How I Stumbled My Way into Intuition

Have you ever thought about someone and later that day they reach out to you?

Have you ever received a knowing (like a thought or a feeling) that prompts you to do something, but you ignore it and then later say, “Why didn’t I listen to that?”

Intuition, or “sixth sense” is the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.   It’s like having a gut feeling or a deep sense of knowing something that seems to come out of nowhere and that can manifest in a variety of ways.

You may be familiar with the “clairs”, a form of intuition in which individuals perceive information beyond the normal senses.

Claircognizance (Clear knowing): This is often considered the most basic and widely accepted clair and is synonymous with intuition or a gut feeling. It's the ability to "just know" something.

Clairsentience (Clear feeling): This clair involves sensing emotions or energies from others or from the environment.

Clairaudience (Clear hearing): This clair involves hearing voices, sounds, or songs that provide information.

Clairvoyance (Clear seeing): This clair involves receiving information through visions or images, often related to the future, past, or present.

These are four of the most well-known and most popular clairs.  Others include Clairalience (Clear smell), Clairgustance (Clear taste), and Clairtangency (Clear touch). 

Intuition is inherent in every human on Earth, yet the idea or the practice of listening to and following the guidance of our intuition (through the clairs) is often downplayed due to several factors such as cultural bias towards rational decision-making, a fear of being wrong, and a focus on data-driven approaches. 

I am a human, maybe like you, being called to develop and enhance my intuitive abilities.  Our intuition is our inner guidance system, and it is to our benefit that we heed the messages we receive, however they show up.   I had one such experience a few weeks back while out for a walk in nature by myself, an hour from my home. 

Moments before I stepped onto the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad Trail in Tilton, New Hampshire,  I stopped and took a picture of the railroad crossing sign and texted it to my husband and son.  In that moment, my intuition spoke.  It came through as both a thought and feeling that I should let my family know where I was and what I was doing.  I remember thinking to myself, “Well, if I go missing at least the picture of the sign will give them an idea of where I was.”

I ignored the soft, subtle intuitive hit and instead, paid attention to the booming voice that claimed independence, freedom, and safety and then I did what I imagine most women do when they are out in nature by themselves – I held my car keys firmly in my hand should any unsavory man or beast approach, I could stab them in the eye.

Less than an hour later my husband answered his phone to hear my crying and upset on the other end.  He knew immediately something was wrong.

I was halfway back to my car when I decided to go “off-roading “on a small path through the trees to an opening to the river.  On the way back to the main trail I paused to step over a small dead pine tree that I stepped over on my way in.  My foot caught the tree, and I fell. 

My hands reached out to stop my fall, but the ground wasn’t where I expected it to be.  Countless leaves from last autumn littered the ground and by the time my hands made contact with the earth, my head made contact with something less forgiving. 

I felt a stinging pain in my forehead and blood pouring down towards my eye.   My body shaking and my head pounding, doing everything I could to control the bleeding, I made it back to my car.  With the help of my family I drove myself to a local urgent care where my wound was cleaned, treated, and glued shut.

The outcome could have been much worse, but I did learn some valuable lessons.   First, let someone know where I am and what I’m doing when I adventure alone.  While a solo walk in nature, a swim in a body of water, or a trek up a mountain isn’t automatically dangerous, the most common mistake is taking off alone without letting someone know where you are.

I didn’t tell my husband where I was or what I was doing, mainly because we had separate plans for the night.  I was staying up in Tilton and he was home doing his thing.  I didn’t want to come across as gloating that I was away and he wasn’t, and I wanted to give him his space. 

Second lesson.  Listen to and act on my intuitive hits and revisit my inner guidance after my rational mind chimes in with its reasoning.

This is the challenge I believe many of us experience when we receive guidance from beyond our five senses but then let the rational mind take over.

Albert Einstein emphasized the importance of intuition when he said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant.  We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

The faithful servant known as my rational mind has been telling me that such flights of fancy, having a developed intuition, are reserved for special people and if I was granted this gift by some  higher authority, it would arrive in one big package, like waking up one morning with clear sight.  (Clairvoyance) 

There’s no doubt I cracked open my third eye when I fell, an experience that needed to happen in order for me to stumble into my intuition in a jarring, yet subtle way.  I’m not suddenly clairvoyant, and that’s okay.  My experience helped me to understand that I am intuitive, yet my rational mind will do everything it can to convince me I’m not.   

In order to develop my innate gift, I must listen and act, (Let my family know where I am)  let my rational mind speak, (listen with non-judgmental understanding of its role) then reconnect with my internal guidance system (Intuition) again to see if there is anything else there.

Will a curtain suddenly lift, and we’ll be instantly clairvoyant or clairaudient?  Maybe.  But at least now I have something to work with, and so do you.

Listening to our intuition can lead to greater self-knowledge and more aligned decisions.  It can increase our confidence in our life choices and potentially even save our life in certain situations.  

I was lucky because I was in a populated area with cell phone service and medical attention just a few minutes away. 

For this I am grateful.