5 Easy Tips to Cultivate Your Intuition

I’ve spent the past few months gathering information and experimenting on my own with ways to cultivate intuition in preparation for my upcoming collaboration with Rachael Chatham, LPC. I am by no means an expert on accessing intuition, but I am excited about sharing what I know. Even in this short period of time, I’ve noticed some positive shifts in my ability to tap into my knowing and to follow to its guidance.

Accessing your intuition is like training for anything, it takes time, practice, and patience. So please be patient and compassionate with yourself as you explore–and don’t give up just because you don’t notice anything at first.  To get you started, here are some tips on cultivating and maintaining access to your intuition.

1. Keep a journal. As odd as an intuition journal may seem, I think it’s actually one of the most important components of increasing your awareness. Like cultivating anything, it’s hard to know if we’re making progress without tracking it. My recommendation would be to get a small notebook so that you can carry it with you, and take a moment to jot down any intuitive hits or misses. Here’s an example, this morning my son and I went out to grab a donut and the parking lot was pretty backed but there were two spots, I had the thought to park at the farthest one where there was plenty of room but instead decided to squeeze into one closer to the door. I turned off the car and moments later heard a ‘bang!’. Sure enough, my son has opened the car door right into the side of the neighboring car. Fortunately, it was just a small scratch so not a huge deal. This will go down in my journal as an intuitive miss, which means I had the inner guidance but I didn’t follow it. For our purposes of cultivating our intuition, tracking these misses is just as important as tracking the hits.  If you’re more of a tech person, you could just create a note in your phone where you jot down hits and misses. You’ll be surprised at how often your inner guide is speaking to you!
2. Get support. Surround yourself with people who also put stock in listening to their intuition and who follow it readily. Our culture tends to value our more rational, left-brain as the most important source for information so it helps to get validation and support from others who feel a more intuitive, right brained approach is equally if not more useful.  You could do this in more unstructured ways or structured like creating or joining a support group.
3. Spend time alone. How can we expect to hear our inner guidance when we don’t pause and take time to listen?  Of course easier said that done with all of the demands on our time, but see if you can play around with pausing throughout the day to check in and see what you notice. Maybe nothing and that’s okay too. Make time each day to turn off extra stimulation in order to allow your awareness to focus inward.
4. Practice regular meditation. In her research, Belleruth Naparstek, shared “meditation was the factor most frequently city for increasing skills…because meditation simultaneously clears and stills the mind, focuses awareness, and, in the case of mindfulness and other popular forms of meditation, turns the attention inward”. Of course, I love this one–as I think a daily mindfulness practice supports most good things. If you’re not familiar with meditation, check out the calm or headspace apps for some easy guided mindfulness practices ranging from 2 minutes to an hour long.
5. Take care of your physical health. According to Belleruth Naparstek, the more attuned how what we put in our body affects us, the more able we’ll be to make choices that support our intuitive capabilities.  She also explained that as we increase our ability to access intuition, it’s important that we take care of the physical structure of our body to create a healthy and solid foundation/container for our expanded psychic awareness. Otherwise, it can put stress on our bodies. As you become more intuitive, make sure to listen to any changes in what your body needs, e.g., more exercise, less caffeine, etc.

Though this is certainly not a comprehensive list, it’s enough to get you started. Again, it’s important to go slowly and be patient, as you expand your awareness to tap into your intuition. As with any physical training, if you push too hard, too fast, you could overdo it.  Hope you enjoy getting to play a little with the above tips. If you want more, I highly recommend the book Your Sixth Sense: Unlocking the power of your intuition by Belleruth Naparstek or check out this upcoming series on cultivating intuition for some group support and experiential practice.

Challenge: Set the intention to explore your intuition over the next week. Keep a journal and notice any intuitive hits or misses. The more you pay attention to these, the more you’ll notice–and I think you’ll be surprised how often you already tap into your intuition.

Affirmation:  Intuition is always available to me.  All I have to do is listen.