I can’t remember when I discovered how intuitive I am. I may have been born with an intuitive gift AND I believe intuition is something I have practiced and stretched and grown over the years. I think having a non-verbal only thirteen-months-younger than me brother was extremely helpful in picking up clues from body language and the most tiny changes facial expressions. My empathy factor is also high, probably higher than most people.
That was just the start. Developing the intuition is like developing any skill set. It takes time, effort, commitment and there are times you will “get it” wrong – or not as right as you might like it to be.
For those of you who are intuitive, this exercise and the writing prompts will help you develop your abilities. Some of you who believe yourselves to be absolutely the opposite of intuitive, for today and today only I ask you to allow yourself to open your mind to consider growing your intuitive skills.
Judith Orloff, MD, Professor at UCLA said, “Highly developed intuition is a “secret weapon.” Learning to develop your intuition will make you better at your work, in your relationships and more.
Simple method to practice and develop your intuition now
- Take note of hunches you receive. Write them in a note on your phone or in a small notebook. It is important to actually DO this instead of “just remembering.” Jack Canfield explains further “Your intuition might speak to you as a hunch, a thought, or in words. Your intuition may speak to you in physical sensations, such as goose bumps, discomfort in your gut, a feeling of relief, or a sour taste in your mouth.” You may take the notes you make in your phone or notebook one step further by dialoguing with the hunch. Do this by free-flow writing. Don’t plan what you are going to write, just ask the question of your hunch and allow your pencil to move. You might want to start with, “The nudge to call my former friend to talk about reconciling feels uncomfortable and I don’t like it but if I asked the wise old person who lives inside me what they might say is….
- Take a specific time daily for quiet time by yourself with the specific intention to tune into your intuition. This may mean taking a 15 minute walk followed by a 5 minute journaling session. This may be meditating for 5 minutes. This may mean yoga followed by singing scales and listening between the notes for ideas.
- Look for connections between seemingly disconnected objects in your surroundings to see what they want you to notice or “hear.” Try it now. Pick up three objects, put them in a row and start “riffing” aloud about them.
An example of how to process Intuition Exercise Results
These were the three objects I chose randomly from my environment:
Meyers Clean Day Cleaner; a coffee pot; the seagull reader (a poetry book I am using as a makeshift mouse pad.)
Possibility One: (First Flash insights using intuitive associations, without intellectual associations)
Be awake when I edit my poetry. (mindful and creative instead of seeing editing and revision of my writing as a chore to rush through)
YES!
This is spot on! Lately I have been writing much more which means I am spending more time in revision and editing. I tend to rush through revision and editing because my intellect thinks it isn’t as fun as the drafting process.
Possibility Two: Very practical – Remember to buy hand soap when I run errands later today. (This has to do with cleaning and other people – may not make sense to you but it does to me. And yes, I did remember!)
Possibility Three: For this response, I used both my intellect and my intuition and went deeper. The results are brilliant. I will make a note to myself to put this into action:
Take time to enjoy your morning practices. Allow the “chore” parts of your day be as soulful and inspiring as poetry.
How to discover and use your intuition exercise results:
- Gather the items and look at them, loosely. In other words, don’t stare them down and shout “Speak to me, objects!” instead allow yourself to simply be curious.
- What associations come up almost immediately? Write them down.
- Go about your business and return to the objects later in the day or the next day. Now consider not with solely your intuition, look with your intellect as well. What associations or ideas pop up now?
- Take note of anything resonant, especially if it has relevance in your ife right now or for a loved one.
- Experiment with the intuitive hits (or messages) from your objects. Repeat as compelled. Remember to have fun with this!
Writing Prompts for further exploration
Social Media Posts: Use one of the intuition prompts offered in the journaling section as a caption to a post. Ask your audience what they think. When they respond, be curious rather than “provide expertise.”
Video Prompt: Do a livestream video about the topic of using intuition in your business. Prepare for this by writing about a time you used intuition in your business and what happened. You may even do the exercise I used above to develop intuition to practice live. (I have done this before – it is very fun!)
Lifestyle Bloggers: Ask your audience to share their stories of intuition with you. Interview one of them, Q and A style and feature it in your blog, Keep the conversation going to gain clarity about your readers in a different way so that you may continue to offer refreshing content.
Poets: Write a poem about a time when you followed your intuition and things did not turn out like you expected.
Copywriters: Freeflow headlines as outrageous as possible. Just start scribbling, even if they make no sense at all. Set them aside for at least a day or two. When you return, use your strongest editing skill – with an open mind – and see what gold nuggets appear.
Journaling Quotes & General Prompts:
“Intuition is seeing with the soul.”
Dean Koontz
Prompt: When I see with my soul, I notice…
“Don’t try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.”
Madeleine L’Engle
Prompt: My intellect likes to take me down a path of…. and my intuition seems to take me down a path of……. and I wonder what would happen if I….
“Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads. It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out.”
Malcolm Gladwell
Prompt: If I started to allow myself to trust my insights more….
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We look forward to writing with you!
Julie JordanScott lives in Bakersfield, California in a house too small for quarantine life. She leads discussions on Zoom and is polishing her most recent memoir and some poetry for soon-to-be publication. If you would like her to speak to your group over ZOOM until travel is available again, she would be happy to talk to you about that OR maybe you are looking for a slightly quirky, very open hearted, compassionate and tender Creative Life Coach. Call or text her at 661.444.2735 to schedule an exploratory session.
She would love to connect with you soon.
The first three things I chose were a bust. *shrugs* But then, I tried again, with a TV sitting on the floor, the chromebook on my lap and the camo throw on the chair. And I got message after message after message – but it was all the same message. God is working behind the scenes. The manifestation work you do while sitting in your chair is hiding in plain sight. The results are real but camouflaged. It looks like nothing’s happening, but there is power at work I don’t yet see. And then, specifically, the thing I am most concerned about – getting to watch all the Hallmark Christmas movies this season, when I do not yet have cable – is already settled, but I can’t see it yet, and it may not happen exactly the way I thought it would/should. All the messages were about exactly that concern, and they all meant, “don’t worry,” but they were a little different each time I took another look at the three objects.
It seems that when I “try” to use my intuition and ‘tune-in’ to it, I am not as effective if I just let it flow through me.
Thanks for the tips!