We've all heard the wise words, “trust your gut”, “go with the flow”, and “follow your intuition”. But what does this process truly require?

Sure, we're all born with intuition, and presumably we can access it whenever we need it. It’s that inner voice that tells you when you are on the right track, or the wrong one.



But if you’re anything like me, this voice is often overridden by logical or emotional reasoning. You may use your intellect to interpret your intuitive voice in a way that suits an identity with which you have grown comfortable.

This is why the Tarot Cards are central to my healing work - the cards will show you what you may be hesitant to acknowledge about your current situation. They reflect your emotional energy through archetypal symbolism to pull at the seams of your ego convictions.

Intuition is a balanced combination of both rationality and emotionality, and it is often hugely challenging to discern which is which. I think of intuition as being akin to the concept of 'wise mind' in dialectical behavioural therapy. Sometimes, connecting with our intuition requires engaging with a both/and perspective, and resisting extremes of fantasy and fear alike.

There are strategies, exercises and tactics we can employ to strengthen our intuitive voice. This work is crucial in combatting anxiety, self-doubt and depression, and developing emotional maturity to improve the quality of our relationships.

These three techniques will support your intuitive development:

1. Mindfulness Meditation
2. Reality Testing
3. Setting Boundaries

1. Mindfulness in the form of meditation like a body scan, breathing exercise, or simply a practice of mindful eating or movement is a key component in heightening your intuitive instincts.

Mindfulness trains the brain to observe thoughts and feelings as a bystander, and supports us to disentangle our identities from our thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness reminds us that emotions come and go, and helps to separate our feelings from the stories we tell ourselves about them.

When we resist the urge to merge our identity with our thoughts and feelings, we are less likely to allow these circumstantial and fleeting energies to determine our decisions, problem-solving strategies, and beliefs about ourselves and the world around us.



2. Reality Testing requires measuring your thoughts (often fear-based thinking or intrustive thoughts) against what you know to be objectively true.

Example: When your partner doesn't text you back at the expected time, your mind might wander to the worst case scenario. When you reality-test the thoughts that arise, you are organizing how much of that scenario can be backed up by your objective reality.

You might think, "they're cheating on me" but when you consider what evidence you have to support that theory, you come up short. Reinforce what you do know: "they finish work at five, and I haven't heard from them yet." That may be all that you know for sure.

If you struggle with anxiety, you are uncomfortable with uncertainty. This is why your brain fills in the gaps, hoping to resolve your uncertainty and predict the future. Reality testing is a good practice to ground your thinking and work on accepting uncertainty.

Remember, whatever the truth is, you can handle it. It might be that what you fear is right, but you can handle that, too. And the tendency to guess, and to anticipate the worst shuts down your intuitive abilities.

Reality Testing can be particularly challenging, depending on how consistently you wield logical and emotional reasoning to justify an identity narrative or belief system.

For example, someone may be seeking to appease their traditional parents, fit into normative standards, and are committed to embodying traditional gender roles to achieve this.

If this person feels a same-sex attraction, they may be inclined to repress their sexuality because it triggers cognitive dissonance between who they think they are and the truth of their emotional body. It also threatens to dismantle all that they have known, their support system and emotional bonds. It may trigger an identity crisis and cause nervous system distress.

That's why we are so good at intellectualizing our feelings. In many cases, we have trained ourselves to repress our instincts to secure a sense of belonging.

The intuition doesn’t care about social standards or family pressures. To some extent, we have all been actively repressing our intuition in this way for the entirety of our lives.

Reality testing is about allowing a feeling like anxiety to come up, and resisting the urge to assign a reason or justification to that feeling. Observe it, let it be what it is, and ask it what it wants you to know. Then be as open and honest as you can be with yourself.



3. Another key component in developing your intuition is Setting Boundaries. Boundaries are important on any healing journey. When we can act in our own best interest regardless of the reactions of those around us, we will be more inclined to listen to our inner voice, instead of crafting an alternative narrative that feels more comfortable.

Boundaries support self-trust, and are an important part of any healing or recovery process. They help to combat self-abandonment and resentment that can build up when we sacrifice our truth for the comfort of others.

Boundaries are a requirement for emotional maturity. We are often infantilized by our need for external validation from others. When you set boundaries, trust and expect that many people won't like it. Accepting this is part of what it means to be an adult.

You are not harming anyone when you set boundaries to protect your energy and honour your needs. If someone makes you feel like your boundaries are harmful or abusive toward them, they may be manipulating you.

Ultimately, intuition is about the quality of your relationship to yourself. Emotional maturity will result when we take steps to be honest with ourselves, face our shadows and honour our truth.

Tarot is a great way to touch base with your intuition, because it will reflect your emotional energy and reveal what your ego would prefer to keep hidden. In order to live intuitively, you have to be ready to be honest with yourself.

Are you open enough to hear what your unconscious is telling you?

Learn about Tarot for Mental Health with The Tarotologist's psycho-spiritual education subscriptions: https://thetarotologist.subkit.com/