Intuition can be like magic, it brings you the most amazing answers, guidance and even pleasant surprises. Like any skill, you can hone your intuition to the point where you are receiving the magic, but it does take some work and diligence on your part to practice. The good news is that practicing is easy. Plus, there are many ways you can practice by yourself if you can't find someone to practice with you. If you can find someone to practice with you, that is best because you can validate and verify what you are experiencing and picking up.

It's just like learning a sport; you find a good coach, learn some techniques to work on, then you practice. Putting the time in makes a difference so you can improve and perfect your skills. As you work at it you get better results.Take skiing for example. In the beginning, you don't know how it feels to put on skis much less stand up or move in them. You start on the bunny slope, which is usually straight and predictable. When you build your skill you finally get on the green (easy) trail. You find that it takes a bit of skill to handle the steepness of the terrain or the curves. You realize that the snow conditions change during the day making it even more challenging. As you practice and build your confidence, you move on to the blue (intermediate) trail. With lots of training and practice you may make it to the black diamond (advanced) trail. By that time, you're flying down the mountain on all types of trails in all kinds of snow conditions without a problem. Your indication of success is how well you can make it down the mountain without falling and with ease.

It is the same with intuition, as you practice and work on different techniques, you get better and better until your intuition seems like it brings you magic results (the black diamond). But it does take practice and constant work. While everyone has the ability of intuition, we all need to work to hone it to get to the point where we receive clear messages and we know we are not making it up. Even then, you will need to keep working at it to stay sharp, although it gets easier as you go along.

Here are some quick tips you can use to build your intuition to a point where it is useful to you and you receive accurate information from it all the time. If you are just starting out and trying out that green trail, then these tips are for you!

1. Practice, practice, practice, and consistently, all the time. Find opportunities to practice. For example, say you are on your way to work or to a class, see if you can pick up what your boss, co-worker or teacher is going to be wearing that day. Do this every day. If you're in a class, see if you can use your intuition to determine how many students will be in class that day. Use your intuition to pick up what the cafeteria is going have for hot lunch today. When you make a phone call use your intuition to pick up if the other person will pick up the phone. Remember this is practice so if you don't get it right, let it go, don't worry about it.
2. Pay attention to your feelings when you are using your intuition, but carefully. While feelings are an important part of how you receive your intuitive messages, they can be misleading if what you are trying to pick up has a large emotional value to you. That's why you should practice on things where the outcome that has very little emotional value to you. Trying to practice with using your feelings to tell you which job you should pick when you don't have a job is going to be more difficult than practicing with feeling what you should have for lunch today.
3. Make a habit of using your intuition. In the beginning you may forget that you can use your intuition to help you. Again, remember to work with your intuition where the outcome doesn't matter to you. For example, one day I was in a locker room at a gym and I had to choose an empty locker. All the lockers had push button locks where you would create your own lock code. This meant I had to find an empty one but couldn't tell which one was empty without trying to open it. Before I pulled on a few to see which would open like everyone else does, I used my intuition to point me to one that was empty. I received that one particular locker was empty, and that two others were taken. I chose the 'empty' one and found I was correct, then just for fun, I checked the other two, and discovered they were taken. 
4. Pick small things where the results have no real impact on you to keep your Ego at bay. The more important the result, the more your Ego will get involved and the less your intuition will work. As your skill improves you can move on to more important things. 
5. Practice with a friend. The best way to practice is with a friend, or someone who is interested in practicing with you. Not only will you have someone to support you, but it can be lots of fun to share. Remember there is no competition, it's all practice. 

You will get there! As you practice and work with your intuition, you will find it does get easier and easier. Soon you receive intuitive messages without even looking for them. Like learning how to ski, you'll find that you can soon navigate the bumps and turns in life with ease with your newly developed skills in intuition.

by Lisa K.

Lisa K. is a teacher, author and speaker specializing in intuition. Lisa teaches people how to connect to their inner divine guidance. She is a popular intuitive consultant and has taught hundreds of people intuition development in workshops and seminars. Lisa K.’s public appearances reach people around the world through guest speaking, online media and her popular radio show, “Between Heaven and Earth” on every day spirituality. For 16 free intuition exercises you can do alone sign up for Lisa's newsletter at  http://www.LMK88.com