• 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

How many times in your life have you made decisions based on past experience(s), only to realize later, that these past experiences you based your decision upon were no longer relevant?

How often have you scoffed at and ignored your intuitive heart in matters because listening to your heart always seemed to be flighty rather than practical and wise?

In most cases, you utilize your analytical mind to make decisions rather than “giving credibility to your feelings and accepting their messages as valid.”

If this is you then it is time to wake up to the fact that your intuitive heart is a very valuable tool, more positive, and a better barometer in providing the kind of information that will allow you to move forward and attain your desired reality.

4 Steps to Trusting Your Intuitive Heart

1. Role: Allow your heart to play a role in matters of career, just as you allow it a significant role in your personal relationships

2. Acknowledge: Recognize and accept that your heart is the center of your spiritual essence. As such, it is the most knowledgeable entity about who you really are at the core and what is right for you

3. Best Interests: Believe that your heart always has your best interest in mind

4. Practice: give your heart a chance by practicing. Follow your heart for simple decisions so that you can build the experience to trust it in larger issues

Purpose, your passionate interest(s) that brings joy to you and people around you, is the path to fulfilling your life’s meaning and ultimate value. Unfortunately in most cases, you utilize your analytical mind to make decisions rather than “giving credibility to your feelings and accepting their messages as valid.”

Why is it that most of us think of our hearts as an irresponsible force that is only looking for fun when it is the greatest tool to unlocking purpose?

4 Steps to Trusting Your Heart

1. Acknowledge: that your feelings contain messages. Being unhappy is an idea that begs for change. Your inner feelings, subconscious stream of thought, are always expressing how you really feel about something. Often times these feelings are expressing ideas that you may not yet be willing to accept.

2. Credibility: Give credibility to your feelings and accept their messages as valid Do you discount your feelings and try to rationalize “why” you feel a certain way?

A good example is boredom. Boredom is a syndrome in someone who is not passionate about their work. Rather than understanding this as a valid sign, people discount this sign and suggest that they may cure this syndrome by finding a new work environment. The same job in a different place is only a short term fix at best. Changing workplace locations or environments is not going to cure the fact that you are bored with the work itself; instead this thinking serves to prolong the syndrome rather than cure it.

3. Believe: Believe that your heart will lead you to a better way of life than your analytical mind. Recognizing and giving credibility to messages from your heart is a key step to happiness in all areas of your life.

4. Act: act upon the messages! If you act upon what you trust then it’s important to make the shift to trusting the messages that come from your heart just like you trust your analytical mind.

What is purpose and what is it’s role in a person’s life?

Purpose is that “unique” something that each person has to offer,that will help benefit other people, during their lifetime. Our passionate interests are closely connected to our purpose. Unfortunately many people settle working in a career or living a life that is less than fulfilling or outright distasteful.

What is missing?

Often the answer is the feeling that your life has no meaning or significance because you are not “giving back” and you are not feeling the excitement of passionate interest.

Mindset of Purpose: Understanding the Shift

• In order to live fully in your purpose, you must learn to perceive yourself and your significance in this world from a mindset of purpose. Are you utilizing your “gifts”? Are you helping people with your gifts? Do you feel that you make a difference in people’s lives through your passionate interests?

• The shift requires you to change your perspective to a deeper level. Simply put recognizing purpose is a part of life that requires you to believe that there is more going on than what you can see on the surface.

• Few people understand that the work that you love is the work you are really here, in this life on this planet, to do.