by Robyn M Fritz MA MBA CHt

Intuition may fail us because we don’t know how to access it or we think it’s “divine” or just for “special” people. It is, however, is a practical skill we all have. It answers specific questions in nonlinear and non-empirical ways. Once we learn how intuition gives us information, simple tips can help us begin to tap its power in our lives, from determining what intuitive abilities are to tracking practical, intuitive experiments.

What Is Intuition?

Guess what? Intuition isn’t divine, isn’t limited to “special” people, and isn’t always right. ?What is it exactly? It’s our innate ability to gather information that answers a specific question in nonlinear and non-empirical ways. When we use it, we are not following Steps A to B to C in the scientific method because the objective measurement is not intuitive.

Why Doesn’t Intuition Work?

Our firm belief in an empirical scientific method is precisely why most of us fail to tap our intuition. Intuitive information often doesn’t make sense to us the way we’ve been told to access the world, so we give up trying. Or we’re taught that it is somehow divine, just because sometimes we use our intuition to connect with spiritual teams, angels, or soul purpose, and the “divine” isn’t the first thing we turn to for practical decision-making.

If we get past those blocks, we’re stymied because it looks like intuition is limited to “special” people, the psychics who tune in and get guidance for us. But we are all born intuitive, because intuition is a real sense just like our ability to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. It doesn’t work because we talk ourselves out of it by insisting we can’t do it or “that isn’t how things are done” (i.e., the “rational” scientific method).

Once we’re past our blocks and actually accessing our intuition we have another problem: intuition isn’t always right.

Nothing is, but it’s usually because we aren’t accessing it correctly. We mistake a gut-ache for an intuitive hit, or we get information that isn’t relevant to the question we’re asking (because we’ve tapped into somebody else’s answers, or don’t know how to analyze what we get). We’ve been brainwashed to think it’s too hard or esoteric, so we’ve lost touch with the simple, intuitive ways that came naturally to our ancestors. That means we now have to look at it as a foreign language and find a way to learn it.

How Intuition Works

To tap our intuition, we first have to let go of our judgment and the logical, linear way we’ve been taught to think. Intuition is only new to us because we’ve been ignoring it for generations. If we think about it as a practical skill we can re-learn, we’re releasing the blocks to learning. That is, if we don’t think we can do something, we can’t—not because of skill or ability, but because we end up not bothering.

There are four necessary intuitive abilities:

Seeing. People see pictures, auras, even nonphysical beings like the dead or angels. Their visual sense is heightened or sharpened.

Hearing. Yes, people will hear things and other people talking to them—in their heads. Since everything has a soul and is alive, that could mean our homes and businesses, animals, and even rain clouds are connecting with us. Really.

Feeling. Commonly mistaken as empathy, intuitive sense means people experience the feelings and emotions of others around them, including humans, animals, and so on.

Knowing. Intuitive knowing is the toughest because it means recognizing something when there is no physical evidence. These people are great in emergencies because they seem to know what is coming or react to a situation “one step ahead.”

Simple Tips to Access Intuition

Understanding and accessing our intuition takes a while. However, here are simple tips to start locating it right away. Yes, “homework.”

Practice each intuitive ability. We are all a combination of those four primary intuitive skills, and they combine differently on any given day. It takes practice to identify our most active ability, and more training until the others click in. What “hits” are common sense, emotional, factual, experiential … and intuitive?

Practice random hits. Intuition kept our ancestors alive, alerting them to predators sneaking up on them. We can make intuition practical by tuning into our environment. During the day randomly ask what time it is, and then find out. Eventually, you will be spot on—because your intuition is working with you for environmental awareness.

Hit the supermarket. Walk into a grocery’s produce section and grab the first fruit that appeals to you and the first one that doesn’t. Buy them. Take them home and examine and eat them, using all your physical senses and your intuition.

Keep a journal. Record intuitive experiments, from what worked to what didn’t, including how the body felt at the time, how information arrived, what happened next. Over time patterns emerge. Remember, intuition is always giving us the information we need to survive.

These simple first steps will help develop your intuition. Save the life-changing decisions for later, when it becomes second nature.

Remember, intuition is our birthright. Work it. Record experiments. Notice patterns. It’s telling you what you need to know.

Robyn M Fritz MA MBA CHt is an OM Times Expert and hosts the OM Times radio show, The Practical Intuitive: Mind Body Spirit for the Real World. She offers personal and business intuition, mediumship, animal communication, soul regression hypnotherapy, and shamanic modalities. An award-winning author, she provides webinars, workshops, and talks on intuitive development. Find her at RobynFritz.com.