Pick any of these words, awareness, gut reaction, intuition, sixth sense or premonition. There are many words to describe a biological action that all people have experienced throughout their lifetime. It is an action that is part of our DNA that has evolved into a toolbox of strategies for the survival for human kind. It is our instinct to thrive and to make choices that will benefit our survival to live without harm.

What are the common traits of this biological action for survival? The sinking feeling you have in the pit of your stomach, the inner voice speaking to you telling you that something is not right or perhaps the thought process sending you down a different path to avoid the unknown. Those are sequences of actions that are built in our biology to avoid harm. But there are other feelings that we sense that do not cause us harm physically, but emotionally it can over whelm us with grief, sadness and illness. It maybe the foreshadowing about a loved one and the need to send a text or a telephone call to say the final words of love and gratitude. Perhaps, your body maybe communicating to you feelings of low energy, being tired, drained from your lifestyle, job or relationships that you may not be aware consciously that it is harming you.

Because of our social conditioning it maybe difficult to consciously negotiate our inner voice/intuition and the reality of our circumstances to make the best choice for ourselves. Therefore, there are certain steps that one can do to enhance our intuition to enable us to be aware of the risks and benefits of our choices, goals and expectations from friends, family, lifestyle and ourselves.

They are:

· Listen to your inner voice. Spend quiet time with self. Think about what you are grateful for; be aware of what makes you unhappy and happy. Ask yourself if you are loved. Be objective of the answers that you are receiving. Do not feel shamed, guilt or self-deprecating. This is an exercise of awareness. The thought that you have is your inner voice speaking to you. This is a slow process of learning about the reality of your conscious thought and your inner voice.

· I want to help. Empathy is part of our DNA component. Regardless of who we are or whom we help it does make us feel good. Furthermore, it is more beneficial for our well being for us to do acts of kindness than the person or the beneficiaries who are receiving. That is a scientific fact. Moreover, by being in contact with others, you become more sensitive of feelings and thoughts of those who are grateful for your act of kindness, which inadvertently helps you with awareness.

· Creativity without criticism. Creativity is inside all of us. Each one of us has a natural instinct to create something. Be it drawing a picture or making silly tunes that do not make sense to anyone except to you, there is always creativity in our being. More importantly, when you create allow it to flow freely with joy, humor and knowing that this is your creation.

· Get rest. Getting quality sleep enables your body to feel renew and refreshed. Also when you sleep you have dream sequences. Keep a journal nearby and write down the dreams you have.

· Let go. Many times we form a cocoon around us with uncomfortable emotions, such as anger, shame, regrets, feelings of rejection. This is part of our DNA for survival. However, what had helped us in the past dealing with the Saber tooth tigers does not help us now. In fact it hinders us from moving forward for wellness and healing. More importantly, we have to acknowledged these uncomfortable emotions, and see how they are affecting our very being. By letting go of the negativity with the thought process of making our inner voice louder and to be able to hear the wisdom of it.

· Write it down. Keep a journal and write about your day’s events. Who you spoke with that was interesting to, or if an incidence happened and it was upsetting you or just write one or two words of thought. This sets in motion a thought process that enables you to focus on your intuition and offers a filter of what is important to you.

All to often we look for answers from others, and we may feel that they are not the right answers for our wellbeing. Time and again we tend to get upset, angry and have thoughts that we are just going around in an endless circle. Finding the right skills to allow our intuition to speak to us more clearly is a work in progress. However, our intuition solely belongs to us. More importantly it is there to help guide us to have goodness, happiness and contentment with self.