Intuition Chronicles is my tracking system where I document the internal messages I receive and the results of heeding or ignoring them. I’ve shared a variety of my learn-the-hard-way stories in previous posts. Ugh! Happily, this is a success story, but I didn’t know it till months later. Since the outcome of following hunches isn’t always immediately apparent and can easily be overlooked, I’ve found that having a record to review is a great teaching aid. 

While I do learn quickly by experiencing the inconvenience, discomfort, or expense of discounting inner guidance, I prefer to learn the easy way! I don’t always know until later that I’ve had a successful intuitive encounter, so I keep track of the nudges that don’t seem to make sense as well as the hindsight-activated realizations that I unknowingly acted on a nudge. I can use all the experiences for learning.

In December 2019, I got a wild hair to buy allspice essential oil. I didn’t know why and had no clue what I’d do with it. Some exploration online taught me that it’s an antiviral spice and combines nicely with several other antiviral herbs and spices. I purchased the lot and made a batch of air purification spritzers for my home and office and to share as gifts. 

It wasn’t until the following spring that I recognized that “wild hair” purchase as an extrasensory “knowing”. It didn’t come in the verbal format I’m accustomed to. I never heard a voice in my head saying, “Buy this; you’ll be glad later.” My attention was inexplicably drawn to the product and I felt an urge to buy it. When antiviral oils became hard to come by in 2020, I was extremely grateful I had an adequate stock on hand, and the epiphany blossomed. If I didn’t have an active practice of recording intuitive messages, I likely would have never perceived this as a victory.

This is when people usually point out that they frequently have sudden desires to buy items and wonder how they can tell the difference between impulsive shopping and an intuitive hunch. Valid question! Who doesn’t get urges to spend money out of the blue?

I have a two-pronged answer to that. A) Keeping track in a journal makes it easy to look back and say, “Aha! I was guided to do xyz and that proved incredibly helpful in the future. I’ll pay attention the next time a message like that appears.” Or, “Yikes, I regret spending all that money on something so frivolous. Next time I’ll be more mindful.” B) My intuition speaks to me calmly, but firmly, without any sense of desperation, whereas impulsive shopping can feel like I absolutely must have this thing or else I just won’t be ok. My intuition knows that I’m already ok and isn’t trying to prove my worthiness to me; it’s trying to make my life and my calling easier. Both the quality of the message and the act of mindfully recording it help me discern the difference.

I know that learning to recognize and interpret subtle directives from the metaphysical realm can seem daunting. At first there might be some confusion if the memo was issued by the soul or the consumeristic conditioning we’ve all been exposed to. To add to the complexity, there are a variety of ways intuition can communicate. Sometimes my eyes are mysteriously drawn to an object. Other times I get clear verbal instruction, have a gut feeling, or just know that I need to do something. Synchronicity is another guiding factor and too big of a topic to address today. (More on that in a later post.)

The more I’m tuned into the intention to receive and decipher guidance, the easier it is to notice it. Just like learning a language or instrument, we get better with practice. Even if you don’t feel confident following through on your intuition just yet, you can build your confidence by making notes and beginning your practice today. Soon you’ll be fluent in this new language.