"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.

We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift" - Albert

Einstein.

There we have it.

Many aspects of spiritual development are discouraged through ridicule in today's society,

and 'intuition' is no different.

If we had full control of our spiritual abilities then power would shift to each individual,

away from those at the top of the global hierarchy.

Intuition is the first stepping stone on the path to unlocking certain aspects of spirituality.

Aspects such as psychic abilities, empathic abilities, mediumship, your spiritual path,

higher wisdom, your spirit guides and higher self.

Unlocking your natural ability to intuit many aspects of life can enhance your life and

facilitate further spiritual progression.

Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason (Wikipedia).

So it's the receiving of meaning to the mind without a rational, logical Earthly input.

Intuition can occur in the form of a feeling of knowing the right or wrong choice to make,

the correct path to follow, or the best course of action.

It can also be an emotional residue or a familiarity about a person, place or thing.

'Precognition' is knowing that something is going to happen before it does and this is

another form of intuition.

Mediums and psychics exercise and develop their intuition, and use it as part of their

seeing and predicting abilities, and come to trust it over time.

Outside the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, there is the 'sixth

sense' - intuition.

It's the 'I feel...' or the 'I sense...' that you say about a situation.

Everyone has intuitive abilities.

Faced with making a rational, logical decision, you feel yourself instead wanting to make

the illogical choice due to a gut feeling.

It turns out to be right.

Or, you meet a person and feel like you have met or known them before, but you've never

even crossed paths - you turn out to be good long-term friends in fact.

This has been your intuition speaking.

You're buying a house and simply know the right one to buy as if you've already lived

there, you can picture it and feel an instant emotional response to the place.

A disaster happens at work and you find yourself saying 'if I'd only followed my instincts

on this one...'

These are all familiar examples that happen to people every day.

These occurrences are brushed off as coincidences by most people, or completely ignored.

What would be the point in broadcasting to everyone at your surprise party that you intuitively

knew it was about to happen - they wouldn't believe it was really your intuition telling

you, more likely you'd overheard someone talking about it.

It's easy to dismiss it yourself too.

Carl Jung (1921), defined intuition as "perception via the unconscious".

The unconscious mind could be perceiving meaning and attempting to communicate it to the conscious

mind.

He also pointed out that intuition was irrational in terms of meaning not being in-putted by

the five senses, and was therefore a set of assumptions made by the self.

As explained in this article about dreams, the subconscious (hard to access) mind attempts

to communicate with your conscious mind (working daily mind) through presenting symbols and

feelings.

Intuition can be viewed in the same way.

Your subconscious mind cannot communicate to your conscious mind freely, for example

in cannot say 'do not trust this person' in words.

Instead your subconscious mind communicates through a simple feeling of distrust - this

is intuition.

Intuition can also result from subtle communication from your spirit guides, higher self or selves

or other guiding entities.

Communication presents itself as a gut feeling or a sense of knowing, and this energy has

been placed within your own consciousness by the guiding entity.

The resulting feeling is intuition that can be acted upon or not.

You can work on enhancing your intuition so that you can come to count on it's accuracy

and utilize it in your every day life.

Here's a good book to help with the understanding of intuition in addition to this article:

Intuition: Knowing Beyond Logic

Recognizing Intuition Most intuitive feelings go unnoticed.

Mentally classified as a chance feeling, being lucky, being smart, or they're completely

ignored.

Recognize intuition coming into play when you feel conflict or confirmation that has

not come from your own thought processes.

A train of thought will lead to a decision, but in the case of intuition, you cannot explain

where the feeling you are having came from.

It seemed to have no origin.

Remember to notice these occurrences, preferably write them down, then take note of the actions

you took and the end result.

Whether you chose to go with your intuition or not, still write down the end result and

see if it was favorable or not.

Call this your 'intuition development journal'.

Don't Force It Intuition must not be forced.

If you are looking at two cars to buy, one you like better because it is more reliable

but it costs more than you can afford, and no feeling of intuition is manifesting either

way - then do not try to force the situation.

Good old reasoning should be employed as a result.

Entries into your intuition development diary will help you to discern real intuition from

regular reasoning over time.

Remember that intuition will not occur in each and every decision, turning point and

event in your life - for some of these instances it is part of your learning and experience

to decide for yourself using your mind/body/spirit complex reasoning powers.

If we intuit our way through each lifetime we would learn little from life and need to

repeat incarnations until we do.

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Practicing Keep practicing by identifying the occurrence

of intuition and writing it down, the action taken and the end result.

Meditation is recommended.

Clear your mind and focus on the singular concept of intuition at least once a week.

Remember that meditation helps to focus the mind and provide much clarity in life.

This will help to single out thoughts and feeling initiated by your conscious mind from

your intuition.

How You Can Use Intuition Once you find that you're making the correct

decisions in life more and more, or legitimately knowing that an event is going to occur before

it does, or know that a person really is gong to be significant in your life - then you

know that your intuition is working for you to improve your life.

Therefore you can use your intuition any way you feel is right in the decision making process.

Remember not to confuse your intuition with regular thoughts, intuition must not be forced.

Also, it's always inadvisable to blindly follow intuition if there is the possibility of an

extremely negative outcome.

When Not to Trust Intuition If you are feeling overly emotional or unbalanced,

it may not be a good idea to rely on intuition too much.

Highly charged red chakra emotion can be mistaken for the 'flash of revelation' or emotional

experience of intuition.

For example, if you are experiencing dire financial worries and intuitively feel that

you should bet your last few dollars or pounds on a football game, it may not be the wisest

way to go.

In these cases, stay on the safe side and don't take any actions that you wouldn't usually

take, or actions outside of your safety zone.

Secondly, seek the help of other balanced individuals and see what they think you should

do.

Then you can make reasoned decisions without worries of clouded judgment and false intuition.

Trusting Intuition Trust intuition through attention and experience.

Examine your intuition development diary and see if any patterns are emerging.

Over time you'll be able to identify your intuition from your conscious thought patterns

or the input from your five senses.

You'll therefore be able to factor your real intuition into your conscious decisions.

The more you use your intuition, the more your diary should show whether it's working

or not.

Once your intuition development dairy has been going for six to twelve months, or longer

if you wish, evaluate all of the information you've gathered.

You should now be on the way to instinctively knowing the feeling of intuition as a separate

phenomena from other thoughts and feelings.

You can use this sixth sense as a way of choosing the correct path, or as a form of higher knowing.

Remember when intuition does not occur, it is not meant to be occurring.

Therefore try not to become frustrated.

When going for a job interview you can radiate confidence, because you intuitively know this

is the job for you.

When you're looking for your soul mate you can feel joy, because you intuitively know

that you will meet him or her very soon.

When you're missing loved ones you can gain comfort, because you intuitively feel their

presence.

When you're going through a spiritual awakening and you're not sure of your path in life,

you can move forward with strength because your intuition will help

to guide you.