Are you blocking your intuition?
We are all intuitive, even you! It's not just something handed down through certain families or every second generation. It's not just for a select few. The only difference between those who appear more intuitive and those who don't is most likely an awareness and attention to developing their intuition.
If you feel like you’re one of those people who want to develop your intuition but are worried you might be blocking it, this post is for you.
I’m sharing five common ways I see people blocking their intuitive gifts — and quick ways to shift the blocks.
5 ways you’re blocking your intuition
Block #1: Your beliefs and mindset.
Have you ever caught yourself saying something like, “I'm not intuitive,” or “Oh, I'm not psychic. I don't get as much information as that person over there.” Or perhaps you’ve thought “well, the information I get doesn't look like how you get it, Helen!” or even “everyone else seems to be getting all these visions, but I don’t get too much.”
Plenty of people will give listening to their intuition a try and then say, “I tried following my intuition once, but I got it wrong, so I guess I'm not that intuitive after all.”
What we tell ourselves about our intuitive abilities is important —and it could be a major potential block to how intuitive you feel you really are.
“If you think you’re intuitive, you are.
If you think you’re not intuitive, you are. ”
Such limiting beliefs can block you, but they can run deep. Some people have a fear of seeing the future or accessing the unknown. There can be religious or cultural connotations about clairvoyance. Maybe you have been ridiculed or even persecuted for your intuitive gifts in this life, or possibly even in a past life as a witch or healer.
Past life blocks are beyond just our mindset and beliefs, and we would need to work at a deep soul level to impact your ability to open your third eye, to trust spirit, and to trust the guidance you're receiving in this lifetime.
The antidote: Shift your mindset and your beliefs (or past life wounds).
This might be through positive affirmations, clearing your energy centres, or deep belief work, such as I guide students through in The Little Sage Intuitive Living program.
And, if you fall into the camp of having a very deep soul-level fear of seeing the future, or you suspect you've had a past life where you may have had these gifts or been persecuted, you may want to look into a past life regression or a soul healing. I highly recommend Rachel Crethar’s intuitive hypnosis.
Try working with the following affirmation to start:
“I am intuitive and I welcome my intuitive gifts. ”
Block #2: Blocking your intuition with food, drugs and alcohol.
We exchange energy with every person we interact with, with every room we enter, with every Instagram account that we follow. Everything and everyone is made up of energy—including your food and those who’ve handled and prepared your food.
When we're not aware of our energy, or the energy we unintentionally or unconsciously absorb, we can have very heavy, stagnant energy in our system.
“When our energy centres are blocked, so are our intuitive gifts.”
Imagine what might happen to the quality of our energy when you add substances like alcohol and drugs, which can greatly impair or affect our ability to receive information, objectively respond to it and interpret it.
Of course, we may require certain medications for our physical and mental health. These tend to help us. More, it’s the drugs that alter our state negatively I refer to here.
The antidote: Keep your energy as clean energy as you can.
Being 100% clean energy is not necessary, nor even feasible. This isn't about being totally pure, unless of course you feel intuitively called to be. Instead, I suggest consciously improve your energetic clarity and consider what you energetically (and physically, mentally, emotionally, even electronically) consume.
This may look like clearing, healing, and restoring your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies, so you are at a high vibration to receive your manifestations and intuitive insights.
If you need assistance, we cover this in The Little Sage Living Intuitively program. But you can simply start by experimenting with removing alcohol, drugs, caffeine etc from your system (with medical supervision, if necessary!) or switching to vegetarian, or organic-only. Ask your own Spiritual Support Team for what is right for you.
Block #3: dismissing and not recognising the guidance you receive
Unfortunately, I’ve seen all too many people dismiss the guidance they receive, like my mum, who often tells me about her nightly dreams, or particular signs from our loved ones who have passed away—but who will then just as quickly dismiss it, saying “but I don't really think that that was anything. Is it?!”
I’ve seen clients and students do this over the years, too. Often clients will say they didn’t receive a host of images in their meditation, or they didn't burst out crying, or they didn't have the same kind of experience that I personally had… and so, they believe they didn’t receive any guidance at all.
Then, they go on to tell me that they felt nauseous, and while they didn’t cry they did feel angry, or some other emotion or revelation. Sadly, they originally dismissed this insight because it didn’t look or feel the way they thought it should.
“Don’t dismiss your guidance because it’s not what you expected.”
The antidote: The antidote to this is to be in the Observer Mode. The Observer Mode, which I teach in The Little Sage Intuitive Living and in my first book, You Already Know, encourages us to witness and to observe life’s synchronicities, signs and symbols by viewing and living life with curiosity.
Practicing gratitude is an extension of this. Gratefully recognising the great things in your life can promote gratitude for the signs, symbols, dreams, messages or messengers that turns up. Try a regular journaling practice (there’s a gratitude journal included with my Head & Heart Digital Planner) and regular reflection of your guidance practice.
This allows you to see the patterns or even the surprising ways your guidance actually turns up. So.
Block #4: avoiding the inner work.
Following our intuition isn't necessarily easy. It certainly doesn’t always lead us down Easy Street. Living intuitively doesn't always feel good as we may be guided into our own healing and transformation.
Sometimes we avoid taking action our intuition and guidance requires of us. We may subconsciously block our intuition because our ego is avoiding going to clear and heal the inner world. Our logical mind rarely wants us to look that little bit deeper, or to change, or to do the scary things, or to take big actions our ego is scared of us taking.
The antidote: start small.
Starting small allows your intuitive guidance to take you deeper, gently. Over the years, I’ve observed that we will receive different types of guidance —some are Daily Intuitive Instructions, some offer a Healing Thread while some point us towards our Path and Purpose.
Starting with the small Daily Intuitive Instructions will eventually give away to the other types of guidance. Everything is connected.
“Your intuition isn’t just here to take you from one stepping stone to the other. Your intuition is here to lead you through the process of change to remember who you are. ”
Block #5: an irregular practice
Imagine wanting to run a marathon, but you've spent the last few years lying on the couch. You would do yourself some serious damage if you just got up and ran the marathon without the proper training and preparation.
And so it is with intuition.
“You really can’t expect to have all the answers the moment you demand them. ”
Especially if you haven't built up your stamina or your intuitive muscle.
Working with your intuition and/or your Spiritual Support Team is a relationship nurtured over time. You can't just turn up on your first date and expect to get married (or, keeping with the marathon metaphor, you can’t just run a marathon the day you decide to).
Building intuitive muscle and developing a relationship with your SST takes time, practice and dedication —and therein lies the block. We may struggle with the regularity of our guidance practice, until it becomes routine.
The antidote: understand what’s stopping you from developing a regular guidance practice.
Create stillness, space and silence through activities like meditation, working with oracle cards, journaling and movement. You might want to check out these articles on how to create a regular guidance practice and why you might be avoiding a guidance practice.
Where are you blocking your intuition?
So there you have it, the five ways you may be blocking your intuitive gifts. Which one jumped out to you? What small action or antidote can you take action on today?
