Intuition as a Way of Life

in·tu·i·tion

noun

1.

direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension.

2.

a fact, truth, etc., perceived in this way.

3.

a keen and quick insight.

4.

the quality or ability of having such direct perception or quick insight.

Even as a very small child I knew I was different. It was always easy for me to see patterns in social relationships, predict their outcome, and uncannily know things before they were going to happen. In my innocence, I thought everyone had the ability to do this. Not until I was about six or seven did I realize this was unusual. My parochial upbringing saw this ability as spiritual, revering it in Jesus and the saints but demonizing it in ordinary folk. Quickly I learned to keep my mouth shut about my perceptions and intuitions.

Intuitives comprise only about a quarter of the population, making us a minority. We are surrounded by formula-based feelers and thinkers who view reality as solid, factual, and determined by concrete variables. Since we were raised and trained by them, we know how they think but they tend to label us as dreamers, flakes, having our head in the clouds, etc. There is no school for intuitives to teach us how to handle our way of being in order to channel our unique abilities wisely. Quite the contrary, we are reinforced not to trust our intuition as children and adults. Discouragement created many of us fail to recognize and utilize our intuition wisely.

In my family of eight, I was the only intuitive. Life with my sensing family was difficult in that I always knew all of their motivations, what their resulting behaviors would be, and accurately predict the outcomes. My older siblings thought of me as being lucky at making guesses and was annoyingly smug. It was not until my high school and college years when I met and was mentored by other confident intuitives did I really appreciate my differences.

Here are some of the things they taught me:

• Intuition comes in many forms. Learn to recognize the forms it takes in your life. For example, I can predict behaviors and outcomes, get receptive messages through dreams, am clairsentient, and sometimes spontaneously know information about events/things beforehand. I am not clairvoyant, telepathic, or a medium.
• Intuition does not mean you are always right. It is easy to confuse feeling with intuition. Intuition is just a different way of perceiving information.
• The strength of intuition is knowing things others cannot perceive. This does not guarantee they will  believe you. There is rarely a way to prove intuition, so be prepared to have your intuition impeached.
• Surround yourself with other intuitives. It is easier to be around people who speak our language and   understand our way of being.
• Being intuitive means you can go off the deep end sometimes.This can mean thinking too much, dreaming too much, feeling too much, idealizing too much, and being prone to novel experiences which may lead to self-destructive behaviors.
• As an intuitive we are more sensitive. Know when you need time alone or with another supportive intuitive to process things out.
• It is important to talk about unusual or profound intuitive episodes with other intuitives. Anyone else may think you are psychotic, weird, lying, have taken too many drugs, or are just plain cuckoo.
• Learn to trust your intuition but don't make the mistake that it is 100% accurate. Sometimes it is just plain wrong, or you're only getting partial information, or the timing is off.
• Intuitives get a bad rap frequently (some deservedly so). We are lumped into the same group as gypsies, charlatans, con artists, and the odd.
• See your intuition as a gift instead of a curse. Learn to accept you are not like the rank and file.