How to Develop Your Intuition

One of the fun things about gardening is watching how plants instinctively know where the sun is.  Especially sunflowers.  They turn their lovely flower heads from East to West each day following the sun.  They trust their intuition.

We can learn a lot by watching plants. 

When you are getting ready to make a decision tune in to how your body feels about it.  Do you get a warm fuzzy feeling, like following the sun?  Or, do you get a cold, empty feeling like there is a freeze coming? Noticing what you are noticing, helps develop intuition.

Listen to your body

Our bodies talk to us every day, just like plants. 

Start making a note to yourself when you are making decisions.  You will get a sensation somewhere in your body.  Some people feel a positive answer in their gut, other people feel a positive answer in their solar plexus.  Each person is different and it pays to know what your bodies language is.

Tips from Mother Nature

I would like to share some tips from author Julia Graves in her book The Language of Plants:

1. You can only hear what you allow to filter through the chatter of your own mind. Julia is speaking about listening to plants, but the same holds true for listening to your inner knowing, your intuition.
2. You can perceive correctly only what does not get distorted by your layer of phobias and paradigms. I know of many times when my still small voice tells me something and I immediately think, “I don’t need to do that” rather than wait for the rest of the message.
3. Leave the reasoning and interpretation for after you have listened fully. Stay with the experience and let it unfold.  Allow yourself time to really listen without thinking about the how to, or why that won’t work.
4. When you are stopping to listen to your intuition, don’t jump out of state to quickly or you may forget what you heard. Very similar to waking up from a dream.  If you wake up slowly and linger over the dream, there is a better chance that you will remember it enough to write it down.

Tools

One of the tools I use with my coaching clients to develop intuition is the 5 S’s taught by my mentor, Mary Morrissey:

• Source – take a minute to calm your mind and ask your question. Then sit in silence for two minutes and listen for answers.
• Sort – write down every thing that comes to mind, no matter how silly it may seem.
• Select – one or two ideas that came to you that you feel you can accomplish in the next 7 days
• Schedule – put these on your calendar so you have a “by when” to hold you accountable
• Serve – know that by trusting your intuition and taking action you are not only serving your dreams; you are making other peoples lives happier as well.

Another fun way to start tuning into your intuition is to ask yourself questions about everything your do.  Should I use the blue pen or the red pen today?  Do I want coffee or tea this morning?  Do I feel like a reading a book or watching a movie right now? 

Just by asking yourself, instead of being on remote control, you will start hearing your inner wisdom speaking to you much more frequently. May your day be bright as sunflowers.

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P.S.  Have you taken the What’s Your Growth Style? quiz yet?  Find out what plant your personality is most similar to.