How your body speaks

A lot of people experience intuition physically, even if they've never really thought about it that way.

That tightening when someone asks you to do something you don't want to do. That softening when you walk into a place that feels good. That heaviness when you think about a particular plan.

Your body notices things your conscious mind hasn't caught up with yet. It's been picking up tiny details all day, tone of voice, facial expressions, atmosphere, and sometimes it gives you a summary before you've asked for one.

The common signals

Here are some of the ways people describe their body's responses. See which ones you recognise.

• Tension: tightening in the shoulders, jaw, chest or stomach.
• Openness: a sense of expanding, breathing more freely, shoulders dropping.
• Heaviness: a sinking feeling, like your energy has drained.
• Ease: things just feel simple and light.
• Hesitation: a slight pulling back, a pause before you move forward.
• A lean: a physical sense of moving towards or away from something.

None of these is a verdict. They're signals. And like any signal, they need context.

Every sensation is not intuition

This is really important, so I'm going to say it plainly: not every feeling in your body is a message.

Sometimes your stomach is tight because you've had four coffees. Sometimes you feel heavy because you slept badly. Sometimes your shoulders are up by your ears because you've been hunched over a laptop for six hours.

If we start treating every twinge as a spiritual sign, we'll get it wrong constantly, and then we'll decide intuition doesn't work.