"Like an ability or muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it." - Robbie Gass

Last week I was speaking with a client about the language of intuition, and how it's a language that we can learn to understand just like Spanish or Chinese. When we first hear a foreign language, it either sounds interesting but meaningless or we ignore what we hear because it doesn't spark comprehension. Deciphering the language of intuition can be a lot like that. At first, you might not even be aware of what you're hearing. Or you notice something, but "it sounds like Greek" to you. For some of us, learning a foreign language comes easily. And for some of us, knowing the language of intuition is innate. The rest of us have to work a little harder. There are general ways of tuning in to your intuition: for example, paying attention to a gut feeling, a dream, or a song lyric that pops into your head. However these are simply portals into your own knowledge of your intuitive voice. Intuition is truly a "sixth sense" - it's as available to you as your sight, hearing, taste, touch or smell. In other words, intuition is largely a form of sensory knowledge. Just the like the other five senses, it's a felt knowledge that has very little to do with your mental capability, and its interpretation is individual. For instance, how do I know that an orange tastes the same to me as it does to you? What's the dialect of your intuition? Becoming acquainted with your intuitive voice is a personal experience, and may involve a widening of your perspective about what intuition is. We often think of intuition coming in dramatic "flashes." Intuition may also come in the form of strong physical sensations or images. For example, I had a conversation with a woman who recounted feeling strongly pulled to move to the U.S. Whenever she resisted this urge to move from her home country to the U.S., she literally felt punched in the stomach. Once she made the monumental decision to move, the stomach-punching stopped. She firmly believed that this physical sensation was the work of her intuition. Most frequently, though, intuition shows up in the dialect of the ordinary. Ordinary, everyday intuition usually doesn't set off fireworks or make the 6 o'clock news. Everyday intuition often takes the form of a seemingly fleeting inner comment such as "I really should call Ken and tell him about my new business idea," or "You know, every time I drive by that restaurant, I feel compelled to stop." We often dismiss these comments for two reasons: Intuition doesn't necessarily inform us in advance why it's important to do or say something, and soon after we hear an intuitive comment, our inner critic jumps in to say, "Now there's a stupid idea." How can I get to know my individual intuitive dialect?

• Notice the fleeting inner comments. Experiment with following the direction of these messages even when your inner critic makes a judgmental comment.

• What seems persistent or insistent in your life? That may be your intuition talking to you.

• View intuition as a sixth sense. Use it as you would your eyes, ears, nose, mouth or skin.

• Ask your intuition a question and listen for an answer. That answer will come from your intuition.

• Notice if your body is intuitive. Do you get a pain in your neck when something is a "pain in the neck?" Sometimes I develop headaches when there's something I don't want to think about or when I think too much. Both are intuitive messages.

• Use your energy levels as a barometer. As your energy rises, plummets, shifts, centers, grounds or ungrounds you, what do you notice? Energy and intuition are intimately connected.