Intuition has been referred to using many terms including your gut feeling, inner voice, sixth sense, instinct, inner knowing or a hunch.  Intuition is a sense or feeling that one gets about a person, situation or event, indicating that it is generally positive or negative.  Often the feeling will come "out of the blue", when you are not even thinking about the topic.  Sometimes, you will also get an intuitive feeling or thought about an action that you should take, that would be in your best interest.  For example you get a bad "vibe" about something and avoid the situation or event and than later find out that something bad happened there.  

The feeling or sense is generally brief and subtle, often received when we are relaxed and our mind is "quiet". This is because we are better able to "hear" or "listen to" the sense or feeling when we are in an open and receptive state of mind.  This state may occur when you are doing a repetitive or habitual task, where you are present in the moment and just paying attention to what you are doing.  Some examples include exercise, dancing, cleaning or brushing your teeth.  This is part of the benefit of being fully present in the moment which many people and authors discuss being a healthy way to live and be. Intuition has been referred to as a persons built in compass   to guide them through life's many twists and turns, more smoothly and easily.  The trick of course is learning how to listen to, trust and follow it.  This is just a matter of practicing being aware of your feelings and surroundings.

Developing your Intuition

Paying attention and listening to your intuition is the first step toward actually following it.  This can be easier said than done as it tends to be subtle and brief.  What makes it more difficult is that most people are caught up in being busy and stressed out, living their lives at a fast pace.  There is so much to do in so little time.  Plus alot of people spend most of their time thinking about the past or worried about the future.  We are often preoccupied with fears, doubts and questions.  When we do get the odd flash of intuition, we often doubt, rationalize  and then ignore it.  Therefore, it is helpful to spend some time alone or doing relaxing activities in order to quiet our busy minds.  Some ideas are going for a walk, yoga, meditation, painting or playing music.  Be fully 100% present in the moment and engaged in whatever you are doing at that time.  This will help you to be able to hear the soft whisper of your intuition.

When you do get those gut feelings about something, it is a good idea to write it down.  You could even start keeping an intuition journal to track and test your intuition. This way you can go back and see if your intuition was correct or not. It will take some practice to develop your intuition, so that you can start to trust it. You will need to learn to tell the difference between you intuition and your fears or doubts. As previously mentioned, intuitive feelings tend to come seemingly "out of the blue" and you "just know" what the right thing is to do. This is when you should write it down, right away because the thought or feeling will be brief and fleeting. A few moments later your conscious mind will start to question and doubt the feeling and you will talk yourself out of acting on it. This is when you need to just trust the feeling and act on it, even if it does not make any sense. Just practice listening to, trusting and following your intuition in any day to day events. For example, you could practice checking what your instinct tells you who is calling you before you pick up the phone.

Pay attention to how you feel now. You are following your intuition if it feels right, positive, exciting and just plain good. You will also notice that there are more "coincidences" and things happen easily and smoothly. It is like you are floating downstream with the current and the wind at your back. You may also experience some fear if it is new territory that you are being guided into. Now when you are not following your intuition, the opposite is true. You will feel negative, heavy, stuck or blocked as you are not taking an action that instinctively, you know you should be taking. It is similar to the concept of being true to yourself.

 Listen to, trust and follow your intuition!