That subtle, inner voice

Do you trust your intuition? Do you listen to that voice inside you?

It's a fact of modern life that most of us don't. It's 2010...why listen to your inner voice when we have all kinds of dependable information about the world all around us?

Yet, our ancestors learned how to trust that feeling of danger, the hair rising on the back of the neck when an unseen predator lurked nearby. They could feel the adrenaline rush as they approached the habitat of the prey they depended on to feed themselves and their families.

Although modern man has better information to aid in his survival, we should still trust and use that gift of intuition we are born with. There are many exercises we can use to develop that gift to illuminate the world around us and develop our psychic selves:

• Your phone buzzes; you have a new text message or a phone call. Before picking it up, use your intuition and announce who it is. If you are correct, reinforce the feeling you got when your intuition spoke to you. If you guessed incorrectly, try to figure out how the experience felt differently from a correct guess. Did you maybe suppress a thought about the actual caller?

• Instead of pondering over which movie to see, or what entree to choose on the dinner menu, let your intuition take over and make a quick choice. Spontaneity and intuition go hand in hand.

• As you browse the bookstore or the library, ask a question, then allow your intuition to guide you through the shelves to a book. Open the book to a random page and realize the answer to your question. I can tell you first hand, this really works.

• As you drive, allow your intuition to influence your route. If your inner voice hints that something worthwhile awaits at the next left turn, go for it.

Exercises like these go a long way toward learning to trust yourself and your inner voice, and to developing the psychic ability we all were given.