Anna Sayce

Tag: gut feelings

  • How to Distinguish Intuition From Imagination

    How to Distinguish Intuition From Imagination

    It’d be great if there was an ‘exact science’ formula for knowing what is your intuition and what is your imagination, but I don’t think there is one. However, there are a few factors to keep in mind when trying to distinguish between intuition and other things.

    #1: Practice and Feedback

    Practising intuitives have it easier when it comes to distinguishing between imagination and intuition and this is because they get more feedback than anyone. They get their intuitive insights validated (or not, as the case may be!)

    So, if you want to develop your confidence and clearly know the difference between your intuition and your imagination, do what practising psychics do to gain confidence in their abilities – (1) practice as much as possible and (2) get feedback on your intuitive insights.

    You don’t need to be doing professional readings for others in order to get feedback on your intuitive insights – you just need to apply them in your own life and see the results. For example, if a voice inside impulses you to take some sort of action, notice how that voice sounds, what it feels like, and then see what the results are.

    But, the catch here is that you must practice detachment in seeing the results of applying your intuition.

    What many people do is apply their intuitive insights, and if it doesn’t immediately get proved correct, they get discouraged – try not to approach your intuitive development like that. If the information is not proved correct immediately, don’t worry. Every time you apply your intuitive input and see the results, you get a little bit closer to knowing what your unique intuitive voice sounds like or what your intuitive nudge feels like, so even when you’re wrong, you learn something. But in order to get very far in your intuitive development, you’ve got to be open to being wrong. All developing intuitives get it wrong sometimes.

    If you would like more practice using your intuition, why not sign up for my Intuitive Experiments booklet – this is a fantastic free resource for new intuitives that involves you having a go at ‘reading’ a stranger and then finding out whether you were right or not.

    If you do this, I recommend keeping an intuitive notebook where you note down your insights and whether they were correct or not, and also HOW you received the insights (i.e. through which clair gift?) This way you can notice patterns over time and see the bigger picture around whether you are making progress or not.

    #2: Notice the feeling that accompanies your intuition

    All intuitive information comes with a special energetic ‘signature’ that you can make out after a while. The more you practice receiving intuition, the more you can identify the feeling that comes with real intuition.

    In a reading, when I am getting accurate intuitive information, I know in my gut that it’s real and correct – I can feel it. When I first started out doing readings, when I picked up on really specific things, I’d try and tone down the specific-ness of it, because I was afraid of being wrong. But I had that gut feeling which was telling me it was right on. The energetic signature of the gut feeling was something between excitement and certainty. And through feedback from clients, I came to realize that the gut feeling of certainty/excitement was a sign of accuracy. But if I never got feedback from clients, I still wouldn’t know what that feeling meant.

    The ‘energetic signature’ you perceive when your intuition is accurate may not be the same as mine (and not everyone gets this ‘feeling’), but if you practise receiving and applying intuition, you’ll probably know what I’m referring to. Next time you get intuitive input, go inside and ask yourself ‘how does this feel to me?’

    In addition to getting feelings in my gut, I also get feedback on the accuracy of my intuition through my emotions. If I get some information, but it ‘feels’ wrong or off to me, (and it’s not a good feeling), then I know it’s not on the right track. When I’m passing on information that I know is accurate, then I feel good and I feel uplifted. If any information is not accurate, it feels discordant in me just before I open my mouth to say it.

    Like me, you may get gut feelings as part of your intuition, or you may not. It all depends on whether clairsentience is one of your intuitive gifts.

    #3: Imagination is active, Intuition is passive

    Another key difference between imagination and intuition is that imagination is an active process and intuition is a passive process.

    When you’re imagining something, the imagination is exerting itself actively. Whereas intuition is what you get when you clear the mind, through meditation, and you make yourself a conduit. You become passive. So if you’re afraid that your imagination is feeding you input when you want your intuition to have more of a say, work on getting your mind under control.

    When you get a flash of something – and you’re not sure whether it’s your intuition or your mind being overly active, just stop and quieten your mind. You can do this by focusing on your breath for a minute or two and by just not paying any attention to the thoughts which arise – focus on your breath above all. This really helps to put your mind out of action for a minute while you hear what your intuition has to say about it. Intuition often arises in the gaps between your conscious thoughts, so if your mind is very busy you may need to create more gaps in order to hear your true intuitive voice.

    When it’s probably not your intuition:

    • The voice that’s talking to you makes you feel bad, discourages or belittles you
    • When the voice tells you something that sounds contradictory or confusing. Intuitive information should be concise, clear and should slot into your mental frame of reference
    • When the voice tells you to obey it. Intuition is without an agenda. Your higher self and guides will offer their perspective but you’re not required to live your life by that perspective or take into account the input, as you have free will. (Note: this may not apply if you are in danger of losing your life.)

    And if in doubt, don’t worry – a true and relevant intuitive message will usually repeat itself if you don’t get it the first time.

  • How to Develop Clairsentience

    How to Develop Clairsentience

    This is the third article in this series about the intuitive gifts. I’ve written about clairaudience and clairvoyance and now it’s time to talk about one of the more common intuitive gifts — clairsentience. In this article, I will talk about what clairsentience is, what it looks like in reality, and how you can develop it.

    What is Clairsentience?

    Clairsentience means ‘clear-feeling’. It is perhaps the most down to earth of all the intuitive gifts. Most people use clairsentience on a daily basis. This looks like your feelings sending you intuitive guidance. Just to give a common example: you may experience a feeling of discomfort and then intuitively feel impulsed to look behind you only to see someone staring at you.

    How Clairsentients Receive Intuitive Guidance

    Clairsentient guidance usually falls into one of three categories:

    Gut Feelings

    Gut feelings are strong emotional responses that feel almost physical — for example, a feeling of dread or a feeling of excitement. A sinking feeling in my gut means that something is not going to end well or is to be avoided. An uplifted, excited feeling in my gut means that I am on the right track. Hindsight will show you that gut feelings appear for a reason, often to warn you against something or someone. Gut feelings allow you to sense very quickly whether or not you like and trust someone.

    Empathy

    Empathy is a psychic gift. It is the ability to pick up on the feelings of other people and know what it is like to be another person. Empathy can be a double-edged sword. It allows you to put yourself in other peoples’ shoes more easily. However, if you’re an empath, you can be like a sponge, absorbing and feeling emotions which aren’t your own. Do you ever experience overwhelming negative feelings which seem to have no cause? Then you could be feeling someone else’s feelings.

    Physical Sensations

    Clairsentience also speaks to you through sensations in your body, like tickling or pressure.

    As clairsentience is one of my strongest gifts, I get impulsed all the time by my guides through physical sensations. Whenever I am tuning into Spirit (talking to my Spirit Guides or higher self) and doing a reading, I get a strong tingling sensation on both sides of my head. I also get a prickling sensation on the top of my head.

    If you experience this, too, you might like to read this article: What Does Tingling Around My Third Eye Chakra Mean?

    How to Develop Your Clairsentience

    Sign up for my Intuitive Experiments freebie on my free resources page, as this also gives you an opportunity to practise using your clairsentience.

    Psychometry Exercise

    This exercise involves getting hold of an object that someone has worn regularly, like a watch. All objects absorb energy from their owners and if you are clairsentient, you can tune into this energy residue. Hold the object in your hand for a minute or two. If the watch is holding a lot of strong positive or negative energy, you will probably pick up on that. You may also be able to get more details on the type of energy it is holding.

    Listening to Your Chakras

    This is an exercise for tuning into and reading your own energy (it is best to do this exercise when you have some knowledge of the chakra system, as it makes it easier to do. Check out this article on the chakra system if you’re unfamiliar with it.) This exercise also helps to develop clairsentience because it makes you more sensitive to your emotions and feelings.

    Here are the steps:

    1. Lie down or sit comfortably.

    2. Open each chakra, beginning with the root chakra. Visualize each chakra as a coloured wheel spinning horizontally, and bring the energy outwards, about one metre outside of your body.

    3. Then ask yourself: how do I feel in this chakra? Ask each chakra one by one. See if you get any sensations in your body or emotions that are connected to the chakras.

    The first time I did this, at the heart chakra (the centre of love and self-love) I felt a sense of hollowness which told me that I was taking care of everyone except myself. At my throat chakra (the centre of communication), it felt tight and constricted and I remembered I had something to say to someone that I had suppressed.

    If you are interested in doing this exercise in a guided way, you might like to check out my Chakra Meditation.

    Further Reading: