Intuition is a wonderful gift but despite what you believe, we all have it and can access it to the fullest if we want to. Some people are naturally gifted with intuition and seem to harness its power sometimes without even being aware of it. Quite often this is because it becomes second nature or because they have allowed it to be an ally since they were children and so it feels as natural as thinking or calling a memory.  For most people, however, intuition is something they can barely relate to either because they don’t know or forgot how it feels like or because their beliefs have repressed that part of themselves.

This comes to no surprise since our contemporary frenetic culture has installed in us a different kind of program – one that is more bent towards, logic, rational choice and left-brain kind of thinking in general. Society doesn’t engender intuitive skills, imagination and right-brain creative thinking.  It’s not something they teach in mainstream schools do they? There is no formal guidance on how to harness your right-brain skills when you are a child or growing up. That would be such a charm don’t you think?

Yet there are simple steps that can guide ANYONE to open up, grow and harness more intuition in life. But why should anyone become more intuitive you might ask? Why not learn some other skill in your free time such as a language, programming or design? Here are some kickers as to why intuition is a fantastic gift and ally to have:

1. Energy-Saver: Intuition saves you a lot of teeth grinding, head scratching, intensive mental acrobatics and strenuous analytical thinking. Why? Because intuition leaps outside the box of linear thinking and what-if scenarios and goes straight to the answer. At some level you implicitly ‘know’ the answer without needing to go through the process.

2. Problem-Solver: Sometimes no matter how hard you think about a problem, you can’t just hit a solution. Could be because you are trying to look at it from the same angle over again or perhaps there are some variables you can’t see or something entirely different. Intuition very often offers a solution to a hard problem because it accesses a deeper level of mind and attunes to your heart’s calling – something your rational judgment alone doesn’t do.

3. GPS and Route Finder: Intuition is the perfect tool to give you directions when you are lost. As mentioned above, sometimes certain variables are unknown hence we get lost in uncertainty. When we are more intuitive we somehow know our way out or what we need to do and the more we trust it, the more accurate it becomes.

4. Ass-Saver: Yes sometimes trying to use rational judgment alone to make a decision can get you more into trouble rather than away from it. Similarly, there might be a troublesome turn of events that you can’t predict by just analyzing a situation. Intuition on the other hand can save your ass out of a situation by giving you a ‘feel’ that something is odd and it’s time to stir away from it.

5. Relationship Counselor: If we had to live our relationships through our heads, they are bound to be total disasters. Once again, intuition can work beautifully alongside or within relationships. It can give you bearing on how the relationship is going, help you identify issues and give you insights into what can be improved.

Developing intuition requires three different stages – Setting the stage, refining the process and reinforcing the habit. The ten steps I would like to recommend to you fall in each of these three stages.

Setting the Stage:

1.  Pattern Breaking:

A very interesting and fun way of prepping yourself to be more intuitive is breaking free from rigid habitual patterns. This idea of de-patterning trains your mind to be more fluid and be open to new things outside habit. An example of de-patterning is changing routines when you can, refreshing house decor, changing your route to work, wearing colors you usually don’t.

2. Gentle Self-talk:

Imagine intuition as a sweet young girl who is gentle and playful at the same time. Your thinking is the adult in the room. How do you invite the girl to play with you or at least not to scare her away? Being rough, strict or plain boring is not going to help. Same thing with your thinking and inner conversation. Being self-critical, skeptical or cynical is not going to invite intuition anytime soon. Be gently with yourself.

3. Trust your ‘Instincts’:

An important aspect to facilitating more intuition to flow in your life is to trust more those gut feelings and instincts. Learn to first acknowledge they are happening and then start trusting that they have something to say. The more you do that, the more you start sending out the message to your deeper consciousness that you are syncing in and ready to take the call.

4. Give Space:

So following all of the above three steps will open up inner space to accommodate more intuition to flow in your life. By breaking some patterns of habit, softening your inner conversation and giving more trust to your ‘instincts’ you are making more room for intuition to arise. After all, lack of intuition is nothing more than a lack of space for it to come through because your inner space was already fully packed with certain beliefs handed down to you by society.

Refining the Process:

5. Be Ready:

An important thing about intuition is that when it comes, it comes. You cannot hang up on it or put it on hold. You cannot say “Leave a message please and I’ll get to it when I’m free.”  Intuition is spontaneous and is a manifestation of a living, breathing system. It happens in the present. So when you do get the call – take it and always be ready for it. This will bring in more of it.

6. Change your focal point:

When your focus on something is too narrow, it can bring things in clearer view. You can see things coming in sharp focus which weren’t in the focal field before. However intuition works best when we change our focal point for a while. Being too focused helps you bring things in higher definition but then you need to step back, defocus a little bit and wait for  your sub-conscious mind to synthesize the information and return back with an intuitive answer. Learning the process of changing focus is a powerful tool to refine your intuitive abilities.

7. Listen to your Body:

The body is an antenna that both receives and transmits information all the time from/to the mind and the energetic field around it. Think of ‘gut feelings’, butterflies in the stomach, tightness in the chest, etc. So the body can be a good indicator of what’s happening inside you at  more subtle levels. Refining the process of intuition requires that you make it a habit to check on your body for these indicators. I like doing it in quiet moments and sometimes in meditations. Being receptive to these signs will make you more sensitive and engaged with your intuitive side.

8. Ask the Right Questions:

Intuition can also be aided by the logical and rational mind but not overpowered by it. So as in the case of changing the focal point to something, we can also direct our inner attention to something by asking the right questions. I belief this is extremely helpful and powerful at times. Sometimes our idea about something is fuzzy and unclear. We lack direction and confidence. It’s like we don’t know where to start. Intuition may give us a clear answer but if not, then you need to help it out by asking more specific questions. Write them down. When you start asking questions, you discern the situation more and that is where you might hit the right spot (or focal point) and bang….intuition!

Reinforcing the Habit:

9.  Tuning in the channel:

Being ready, changing your focal point and listening to your body are really great access points to tune into your intuitions. Yet this process has to be reinforced into a system. It needs to be practiced over again. There is a wonderful course I recommend called ‘Tune in’ by intuition expert Sonia Choquette, author of NY Times best sellers The Answer is Simple and Trust your Vibes among others. It’s a good way to learn all the above or more in a guided and structured way through videos, guided meditations for intuitive guidance and visualization aids. Check it out here.

10. Be Thankful & give Value:

Last but not least, intuition is reinforced in your everyday life by recognizing and being thankful of the guidance it has provided. Being grateful to something is a way of making it more present because you are shedding the light of your consciousness on it and opening your heart to it. So never take your intuition for granted is a good advice. Be thankful to its blessings and value it as being one of the biggest assets in your life.