Webster's dictionary defines the word psychic as someone who communicates with spirit. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as extraordinary extrasensory and nonphysical, mental processes.

According to the above definitions, everyone is psychic, because everyone has spiritual gifts and capacities he/she is meant to be using more intimately, to guide and direct his/her life.

We have become conditioned to using our physical senses and logical thinking minds as the compass of our lives. By fine-tuning our spiritual senses, we will be able to choose more effortlessly, with fewer and fewer detours, the direction our lives could be taking.

Spiritual gifts include intuition, discernment, precognition, spiritual empathy, visionary skills, working of miracles, powers of healing, and powers for self-healing.

Intuition is a clear knowledge or insight of what is right for you, free of any logical or rational processes. Intuition is a function of the sixth chakra.

Chakras are energy stations in a line along the front of the body and head. The sixth chakra is located in the center of the brow, above both eyes, just above the bridge of the nose. In metaphysics, it is referred to as the "third eye."

To increase levels of intuition and pure knowing, the following exercises will help open, activate and strengthen this chakra.

1. Imagine you have a third eye situated at the point mentioned above. Place your middle finger on the bridge of your nose and push up a couple of inches, breathing deeply, imagining you are opening the eyelid, repeat the process 4 times.
    

2. Gently tap on this same point above the bridge of your nose while repeating, "I am knowing what is best for me, I honor that knowing, and I act on that knowing."
    

3. Stop justifying, defending and explaining yourself in your day-to-day conversations.  Every time you do, you discount what you "know" to be true and right for you.
    

4. Stop using the phrase "I don't know." Every time you express that you shut down your intuition. Start using the phrase "I know what is right for me, inspiration flows to me easily and clearly." Say the positive statement even before you do know what is right. As you speak it and believe it, the knowing will form and manifest for you.

Intuition is common for all of us. Accessing and developing intuition is a natural gift we can all develop more fully. With the natural gifts of nurturing comes the sixth sense, or "gut" feeling, which comes easily to many men and women.

What I have noticed as a result of helping thousands of men and women in my work is that both men and women have intuition; they just have trouble trusting what they know, and all too often look outside themselves for permission or validation.

When a client asks for my opinion on something they feel is right, I will ask them first, "What do you know to be right?" or will say, "You already know; you are just asking me to validate that you can know!" They always respond, "I know!"

Trust your intuition more and more. All your answers are inside you waiting to be awakened and shared. Both men and women, who are willing to use their intuition, play a great role in the time in which we live: to be the spiritual nurturers, and guides to whom so many are drawn. Trust your inner knowing, and you will not only bless your life, but many others as well.


Intuition: Trusting the Still, Small Voice
That still, small voice that manifests itself as hunches, gut feelings, and unexpected knowledge - can it be trusted? And how do you know whether it's your intuition or simply your own wishful thinking? For the person who isn't familiar with intuitive feelings, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.

For example, take the way George W. Bush says he uses his intuition. According to Orville Schell (as published in Asia Times), President Bush speaks often of "trusting 'visceral reactions' and acting on 'gut feelings'." Schell quotes Bush: "God told me to strike al-Qaeda and I struck, and then he instructed me to strike Saddam [Hussein], which I did."

Because anyone can claim that he receives guidance from a "higher power" or "intuitive wisdom," the all-important question becomes this one: How do you know when it's really intuition in action? Below are some pointers to help you determine the difference between a real intuitive impression and a thought based solely on the rational mind's output.

Intuition doesn't guide you to take destructive actions. Your inner messages are probably real if they are positive and constructive in nature, for yourself and others. If you are defending your life against an attacker, you might be guided to take a specific action that could possibly harm another, in order to save your life. Nearly all of the time, however, intuition will lead you to take actions that do not hurt others.

Intuition appears as a feeling of certainty. A real intuitive impression will feel like certain knowledge, even though you may not have any specific information to back it up. A conclusion drawn by your rational mind alone feels quite different. In that instance, you might have questions about your decision, second-guessing yourself and wondering if you're doing the right thing. On the other hand, intuition just "feels right."

Intuition shows up at exactly the right time. You'll get intuitive insight at the very moment you need it, because intuition is never too late. If you don't know what to do, it may not be the right time to take action. So wait until you get a solid hunch about your next move before taking an important step or making a big decision.

Intuition acts for your greater good. Guidance you receive that is truly intuitive will lead you to a better outcome. For instance, if your gut feeling is to take one job offer over another seemingly better one, it will probably turn out to be the right position for you. Intuition won't guide you down the wrong path.

If you have to ask if it's intuition, it probably isn't. There is no doubt about an intuitive feeling. It seems to come from nowhere, giving you information that you couldn't possibly have had otherwise. If you find yourself asking if your intuitive message is real, then it probably is not.

So the next time someone says he acted on his inner wisdom, take a look at the actions he took. You may find that one man's "intuition" is another man's poor reasoning.