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.

3) Interpret Your Dreams

Before you to go sleep, write out a question or request guidance from your Spirit Guides on a piece of paper. Place it next to your bed and ask for them to give you a dream that will help to answer the question. I also ask for assistance to help me remember my dream clearly when I wake up. If you don't get a dream on the first night that you do this, or you forget your dream, don't worry! Keep trying because sometimes it can take a few days (or even weeks!) before this works.

As soon as you wake up from your dream, write down everything that you can remember about your dream. Use an online dream dictionary and your own intuition to help interpret the symbols, metaphors and themes to help you gain a better understanding of the message.

When I first learned to work with Spirit I kept a dream journal of every dream I had. It was the easiest way that my Guides could get through to me. Once you begin to take your dreams seriously, you'll realize that the messages you are receiving will become deeply meaningful and full of incredible guidance.

4) The Yes/No Exercise

This exercise is pretty simple and I teach it to my clients all of the time. To start, hold an object, like an apple, in your hand. Close your eyes and tap into your body. When you feel centered, say out loud, "This is an apple." Notice what happens to your body, energetically speaking. For many people, they will feel a response in their heart, their gut/belly or around their head. I usually feel an expansive, open feeling around my chest when the answer is a "yes" or "true".

Now, say a lie out loud. For example, you could say, "This is an orange." Again, notice what you feel and how your body responds. I often feel a contractive or tigthening energy around my solar plexus when the answer is "no" or "false". Your body will respond to you in unique ways, so it will be up to you to decipher how your body responds to yes/true versus no/false.

A more advanced practice would be to ask someone to alternate telling you truths and lies about themselves. See if you can feel the differences between the truths and the lies within your body. This is a great exercise that will teach you how to be more discerning with information.

5) How Many Sounds Can You Hear?

This practice is a great one to increase your clairaudience. To do this, you'll want to close your eyes. Try to listen for as many sounds and background noises as you can. List everything that you hear, including sounds of cars, animal noises outside, electronics buzzing in the home, the wind, your breath, etc.

We normally ignore many of these background noises. But, by taking the time to tune in to everything around, you will increase your perception to hear your inner voice and the subtle messages from Spirit.

6) Look for Synchronicities, Signs and Symbols

Your Spirit Guides are communicating with you constantly and will use a variety of ways to send you messages, including:

• Repetitive numbers (i.e. seeing 11:11)

• Music, TV or radio messages

• Billboards

• Social media

• Animals, paw prints and feathers

• Coins, symbols and other totems

Often times, when Spirit is trying to communicate to you to pay attention or take notice, you'll feel a tingly sensation that can feel like goosebumps or chills. Start a synchronicity journal or a notebook on your phone to keep track of the signs, symbols and messages that you get throughout the day. You can go back and search for the meanings online or interpret them using your own intuition.

7) Practice Visualizing

The doorway to Spirit is through your imagination. You use the exact same "muscles" when communicating with Spirit as you do when you're imagining or day dreaming. Give yourself 5-10 minutes a day to replay "movies" in your mind by recreating happy memories or your favorite vacation spot. You can also attempt to visualize yourself thriving in a future moment in time.

I like to visualize me and my family walking down Main Street, U.S.A. at Disney World. There are so many sights, sounds and smells to explore here. Not only does this visualization exercise put me in a good mood, but it helps me to practice many of the clair abilities all at once.

A more advanced practice is to learn how to do a Shamanic journey. When journeying, a beginner imagines walking up a staircase and entering a doorway to a higher dimension. I usually work with first-timers to imagine entering into an all white room, with white walls, floors and ceilings. This makes it easier for them to see colors and images more clearly. Once inside the white room, ask for a message from your Spirit Guide and observe what comes forward. Using the guided visualizations on my website can also help to strengthen your inner eye.

8) Muscle Testing

Muscle testing is an easy way to communicate with your body. It works really well with things like vitamins, supplements, foods, essential oils, herbs and other natural remedies that you put into your body or on your skin. When using muscle testing, simply hold the item in your hand and ask, "Is this for my highest healing and highest good at this time?" Perform a muscle test to receive a response.

Watch this Easy Self Muscle Test video to learn how to do it.

9) Automatic Writing With Your Non-dominant Hand

This practice works well to activate your claircognizance. Start with a blank piece of paper and write on the top a question or problem that you have. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Next, use your non-dominant hand to begin writing, "My Spirit Guides are telling me..." Repeat the phrase in your mind or continue to write it out over and over again until a message begins to flow onto the paper.

The idea behind using your opposite hand is to help stimulate the intuitive and sensitive parts of your brain rather than the ego and logical aspects. At first, it may take a bit for information or guidance to arrive. But, eventually the goal is to get out of your mind and simply allow higher wisdom to flow through you and onto the paper. Try not to overthink or force the answers. Just write whatever impressions, images, feelings or words come to mind. Don't worry if they don't make sense or form complete sentences. When the practice is over you can go back and interpret your messages.

10) Arrange a Bouquet

This is another exercise that will help you to strengthen your clairvoyance. Remember, the more you practice visualizing and imagining things, the more your third eye will open up.

To do this exercise, close your eyes and visualize a pot or vase in front of you. Now, imagine putting a flower into the vase. Try to imagine all of the details of your flower including its size, shape, color, texture and type. Once you can see the flower clearly, add a second flower to the vase. Make this one a different color and type. Keep filling up the vase until you have at least 3 unique and different flowers. As you practice this exercise more, you can begin to add additional flowers to the vase working your way up to 5, 6 or even a dozen flowers!

11) Connect to a Crystal

I like to practice this exercise to enhance my skills of clear feeling and touching. You'll want to hold a crystal or stone in the palms of your hands. Raise the stone up to your heart, close your eyes and feel in to the energy of the rock. In your mind ask, "How does this crystal want to assist me today?"

Wait for a response, a sensation or an impression. How does the crystal make you feel - physically, mentally and emotionally? Are there areas of your body or energy field that feels "turned on", tingly or warm?

What I love about this exercise is that it teaches us that crystals are powerful, wise and ancient beings who have a lot to say if we take the time to listen. You might be surprised to find that some of the answers you will get from your crystals in this exercise will not be found in a crystal book or online.

You can also begin to enhance your intuition each morning by asking, "Which crystal do I most need today?" Lay a few of your crystals out in a row and gently hover your hands a few inches above them or lightly touch them. Wait for one of the crystals to "jump out at you". You'll often feel a magnetic push or pull, a swirling of energy in your hands or a change in temperature above a stone. This will signify to you which crystal is answering your call for assistance.

12) Optical Memory Game

This is a fun little game I still like to play with myself when I'm in a public space, like waiting in the doctor's office or sitting on an airplane. Simply look around at your surroundings for 30 seconds. Try to take in as many details as you can about the room.

Then, close your eyes and try to recreate the room in your mind. Imagine all of the furniture, decor, colors, people, etc. The more you practice this, the more you'll notice subtle details like little cracks in the furniture or chips in the paint. This exercise will teach you to become more sensitive to the subtle and sophisticated ways in which Spirit can communicate to us, while also helping you to be more present and aware of your surroundings.

I hope this message finds you well and that it assists you on your journey.

With love,

Kelsey