by Brandi Van

Many of us have been in a situation that after we looked back on it, we knew we should have done it differently, but we didn’t listen to ourselves. That was our intuition, or our gut feeling, talking to us, and unfortunately, we didn’t listen to its advice.

Intuition is having an instinctive feeling of knowing something, without knowing how we know it. It’s our ability to understand something immediately, without reasoning. It’s always there, trying to guide and support us to our fullest potential.

Think of intuition as a wise little mentor that lives inside of each of us. Its purpose is to give us advice and will always lead us to our greatest good. Unfortunately, though, a lot of us don’t know how to listen to it, or we don’t trust it, and we tend to ignore it.

The easiest way to figure out if our intuition is talking to us is to think, “Is there an emotion attached to this thought?” If we are feeling emotions such as fear, anger, shame, guilt or resentment, that is not our intuition talking to us.

When we feel a sense of calm and clarity, and when we perceive a peace within us, that’s how we’ll know our intuition is talking to us. This is when it’s time to wake up and listen. Listening to our intuition will allow us to live authentically, in the way we truly want to be living, instead of how society or relationships are telling you how we should be living.

Let’s try a simple exercise to get us to start listening to our intuition:

First, think of a question. It could be guidance that we are looking for in our career or relationship, or it could be something as simple as what we should eat for dinner today.

Once the question is ready, ask our intuition for the answer.

Wait for a response to our question. Don’t force something to happen and don’t let our rational mind get in the way. It’s important to not second guess its answer. The answer we receive will usually be very simple and will relate to the present, not the past or the future, and it will feel right in our body.

Whatever our answer was, it’s important to then act on it. So, if it told us to eat a salad for dinner, but we end up eating a hamburger, we didn’t act on its advice. Remember, it’s guiding us to our greatest good.

If we didn’t get an answer, that’s okay. Just like with anything, the more we do it, the easier it will become. It takes practice to listen to, trust and act on our intuition so why not start practicing today.

Brandi Van, a Spiritual Medium and Psychic Development Mentor located in Philadelphia, offers a 90-day mentorship program, Jump Start Your Psychic Abilities. For more information or to enroll in the program, visit BrandiVan.com.