forest fairy shaman with panflute and crystal, detailed colorful illustration.

When the conversation about intuition comes up, do you find yourself comparing your intuition to other people and come up feeling less than?  I know how disappointing that can be. Let me say first, comparison is rarely helpful. Let me also say, there is also nothing wrong with your intuition. It is not broken. It may be that you have not yet discovered your potential.

There are a number of reasons why your intuition may not be working for you. I want to encourage you to consider the following common issues before you give up on it or determine you are lacking in this area.

You Don’t Understand Your Clair Ability 

You haven’t discovered your intuitive modality. I call these The Clairs – like clairvoyance for instance. Did you know there was more than one?  I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t. For some reason our culture has latched onto clairvoyance (visions) as the psychic skill. Second in line of course is clairaudience (hearing voices). All the others get left in the dust. I happen to be primarily clairsentient (I feel other’s feelings) and claircognizant (knowing). There is also clairgustance(smell). I’ve even coined the term clair-creativity in my upcoming book on intuition, because the first intuitive skills I recognized showed up in my art work.

Your Intuition doesn’t Meet Your Expectations

Your intuition doesn’t look like you expect it to. We all get ideas about intuitive powers from TV and the movies. The problem is that movies tend to over -dramatize – you know, the psychic character gets completely taken over by her vision or it shows up like a technicolor screen across the sky. Well, yes, they have to portray inner visions creatively, it is art after all and special effects make a movie fun to watch. However, this can be misleading, and even though we know its fiction, we still believe it on some level. The truth is it often takes getting quiet to receive messages and we have to understand how they are coming in. That can be difficult when the mental hamster wheel is on overdrive.  And if we are expecting things to show up one way, we often disregard the way they do show up.

It Could Be Your Ego Attachments

I am going to be frank here. Your ego may be in the way. I’ve seen this one occur with a lot of people, myself included. I would say this was my primary block until I worked through it and it can still catch me off guard. When the ego really wants something, it will find ways to confirm what it wants, including using intuition. Then, when things don’t turn out as expected, we learn to distrust our “intuition” (which it wasn’t in the first place). In order intuition to be effective, discernment is a must. If you haven’t done your psychological and emotional work, it makes interpreting your intuition very difficult. We can let fear and ego spin us into denial and the real messages just don’t get through.

You Just Don’t Believe It’s Real

You may believe your intuition is “just” your imagination. Do you have weird visions pop up, or your inner voices come up with something totally out of context? We all have been influenced by culture to believe that whatever is going on inside us isn’t quite real because it can’t be proven. It takes a bit of skill to be able to distinguish between making something out of our inner experience (ego) and allowing the observer self to be aware without judgment, but this skill can be developed. Your Innerverse  IS real. It may not be as verifiable as what you can corroborate with others, but that does not make it less that real. Think about it this way, do you experience an inner world? If you experience it, it exists. It may not be tangible, but that does not mean it doesn’t exist. For myself, if my inner experience is meaningful to me (like feeling the presence of my deceased father), that is what matters. I don’t need to prove everything in court.

Ultimately trust is the key to a strong intuition. Like any relationship, trust takes time and experience to grow. Learning to know and trust your inner guidance is a journey, not a destination. On this journey it is also important to realize you will never be 100% accurate in your interpretation. Let go that expectation, no one is ever that accurate, even the best. The following are keys to building relationships, including your relationship with your intuition. Trust grows in relationships when commitment is present and curiosity leads. Commitment  is the will to stick with it even when the going is tough. Commitment cultivates resilience and confidence.  Curiosity is the opposite of judgment. It creates safe ground to explore, to learn and to deepen. It allows you to see what is there and find joy in the unfolding mystery.

Some Tips for Your Journey

If you approach intuition with a fixed mindset (some people are gifted, others are not) you aren’t likely to give yourself a chance to evolve. This is the fallacy of how psychic skills are portrayed in popular culture – some few special people are gifted and others are not. What this myth obscures is the reality that the masters were validated for their skill at some point and worked hard at perfecting them. In my journey, it was only when I risked being wrong and communicated my hunches that I received the validation I needed to hone my skills and begin to trust my intuition.

There is nothing like the need to be right to get in the way. Performance anxiety blocks your intuitive flow. When you need to be right, you will constantly second guess yourself. You allow fear to be the driving factor. Letting go the need to be right opens the channels. Intuition is the gift of your Divine roots (what I call the Inner Tree). It is about connecting to Source. The need to be right is the province of your ego. When a hunch doesn’t work out, it doesn’t mean your intuition is broken. It just means you are still learning how to connect. You do have it within your capacity to do that. Lighten up, let go and play with it.

Take up an awareness practice. Tune into your body. Your body is a magical vehicle for acute awareness, but only if we use it.  How often do you pause and really feel your body? Do you notice the entire surface of your feet on the ground? Have you explored the exquisite sensitivity of your fingertips? Do you ever tune into the energetic field around your heart? Do this without expectation. Do it daily, whenever you can remember. Just notice what is present. You will be amazed.

Most importantly, start by dropping the story that yours is broken. That story isn’t serving you. When I let go that same story and began cultivating my inner world, I learned to trust myself, my unique gifts and I continue to grow and expand my intuitive repertoire and use it regularly in service to my clients. I know it is possible for you too if you desire and that is why I support women to trust their inner resources.

Want to learn to trust your intuition? Check out my Inner Tree Courses on www.mysteryschoolofthegoddess.com

Maura McCarley Torkildson is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, Author and Priestess of Silence (Sige). She received her MA in Women’s Spirituality from New College of California January 2000.

Her first book The Curious Magic of Buckeye Groves was published in 2014 and her second book The Inner Tree will be available in 2017. After receiving her MA, Maura studied with the Mystic Peter Kingsley for 5 years and then went on to get her coaching certification. She opened her coaching practice in 2014.

She is a life long devotee and student of the Divine Feminine and dreams of empowering all women to trust themselves and their inner wisdom to bring the world back into balance again.

You can find her at Maura Torkildson Coaching.

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