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Archive for the ‘Developing Intuition’ Category

My Developing Intuition series comes to an end today, and in this article I present my third Developing Intuiting exercise, which is called The Letter Technique. Just as The Mirror Technique used a mirror to enable you to stand back from your situation and address it from the perspective of pure awareness and intuitive knowledge, so The Letter Technique allows you to express intuitive knowledge through the written word.

Developing Intuition Exercise #03 – The Letter Technique

This third exercise is designed to help you tap into your intuitive knowledge when you want general advice, insight or help. To benefit, you need a notebook, two pens of different colours and around fifteen minutes of your time.

- Begin by deciding what topic you want to explore during the exercise. This could be anything from your spiritual progress to your financial plans or personal relationships. Whatever issues you want to explore, make sure that you restrict yourself to one broad topic at a time. This is all you can reasonably expect to cover in any single fifteen minute session.

- Settle down in a quiet place with your notebook and pens. Open the notebook and write down any question you like about your desired topic. For example, ‘How can I dramatically improve my financial situation?’

- Now put down the pen and pick up the other one. Start examining your intuitive responses. Remember, these can come in the form of words, images or feelings.

- When you receive your first intuitive response, write it down as the answer to your first question.

- Listen for any further response. If you get one, write that down also. If everything falls silent, switch pens and write another question down in your notebook or, if you feel you have explored as much of the topic as you can (or if the fifteen minutes are over) end the exercise.

This exercise can truly change your life – but only if you follow through with what your intuition tells you. If you ignore anything that your intuition tells you then you might as well skip the exercise altogether and go fishing.

By using two differently coloured pens in this exercise, you will be able to refer back to your notebook at a later date and see at a glance what questions you asked and what feedback you received intuitively. This can be very encouraging when you see that the advice you received intuitively did in fact help you – sometimes more than you might ever have imagined.

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter if you call it a Sixth Sense, or your Higher Self - your intuition is always ready to help lift your life to the highest possible level. But first you have to learn to listen. The three exercises presented in this Developing Intuition series are excellent starting points in this respect, but after a while you will notice that you can ‘tune in’ to that voice within you any time you choose.

When this happens, make a habit of listening. Then take action. Do this and your whole life will operate more smoothly, more efficiently and – last but not least – you will journey ever closer to the fulfilment of your true, infinite potential.

The second Developing Intuition exercise that I recommend is The Mirror Technique. This is designed to give you insight into and solutions to any personal situation or problem which you are currently facing. To use it, you need a wall mirror in which you can clearly see the reflection of your face from a seated position. If this is difficult, obtain a shaving or make-up mirror and position this so that you can see the reflection of your face when seated.

Developing Intuition Exercise #02 – The Mirror Technique

Before you begin, decide what you want your intuition to help you with. Do you need to know why you don’t have that shapely physique you keep promising yourself? Do you need to gain insight into why your finances, career or relationships aren’t all that you want them to be? Whatever your particular need, define it in your mind before beginning this exercise.

Now sit down and relax. Take a few deep breaths, then state what you want. For example, if you want insight into why your career hasn’t progressed as quickly as you wanted, you might say something like, ‘Today I would appreciate some insight into why my career isn’t progressing at the speed I desire. I would also appreciate some advice as to how I can get my career back on track for the success I know I deserve.’

There is no need to be overly conscious of how you phrase your words. Just use plain talk and speak matter of factly.

When you have stated your desired outcome from this exercise, you need to disassociate yourself from your problem. This is where the mirror comes in useful.

Look into the mirror and view your reflection as though this is the person who has the problem and you are the person he or she has asked for advice. In other words, for the rest of this exercise, you will be acting as if you are a being of infinite wisdom, insight and ideas.

Now look at that person in the mirror and help him or her with the problem. Be frank, be honest and be level. Do not tell that person that he or she can’t do anything about the situation. Explain exactly why you think the situation is as it is and exactly what that person can do to make fast progress.

If the person in the mirror wants to comment on what you have to say, you may ‘switch roles’ and speak those comments, but you must then ‘switch back’ and give your response afterwards.

This process is a little difficult to describe, so I will now present an example run-through of how it works in practice. For the purpose of this illustration, the person performing the exercise is John, a man in his early thirties who, despite lofty ambitions, doesn’t seem to be making any career or financial progress.

John sits down and takes a few deep breaths, then asks for what he needs. ‘I need some insight into why things are moving so slowly,’ he says. ‘I mean, I’m ambitious and I have big dreams, but I’ve been stuck in the same rut for years, and I’m making absolutely no progress.’  He looks in the mirror and sees the reflection, then begins to impart his advice…

REFLECTION : Wow… I’ve never really thought of it like that…

This is only a brief excerpt from an imaginary example, but it does serve to illustrate how The Mirror Technique works. You, the participant, actually begin speaking from your intuition’s point of view and give all the criticism, advice and motivation your reflection (the everyday you) needs to make changes.

The fact is that in many cases, we already know exactly what we can do to start improving our lives. We all know that to obtain a fit, shapely physique we need to adopt a healthy diet and start a regular exercise programme. We all know that to become financially independent we need to find ways of increasing our income and also to start saving a percentage of everything we receive. We all know that in order to receive love we must first concern ourselves with giving love.

Knowing what to do is therefore seldom a problem. The real problem is that we simply do not do what we know we must do in order to achieve a certain goal.

The Mirror Technique allows you to ‘step into the shoes’ of your intuition and tell it how it really is. There is no doubt that this exercise can be uncomfortable, as the truth often hurts, but the vast majority of people find it amazingly empowering to finally ‘step out’ of their normal selves and face the situations and problems of life from a totally objective and intuitive higher perspective.

The following Developing Intuition exercises will, if used regularly, help you to ‘tune into’ the voice of your intuition. The more you use them, the more you will be able to apply intuition to your daily life as you Create Good Things.

Although most often intuition is referred to as ‘the voice within’ or the ‘sixth sense’, it is important to realize that your intuition can communicate with you in a number of ways. Some of you may experience ‘flashes’ of insight that take the form of pictures in your mind. Others will ‘hear’ words or messages within the mind. Still others will simply have a ‘feeling’ about to what your intuition is trying to tell you.

Please realize that all of these communication methods are valid and that it is not important how your intuition communicates with you. All that matters is that you are aware of that communication and that you begin listening to what it has to say.

Developing Intuition Exercise #01 – The Coin Technique

This is the simplest Developing Intuition exercise, but it is still amazingly effective. It has been designed to help you use your intuition when making decisions, and all you will need to begin is a coin and a firm idea of the decision that you need to make.

Begin by thinking about the decision you are faced with. This could be a major decision, such as whether or not you should accept a job you have been offered, or it could be a minor decision, such as whether or not you should purchase a particular book or attend a certain social occasion.

Now take the coin in your hand and assign HEADS to mean YES and TAILS to mean NO. Concentrate once again on the decision that you have to make and ask a question relating to this decision out loud.

For example, if you are wondering whether to accept a job you have just been offered, you might ask, ‘Should I accept the job that I have just been offered?’

Having asked your question, toss the coin in the air and allow it to fall on the floor.

Now note which side of the coin is face-up.  If it is HEADS then the coin says that YES you should do what you asked. If it is TAILS then the coin says NO you shouldn’t do what you asked.

So far, so good. But what has all of this got to do with intuition?

Your intuition comes into play right now, as you ask yourself, ‘How do I feel about the way the coin landed?’

If you feel good about the way the coin landed, your intuition is telling you that the coin gave the right answer. If, however, you feel that you would have preferred the coin to have landed the other way up, your intuition is telling you that you should do the opposite of what the coin indicates.

In essence, the coin used in this exercise is nothing more than a tool you use to arouse intuitive feelings. As soon as the coin has been tossed, your intuition will start reacting to the outcome of the coin. If your intuition agrees with the coin, you will feel happy about the outcome and you will be willing to make the decision swiftly. If, however, your intuition does not agree with the coin, you will feel uneasy. You will maybe want to toss the coin a few more times. The last thing you will want to do is make the decision in the way the coin suggests.

It is vital that you remember one thing: Your intuition over-rules the coin! This means that if the coin shows HEADS and you really wanted it to show TAILS, your intuition wins and whatever you associated with TAILS is the thing to do.

To begin with, use the coin technique when making small decisions. Then, when you have learned to ‘tune in’ to what your intuition says, bring the technique into play in more important matters (using your intuition in tandem with common sense, of course). Eventually, you will be able to dispense with the coin altogether, because you will hear your intuitive ‘voice’ loud and clear whenever an important decision needs to be made.

People who have precognitive skills and can acquire knowledge about the future are simply people who have very well developed powers of intuition. You too can begin to enjoy the benefits of precognition. All you need to do is exercise your intuition on a regular basis.

Think of the number of times you have already experienced ‘flashes’ of intuitive insight in one way or another. What about the time the phone rang and you knew almost instantly who the caller was? How about the time you felt you ought to take an umbrella ‘just in case’ the sunshine turned to rain – and it did? Then think of all the times you have been thinking of something and suddenly another person started talking about that very subject?

These are all examples of your natural intuition at work. They are not spectacular examples, but then you must remember that they happened almost automatically. Now, just think of what might be possible if you deliberately put your intuitive power to work? The possibilities are truly extraordinary.

At this point, it should be stated that the development of your powers of intuition follows a broad learning curve. In other words, the more your practice, the better your results will be. In the beginning, however, your intuition may sometimes appear to be wrong.

In truth, your intuition is never wrong, but it can be misinterpreted. When this happens to some people, they use it as ‘proof’ that intuition doesn’t work. All it means, in fact, is that they aren’t yet fully ‘tuned in’ to what their intuition is really saying. The following case illustrates this quite well.

Tony B. had started getting interested in developing his intuition after reading that it might help him become a more successful stock market trader. Initially, he limited his use of intuition to the stock market. Each day, before the market opened, he would try to gain insight into whether the shares of certain companies would go up or down. Then, with small amounts of money, he began investing in those that he felt would increase in value.

Immediately, Tony regained his self-confidence and returned to enjoying a busy and satisfying social life. He also learned an important lesson – that learning to correctly interpret what our intuition is trying to tell us is just as vital as using our intuition in the first place.

This is something you simply must keep in mind. There is a broad learning curve involved in using your intuition, and in the beginning you will undoubtedly make mistakes of interpretation. These mistakes will decrease the more you practice with your intuition, but it is important that you don’t act blindly on what your inner voice is saying, especially when you are first starting out.

Instead, you need to think about your insight from all the angles and explore all the possible interpretations. Then, when you come across the right interpretation, you will know. How? Intuition!

That’s enough of the theory. The only true way of mastering your latent power of intuition is, as I have said, to use it on a regular basis. The best way of developing intuition is to work with Intuitive Exercises which are designed to help you tap into what is, when all is said and done, your natural connection to the infinite knowledge of the universe. I will present the first of those exercises in my next article.

Developing Intuition is the title of my latest series of articles on Create Good Things, and I will begin by sharing a story that provides an example of intuition in action…

A man in a casino is having extraordinary luck at the roulette wheel. Having turned the few chips he originally had into a substantial pile by placing small bets exclusively on red or black, he suddenly changes his strategy and stakes everything he
has on the zero.

The small crowd of people who have gathered around this mysterious player take a gasp. The roulette wheel is European and it has just one zero. The odds of the ball landing on the zero are just one in thirty-seven. Yes, the bettor would win thirty six times his chips if zero came up, but surely nobody in their right mind would place such a risky bet unless they were intent on losing everything they had?

The roulette wheel spins. The people in the crowd follow the ball with their eyes, their mouths open in anticipation. The player himself, however, is unusually calm. He takes a sip of water from his glass and smiles to himself.

As if in slow motion, the small metal ball clicks and clacks around the wheel, then finally settles on a number. The crowd gasp, then unleash a loud cheer of amazement and congratulations as the croupier calls the result of the spin. Zero.

The player collects a massive pile of chips which are worth five figures and cashes them, then starts for the exit. As he leaves, one of the spectators stops him to ask a simple question. ‘How did you do that? How did you know it was going to be a zero?’

The player smiles at his inquisitor. ‘A little voice inside told me,’ he replied. ‘And when that little voice inside speaks, I’ve learned from experience that things work out for the best if I listen and act accordingly.’

There are many stories like this one which allude to the extraordinary things that people can achieve when they begin to use their intuition on a regular basis. Some report how airline passengers have avoided certain death by listening to an inner voice which told them, ‘The plane will crash! Don’t go!’ Others, like the man in the story used to introduce this series, tell of people who have listened to their intuition and, as a result, gained immense wealth or career success.

In this series I will be discussing how you can begin to listen to and use your intuition, and how doing so could help you to turn every aspect of your life around. We’re not just talking about making improvements in your career and financial life (although of course these things are important) but also about making improvements in your relationships, your physical health and your spiritual advancement.

Let us begin by defining intuition. Longman’s dictionary defines intuition as follows:

1a (knowledge gained by) immediate apprehension or cognition.  b the power of attaining direct knowledge without evident rational thought and the drawing of conclusions from evidence available.   2 quick and ready insight.

This definition is as good as any that I have come across, but it could be summed up in just one sentence: The power of attaining direct knowledge and quick and ready insight.

Now allow the implications of this definition to sink into your heart and mind. Intuition is the power to attain direct knowledge and quick and ready insight.  Knowledge and insight about what? About anything you want!

Imagine being able to ‘know’ intuitively that a certain horse will win or lose a certain horse race. Imagine being able to ‘know’ intuitively whether the stock market or a certain share will go up or down within the next few days or months. Imagine being able to ‘know’ intuitively how people feel about you.

There are literally thousands of ways in which you can use the knowledge and insight which you can gain through developing your natural powers of intuition. I will discuss a few of these applications later in this series.

On hearing about the seemingly miraculous power of intuition, there are always a few people who claim that they don’t have this power. ‘I don’t have an intuitive bone in my body!’ they say. Fortunately, these people are wrong.

Everyone has intuition, just as everyone has a conscience. Of course, some people appear to have more intuition than others, but this is simply because they use it more regularly. You see, intuition is like any physical muscle. It needs to be used or it will wither. Exercising it regularly, however, will cause it to thrive.