Awaken Your Sixth Sense

Have you ever had the experience of "knowing" something but couldn't explain how you knew it? Then at some point later on, you learned you were spot on. This is intuition at work. Intuition is our instinctive knowing or perceiving without the need for conscious reasoning.

Intuition is also known as our inner wisdom or our sixth sense. It is the main theme of the sixth or third eye chakra. Just as taking care of our physical body pertains to the root chakra and manifesting our wants and desires relates to the solar plexus chakra, meditation is the way into the third eye chakra.

Our sixth sense awakens when we nurture and pay close attention to it. We all have intuitive ability, but it can be dulled by our conditioning to lean mostly on our intellect. This can lead to a dualistic way of thinking, in other words, the good/bad and right/wrong approach, in regard to our perception of things.

We may learn early on in life that our decisions are either good/bad or right/wrong. This is common when parents are critical and don't allow a child to have the opportunity to feel into what is good and right for them. This can rob us of the valuable time we need throughout the years to learn to trust ourselves and hone our sixth sense. The "right" choice is always what is right and good for us at the time.

Here are some steps you can take to strengthen your inner GPS.

Meditate. There are so many ways to access and learn about meditation. You can take local classes or download guided meditations from reputable spiritual leaders to help you get started. Of course, there are many apps available as well. Quieting mind chatter is necessary in order to develop the ability to really hear and pay attention to our inner guidance.

Practice mindfulness. Being focused on what's happening in the present moment helps us steer clear of trappings of the mind and overthinking. When we overthink things, we are pulled into dwelling on the past or negatively anticipating future events.

When we are constantly too busy "doing," it's almost impossible to read our internal compass. Take a mindful minute either during the natural breaks in your day or by setting a reminder. Pause and pay attention to what comes up in regard to your thoughts, emotions and physical sensations in your body.

Tune into your body. The physical body has the ability to pick up on what the mind is oblivious to. For example, the butterflies in your stomach or hairs standing up on the back of your neck is your body giving you the information you need to heed. Always listen to your gut, even if you don't like what it's telling you.

Get out of your head. This doesn't mean the intellect isn't valuable in decision making, of course it is. But it's not the only path. A balance is needed in order to make the best choices for ourselves. Intuition is about "seeing" beyond the mind and tuning into a deeper sense of perception and knowing. We often feel external pressure about what we're supposed to do, which can interfere with our natural intuitive ability.

Take time to process your emotions. Name your emotions and locate where you feel them in your body. Lean on a friend to express your feelings or journal about your internal experience.

Unprocessed emotions take up lots of mental space and can keep us charged up and embroiled in negative self-talk. Clearing that space allows us to cultivate stillness, which makes it easier to tune in to our inner wisdom.

Staying engaged in the process of nurturing your intuitive voice will gradually lead to trusting yourself more and more. Appreciate your intuition as the powerful source of information that it is!

Try these daily affirmations:

"I trust myself and follow my intuition."

"I look inside and listen to the messages that protect and guide me."

"I have all the answers within me."