We've all experienced a sense of knowing in our life. Perhaps we got this feeling that we were going to win and indeed we were right. Or perhaps we knew something felt really wrong and indeed we were right again. We all have this mysterious ability to know things beyond our physical perspective using a form of sixth sense commonly known as the intuition. Some of us are more intuitive and are naturally gifted in the use of the intuition while others have to strengthen the intuition. In this article we shall discuss what the intuition is and how we may all strengthen our intuition.
"The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days" - Lao Tzu
Have you ever walked into a party and met someone knew and as soon as you met this individual on face value he/she was a lovely individual, polite and friendly with a big smile on their face, but something didn't feel right, your inner alarm bells were ringing. This is inner feeling is what we commonly refer to as our sixth sense or Intuition.
We can conscious perceive reality with our five corporeal senses and these senses pick up vibratory frequencies in visual, auditory or kinesthetic form. Now our intuition picks up frequencies beyond that of a physical nature to help us navigate through our reality.
In prehistoric times this would be very much necessary as when primitive humans hunted in the jungles for food, it is common for carnivorous predators to be lurking in the bushes, some so stealthy that they make little sound. The primitive man by some means feels a shiver rush down their spine or perceive a peculiar sense of knowing which instills fear into the individual and causing the primitive man to cower towards safety even though he did not see the danger in sight. It was the built-in protective mechanism of intuition that detected the presence of danger lurking in the bushes that manifested this "inner knowing" within the primitive man.
In our modern times, since most of us no longer hunt for food in the jungles the chances of being attacked by a carnivorous animal is extremely unlikely. Due to this our intuitive capabilities have severely diminished compared to primitive humanity. Although diminished, some individuals have a naturally powerful intuition. Whether you happen to be one of these individuals or not, we all can improve our intuition beyond that of our ancestors with a little bit of practice everyday. Just like any skill even intuition can be developed with practice.
Exercise 1: The guessing game
1. You will need a normal pack of playing cards.
2. Shuffle the deck thoroughly and place it faced down on a table in front of you.
3. Sit on a chair in front of the table and close your eyes and take a few deep breaths in and out for about 1-2 minutes to bring you into a relaxed state.
4. Place your hand over the top and try to intuitively feel the card in your mind and make an intuitive guess whether it will be either a black card or red card. Make your decision and flip the top card over. If you're right place it on the right side next to the deck, if it is wrong place it on the left side next to the deck.
5. Continue carrying out step 4 until the entire deck has been done. Make sure that if you get an intuitive guess correct, place it on the right hand side pile, and if it is incorrect place it on the left hand side pile.
6. Count the cards in each pile which will tell you how many you got right and how many you got wrong.
7. Formulate it into a percentage that you got correct and record this in your diary.
How does it work?: The above exercise is indeed very simple but very effective, this is indeed an exercise I had done everyday in order to strengthen my sense of knowing. In a standard deck of playing cards there are 52 cards, 26 black cards and 26 red cards. If one were to simply guess without actually intending to 'intuitively feel' what card it was there would be a 50% chance of picking a black or red card and therefore one would have a 50% chance of guessing the colour of a card correctly. Here, what you will notice is by simply intending to feel intuitively what card it may be, it unconsciously puts into practice the conscious use of the intuitive capabilities of the mind in detecting the subtle energetic differences between that of a red card and that of a black card. What you will notice is that in the beginning you will get approximately 50% correct but with practice you will notice oddly enough that you will reach a stage in which you can even get 80-90% of the cards correct. This is due to the intuitive capabilities being strengthened due to its conscious use. Practice makes perfect.
Exercise 2: The dice roll
1. You will need a six-sided dice, piece of black paper and a pen.
2. Sit on a chair in front of a table and close your eyes and take a few deep breaths in and out for about 1-2 minutes to bring you into a relaxed state.
3. Keep you eyes closed and throw the dice onto the table and without peaking, with your eyes closed intuitively try to guess what number the dice has landed on.
4. Open your eyes and note down on the paper whether you got it correct or incorrect.
5. Repeat this for around 5 minutes.
The above exercise is a little more advanced than exercise one but works in the same premise. It is best that you obtain sufficient results from practicing exercise one before moving onto exercise two. The reason is the chances of getting a card correct is 50% in exercise one while in exercise two the chances are around 17%. In order to prevent frustration its always best to begin with practicing exercise one often and see improvements in your intuitive capabilities first.
Just like your biceps or calves, the intuition is a muscle that can be strengthened with exercise. I have given you two exercises above that can make serious improvements to ones intuition. Intuition is a powerful ally which everyone should become more acquainted with as those who do exercise the faculty will be at a real advantage in their personal, social and professional life.