12 Ways to Improve Your Intuitive Abilities

Everyone has the ability to receive higher guidance and sense subtle energies. Because each person is unique, the ways that we use our intuitive skills will look different for every person.

Another name for our psychic and intuitive gifts are the "clair senses". To better understand how your intuition works, let's first take a look at some of these skills:

Clairvoyance, clear seeing: Someone who has this spiritual ability often sees images, symbols or colors in their mind. They may also be vivid dreamers, visualize easy or can see auras or Spirits.

Clairaudience, clear hearing: This intuitive gift allows people to hear messages from Spirit, music, frequencies, tones and other sounds that others cannot hear.

Claircognizance, clear knowing. If you have this superpower you often times know things about people or places without any proof or logic. You may get "hits" or downloads of information without any explanation of where it came from.

Clairintellect, clear thinking: Someone with this skill will often have a thought and then moments or hours later have it come true. Perhaps you'll have an idea about calling a friend, and then seconds later your phone rings and your friend is on the other line!

Clairempathy, clear emotion: A person with clairempathy is also usually referred to as an Empath. They are generally highly sensitive people, who have the abilities to sense what others around them are feeling or thinking. Empaths must learn to differentiate their own emotions from others.

Clairsentience, clear physical feeling: This spiritual ability allows you to physically feel another person's pain or illness as your own. For example, if a loved one has stomach troubles, you might feel like you are nauseas or have a tummy ache every time you walk into the same room.

Clairtangency, clear touching. If you have this skill, then you are able to receive information by physically touching an object or a person. Oftentimes, people with heightened clairtangency are very sensitive to chemicals on their skin or in their foods.

Clairsalience, clear smelling: Someone with clear smelling is able to smell things that others cannot. Often times, Spirit will communicate to them by sending them a scent of perfume, foods or smoke to alert them or notify them that Spirit is near. For example, my mom used to say that she could smell her mother's pot roast whenever her Spirit was near.

Clairgustance, clear tasting: A person with this gift can taste things without having to put them into their mouth. Sometimes, they'll taste chemicals or blood in their mouth to warn them that something isn't right. Some medical mediums can report tasting disease or illness when working with someone who is sick.

Practice Makes Perfect

Our intuitive abilities are like muscles. The more that we exercise them, the stronger they become. I didn't always have the ability to see and hear Spirit. It was something that I had to practice working on for many years before I could clearly receive guidance.

People often tell me that I'm so lucky that I have access to my spiritual gifts or wish that they could have the same abilities as me. I'm not special or unique. In fact, I believe that everyone has the same potential that I do. The only thing that makes me different is that I've committed a great deal of time and practice into becoming a clear conduit for higher guidance.

Now, we'll take a look at 12 simple exercises that you can practice to activate and strengthen your spiritual gifts. These were all exercises that I utilized in my earlier years of awakening. If you're truly dedicated to strengthening your intuition, I'd recommend picking one exercise and practicing it for 3-10 days in a row before moving on to another exercise.

1) Draw an Oracle Card

For this exercise you'll need a deck of Oracle or Tarot Cards that have lots of beautiful artwork and symbology. If your cards have words on them, you'll want to use a sticky note or piece of paper to cover up these clues. Shuffle your deck and draw a random card from the pile. As you look at the images see if you can sense:

• What kinds of feelings or impressions do I get from looking at this card?

• What are the symbols trying to teach me?

• What are the words or phrases I would use to describe the card being shown to me?

Give yourself at least 5-10 minutes to interpret the card using your own intuition. After the time is up you can compare your answers with your guidebook to see how well you did.

2) Invoke a Spirit Guide or Angel

Call on your Spirit Guide or one of the Archangels to come into your energy field. You could also call on Jesus or Mary or any other Ascended Being. If you know their name, say the name of the Spirit you wish to call on out loud. For example, say, "I invite the presence of Archangel Michael to fill my awareness right now."

Close your eyes and feel into this Divine Being that is with you. Notice how your mental, physical and emotional states shift when you invoke a higher frequency. Take your time to adjust to this new energy. Notice if you can sense a color or shape. Ask to hear a name or a simple phrase. See if you can be shown an image or symbol. Pause, and wait for a response.

Have patience in this process and don't expect to get much on the very first try. Eventually, this exercise gets to be very fun and easy, especially as you learn to trust your senses more. You'll start to experience different states of physical, mental and emotional well being when these higher beings are with you.