Intuitive Discernment

         The unique challenge of being human is the sheer amount of feeling we do each and every day.  We're happy, then sad, then excited, then confused, then lonely, then comforted, then guilty, and it goes on and on.  It's exhausting just thinking about it.  Most of us feel so much that some of these feelings get pushed into our unconscious by necessity.  Who can be expected to function mired down in a morass of emotion?

         Not only do we feel an almost endless amount, but we're taught, often from a young age, that some feelings are not ok.  The joy may be welcomed, but the sadness is shushed away.  The excitement may be tolerated, but the anger is condemned.  The amusement may be allowed, but the guilt is forbidden.  From this onslaught of judgment about our feelings, it only makes sense that we would start to judge ourselves.  

         Judging oneself can lead to judging others.  When you don't accept something in yourself, it's hard to truly accept it in another.  It's no surprise our connection with our deeper awareness gets buried.  The intuitive sense that bubbles up and reveals the truth of any situation seems to get drowned in all the emotional noise.  

         We humans walk around with this jumble of emotions all the time, bumbling along, fumbling our way through life - aren't we just adorable?  Honestly, does anyone really have a clue what's going on?  I know I don't!  But I do have an enormous amount of faith in my inner intuitive voice.  When I listen to this feeling, it always seems to guide me true.

         It takes practice to figure out the difference between a feeling and an intuitive sense.  At first they may seem very similar, or even the same.  As you keep practicing and tuning into that quiet little voice within, eventually your everyday emotions and your intuitive feelings will start to feel very different.  Then you will be off to the races, applying intuition to help you with all sorts of sticky life situations. 

         Your intuitive senses may manifest as feelings (clairsentience), hearing (clairaudience), seeing images (clairvoyance), or knowing (inner knowing).  Some people even taste or smell intuitively.  Intuitive feelings can come in the form of emotions or physical sensations.  Learning how to differentiate between your body's natural sensations and sensations born of your intuition is a little bit like developing your palate.  

         As you focus on any sense, more space in your brain is created to hold neural networks related to that sense.  This holds true for intuitive senses as well.  When I started out, I focused on trying to intuitively hear my spirit guides.  For quite a while I couldn't tell the difference between my own voice and theirs - it all just felt like my imagination.

         Over time, the intuitive voice of my spirit guides in my head started to sound more and more different from my own thoughts.  Now, it's clear as day and I can very easily tell the difference and know when my guides are communicating with me.  The same is true for seeing images - at first it feels like your imagination is just conjuring a picture as you vainly hope to receive a helpful intuition.  But eventually, if you stick with it, you will quite easily be able tell if an image is created by you or by the beings with whom you are communicating.