Focus of 2023: Intuition
Hello my witchy lovelies and Happy 2023! First, I would like to apologize that I am a bit late with my new years greeting. In honesty, the first few weeks of this year have been sort of hibernation times for me; I felt like I could only muster enough energy for the most basic of daily tasks. I felt pulled many times to create for the sake of maintaining the status quo, however I kept stopping myself because if there is one thing I know for certain, I always want to bring the best, most genuine intentions I have to this blog and to all of our readers.
Now that I have had the time to recoup from the holiday season and refocus myself, I wanted our first post of this year to highlight what I personally feel very strongly is the theme of 2023:
Intuition.
In the past few weeks, I have been confronted with this word at every turn practically. It has popped up as a theme heavily in all of my tarot readings as something to fully embrace this year. Our first full moon of 2023 was in the super intuitive sign of Cancer and one of the focuses was on working towards trusting your instincts.
The upcoming new moon on January 21st happens to coincide with the new lunar year; this year we are embarking upon the year of the Black Water Rabbit. Rabbit is known for being one of the most auspicious signs of the Chinese zodiac and when paired with the element of water, it is an indication of a year full of opportunities towards refining our inner guidance systems to achieve great success and happiness.
I’d like to explore a little deeper into what intuition really means and how we can better cultivate this vital skill.
What is Intuition?
You may call it a hunch or perhaps a “gut feeling” or maybe you say instinct. No matter how you prefer to label it, all of these terms come down to the same thing: Intuition. I feel like we hear this word more than ever in our current lives, but what is it really though?
By definition intuition means “The ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning”. How I choose to describe it is being able to trust your knowledge and your feelings so implicitly that there is no space for you to question yourself. There is no doubt that this is one of the most powerful tools any one of us can wield, while also being one of the hardest to hone since we as humans are prone to questioning ourselves.
While I am not here to suggest that you take unnecessary risks nor am I saying that every gut feeling is going to serve you well 100% of the time, I do think that there is space in everyone’s life for more practice listening, trusting, and sharpening our inner guidance systems.
Building Self Trust
I will be the first one to stand up and confess that I am not always the best at trusting myself. Imposter syndrome and vicious self critique are a nasty combination that plague so many of us on a regular basis and it’s really hard not to let them get the best of you sometimes. Unfortunately, these things are some of the biggest blockers to our intuitive powers; those haunting little voices in the back of our heads telling us that we’re wrong or arrogant or have no business feeling what we feel or saying what we say.
While it is difficult to combat them, there are ways that you can build trust in yourself to help silence these internal naysayers and forge a pathway for your intuitive self. Below are a few ideas for how you can change your mindset and reconnect with yourself.
Acknowledge your needs: For many of us, we often give a lot of ourselves to others. Whether it is at our jobs, in our personal relationships, in public settings, or in our homes, we divide up our daily energy and sometimes afterwards are left with very little for ourselves. Many of us have been conditioned to believe that this is the normal course of action, lest we be deemed “selfish”. Sometimes the classic metaphors work best I think and here is no exception: “You cannot pour from an empty cup”. Let this be the year that you shed toxic thought patterns. Your needs are just as valid and important as anyone else’s and you deserve to have them met, on your terms.
Take Stock Daily: It is really easy, especially in a post-pandemic world, to feel numb. We’ve all experienced a lot of trauma personally and globally and sometimes for our own sanity we have had to adopt the idea of checking out. One of the best ways i’ve found to reconnect with myself is to consciously take the time to do something each day to “check back in”. For me, this can entail a quick meditation, journaling, taking a quiet walk, pulling some tarot, whatever I need that day to refocus and come back to center with a clearer head. In the same terms of how I would reach out to a friend who I knew was struggling and check in, I have found that taking a few moments daily to do the same for myself has built back a lot of self trust and self love.
Be Mindful Of Signs and Signals: As a pagan, I routinely look at daily experiences through the lens of what messages they could have for me. While not every occurrence has some deeper meaning, the more I have put myself into the habit of examining daily events for signs or signals, the more in touch I feel with my intuitive powers. If you are seeing patterns show up in your daily life such as seeing or dreaming of the same type of animal over and over or certain numbers, objects, or words seem to pop up everywhere you go, don’t automatically write them off as mere coincidence. Perhaps these are signs from a higher power trying to get your attention. Take some time to do a little research into the meanings behind what you are experiencing or meditate on what these patterns might be trying to say to you. If nothing else, it will help give your intuition a bit of a workout and sharpen it for the future.
Know When To Ask For Help: Even though we’ve been talking all about ways to foster trusting yourself, one of the most powerful and important things to remember is that you are never alone. While independence is vital, perhaps one of the greatest acts of self love and self trust is to accept when things are too big to handle all by yourself and ask for help. This in no way means you don’t trust yourself to deal with things on your own; it means you appreciate yourself enough to want to seek a better way forward. If you are struggling physically, mentally, or emotionally, reaching out to trusted friends, family, counselors, doctors, and therapists to help you navigate is a beautiful, courageous step towards achieving the happiest version of you. You’ve earned that and deserve that.
