Develop Your Intuition

Intuition is a precious gift that is used all too infrequently in a world where many people favour left brain activity which is highly logical, rational and reasoned. Yet our predominant activity is in relating to and dealing with people, emotions and creation, all of which is not logical, rational and reasoned.

Many people have allowed their intuition to recede into the background and even when it does pop up like a bright little light saying “see me, look at me, I have an idea”, they pass it over in favour of what seems to be sensible at the time. And yet intuition will offer up wonderfully creative ideas that will provide the very best solutions if only we will listen.

So how do we regenerate our intuition? Try the following tips:-

1. Type “develop intuition” into any search engine and do a bit of selective reading.  You will find a wealth of material and any number of creative ideas.  And this process will help you to know more for yourself, to be well informed.
2. Next, but only marginally behind knowing for yourself, is to create a new belief around intuition.  One that says it is highly valuable and worth looking out for in every decision that you make.
3. To help create that new belief, ask your intuition for help on every matter and then look for the response.  Be gentle, because it might take you a while to recognise the response.  And more than that, the intuitive response might be so creative that you will not give it any credit.  You might just ignore it!
4. Finding quiet space will increase the likelihood that you will get your intuitive messages.  Your intuition is not at all like your mind chatter, which starts the minute you open your eyes and will happily bombard you until you slip into a deep sleep.  Your mind chatter will overpower intuitive ideas at any time unless you still it and find space to let your intuition come through.
5. Meditation will help with that, as will any activity in which you still the mind and open yourself.  I call it dead brain activity and it includes ironing, cleaning, washing up and other repetitive things.  Repetition can be very soothing.  So when you are doing any of these things and you get a bright idea, chances are it has come through from your intuition.
6. Start to recognise your emotions.  Look for them and work out what they are; happiness, sadness, anxiety, contentment, fear, anger.  The reason that I say this is that some people mix up a feeling in their gut with their “gut feeling”, another term for intuition.  You need to know what your feelings feel like in a physical sense and then when you get a gut feeling, you can check it to see if you recognise a feeling that you are aware shows up in your gut.  Many people feel fear in their gut and this then confuses them that it may be a gut feeling.  Get in touch with your feelings.
7. Intuition feels good!!  It may make you go “whoa, what is that?  I am not doing that!!”  But I can assure you that if you know your feelings and how they effect you, you will find that intuition is entirely different.
8. You may experience your intuition as a bright light idea, or a whole of body experience that you just know is right.  Or it might be an idea that will not go away or one that comes to you out of the blue while your brain is quiet.  For some people, they get tingling or other physical sensations with their intuitive ideas.  Some people have no experience at all, they just use their intuition and enjoy great decision-making.
9. But the very best way to get your intuition back in the driving seat is to ask your higher self for answers.  In your quiet time or before you sleep, just pose the question that you have and ask for the answer.  The next morning, or after your meditation or any time over the next day or so, be alert to a response coming through.
10. For this reason, start to work with your dreams.  Dreams can be your intuition in action.  Again, there is plenty of material available on dreams.  Just pick a reputable source.

Your intuition is a lovely thing so go forth and play, have fun and enjoy giving it more life. You and our whole community can only benefit.

More Ideas To Make Your Daily Journal Easy

I am, as you know, a devotee of the daily journal habit. Apart from the fact that the development of daily habits is a contributor to happiness (and who does not want happiness?), it is also pretty amazing to read back over your journal at the same time of the year, from time to time, and see the changes that you have made in your life, for yourself and/or they way that you are feeling.  Writing down some of your daily thoughts and ideas can be fulfilling in many other ways as hand writing, which some say it is becoming a lost art, can help you to make sense of what is happening, how you are reacting and why and actions that you can take to make changes where you want them.  And it will definitely help you on your journey to success.

Sure, it can be a confronting process at times as you may start to explore some parts of yourself that you prefer not to face but that is where the real value if this lovely process comes in. You are exploring these things just with yourself!!  No-one else unless you chose to.  And then you can look at them in wonder, at a later date, and laugh about your fears.  Some of the things that I have been afraid of in the past have proven to be just nothing later, because I took charge of them.

How does it get any better than that?

So recently, in my quest for more content to help people to work with their daily journal, I was delighted to read “Your Pocket Life Coach” – seriously recommend that you get this one. Carole Gaskell, Author, outlines some of her ideas for the daily “inspirational” journal.  So test these out and see a previous blog of mine, 10 Ideas To Get You Started With A Daily Journal,  for even more ideas.

From Carole Gaskell:-

• Use your daily inspirational journal to record your thoughts, insights, intuitive ideas and actions
• Write about things that make you happy, confident, excited
• Record your achievements and what you are committed to doing next
• Note the people you love and why
• Outline your plans for the next day, week, month etc
• Put down what you have learned that day or things that have helped you in your development.

Oh, and have fun!!  And my congratulations to Carole for such a smashing little book.

Go With the Flow

There are two ways that you can do things in life – go with the flow or go against it. If you go with the flow then what you are choosing to have occur in your life is most likely going to come easier.   Well that makes sense I know, however it is very common for people to be going against the flow and not even know that they are or that a flow exists.  So what does it mean to go with the flow?  Check out this fabulous website for 12 simple tips.

You know how you can get a great idea – you just know that it is perfect for you. It feels right, looks right, sounds right and your intuition is telling you that it is right.  So you set to work to make it happen and before you know where you are, it is harder than Ben Hur!  Well, idea is right but the execution might not be.  Is there an easier way?  Is the timing right? Are you in the right space yourself to see the idea through?  Maybe you are going against the flow – the natural flow of life and that is why it is so hard.  If you are going with the flow, in the right moment and the idea is coming alive easy – fantastic.  That is how it is meant to be.

So how do you get yourself into the flow? I have found that first you have to see that it is hard going.  All too often people just get caught up in the “I’ll make it happen” which is a great attitude, but what if a small change in yourself might get it happening easier?  Once you can see that it is hard, you can start to think about how it might be easier and guess what – you can think it easy.  That’s right, you can think it easy!  Use your mind power.

Once you decide to think it easy, get your creative juices flowing, new ways are likely to become apparent to you. You could also talk this over with others, what would they do and how would they do it?  Idea hasn’t changed but maybe you are.  In essence, look for the easy ways to appear, they might be right before your eyes and you can not see for looking.  However if you can see, it is much easier to go with the flow of life.

Huna in Hawaii

I have recently returned from Hawaii which was truly spectacular and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. I was in Hawaii for a personal development program related to my home business in personal development as well as to relax and enjoy the company of my beloved.  So I travelled all of that way to this remarkable conference, spent days in the company of like minded people and came away having had another life changing experience.  However it was not until I returned home and read a particularly captivating article about Hawaii that I realised that I have missed something special and will have to return!!  What a shame.

I refer to an article “The Secret Science Behind Miracles” published in New Dawn, written by Richard Smoley. For a personal development devotee, this is a lovely article that provides a good beginning for understanding the Hawaiian tradition of “Huna“.  Smoley explains that the fundamental idea behind Huna is that a person, rather than being a single coherent entity has three parts that work in harmony (or not as the case may be).  There is the strong, intuitive, emotional self, the reasoning self and the wise, utterly devoted, utterly loving parental self.

The article goes on to teach how to work with the three selves, to take guidance when making decisions and increase your self awareness through this practice. Serge Kahili King a noted Kahuna, says that attentive self-enquiry will eventually lead you to see the beliefs upon which you base your actions and once consciously recognised you can then change them if you so desire.  Now I am aware that beliefs can and often are limiting and I have a few that I am working to change.  You see why I must go back!!!  How much fun would it be to work with a Kahuna.

Travel and Intuition – Personal Development is the Connection

The connection between travel and intuition as personal development might be a long shot for some people so let me demonstrate how it works. Joe Vitale, writing in The Key, refers to intuition as the inner prompt and considers intuition prompted actions to not always have logical reasoning but acting on an inspired nudge.  Isn’t that a delightful way of looking at one of our most valuable subconscious tools?  Joe says that he takes action based on his inner prompts. Definitions of intuition relate to the mind knowing something without being able to explain with reasoning.  Intuition, also known as “gut feeling“, has been known forever and as we have moved as a society to favour scientific reasoning, logic and rationalisation, intuitive responses have become less valued as a way of knowing.

In my business world of personal development, intuition is critical to understanding the whole self, the full suite of reasons why and how we make decisions and is used as a valid method of decision making. Build trust with your intuition.  Almost every person, though, has to find ways to reconnect with their intuitive processes and that is where the travel comes in.  Many, if not most, people connect with their intuition when their mind is peaceful and slow and driving can do that for you.

I am one of those people who finds breakthrough ideas coming through while I am driving, blow drying my hair and walking in the mornings. I hold the unscientific view that the left and right brain connection is good at these times and helps to stimulate intuition.  Anecdotally though, many people recount the experience of great ideas that feel totally true to them coming while driving.  Works for me, and I just love the idea that I am attending to my personal development while driving and on long trips I can feel particularly happy with myself for doing such great self development work.  And I just sit back and wait for the aha moment.

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