Intuition: The Most Trusted Guide

As you're passing by the phone in the house, you stop suddenly, not knowing why, and look at the phone with a strong feeling that it is about to ring. Immediately the phone starts to ring.

You suddenly have a feeling that something has happened and become very unease. Shortly after, you receive terrible news about someone you know.

The phone rings and as you reach out to pick it up, the image of someone flashes in your mind or someone's name comes to mind. You pick up the phone and the person whose image or name crossed your mind is at the other end of the phone.

You haven't spoken to, or seen a relative for years and suddenly you thought of this relative and plan to call the person. Before you could place the call, the person calls you.

Those are just a few examples of the experiences that most people have had, or will have at some point. We often describe these and similar experiences as premonition, psychic impressions, or intuition. However we describe these experiences, they all have one thing in common: they all come from within us. These experiences should indicate to us that there's more to our existence. Well-developed intuition can be our most trusted guide. It is always right and responds in our best interests.

Developing our intuition is not as difficult as it may seem. We all have it and it's always working even without any effort on our part. It is a force within us that is constantly yearning to express itself especially when so much is at stake for us. Our challenge is to recognize its powers and follow its directions more often than most people currently do. All that is required is for us to pay more attention to what it has to tell us.

Allowing your intuition to express itself may be as simple as asking who's at the other end of the line before picking up the phone; where should I go for dinner?

Which road should I take? Should I make this call now or wait, or will I get this job? These are simple questions we sometimes ask ourselves without allowing the answers to come from within us. The tendency here is to immediately interrupt the response with objective analysis or try to guess the answers: maybe it's my mother calling; I don't like this or that about that restaurant; or that road is always too busy.

Developing your intuition is as simple as allowing the answers to these simple questions to come from within, without interruption, guesswork, or objective analysis. Unlike probing the subconscious where you seek general guidance and the response to which is not expected to be immediate, you ask these questions with the expectation of an immediate, direct response from within.

Let's examine more closely how you can begin to nurture and cultivate the power of intuition. The easiest way is to begin with simple questions and make a conscious decision to wait for answers from within. You can begin with asking out loud or thinking, as you reach out to pick up the phone, "Who is calling?" "Who might this be?" "I wonder who this might be," or any other similar question. As you ask this question and without time to analyze before you have to pick up the phone, you would naturally wait for a few moments. These few seconds are the most critical point. Resist the tendency to guess, analyze, or think of anything else. If you're close to the phone when it starts to ring, simply reach for it without picking it up right away.

With your hand on the phone, mentally ask the question and wait momentarily before picking it up.

As in any exercise dealing with development, you may not observe the results in the beginning. Practicing this exercise persistently will eventually produce the desired result. The result could come as an image of the person on the phone, the name, some activity, a place, or an incident that will indicate, without doubt, who the person is. The most common response in my personal experience is the name.

You're not limited to the telephone for practicing this exercise. Asking about where to go eat or what to have for dinner is another good example of a simple question you can use for this exercise. You may even have narrowed your choices to two or three restaurants or types of food to have for dinner. Although you may have narrowed your choices, don't be surprised if the response that comes to you is completely outside those options. This is likely to happen if there's a similar but better restaurant or dish similar to the one on your short list that you may not have thought of when you decided on the few restaurants or dishes. It may occur for your own protection. There may be something you don't know about your options, and not following the inner guidance could result in the so-called ill-luck, bad coincidence, or "being at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"What time is it?" Asking this question out loud or holding that question in mind is another exercise to use. In the beginning, it would be purely guesswork on your part, and you would be way off, but as time goes on you would come close to the nearest hour, half-hour, minutes, and finally the exact time. Be aware that it is easy to cheat with this exercise, but don't. It is best if you've lost track of time. Maybe you've been very busy for a long time, and before checking your time, you should ask the question, allow a few seconds, receive some impression, then look at your watch. Knowing the time, or checking the time an hour or half-hour before this exercise is not a good idea. Doing so would interject guesswork and objectivity into the exercise and influence the result.

If you have alternate routes to take on a trip or to work, asking or thinking to yourself which of the routes to take would be another good exercise. Before leaving home, simply ask yourself the following or any other similar questions: "Which road should I take?" "Should I take route 'A' or 'B?'" However, there are things you should know if you are to use this exercise effectively. The effective use of this exercise requires a higher degree of "confidence in acceptance." You must be committed. For example, let's assume that you're ready to leave the house and have asked the appropriate question and have received a response to take road "A." Upon entering your car and turning on the radio, you hear a traffic report that road "B" should be used because of very light traffic. What would you do? Would you change your mind or trust your intuition over the traffic report?

If indeed what you received is an intuitive response to your question, you would be better off taking road "A" no matter what the traffic report says. Because intuitive feeling is always right, chances are great that by the time you enter road "B," conditions would have changed and road "B" would be impassable. There is always the possibility of auto accidents occurring. No matter the traffic conditions, it may very well be that you're being directed to an alternate route for your own good. By taking an alternate route, you may have avoided a serious accident, and probably saved your life in the process.

It is also possible that you're being directed to one of those so-called coincidences when you're being directed to take an alternate route. Some of these coincidences do have direct and positive impact on our lives, and the help or answer you seek may well lie on following up with intuitive responses.

Relying on intuition may sometimes test your resolve to the limit. Knowing that true intuitive feeling is always right, those "tests" will give you the opportunity to prove the powers of this inner feeling when developed.

Another thing to be aware of about this exercise is that the intuition may be right at the time you ask and receive the response. However, in some cases, we may change the outcome, leading some people to think that they've been mislead by their intuition. Let's assume that after you received an intuitive response on which way to take to work, you decide to run some errands before leaving for work. An hour or two had passed before you actually leave for work. It would be better to repeat the exercise. Road conditions may have changed since you asked and received an intuitive response to take one route over the other. If you don't, your intuition was not wrong. You didn't act on it when it was given. Again, intuitive response is immediate and often requires an immediate follow up.

The response to these questions shouldn't take more than a few seconds. Waiting for minutes for the response would indicate that you've either missed the response or that you may not yet have awakened the faculties within you that are responsible for these intuitive responses. The response you receive after waiting for a longer period of time may not come from intuition, but may be the result of your objective analysis. This may explain why some people sometimes claim that their intuition was wrong. True intuitive feeling is never wrong!

After listening to a story, you can mentally ask, "Is this the truth?" "Is there anything else I need to know?" "Can I trust this person?" Or for purchasing decisions, "Should I buy or sell?" These are simple questions requiring a "Yes" or "No" answer. However, the response from within may not be in those exact words. Instead, you may momentarily have a strong feeling that would unmistakably be positive or negative. Although you may receive a direct answer to these questions, you should not expect your intuition to engage in a conversation with you.

For example, if the response to the question, "Is this the truth?" is a "No," you shouldn't expect your intuition to tell you what the truth is, what else you need to know, or why you shouldn't trust a person. It would be up to you to pursue it further to find the truth. As you practice the exercises in this chapter, the main thing to remember is that you're working towards awakening certain faculties in you that may have remained dormant for a very long period of time. Don't be discouraged if you don't notice the intended results in the beginning. It takes time, but your persistence will eventually pay off.

You've been given only a few simple exercises to help you become in tune with your intuitive feelings. You can think of many other ways you can consciously engage your intuition. In the beginning, you would be asking questions and making efforts to listen and follow the responses from within you. These exercises would enable you to become more sensitive to your intuitive feelings. Later, after you've become more sensitive to your intuitive feelings, you'll begin to pick up on these feelings even without your asking questions.

Trusting and following your inner, intuitive feelings can make a difference between realizing the things you petitioned for. Some answers to petitions come through intuitive feelings and following those feelings eventually lead to the resolution of those needs.

Points to remember:

• Intuition can be developed through simple exercises.

• True intuitive response is never wrong! It is immediate and often requires an immediate action on your part.

• As you practice the exercises on intuition, the main thing to remember is that you're working towards awakening certain faculties in yourself that may have remained dormant for a very long period of time. Don't be discouraged if you don't notice the intended results in the beginning.

• Recognizing answers to your petitions and your ability to receive what you have petitioned for will sometimes depend on your ability to use the powers of your intuition. Failure to follow your intuition could amount to not receiving the answer to that which you've successfully created.

- Isaac E. Nwokogba