies or immanent physical dangers, not everyone we meet will share our best interests. Social interaction still has an instinctive element, it is no exaggeration to say that first impressions count.

Quite recently, I had a personal experience of this. I have a friend who is a landlord for students and we were on our way to meet a new student for the first time. She emerged from a taxi further along the street and began to walk towards us. Quite literally, the second that I saw her, even though she was still some distance away from us, my heart sank. Now this peculiar phrase describes a physiological reaction that you might recognize. It is a distinct body based physical sensation, it lasts only briefly and then it is gone. My instinctive reaction made no sense but it proved to be correct. As time passed this student showed her true colours, she proved to be downright dishonest, deceitful and utterly untrustworthy, she  became the first and  so far only student to be takene to court.

The sixth sense is however more than a residual defence mechanism, the inner instinctive response is not merely reactive but proactive. Though I speak of the inner voice, it would better to think of this personal prompt in broader terms since the message can be carried emotionally or physically as feelings or sensation. These emotional or physical signals stand out simply because they happen infrequently and are quite specific, a prickling on the back of the neck, (‘it made my hackles rise’), hairs rise on the arms, (‘it gave me goosebumps’) or in my case, an unexplained sensation in the heart (‘it made my heart sink’). More commonly, we experience ‘butterflies’ in the stomach when we are stressed or anxious. These physiological signals place the intuitive sensitivity firmly in its evolutionary context as a biological and instinctive warning system. The sixth sense also speaks through our feelings by making us feel ill at ease, disturbed or disquieted. Such feelings are hard to put into words because the trigger for our response is registered in areas of the brain not linked to verbalisation. So we may feel a sense of threat which we cannot explain.

Physiological and emotional responses to external dangers are part of our biological inheritance as human beings. But it is clear that the intuitive sixth sense registers more than mere external threat and is capable of intervening in personal life choices. When our lives are moving in the wrong direction or have become weighed down with difficulty, a whole range of biological and emotional signals will appear. These inner messages ask us to make a change for our own long term good, sometimes radical life changes are required to recreate health and well being. When we are lost in life, our inner alarm will sound without ceasing. Whether we heed it or not is quite another question.

Open the Windows of your Mind

Guidelines to Understanding your Intuition

• Believe that intuition is a natural and helpful part of human nature. Although modern western life places little value on intuitive understanding, imagine for a moment that you inhabit the world of your distant forebears where survival skills are paramount. Your senses would be finely tuned to danger, threat and possibility. Your actions would be guided by an instinctive and immediate knowing, not a deductive and rational analysis. In danger there is no time to think only quick action is demanded. This is the essential nature of intuition, an innate, inner and, immediate response to the situation in which you find yourself. In evolutionary terms the intuition served a protective function and it still does.

• Develop your five senses first. We often talk about the sixth sense as if it were something supernatural and it is often portrayed this way in films or books. This dramatic representation is not helpful or realistic. Intuition is too often confused with pychism and treated like an oracle to be consulted on every occasion no matter how trivial. This is not its purpose.

• The sixth sense, that immediate knowing which transcends the physical senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell, is not separate from these daily senses but it is rather the culminating accumulation of all sensory data translated into a single signal demanding action. We commonly say that something is greater than the sum of its parts, and the sixth sense is greater than the sum of the five physical senses.
• Imagine once more that you inhabit the world of your forbears: keen sight and sharp hearing avoid danger, touch brings the security of physical closeness, taste and smell inform you about food and health. We no longer need such sensory sharpness but it is clear that our senses are capable of development. If a major sense such as sight or hearing is damaged, then other senses can become stronger in order to compensate. Our senses are rarely tested by mainly sedentary and ordered lives, instead it requires a conscious act of will to look and see, listen and hear, touch with sensitivity, taste and smell with discrimination. The day to day five senses can be tested and developed in specific ways by isolating each function and then providing relevant experiences.
• When the five senses are sharp, the information stream can produce an intuitive hunch or a sudden breakthrough in understanding, intuition does not arise in a vacuum but is rooted in sensory biological data.

• Give your intuition some practice. My mother was a remarkably intuitive and perceptive person, whenever we went out together even when I was quite young, our conversation always revolved around what was happening whether we were waiting at a bus stop or going to the park. In other words she encouraged me to see and hear, to be engaged with my surroundings. Whenever we were out my mother indulged in, ‘people watching’ – noticing what was written on people’s faces. I still do this now almost unconsciously when I am out and about, standing in a shopping queue for instance. I just can’t help myself and I often fall into conversation with strangers – just like my mum who was genuinely interested in people throughout her life.
• Now this may all seem rather trivial but I learned very early on that people could tell you something without ever speaking and this sometimes applied to places too. I learned very early on in life to tune in to a personal radar which existed through yet beyond the five senses.
• Whenever you are out, just be open to what is happening in your surroundings. People showcase themselves quite unconsciously through body language, posture, facial expression and tone of voice among many other clues. We respond quite instinctively to other people and for the most part we do so without drama or incident but occasionally we might have need to avoid perceived danger or offer assistance to someone in difficulty.

• Become conscious – become aware Hearing and responding to an intuitive message is directly related to our level of conscious awareness. If the intuition speaks through the body or through feelings, we need to have sufficient sensitivity to recognise such signals. This ability is neither given nor fixed but open to development and refinement. Without at least some rudimentary level of awareness, intuitive signals will be missed or ignored. Conscious awareness is not the same as thinking or the stream of consciousness which fills the mind with an incessant white noise. Conscious awareness only arises through specific mental disciple and exercise, namely meditation.
• Although meditation has become increasingly popular and widespread in the west, many of the examples currently offered are not truly meditative but merely rely on the mind’s natural ability for visualisation. Meditation can employ visualisation but visualisation does not always employ meditation! Conscious awareness which is the key to Spiritual Intelligence cannot  arise from prescriptive guided journeys or mental forays into pleasing imagery.
• Conscious awareness is a state of mindfulness, a state of being fully aware in the present moment. Mindfulness Meditation provides the antidote to living mindlessly. This traditional eastern form of meditation places the spotlight of awareness into areas of being generally below our level of consciousness, the body, the breath, the feelings and the content of the mind. Not only does mindfulness practice bring consciousness to the very systems where intuitive messages are registered but this form of meditation develops a detached witnessing consciousness which is essential to the awakening of Spiritual Intelligence.

• What your Intuition is Not What might we reasonably expect from our intuitive sense? Having realistic expectations is essential, falsely inflated hopes will only lead to disappointment. Your intuition can indeed show itself to be remarkable and its functioning raises all sorts of interesting questions about the mind/body/spirit unity. We have done ourselves a great disfavour by dressing the intuitive sense as a supernatural hot-line ready to answer any question on demand. This is the stuff of fiction and drama. Keeping things in perspective does not diminish its value.
• If the intuition is the voice of protection and orientation, then securing a lottery win is unlikely. Nor does every minute decision in life require an intuitive affirmation. Ordinary thinking processes work admirably well in many aspects of life. In our rush to devalue the rational thought processes, we are in danger of placing an over reliance on non-rational sources of information, both have their respective places.
• The innate and instinctive intuitive sense works to keep you safe and to ring alarm bells loudly when your life choices take you into wasteland. Be grateful for that.