Hearing Your Inner Voice
Tune into your quiet inner voice and trust your gut instinct.
We all have it. That quiet little voice that whispers a warning to us. That gut instinct. Your intuition. The voice that works to give us guidance and wisdom, if we will only listen.
The trouble is that even though it is YOUR inner voice unless you know what it sounds like, what its’ language is, you cannot hear it. Your inner voice, your intuition, does not speak to you verbally like a friend, family member or counselor does, by actually explaining what actions you should take or what to do next. Intuition does not carry on a conversation with you, at least not in the traditional way of conversing with the spoken word.
Intuition does speak to you, however, and it has a lot to say if you will only be aware of how it is informing you. If you are not actively tuned into your intuition you’ll need to practice communicating with it to develop an easy understanding of it and to learn to hear its’ messages clearly.
For me, the easiest way to begin to tune into your intuition is to use the wisdom of your body. In hypnotherapy training, we were taught about the felt-sense and a rule of mind called “Organ Language.” “Organ Language” states that the body responds to your thoughts whether they are conscious or subconscious. So, even if you are unaware of your thoughts, a response can be felt in the body, or felt-sense. Felt-sense is the place in your body, from about your chin to your waist, where you notice a physical response to a thought or idea.
I find that intuition uses your physical body in the same way as the subconscious mind. (Of course, it can be argued that your intuition IS your subconscious mind, yet for the purpose of this discussion, let’s stick with calling it intuition.)
While the intuition does not limit its’ vocabulary to physical responses such as causing your skin to run with goose-flesh, or flip over your stomach like it’s a pancake, those are the easiest communications to learn to become aware of as you learn to “talk” with your intuition. You do not need any special training or equipment; just your body and your thoughts.
Start by taking a couple of deep cleansing breaths and then focus on a negative experience that still has some charge left in it for you, something you can still easily get upset about. Now as you remember that unpleasant memory, notice how your body is responding to the memory. Is your stomach tight? Does your breathing change? Do you feel your throat tightening? Are you involuntarily clenching your fists?
Don’t worry about being wrong. You can’t be wrong. Whatever you notice is perfectly right for you. You don’t have to stay with the memory for long. The idea is just to begin to realize that you can feel responses in your physical body. The feeling that came up could very well be your unique way of experiencing a “No” or some type of warning from your intuition. Your intuition could use the same kind of sensations that you have experienced in unpleasant times to warn you that what you are about to do will also be unpleasant.
Now, take another couple of breaths to clear way that memory and response and then focus on a really happy or pleasant memory and as you do, once again became aware of your body’s physical response. Does your heart or stomach feel light? Does your breath slow down? Do your shoulders relax? This feeling could be your way of experiencing a “Yes” or a “Go ahead” signal from your intuition.
You can get a heads up in any situation once you have discovered at least one way in which your intuition is communicating with you. Test it and run an idea through your mind and see if what you think you want to do feels more like the “No” or more like the “Yes” response you got in touch with earlier. Follow the signal and see what happens.
The more you tap into your intuition, the easier it is to hear it and then you can use it automatically to help you in any given situation.
