Intuition Basics Part 1 - Feeling Before Thinking

In order to tap into our intuition, we first need to understand what it is and how to feel it. When we start practicing feeling our own energy, it can feel like being a new pilot trying to land a plane for the first time—wobbly, turbulent, and bumpy. It takes time, practice, and patience. But once we get the hang of it and start automatically feeling it daily, we begin using our intuition as our guide.

The biggest misconception about intuition is that it comes in the form of an idea that pops into our head. While that is part of the process, our intuition actually begins as a feeling. Yes, that’s right—it’s the feeling we get within our body's energy, particularly around the areas of our 3rd and 4th chakras.

When we are not in tune with our own energy and body, we can miss these signals of guidance. The first step to tapping into our intuition is to recognize the feelings we have within our bodies. When we are in tune with our body's energy, we start to feel these pings of guidance and can pay attention to them.

Typically, these feelings can be large or small, heavy or light. My mother used to call it the “uh-oh” feeling—that sensation in our guts that sometimes feels like we’ve just taken a nosedive on a roller coaster or when the floor drops out from beneath our feet on the Turkish Twist, and it feels like our heart suddenly drops along with it. It’s noticeable because it’s strong, and we have an immediate reaction to something that our brain then tries to decipher.

Sometimes, we just get an uneasy feeling. For example, when we’re walking down the road and see someone approaching, we might immediately know to cross the street to give ourselves distance, or we might just walk by without issue. This is our intuitive energy alerting our body to potential danger or safety. Our body’s energy interprets the message from other energy and sends a signal to our brain to either distance ourselves or keep walking.

These types of gut feelings are relatively easy to recognize and are the beginning of understanding how our personal intuition works. This is the first step in becoming aware of our energy space and tuning into our intuition. The more we recognize it within ourselves, the more cognizant we become of what it is communicating to us.

Exercise: Reflect on how your intuition has communicated with you. What was happening when you felt this feeling? Were you alone, with a group, in a public setting, or in private with your partner?

Paying attention to these feelings within ourselves is the first step to leading with our intuition and using our intuition as our guide.