What Is Intuition?

Resources and Training for Intuitive People

COPYRIGHT POLICY:: You can quote this page as long as you have a LIVE link to it!

1. What is intuition?
2. What’s the difference? Intuitive, Psychic, Clairvoyant, Empath
3. Why use your intuition?
   
4. How does intuition work?
5. Getting help!

What is intuition?

By using your intuition, you can make better decisions that consistently improve your life.
Most people experience intuition as:

• A gut feeling that is either “good” or “bad”
• An inner voice that makes suggestions
• A physical sensation (like a churning in the stomach area or a headache)
• An instant knowing of what they need to do

What intuition is NOT

• Talking to dead people (spirits, ghosts)
• Predicting the future
• Reading auras or crystals
• Finding missing people or objects (…or lottery numbers!)
• Anything that makes you feel bad about yourself!

I often see people question if they are intuitive because they can’t predict the future or hear spirits…These skills have very little to do with intuition…  Although it is true that people who are intuitive are more likely to also have other abilities, but that’s because intuitive people are more “sensitive” to everything around them, including energy.

What’s the difference? Intuitive, Psychic, Clairvoyant, Empath

When I first discovered I was intuitive, I seriously questioned my intuitive skills for many years because I did things that other intuitive couldn’t do, while being unable to do things they could do!

This confusion often comes up when intuition is mistaken for other abilities.   So what’s the difference?

Intuitive

Being intuitive means that you able to tap into subconscious information in order to receive guidance about your every day life.  Intuition can be used to receive guidance about your own life (personal intuition) or to help other people (professional intuition).  People who are intuitive are not necessarily psychic.

Psychic and Clairvoyant

Being psychic, also know as being clairvoyant, means that you can perceive information that cannot be perceive through the normal senses (also called Extra Sensory Perception – ESP).  That can include predicting the future, talking to non-physical beings (dead people, spirits) and being able to sense missing objects or people.

• : Being intuitive is about receiving guidance to make better decisions in your life.  Being psychic is about sensing information that other people can’t usually access.  Psychics are not necessarily intuitive, in fact they might be so confused about the information that they are receiving that it’s completely counter-intuitive and does not help make decisions at all.  Likewise, intuitive people are not necessarily psychic as they might not be able to perceive extra sensory information.  They just rely on their intuitive to guide them when there is little or not hard facts to rely on.

Empath

Being an empath means that you feel other people’s emotions as your own (read more about empaths).  For example, if someone around you is very angry you might start to feel angry yourself, even though there is no direct reason for you to feel this way.

• The difference: Empaths are highly sensitive people who can perceive emotions in other people very deeply which allows them to “feel what you feel”.  Empaths are not necessarily intuitive as they might not know what to do about those feelings.  They just perceive them.

Why use your intuition?

Our brains have two hemispheres:

• The left side handles concrete intellectual knowledge.
• The right side handles abstract concepts that cannot be expressed with words.

When you think about a problem, your left brain offers all the factual information related to this topic.
That’s where most people stop and make their decision.

But your right brain is also offering relevant information!
By reaching in your subconscious mind, it can come up with very concrete answers that are based on a much wider pool of information than just the rational facts.

By learning to use your Intuition, you are harnessing the FULL POTENTIAL OF YOUR MIND.

How does intuition work?

Your intuition use two different channels of communication to answer your questions: emotions and thoughts.

Emotions

I studied Clinical Psychology in college for 5 years. And yet, I was always deeply frustrated at how little we actually know about emotions. In fact, I felt that many academic and clinical theories on emotions were based on the assumption that negative emotions need to be avoided or eradicated. It is as though the human mind was somehow flawed by emotions: an unfortunate mistake in our superbly balanced design.

I simply could not resign myself to the concept that we are all broken or wrong, because we all experience negative emotions at some point. Even the best people will get angry once in a while.

Needless to say, I was both profoundly surprised and delighted when I encountered a completely different explanation for emotions that was a perfect fit for how I described and understood intuition.  That philosophy is described in book: The Astonishing Power of Emotions where the author uses the term “Emotional Compass” to describe how our emotions guide us through life, pointing the way towards well being. This is something that deeply resonates with me and has been a central foundation of my work, as well.

Emotions are the primary channel of communication for intuition. And although you can also receive intuitive thoughts, emotions are the most basic form of intuition. You’re never without your intuition as long as you can feel emotions.

But if you’re like most people, you are probably ignoring it in actuality. What do I mean by that? Did you ever suppress a feeling of anger because you thought that it was a “bad emotion”? Did you ever feel inspired to buy something, but didn’t, because it was a little too expensive? Did you ever feel guilty because you spontaneously did not like someone you just met?

We have all done this, and yet, it constitutes a clear negation of intuition. The emotion is trying to deliver a message. And we’re telling it to be quiet. Why? Because we don’t understand the message, so we kill the messenger.

It does take a while to wrap our minds around the concept that negative emotions, like anger and revenge, are our intuitive allies. And that they are sign posts pointing us towards the solution we’re looking for. Yet, they are just that.

Here’s how it works:

• You feel a positive emotion when your thoughts, words and actions are leading you towards what you want.
• You feel a negative emotion when your thoughts, words and actions are leading you away from what you want or if there is a better, easier path that you could be taking.

With these simple instructions, you can start to lead an intuitive life right now just by paying attention to the messages of your intuition (your emotions) and by learning to include that information in the decisions of your every day life.

You have probably been socialized to repress or ignore powerful negative emotions such as anger, thus rendering your emotional compass completely useless.  What good is a compass if it is unable to point South because that is deemed a “bad” direction?

Your ability to honestly feel emotions (without judging them!) is critical to your intuitive process!

Thoughts

Although emotions are the most basic form of intuition, it’s not the only one. The secondary communication channel for intuition is, of course, fully formed thoughts. In addition to feeling emotions that provide inner guidance, you can also get novel ideas or specific answers to a question. Intuitive thoughts have a unique quality that differentiates them from your regular thinking processes.

While you can start to live an intuitive life right now by understanding how your emotions guide you, it will take time and practice to master intuitive thoughts. It’s more difficult to separate intuitive thoughts from regular thoughts. It’s also common to accidently distort intuitive thoughts so that they diverge from their original meaning.

But with practice, you will be able to sort this all out so that communication with your intuition is more effective and efficient.

Getting Help

I know it can be really confusing to sort out what is an intuitive insight and what is just a random thought.  And even when you know what your intuition is telling you, it’s not always obvious what you “next step” should be…

That’s why I offer Intuitive Services where I can help you find your way back into clarity!

• Do you want intuitive answers about what is going on in your life? 
  Schedule an Intuitive Counseling Session.
• Do you want to develop YOUR intuitive skills?
  Schedule a Intuition Coaching Session.

In love,
Elise Lebeau, M.Sc.