141. Developing Intuition — Aneel Aranha

Hello and welcome to The Hope Podcast. I’m Aneel Aranha. Today, we will talk about how intuition is more than a feeling; it is its own kind of knowledge.

We have all had moments when we "know" things without being able to explain how we know them. We describe them as gut feelings or hunches and often dismiss them as irrational. However, intuition—that’s the proper word for it—is neither. It accesses knowledge and memory buried in the subconscious, giving us a way of dealing with things that our conscious mind might not be aware of, finding solutions to problems that we miss, or providing us with a simple awareness of certain truths.

Consider: You have misplaced something and can't remember where you have kept it when something keeps telling you to look inside a particular drawer. You work on a project, and it seems terrific, but you have this nagging feeling that something isn't right about it. You have a conversation with someone, and something in your gut says the person is lying. These are all examples of intuition in action. Check them out instead of dismissing them. What have you to lose — except your cool if your spouse is the one who is lying.

Like everything else, we can cultivate intuition. Here are a few suggestions. 

Journal. Record the times you felt strongly about something and track how they turned out. If you are a spiritual person, ask God about them in the journal. We might get better tuned to the Holy Spirit, too.

Meditate. Meditation creates a quiet space where we can process our thoughts peacefully. During these times, we can find answers to many questions or a better understanding of things. Yet again, inviting the help of the Holy Spirit will improve our relationship with him.

Dream. The mind doesn't let go of problems when we sleep, and we can find solutions if we pay attention to our dreams because the subconscious mind sees things the conscious mind misses. I composed one of my songs, "Arise, Wounded Soldier," in a dream! I woke up, recorded it on my phone, and went back to sleep. 

Experiment. Trust your intuition to lead you into new things. Only some things will work, but we can fine-tune our intuitive dial better. Once again, involve the Holy Spirit. We will soon learn to listen to his voice and follow his lead. Happy navigation!
 
God bless you.