Exercising Your Intuition

What exactly is intuition?

in·tu·i·tion/ˌint(y)o͞oˈiSHən/Noun:

1. The ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.
2. A thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning.

I bet you can think of countless times you’ve experienced this type of feeling. That time you drove a different route than usual because it felt right going that way instead. Or the new friend you knew you would become close with. It could even be as simple as ordering an item from a menu instead of another because you felt it would taste best.

It’s useful to exercise our intuition because it helps us to trust it. We’ve all most likely experienced the positive outcome as well as negative. Remember those times you kicked yourself because you didn’t follow your gut?

Intuition plays a bigger part in our lives than we give it credit for. Life doesn’t need to be as hard as it is so why not exercise our own inner navigational system and make life simpler?

A fun and easy way to begin to exercise your intuition is with cards. These can be playing cards, tarot cards, oracle cards or you can even make your own cards and draw images or numbers on them.

Let’s say you grab a deck of playing cards. Take a few deep breaths, quiet your mind and be conscious of your center. Shuffle the cards and draw a few out of the deck laying them face down. There are no rules to this, you make them up as you go and do what feels comfortable. For example, you could look at one of the cards or hold one and focus on it. What impressions do you sense? Some easy questions to ask yourself are: is it black or red? is it a heart? is it a high number card or a lower one? Then turn it over.

Don’t get discouraged if your guess is way off. Pay attention to what sensations you experience when you do guess right. Everyone has strengths in different areas so while some might close their eyes and see colors or symbols, someone else might hear answers or feel temperature sensations.

Remember that you can do this with others too. Get creative and have fun!