Intuition 101: Your Intuition is Talking to You and Here’s How to Listen

Listening to your inner voice, when all you’ve ever done is ask others for answers, can be tricky. You may already tap into your intuition, inviting it to guide your life, confidently making decisions without giving a second thought. But for some of you, navigating your inner guidance system may be challenging. If you’re a self-proclaimed workaholic, people pleaser, overachiever, or overthinker, then quieting your mind or setting aside your to-do list may prevent you tapping into your intuition. Looking for outside validation, proving yourself, and letting anxiety or fear stop you in your tracks are also ways you’re not trusting yourself and your intuitive voice. But there’s good news. Everyone has intuitive gifts, and just like going to the gym to strengthen your muscles and nourish your body, you can do the same with your intuition!  

Keep reading to understand your intuition and learn the language it speaks!

What is intuition anyway?

You may have heard people describe intuition as your gut feeling or instinct, or your inner knowing. What you’ve heard is right, but there’s more to it. Everyone has the gift of intuition. Your intuitive abilities speak to you through clair senses (so does spirit, but I’ll share more about that in an upcoming episode of The Intuitive Teacher Podcast!). Your clair senses align with your 5 senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. Once you become aware of how your intuition communicates with you, then you can identify your strongest clair and develop your abilities. You can strengthen your intuitive muscles!

The Language of Intuition 

Tuning into your intuition may be easier said than done at first. Now that you’re aware of your intuition speaking to you through your senses, you can look for clues during your day when your intuition is inviting you to lean in for guidance. How does that guidance specifically come through? Let’s take a closer look at the language of your intuition with your clairsenses.

Clairvoyance is clear seeing.

Clairvoyance can be a lot like daydreaming and using your imagination to envision ideas. However, daydreaming and your imagination are not to be confused with your intuition. Your dreams may be vivid, too. While clairvoyance can happen inside your mind’s eye, you can also see images, colors, and objects in real life, like you would look at the blankets covering your bed or the clothes on your body. You may have always felt you were a visual learner, able to receive and understand information when presented in a visual way, such as a drawing, diagram, or picturing your artwork in your mind before starting the design process. When your clairvoyance is strong, your third eye chakra is open and active, allowing you to see what others may experience in another clair sense.

Here are 2 ways I’ve experienced clairvoyance:

1. In a meditation, I sat in silence with my eyes closed and asked my intuition and higher self to share any messages with me. I asked 3 times. After the third time, an image of my son with the nose of a mouse appeared. It startled me because I wasn’t expecting anything to appear, especially a vivid depiction of my son standing beside me. What was my intuition trying to tell me? At the time, I needed to remember to pay more attention to the small things in life and appreciation every little step forward, just like a mouse would.
2. When I began developing my intuition, clairvoyance emerged as the dominant clair. I remember seeing the auras of nurses. The aura is part of your energetic body, with colors representing your personal and unique energy. In the first case, I saw a light purple over the nurse’s head right after visiting the office for a booster shot with my kids. The second instance was with a friend, who was a retired nurse. As she sat right next to me talking with others at the table, I saw a deep, beautiful teal in her red hair. When I mentioned this out loud, someone said, “you’re just seeing her glasses on top of her head,” which were also a blue color. I corrected them and said no, I see this color in the side of her hair. My red-headed friend said, “you’re seeing my aura. In both experiences, I didn’t believe what I saw in front of my eyes and had to blink to make sure I was actually seeing colors surrounding the people in front of me.

Clairaliance is clear smelling.

When you catch a whiff of something out of nowhere, with no explainable source, you may be clairaliant. Your intuition may share perfumes of loved ones, the scent of your favorite comfort food, or a pungent fume to get your attention. These scents typically activate memories or may be a sign of something or a difficult situation you’re working through. The scent appears to connect meaning to the situation or could be a sign a passed loved one wants you to be aware of their presence. I remember celebrating one New Year’s Eve, watching the ball drop on the tv with my kids. At a moment’s notice, I smelled and tasted the meatballs I once made in the crockpot for my dad’s side of the family’s Christmas party. It had been several years since doing so, but when the scent came upon me, I immediately thought of my grandmother, who always hosted the gathering. The truth was I missed her, and from the other side, she knew it. She used my intuitive clairaliance to send me a scent I would immediately connect to a memory, and ultimately to her, to let me know she was with me.

Are you ready to tap into your intuitive gifts, but aren’t sure where to start? There are available spots opening for 1:1 Journey this summer! Reserve your spot before they’re gone! 

Clairaudience is clear hearing.

Hearing words, music or other sounds inside your mind is a sign you’re clairaudient. You may be trying to make a decision, and a quiet whisper responds, guiding you in the right direction. On the other hand, these sounds may come from outside of you.

Have you ever heard something, but couldn’t explain where it came from? You might question yourself, asking “did I really hear that?” Early on in my intuitive development, I experienced clairaudience in my mind. Songs popped into my mind or I played out dialogue from a memory. As my intuition strengthened, I began hearing external sounds. If I’m completely honest, those sounds frightened me at first. My curiosity and courage overcame the fear, allowing me to connect more deeply with my intuition, and at times, to spirit communication.

Here are some examples I’ve received intuitive messages through clairaudience:

1. I’ve heard my passed grandmother’s voice saying my name.
2. I hear a knock-knock on the walls or doors inside my house.
3. A song comes on the radio aligned with the exact thoughts I have in that moment.
4. I’ve heard the voices of my soul guides talking to me. (You can learn about soul guides in this episode of The Intuitive Teacher Podcast)
5. I heard footsteps walking on the carpet outside my downstairs office, but I was the only one on that level of my house.

Clairsentience is clear feeling.

The ability to sense or feel someone’s emotions, energy, or pain is a sign you experience clairsentience. Many of you reading this may relate to being a highly sensitive person or empath. According to WebMD, “an empath is an individual who feels more empathy than an average human. Empaths are exceptionally sensitive to the emotions and frame of mind of nearby individuals.” How might you experience a clear feeling and discern it as your intuition? Let me share some of my experiences ranging from subtle feelings to full immersion.

1. Feeling like I’m not alone in the room (but I am).
2. Picking up on the nerves and anxiety of the collective group of shoppers at the local grocery store.
3. Before one of my young students got sick, I felt light headed as if I had stood too quickly. There was no reason for me to feel this way, but when I looked at his pale face, I knew I had to walk him to the nurse.
4. Feeling the flow of Reiki energy coming from my hands during an energy healing session.
5. Feeling an energetic blanket, in the form of full body tingles, being pulled up over me when I asked spirit to help me fall asleep (it worked!).

Clairgustance is clear tasting. 

If you’re tasting something when there’s nothing in your mouth, this unexpected occurrence is clairgustance. Similar to clairaliance, your intuition may be communicating something meaningful, or spirit might be trying to share a memory to help you in the moment. You can check out my example above when I shared how clear smelling and tasting came up with a family tradition of meatballs. Have you ever tasted something out of the blue?

Claircognizance is clear knowing.

When you know, you know. Claircognizance is a certainty or conviction you have or know things to be true despite not having evidence to show for it. Knowing things will happen before they take place – premonitions – are an example of this. What are some real life examples of claircognizance? Early on in my teaching career, I had an opportunity to take a position in a neighboring district. Prior to leaving for summer break, I packed up all my personal belongings from my classroom before I even had an interview scheduled for this other position. There was a clear knowing deep inside that I wouldn’t return to the school, but instead would be hired at the neighboring district. Guess what? I was right!

Now that you understand your clairsenses, you may be wondering how to strengthen your intuitive muscles. You’re in luck! The next blog post is all about ways to strengthen your intuition. If you’re signed up to receive the latest from the blog, it will arrive in your inbox in a couple of weeks. Jess and Jackie will also be diving deeper into the language of intuition, as well as giving personal examples and their go-to tools to strengthen intuitive muscles in an upcoming episode of The Intuitive Teacher Podcast. You can listen on Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio and Spotify or listen on your favorite device by tuning into the website. Episodes automatically post with each release.

How are you tapping into your intuition?

Which clair sense is most dominant for you?