Learning how to hear your intuition is a skill you absolutely can develop. In this article, you will learn six strategies to fully hear your inner knowing.
You Can Learn How to Hear Your Intuition
The idea of a “gut knowing” or intuition can at times seem a little esoteric. After all, Western society greatly values the “logical” mind over one’s inner senses. But as you likely have sensed, there’s a deeper knowledge and wisdom within you than just your mind – your intuition.
It’s Not All in Your Head
You may have experienced times in your life where you knew something but couldn’t explain it logically. Perhaps it was a “gut feeling” you should avoid someone or that a job was perfect for you. However, it can be easy to doubt this inner knowing when we aren’t taught to value it. Or it seems “hippie dippie” to value intuition.
However, it’s important to know that scientists have discovered there’s a “second brain” in our gut. There is an intelligence independent of the brain in our digestive system. Furthermore, it appears much of our emotions originate from our gut not our brain. For instance, people with bowel issues such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, constipation and diarrhea are more likely to have depression and anxiety.
There also may be an intelligence in your heart separate from your brain. For instance, after heart transplants, some people have memories from the donor’s life emerge! It may seem that memories are stored not just mentally but literally in our heart.
How to Hear Your Intuition Strategy #1: Give Yourself Space and Quiet
If you have become disconnected from your intuition, the number one way to hear it again is to literally experience silence and solitude.
There are many distractions in modern life and truly, with all this noise it becomes increasingly difficult to hear your intuition. Therefore, the first step to hearing your intuition is to reduce as much noise and distraction as possible.
Practicing Mindfulness
It’s wonderful if you can take time to meditate to be quiet and drop into your authentic intuitive self. And yet, it can be challenging to find – or justify in a productivity oriented culture – time to meditate.
If you relate, start with simpler ways to give yourself space and quiet:
- Allow yourself to just be in the checkout line at the grocery store without pulling out your phone or grabbing a magazine to distract yourself,
- Eat without distractions such as your phone or a conversation,
- Eliminate social media apps (or accounts) that distract you and consume you mentally,
- Stop or reduce your news consumption,
- Go on a quiet, nature walk without listening to music, a podcast or a book
To hear your intuition, you need to allow time to pause in life. This is mindfulness in action.
How to Hear Your Intuition Strategy #2: Connect with Your Body
“Follow your heart” and “listen to your gut” are common statements encouraging you to listen to your intuition (based in science!). And yet, it’s tremendously hard to hear your insights from your gut or heart if you’re disconnected from your body.
Your body is literally the channel for which you hear your intuition. To best hear your inner knowing with clarity, it’s important to tend to your body’s needs. For instance, if your body is “gunked” up with too much processed food or exhausted from a lack of water or sleep, it’s going to be hard to get through your day let alone hear your intuition.
Practicing simple basic physical self-care is a great strategy to hear your intuition better.
Practice Moving Meditation
Another great way to hear your intuition by connecting to your body is by practicing yin yoga. This type of yoga focuses on holding poses for a few minutes (or more) at a time to allow your fascia to relax.
Slowing down in this way, focusing on your breath, and opening your body up allows your to connect to your intuition. It’s well known for people who practice this type of yoga that different poses such as hip openers can trigger intense emotional release and powerful insights about what’s best for you.
Some yin yoga teachers who offer free classes on YouTube you may want to check out include:
How to Hear Your Intuition Strategy #3: Pay Attention to Your Emotions
Many of us are taught growing up that only certain emotions like happiness or gratitude are acceptable while others like sadness or anger are bad. However, this type of thinking disconnects us from a large source of our intuitive knowing – our emotions.
All emotions are acceptable, natural and human to feel. Of course, what you do with your feelings may be harmful or helpful therefore it’s important to cope well with them.
Also when you let yourself feel your feelings instead of suppressing them, you can connect with your inner knowing. Hearing your intuition involves working with your emotions rather than against them.
Every emotion you feel when you honor it mindfully has the potential to give you a rich depth of information about what’s right for you. For instance, have you ever met someone that made you feel uncomfortable but you talked yourself out of it? Then later you realized when they hurt you this first feeling had been right all along?
This is a perfect example of how your emotions are powerfully supportive, intuitive guides even if they’re sometimes uncomfortable.
How to Hear Your Intuition Strategy #4: Keep a Self-Trust Journal
When you are deepening your intuition, you’re learning how to trust yourself.
A good way to build this sense of deeper self-trust is to keep a journal regarding your intuition. Good things to journal about here are:
- Your dreams – look up different symbols from your dreams and journal about how this connects to your current life i.e., dreaming about roofs is about protection and you may notice when you journal a boundary you need to set with someone,
- The signs you see around you in your daily life such as animals you see or songs you hear repeatedly – you can look up what these signs mean online and journal about these insights,
- Advice that you keep hearing in different places
This practice is a way of having fun with hearing your intuition more so please be as creative as you want! Also, this practice naturally invites you to consider your spiritually i.e., if you believe God or the Universe is guiding you with these signs. Being open to the idea of being interconnected with nature and other human beings deepens intuition too.
How to Hear Your Intuition Strategy #5: Set Boundaries
There are many ways connecting more with your intuition requires boundary setting. These include:
- Refraining from talking about your intuition or insights with skeptics who trigger self-doubt,
- Setting limits on your internal dialogue that perhaps says you’re untrustworthy or even “crazy” when you notice your inner knowing,
- Set boundaries on productivity culture that says it’s lazy to rest or selfish to self-care – you need space and quiet to hear yourself,
- Practicing boundaries around the things that pull you away from your true self such as social media, the news or constant distraction,
- Setting boundaries around your own energetic space by visualizing a bubble around you to allow you to feel and sense your true thoughts and feelings separate from others’ expectations, feelings, needs or desires from you
If boundary setting is challenging for you, this is understandable. And while it may not overtly seem interconnected working on your ability to have healthy boundaries allows you more space to hear your intuition.
For support, please download this free 3-step boundary-setting guide:
How to Hear Your Intuition Strategy #6: Open Your Third Eye
Chakras are considered to be energy centers in your body. One of these is in between your eyebrows and is called the third eye.
The third eye energy center is considered to be your seat of intuition. When functioning well, your third eye allows your intuition to be clear. It also supports you in visualizing your ideal self and future which healthy goal setting requires. It also connects you to your authentic self.
When your third eye isn’t balanced, it’s easy to struggle with hearing yourself clearly and to get stuck in fantasy thinking i.e., valuing words over actions in a toxic partner.
Healing practices to open your third eye according to expert Anodea Judith are:
- Coloring, drawing, painting,
- Meditation,
- Dreamwork (like looking up the symbols in your dreams and interpreting them),
- Guided visualizations and
- Past life regressions
These practices may sound odd so of course, only do them if you are willing. However, keeping an open mind is a great way to hear your intuition!
You Are Intuitive
You can develop a strong relationship with your intuition but like any relationship and any skill, it just requires practice and commitment.
When you feel self-doubt or like you’re having a hard time hearing yourself, come back to this article and its simple strategies. Ground back into these strategies that work to hear your intuition moving away from the distractions. Hearing your intuition is fundamentally a practice of mindfulness where you move away from what doesn’t work and ground into what does work to hear yourself.
Note: This site uses affiliate links at times. If you purchase an item through an affiliate link, this website earns a small payment. We also have reduced the number of ads to improve your experience and greatly appreciate your consideration to support us through your purchases with the affiliate links.
