How to Identify and Develop Your Intuitive Abilities: A Guide to Psychic Gifts and the Clairs

Have you ever felt like you had a sixth sense or just knew something you couldn’t explain? Many of us have had moments where we could feel the vibe of the room or thought about something right before someone mentioned the same thing. These are not coincidences, and they are actually signs of something powerful within each of us — these are intuitive gifts, often referred to as “The Clairs.”

What Are the Main Types of Intuitive Gifts (The “Clairs”)?

Clairvoyance — Clear seeing (images, symbols, visions)

Clairvoyance is the ability to see intuitive information in the mind through visualizations and mental images. This doesn’t necessarily manifest as seeing spirits in the room, but more often like daydreams or vivid imagery within your mind.

Signs of clairvoyant abilities:

You see images or symbols in your mind’s eye during meditation
You have deep, symbolic vivid dreams
You get intuitive insights from flashes of mental images

Clairsentience — Clear feeling (empathy, sensing energy)

Clairsentience is the ability to feel the subtle energies around people, places, or situations. People with clairsentient abilities are sensitive to their environment and can become easily exhausted if they don’t protect their space.

Signs of clairsentient abilities:

You are easily drained by being around certain people or situations
You can feel the emotions of other people, even when they are not expressing them
You pick up on bad vibes, sometimes feeling it in your body (nausea, chills, etc.)

Clairaudience — Clear hearing (messages, tones, sounds)

Clairaudience is the ability to receive information through sound. This can be external sounds and voices, or internal — like hearing a voice separate from your internal dialogue or thoughts.

Signs of clairaudient abilities:

Random songs or phrases pop up in your head
You get the sudden urge to write down a message that suddenly entered your mind
High-pitched ringing in the ears (non-medical)

Claircognizance — Clear knowing (sudden insights, gut truths)

Claircognizance is the ability to just know something without understanding how or why.

Signs of claircognizant abilities:

You are an extremely good guesser
You can predict what someone is about to say
You get strong gut feelings about things that turn out to be right

Rediscovering the Intuitive Gifts We Were Taught to Ignore

Hollywood and pop culture often portray psychics as fortune tellers with neon signs offering palm readings, when in reality, intuitive gifts can show up in much subtler ways. You don’t need tarot cards or a crystal ball to access them — they’re already within you.

As kids, we are much more sensitive and naturally tuned into the subtle energies around us. The older we get, the more we are encouraged to use logic and ignore the intuitive nudges we receive. I have always felt that something existed beyond what we experience with our five senses. As a young child, this feeling often scared me since I didn’t understand what it was. My adolescent mind most likely associated it with the paranormal phenomenon displayed in movies and television, which was presented as fear-evoking and sometimes even dangerous. These dramatized depictions of unexplained phenomena in Western society have fueled a collective fear of the unknown. Because of this, many of us suppress our intuitive abilities, not realizing these are signs of something sacred and powerful within us.

My Experience with Accessing Intuitive Gifts

I started realizing I possessed intuitive abilities when I was in my mid-twenties. A friend of mine invited me to an intuitive class at a metaphysical shop where we practiced clairaudience — the ability to “hear” messages, voices, and thoughts that came from the spiritual realm. This was my first time focusing my attention and trusting the messages that came to me from beyond. I immediately felt a sense of belonging in this community, and knew that I wasn’t alone in what I had been experiencing my whole life.

Then, about a year ago, I attended a psychic expo in the Seattle area where I witnessed audience members ask a panel of psychics questions about their lives, seeking guidance from beyond. To my surprise, as people asked their questions, my own intuition started to activate. As the psychics began answering their questions, I realized I was picking up the same information they were. I can’t explain how I knew these things — I just did.

I left this session feeling empowered and confident in my ability to communicate with the other side, and I wanted to learn more. I’ve attended a few more workshops since then, and I have learned a few practices and ways of awakening these abilities within us.

How to Access and Trust Your Intuitive Gifts

It’s important to remember that there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to connecting with your intuition, and these are just some of the ways that have personally helped me open the channel to the other side.

Yoga

Contrary to the mainstream Western perspective, yoga is not just a physical exercise or fitness practice. Yoga is a traditional practice that originated in India thousands of years ago with the primary goal of connecting the mind, body, and spirit, expanding conscious awareness, and balancing the chakras. The chakras are energy centers located in the body that correspond to different aspects of our consciousness, from safety and creativity to expression and inner wisdom. By practicing yoga with intention, you are working on aligning the energy of these chakras and activating their power. The sixth chakra, known as the Third Eye, is located between the eyebrows — this is where we access our intuitive gifts.
When I started practicing yoga every day and deepened my studies in yoga teacher training, I noticed a shift in my consciousness and my ability to access these intuitive gifts. My “third eye” began to “activate,” as they say.

Meditation

Similar to yoga, when you meditate, you are shutting out all external distractions and tuning into yourself. By doing this, you strengthen the ability to turn off your outside senses and turn on the intuitive ones. You may also experience intuitive insights during meditation through vivid imagery, colors, sounds, messages, or sudden knowing. If you’ve never meditated before, it can take practice to quiet the mind, and it’s helpful to use guided meditations like this one specifically created for awakening your intuition and psychic abilities.

Pay Attention to Synchronicities

Synchronicities are the experiences we often discount as coincidences — seeing repeating number sequences, specific symbols, signs, or phrases at just the right time, thinking about a song right before hearing it on the radio, etc. This is the universe’s subtle way of communicating to us, and it’s our job to listen. When you learn to trust that nothing is a coincidence and everything happens for a reason, you begin to see a deeper meaning behind everything — thus training your subconscious to pick up on these energies naturally.

Protecting Your Energy and Grounding Practices

As a strong clairsentient, I have learned how important it is to protect my energy field and prevent myself from absorbing the external energies around me. The more you work on strengthening your intuitive gifts, the more sensitive you become, and the easier it is for you to get energetically overwhelmed. There are many different ways to protect yourself, including crystals and stones, talismans, prayers, and meditation. I personally wear a black tourmaline ring every day, and it’s never let me down. I also use a visualization technique to ward off energy that doesn’t belong to me. I simply close my eyes and tune in, imagining myself wrapped in a bright, white light which reflects like a mirror, sending the energy away from me, back to where it belongs.

Using Divination Tools

Divination is the practice of attempting to predict the future or finding the hidden meaning behind certain situations. Like I mentioned before, it’s not necessary to use tools like tarot cards or crystal balls, but it’s totally an option. Practices like astrology, tarot, and tools like pendulums and dowsing rods can be used to tune into your intuition and open yourself up to receive guidance and insight. There are many different ways of practicing divination, so I encourage you to explore all of them and find what best resonates with you.

Trust Your Intuition

Learning to trust your intuition and intuitive gifts can be challenging at first. We live in a world built on science and logic, and if something falls outside of these parameters, it can be hard for our subconscious to accept it. The more you practice tuning in and acknowledging that this world is more than we experience with our five physical senses, the easier it becomes to see the magic all around us. When you feel something, trust it. When in doubt, listen to your heart, pay attention to the sensations in your body, and just notice any messages or insights that you receive without judgment.

Journaling

Every morning, I meditate, pull tarot cards, and journal. I write about anything on my mind at that moment — any dreams I had and my tarot reading. I’ve been doing this on and off for the past five years, and I have come to find this practice incredibly helpful for strengthening my intuitive gifts. Not only does journaling serve as a cathartic and meditative practice, but it also creates a physical log of my thoughts, experiences, and intuitive insights. I have found that I have recorded multiple prophetic dreams, tarot readings which predicted upcoming events, and messages I have received from meditations that have turned out to manifest in my life. My journals serve as validation to myself in my own abilities.
I’m obviously a huge advocate of journaling, but you don’t have to make it a big production or ritual if you don’t want to. You can simply write in a notebook or type notes in your phone — there’s no right or wrong way to record your insights. As long as you’re recording them somewhere so you can refer back to them later and validate the accuracy of your messages, that’s all that matters.

Common Fears and Misconceptions of Intuitive Gifts

What if I’m making it up?

One of the most common things people struggle with when first tuning into their intuitive gifts is questioning whether or not they are making it up. My answer to that is: It doesn’t matter. Let’s circle back to the saying “nothing is a coincidence” — this includes your insights. You might see a “random” image during meditation and wonder if it’s just your imagination. The trick to this is realizing your imagination is the vessel in which your gifts are coming through. Therefore, even if you think you might be making it up, realize that there is a reason your imagination “made up” this image. It’s all about trust.

Is this safe? Am I inviting in negative entities?

There is also a misconception that intuitive gifts are dangerous, as they have often been associated with witchcraft and occult practices forbidden by certain religions. These gifts are our birthright. We came into this world with them, and they are part of what makes us spiritual beings. You don’t need to be a witch or even claim the title of psychic to connect with your intuitive gifts. As long as you are practicing with the intention of doing good and not harming anyone, you will not be inviting in any dark entities. Don’t forget, however, it is still important to learn how to protect yourself from all energy that does not belong to you.

Why Are Intuitive Gifts Important?

How tuning into your intuitive gifts can help you heal

Developing your intuitive gifts involves the practice of learning to believe that everything happens for a reason — that things happen for us, not to us. Practicing our ability to find deeper meaning in the world around us can guide us through hard times. While we must acknowledge that horrific things do happen and our pain is valid, we can also step back and see things from a bird’s-eye view, using our intuitive gifts to seek the deeper meaning behind situations. This shift in perspective is fundamental in our healing journey.
In my personal experience, I have found that when you are suffering on a profoundly deep and spiritual level, there is a false sense of isolation — especially when no one understands. However, through my exploration and repaired connection with the spiritual realm, I have come to find comfort in the fact that we are truly never alone. Not only are we not alone, we are often protected and supported by spiritual beings such as angels, ancestors, and spirit guides. As we access and develop our intuitive gifts, we learn how to trust and communicate with this support system, thus creating an army to help us in the battle of our healing journey.

How intuitive gifts support collective awakening and reconnection with soul

As more and more people start to become aware of and honor their intuitive gifts, a collective shift begins to occur. As I’ve said before, we live in a world of evidence-based reality — if we can’t prove it, it must not exist. However, as we become more in tune with our soul and start to connect to the other side, the harsh structures and limitations of the physical world start to break down. This creates a world of infinite possibility and deeper connection.

Share Your Gifts

It’s easy to see how intuition and intuitive gifts have the ability to heal and create a sense of deeper meaning and connection to the universe. This is why it’s important to share these gifts and experiences with the world. I am fully aware of how scary it can be to talk about these metaphysical, “new-age” spiritual ideas — but the truth is, a lot of people find these things very interesting. It’s in our nature, and there’s a reason more people are seeking guidance on how to access and develop intuitive abilities. When I tell people stories of my prophetic dreams, synchronicities, and strange occurrences, I notice something light up in them — something they’ve always felt, but never fully understood. This awakening can be profoundly life-altering and healing. That’s why I’m not scared to talk about it anymore, and you shouldn’t be either.

This isn’t a journey of becoming or learning something new — it’s about remembering who you are and claiming the spiritual power that already exists within you. It’s about working through fears and conditioning, and learning to trust your intuition. The insights you have, the intuitive nudges you feel, the way you just “know” things you can’t explain — it’s all real. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and you don’t need to be able to tell the future or communicate with the dead. Your gifts are unique to you, and you have them for a reason. The more you practice, the more you seek, the more you see. Start small, stay curious, and pay attention. The world needs more people in tune with deep emotions and the intuitive nature of our soul. When you honor your gifts, you help others awaken and honor theirs too.

♡

The Sacred Unknown