Understanding Your Intuition: An Interview with Akemi Gaines of yes-to-me.com

Hey guys, today I would like to share with you a discussion on intuition, what it is, and how to better use it to benefit our lives. Sharing her wisdom with us today is Akemi Gaines, the spiritual coach at Yes to Me – Spiritual Healing and Growth for Greater Success.

She has the cool ability to read people’s soul records (often called Akashic Records) and clear the energetic blocks and restrictions that limit her clients’ abilities to live life fully.  Bringing together her insights on how the intuition works, she just launched her new program on intuition development.

I had a number of questions about intuition itself, so she and I came together to share and bring forth these understandings.

I am very excited to dive into the topic of intuition because it’s such a great way of learning to act in the moment and operate from a place of knowingness beyond the mind, deeper than anything the limited intellect could possibly know. It’s like a higher level of being in this world, part of the next stage in human evolution.

And so with no further ado, let’s jump right into it!

Ariel:

Hey Akemi, thank you for doing this interview. I’m so glad you’re here and am looking forward to learn from you as you share your gifts with us.

Akemi:

I am honored to be here at your beautiful website.  And developing intuition is such a helpful skill that I feel passionate about.  As you just said, we can make better informed decisions by developing intuition.  It can improve your life so much in so many ways.

Intuition vs. Imagination

Ariel:

Absolutely! So diving right in, one of my biggest questions about intuition that I want to address right from the start is how to differentiate between a genuine intuitive “hit” and just some random thought or feeling that arises. How can we tell what’s real and what we’re just making up?

Akemi:

Gee, you get right to the point, don’t you, Ariel ^_^  That is an excellent question and is the core of my new program of intuition development.  Intuition and imagination can seem very similar because intuitive hit comes through the same channel with imagination.

However, there are differences.  For one, if you get an idea or understanding that just doesn’t seem to belong to you, that is beyond your regular level of comprehension, that is intuition.  Also intuition comes straightforward and usually lightly (with the exception when your or someone’s life is in danger).  Your own ego’s thinking, on the other hand, comes with the weight of agenda.  It feels manipulative and it often raises negative feeling.

Having said this, you need to learn the difference through your own experiences.  It’s not like you memorize the checklist of how to identify intuition and be done with it.  You want to learn experientially how intuition feels within you.  This is why developing intuition in everyday life is critical.  Also this is why my new program takes six sessions of one-on-one coaching.

How To Detect Intuition

Ariel:

For me, intuition typically feels like a feeling or a nonverbal knowingness, neither of which are very concrete. Are these the forms it always comes in or are there other ways too I’m not paying attention to?

Akemi:

There are four main channels we receive intuitions.  They are:

• claircognizance (immediate knowing)
• clairsentience (physical sensations, “gut feelings”)
• clairaudience (non-physical sounds)
• clairvoyance (non-physical images)

Each person has different skill level in each communication path.  Many people are good at claircognizance or clairsentience, like yourself.  There is nothing wrong about that.

I think there are six steps in intuition development:

1. Opening up to intuition and asking for intuitive messages
2. Receiving intuition
3. Recognizing intuition as intuition
4. Trusting your recognition of intuition
5. Taking action based on your intuition
6. Reviewing the results of your action to fine tune this process

Each step is essential and by practicing all the steps, you can learn how to use intuition in your life with confidence.

Where Intuitive Insights Come From

Ariel:

I love your point about reviewing the results of your actions. It sounds like that will also help you build confidence and learn to trust the information that arrives intuitively.

When we do receive an intuitive insight, where does that information come from? Who knows the information in the first place and how do they know?

Akemi:

My definition of intuition is intuition is the messages we receive from our Higher Self and Spirit Guides.  Our Higher Self and Spirit Guides are in the spiritual plane, that is a higher dimension than this three dimensional physical plane we live in.  So they have better perspectives than we do.  They can see beyond the limitations of time and space.

Moreover, our Spirit Guides are more evolved than us, so they know better.

So I’m calling my new program “Spirit Guides Coaching“.  It’s not me who coaches, however – it’s the client’s own Spirit Guides, and I mediate the communication.

How Intuition Works

Ariel:

If you could break down how the whole system works, to the best of your knowledge, of how information is communicated between our Higher Self, our Spirit Guides, our mind, and so on, how would you describe the process?

Akemi:

Your Spirit Guides pass their messages to your Higher Self, which is your spiritual consciousness.  Some people are pretty aware of the presence of their Spirit Guides, while others may think their Higher Self just got the messages out of nowhere.  In any case, the message can go from there to either to your subconscious mind or conscious mind, or both.

If your conscious mind is closed to the intuitive messages, you may receive the message only in subconscious mind.  In that case, the first attempt in developing intuition is to become aware what the subconscious is getting, and also to open up your conscious mind.

Synchronicity

Ariel:

Ah, that’s cool to hear that information can still come in subconsciously, and that we don’t miss out completely on all the intuitive goodies if we’re not paying attention consciously.

How does intuition relate to synchronicity?

Akemi:

Interesting question! I think synchronicity is just another play our Spirit Guides participate to help us around.

Think about it from their perspective.  The Spirit Guides on your inner circle work exclusively for you.  They care for you, and their own further evolution depends on how effectively they work for you. So they send out their messages as intuition.  “Come this way! You’ll learn your chosen life lesson faster in this path.”  “Uh-oh. Don’t write off that idea.”

Further, they work so hard to cause synchronicity as a way to get your attention.  They don’t like ignored just because they are invisible (to most people).

When my client start taking my Spirit Guides Coaching, they often see more synchronicities in their life.  Their Spirit Guides are so happy and excited that you are finally paying attention to them that they get a bit showy.  Just another benefit of taking my program.

Trusting Intuition

Ariel:

Let’s say our intuition is telling us to move in a certain direction, but our mind is simultaneously feeling fearful or hesitant to move in that direction and so we begin doubting whether or not that intuitive insight was actually our intuition at all. As an outside observer, following our intuition may seem like the obvious logical choice, but in the moment the emotion may feel overpowering and dominant. How can we best deal with conflicting emotion “in the heat of the battle” so that we can best listen to our intuition when we need it most?

Akemi:

You just described the common scenario your ego plays so that you keep listening to him, not your Spirit Guides, or your intuition.  Second guessing intuition is basically about killing your intuition. Many people do this, and consequently stay stuck in their life for a long time.

One way to handle this situation is to start small.  Don’t wait until you need to make the big life-altering decision to develop your intuition.  Start now and use your intuition on small things in your daily life.  Preferably with a skilled and experienced coach – like me ^_^   Then, as I described earlier, review how taking action based on your intuition is working for you.  This builds confidence, and you can start using intuition on bigger issues.

Intuition is Subtle

Ariel:

Wouldn’t it be helpful if our intuition was more obvious? I mean, if we were going to come to earth and bring guidance with us, wouldn’t it make sense to make the signals clear? It’s not like our free will would be completely compromised if our intuition was a little louder and more obvious.

Akemi:

Oh, it’s not clear and obvious to you?  Just joking.

You just made a great point about the potential of our free will being compromised by “clear, obvious” intuition.  If your intuition came as a loud voice of God with a movie like glorious white light, would you act on your intuition?  Of course!  You’d be stupid not to.  So your free will is indeed compromised in this case.  Which is no good – we are here to create our life with our free will and power.

At the same time, we are not born all alone without spiritual helpers (Spirit Guides) and the way to communicate with them.  God is not that cruel.  We are supposed to have good intuition so that we can navigate through this life well.

My intention for the new intuition development program is to help people recognize their natural ability to communicate with their Spirit Guides so that they can make better decisions fast and be comfortable acting on those decisions based on intuition.  Life will be so much easier with this skill.

How Akemi Uses Her Intuition

Ariel:

When you are looking for answers as far as what to do in your own life, Akemi, what do you do and how do you do it?

Akemi:

In addition to my as-needed continuous communication with my Spirit Guides, I do weekly check in with them.  I bring my own agenda and requests for my life, hold a meeting with my Spirit Guides, listen to what they have to say, jot down their suggested action plans.

If that sounds too “psychic” or professional . . . okay, in a more layperson’s term, I listen to my inner voice.  I do this as I take a walk, or relax at Starbucks, or when I relax on the couch.  I also meditate daily to keep my mind clean and calm.

Following Your Intuition

Ariel:

Speaking of meditation, are there any other important points you’d like to bring up that we haven’t discussed yet, but you feel would be very helpful to address?

Akemi:

I know opening up to intuition can be scary.  It’s not something you learn at school nor something recommended by the public healthcare system. You might feel “weird.”  You might feel nobody would understand you.  And the intuitive messages you get might surprise you.

But it’s okay.  Actually, it’s so much better than being stuck in your life, caught up between the fear your ego is fielding to you and your soul’s desire to grow further.

There are people who spend years saying something like, “Well, I want to do this . . . I feel intuitively attracted to this path . . . oh, but it’s different from what I’ve been doing . . . I’m scared.”  Get this – being stuck for years!  If they can just learn what intuition is and step by step master how to trust their intuition, that kind of waste can be saved.

Intuition can help you.  Tremendously.  You just need to open up and trust your intuition.

Thank you, Ariel, for having me here.  If someone has any questions, please ask in the comment.  I will be checking back to answer them.

Ariel:

Thank you! It’s such a treat to hear from you and thank you for taking the time to extend to us a helping of your wisdom and experience. I appreciate you for being yourself and staying true to your inner calling.

Namaste.

About Akemi Gaines:

If you enjoyed this interview, why not learn more about her intuition development program and spiritual development in general at Akemi’s blog, Yes to Me?  You can subscribe (free) here.  Also, check out her Akashic Record Reading.

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