The following article has been excerpted from Start Where You Are, a guidebook to overcoming procrastination, perfectionism and other common mental hang-ups by creativity/productivity counsellor Sam Bennett. 

10 Ways to Cultivate Your Intuition

We don’t get much education in developing or trusting our intuition, and like a muscle, it gets stronger with practice, so here are 10 fun, easy ways to cultivate your intuition.



Break your routine – Do something different. Anything. Drive a different way to work, walk on the other side of the street, create an all-new sandwich. This will help you stay alert and in the moment, so you can notice when your intuition is pulling at your sleeve.



At a restaurant, choose to order the very first thing that you see on the menu – If nothing else, it’s pleasant to have more time for conversation and less time for silently obsessing about the calorie difference between the tuna salad and the Cobb.



Take the long way home – Just let the car take you wherever it wants to go. Or walk a different way home. Deliberately get lost. See where you end up.



Keep some kind of notebook beside your bed and record just the images from your dreams – I never worry about remembering the plot—dream logic is too confusing to try to capture—but I usually remember a few images, and those can be quite illuminating.



Try some version of automatic writing – If you like the idea of friendly spirits or guides writing through you, go for it. If not, just try to write faster than your mind can think.



Right hand-left hand exercise – Let your dominant hand ask a question that you really want the answer to, and let your non-dominant hand write the answer. (Yes, the writing of your non-dominant hand will look like that of a deranged kindergartner. No worries.) Keep the dialogue going until you feel satisfied.



Talk to animals – Get quiet and communicate in thought pictures with the animals in your life.



Connect with new people in your daily life – If you feel a pull toward someone you don’t know, reach out in some way. Make eye contact with people at the grocery store and at the gas station. Allow yourself to notice what you believe at first glance about them. (In other words, when you really look at someone, you might get little flickers of thought: “She looks lonely,” or “I bet he was wild as a teenager.” Just let that impression bubble up.)



Truthfully answer the question, “How are you?” – On being asked, take a second to check in with yourself and give a real answer. Caution: this might lead to a real conversation.



Obey the “How dumb would I feel?” rule – This rule kicks in when I pull into a parking space with my tote holding my computer on the front seat and think, “Oh, I don’t have to put that in the trunk; I’m sure it will be fine.” Then I think, “Yup, I’m sure it will be fine, but how dumb would I feel if I came back out here and it was gone?” I would feel pretty darn dumb, especially since I had just had this conversation with myself. Make it a daily practice to pay attention to your niggling thoughts and suspicions.

The 6 Intuition Killers

Just as you can develop your inner wisdom, there are also some easy ways to suppress it. Here are six killers of intuition:







The need to be right – The need to be smart, documented, and logical in all of your decisions will cause you to ignore the whispers of your soul and do foolish things, like marrying someone who “looks good on paper” or taking a job just for the money.



The safety of “I don’t know” – Sometimes when you say, “I don’t know,” it’s because actually you do know, and you just don’t like it. Other times you allow yourself to stay confuddled so that you don’t have to commit to a decision. If this is a habit of yours, try using the life coach’s trick of saying, “If I did know the answer, it might be...”



Fatigue and dehydration – Physical depletion often leads directly to poor brain function and unreliable interpretations of the signals your inner wisdom is trying to

send you.



Depression – When you are caught up in hopelessness, grief, and nonstop self-criticism, it is very hard for you to hear that deep, calm, knowing voice within, and even harder to trust it.



Talking yourself into and out of decisions – When you second-guess yourself, you confuse yourself and develop self-mistrust.



Routine – Being on autopilot causes you to stagnate and go to sleep.







Read more about intuitive intelligence in FIRST INTELLIGENCE: Understanding the three phases of perception»






image 1: Jake Stimpson (Creative Commons BY) image 2: Joseph Palatinus (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND)

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