• A Sense of knowing something without knowing how you know it
• Insights about your life that are “just there”
• Persistent ideas that you don’t consciously focus on
• Desires that you have that you didn’t consciously create
• Dreams for your life that you would not dare to conjure up on your own
• Insight that feels like it is coming from the depths of your being
• A message or piece of knowledge that seems to come from out of nowhere
• Out of the ordinary bodily sensations

The 8 Common Characteristics of Intuition (above) provide the basis for Susan’s “Instincts Exercise” from her upcoming book “Inner Architect: How To Build The Life You Were Designed To Live.”

Exercise: Review the list of intuition characteristics above. Identify specific insights about what you are meant to be or achieve that have come to you in these ways. This is rich information for you to be in touch with.

*Write as many insights as you can here
*Don’t edit the list in any way
*Just acknowledge what has come to you

Because of our conditioning, instinct or intuition is often ignored as less than accurate due to our tendency to place more trust in what we know to be fact or physical evidence. Yet a vast amount of valuable intelligence is available from our own inner world.

“Intelligence” can be thought of as both information as well as smarts.

“Inner World” is our internal stream of thought, consciousness, and ongoing dialog.

Despite our conditioning and upbringings, we can choose to value our instincts by understanding their power, recognizing our own capability to hone our sense of intuition, and by using our instincts on a daily basis. In order to begin this process, it is important to understand some characteristics of intuition (aka instincts).

Common Characteristics of Intuition

• A Sense of knowing something without knowing how you know it
• Insights about your life that are “just there”
• Persistent ideas that you don’t consciously focus on
• Desires that you have that you didn’t consciously create
• Dreams for your life that you would not dare to conjure up on your own
• Insight that feels like it is coming from the depths of your being
• A message or piece of knowledge that seems to come from out of nowhere
• Out of the ordinary bodily sensations