Ep #031 | 3 Types of Intuition And How to Identify & Use Them in Your Life | Sonia Choquette

A Mindvalley mentoring episode (host Vishen Lakhiani with guest Sonia Choquette) teaching practical ways to identify and use intuition. Sonia defines three "shades" of intuition—red (survival/warning, felt in the gut), green (creative "go" insight reached via quiet/spacious states and a breathing/presence drill), and white (spiritual/higher-self guidance, practiced by naming and dialoguing with your spirit)—and gives step-by-step exercises for each. The episode also includes Sonia's background (author of many books) and a promo for her Mindvalley course "Sixth Sense Superpower" (described as a 21-day/month-long guided program).
Questions this video answers
27 internationally best-selling books.
37 languages.
Sixth Sense Superpower — described in the episode as a "21 day journey" and elsewhere referred to as a month-long Mindvalley program.
November 7, 2023.
Chapters
Welcome to our second mentoring episode with Sonia Choquette, the remarkable teacher of human intuition. She has written 27 internationally best selling books on intuitive, awakening, personal and creative growth. She's been published in over 40 countries, translated to 37 languages. She's also an intuitive teacher that I listen to and that I've learned from greatly. And I've written about her ideas in my book, the Code of the Extraordinary Mind. I've come to believe that intuition is one of the most powerful skills we can utilize in the world today. We don't fully understand to this day how intuition works, but we know that it does work. Think of the sun. For thousands of years, we used the sun to grow crops, for warmth, for navigation, but people didn't know what the sun was. Some said it was the Egyptian God Ra flying across the sky. Only today, in the last hundred years ago, we understand that the sun is a giant thermonuclear reaction in the sky. But think about where humanity would be if they waited for that conclusion before they started using the sun. Don't worry about the fact that science doesn't fully understand intuition. You still get to use it today to make better decisions in life. And if you can just improve your decision making ability by 5 to 10%, that is a remarkable edge in everything you do. So let's get started in this training. Sonia is going to put intuition into three different shades. Red, green and white. Easy to remember. And you're going to learn the meaning of these shades and how to tap into intuition at these three different levels. So let's give a big mindvalley welcome to Sonia Choquette.
Thank you. I'm so excited to be back with you. Always excited to be back.
So let's get started with this training and thank you for actually being back.
Well, first of all, I want to say how intuitive you are because the way you introduce this actually is a lead into some of the most important information I have about intuition, which is our biggest obstacle, is so easily remedied and that is that we don't language our intuition comfortably. If you don't name it, you won't claim it. So the first thing to do is to come up with what works for you in terms of the language you want to use when you are feeling or experiencing an intuitive energy. Most of us don't know what to call it, so we ignore it. Call it vibes, call it your gut, call it your hunch. But if you don't call it something comfortable, you have an almost 100% chance that you will ignore it to your detriment. In this world, I don't think it's optional to succeed without intuition. You can't. I just feel our world is working too fast. It's too connected. We are too saturated with information that if we don't have that discernment, that intuitive edge, we will be mediocre, we won't be great and we won't be happy and we won't live true. So to me, this is a non negotiable skill for our age.
And that's very true. In my book, the Code of the Extraordinary Mind, I share a story which is the story of how I ended up in this field. What happened was I was in phone sales. After I lost my entire business during the dot com bubble bursting in 2001, the only job I could get in Silicon Valley was dialing for dollars. I had to pick up a phone and call attorneys selling them software. Now everyone else would head to the San Francisco library, get the yellow pages and call every law firm in their area. Mine was San Antonio, had to start with the attorneys at A and then move to B, then move to C. It could take like several weeks. But after taking a class in intuition, I understood that I could fall into a relaxed state, close my eyes, run my finger down the yellow pages and just feel a gut impulse on who to call. Now, interestingly enough, in one day I doubled my closing rate. It just seemed that I was making the right choices and my boss couldn't understand what was going on. And he asked me, how did you just start closing so many more? I said, I think they call it intuition. And his response was, that's bullshit.
Exactly, but keep doing it. I love that story because it shows. Right now we're at a tipping point in terms of our understanding that we as human beings actually are endowed with six senses. And we've negotiated that out with the age of reason and the rational mind. And we're beginning to reintegrate it back in. And once we can shift the paradigm of like, you know what? This isn't out of the wheelhouse of normal. This is the center of my new normal. This is my. Because the most intuitive part of your body is your heart. The first organ in the human body, when it develops is the heart. When you recognize life, it's the heartbeat and it informs the rest of the body. The second organ to develop, or the second aspect of the fetus is what's called the cochlear, which is the inner ear and it is shaped like a spine and it picks up all the information that all the senses give it and run it into the heart. So the new normal needs to be the very first thing is this is not optional, not weird. Well, actually, it is weird. Do you know why the weird? Weird. Do you know what the word weird means?
What?
Out of this world. So I love that being intuitive is weird because it's out of this literal physical world. But it's our human design, and it's not natural that we have these experiences universally. And I've been teaching for a long time around the world. I have never met a human being who has not had an intuitive experience. Never. But I have met hundreds of thousands that are very uncomfortable talking about it.
True. And there's a danger in that. Newark College of Engineering did a study by a professor called John Mihalasky, and he wrote a book about it called Executive ESP. And they studied CEOs. They did a simple test for CEOs to see how intuitive these CEOs was. This was a basic Zener test study where they had to guess what was the symbol on the other side of a card. Now, what he found is that CEOs who scored the highest in terms of intuition also were showing the highest growth in their companies. But here's the interesting thing. Professor Mihalowski found that certain CEOs were guessing the wrong card beyond probable chance. They had negative intuition. Their mind was. Was tripping them up. And these CEOs, coincidentally, also had the worst performance in their companies. So if you didn't. So the funny thing is, if you truly believe that intuition doesn't exist, it truly will not exist for you.
For you as an executive, decision to filter it out.
Yes.
As in a decision to ignore it. Now, one of the reasons, and this is something interesting, people say, how did you get so intuitive, Sonya? I grew up in a femme. People have asked me, how come this is so comfortable for you Now, I grew up with a mother who is deaf. She lost her hearing when she was 12 in the war in Europe. So she felt, and needed to feel, find her way through a different form. She didn't have the language. She didn't have family. So she used feeling energy and it became her main language. So I was raised in a family that said you can pick up communication energetically. It was simply put, trust your vibes. And so that was the main. The main statement of our family is not what you read. What did you say? What did they say was always, what do your vibes say? You can feel them. And so that's where I started And I developed it over the years. I worked for 45 years in this field. And what I have realized is we have different levels of intuition and they work on different arenas of our life and they feel different. And it's like learning to discern notes on a scale or flavors in a stew or like you said, shades of blue.
So it's red, green and white.
Those are the ones. Basically because we relate those colors to certain experiences. Red is a stop sign. So that's why I call the red intuition, which is the basic intuition most people have. And the basic intuition most people have is survival. That we'll be going along without paying much attention, but then get the hairs on the back of our neck standing up when we're walking down the street and we're being followed. Okay, that's a red light intuition. That's a strong intuition. Because our instinct to survive is so big for us. So if we ignore that, we really regret it. You don't ignore it. You have something to say comfortably and you need to practice in advance. So in my family it was what do your vibes say? That was it because it described the actual experience, vibration. Science has come up to meet us now on that and says we pick up and then interpret vibration. But vibration that is menacing, threatening, starts with a thought. Now I worked with this, with this policeman in Chicago, tough target, and taught extra classes on people how to protect themselves. Because you can feel a predators intention to hurt you because they have to build it before it comes at you. And you can feel that energy. But it's only the people who are comfortable to say stop. So that's your first red light intuition. You can just say stop. Bad vibes. And if you can't say that, you won't stop. You'll walk right into it.
So how do we exercise red light intuition?
Well, the first thing is to come up with your list of, I'd say five ways to explain your intuition to yourself and not need anyone else's approval. That's the other big trip. We get the vibe. We might even say I have a bad feeling. But then we shop it around, right?
And the feeling can come to different people in different ways, right?
It'll always come in your gut. And there's a reason for that. We have what's called the vagus nerve. It starts at the back of the brain. That is the intuitive nerve of the body. It is the parasympathetic nerve. It goes through the throat, goes through the face, the heart and the gut. But it really centers in the gut the strongest because it keeps you safe. That's why this red light is gut vibes. You don't pick it up here. You pick it up here. Like punch. It's like. And it takes your breath away.
So listen to your gut. Now. How do we.
But not only listen. You give me five words. If you had bad vibes, what would you say? If you were with a group of friends and they're partying and they're having fun and you have bad vibes, it's like, let's get in this taxi. Let's go.
Right.
What are you gonna say to stop those five people?
I'd say, something just tells me this is wrong.
And then. That's crazy. We're drunk, we're laughing, we're teasing you.
And then I'd say, my intuition is telling me not to do this.
Yeah. At that point, you need to say, stop. That is the word that's gonna get attention. Stop, stop, Stop. I have bad vibes. Stop is the word. And the minute you say that, it gets respect. Stop. I have bad vibes. I was with my family. We boarded a flight from Chicago to London for Thanksgiving. I got on that flight with my family. We boarded, and I said, stop. Have bad vibes. And they're like, ah.
And you got off the flight?
We got off.
What happened?
Well, we didn't know what happened. We didn't hear about any crashes. But what we did hear is that they somehow ran into some turbulence and ended up completely rerouted to another city in Europe. Spent another 4, 40 hours there before they got to London. We only had a weekend.
Right.
So it wasn't a crash and burn, but it would have been for us.
And that's really interesting. So I had a crash and burn type scenario, and it came to me in a different way. I was driving a car and I was listening to a song, and I remember it was the Black eyed Peas. My Humps. Because that moment was so. So visceral to me, so real. And literally, as I'm listening to this song and my. That song had just come on. It had just hit the Billboard charts. I was. I loved the Black Eyed Peace. So I was so into this song. And I hear this voice saying, pay attention to the road. And as soon as I hear this voice, I'm now looking at the road, almost wondering where that voice came from. And a truck on my right hit a car. The car flips up, lands directly in front of me, and I had just enough time to brake.
Wow.
But what was that? Because I heard a voice now, here's.
What I think it was. We pick up vibes, okay? We pick up energy. We have to interpret it so we're getting the vibration, and we interpret it with our own strongest internal system. That was the voice of your own higher self. You picked up the energy of the car you're cruising along, but you picked up the energy, and it's happening while you're here. But your body feels the vibe, receives the energy, and then you have to language it so you internally language.
This is so remarkable how the mind works. Now tell us about green light intuition.
So green light intuition is the intuition that actually points your awareness in the direction of creative opportunity. So this is when you're going down the phone book with names. That's green light intuition. Do this. That's the. Yes. And green to us, like the green light is the. Go for it intuition. That's why I call it green light. Now, what you need. Need for this is a quiet state of mind. Good luck with that. Right, right. And the other thing you said was space. Those are two things you need. But I have learned a tool that will put you in a quiet, spacious state of mind like that. Want to do it?
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, so the first thing you need to do is you need to look around the room and notice one or two things right in front of you. And the reason for that is it pulls you up out of your head and into the moment, and then you name them. So name two things you see.
So I'm looking at the strap of my watch. Okay.
And give me two more.
Okay. I'm looking at the back cover, the back leather cover of my iPhone case.
Okay. And give me one more.
I'm looking at the texture of my denim jeans.
Okay. And notice what's going on inside you. Just doing that in terms of your brain, in terms of your inner chatter. So you bring three things in, and then the next thing I want you to do is I want you to breathe in very slowly without raising your shoulders, put your tongue on the roof of your mouth and exhale like you're blowing out candles and empty all the energy you're holding on in your body like this. So you have to blow out the candles. You can't just think it. You have to actually. Right. Breathe in again slowly. One more exhale. Okay. The third breath is I call going down the slide. So you breathe in, and then you go down the slide. Ah. And let out the sound. Ah. Notice where you land in your body. Do you feel the quiet? Yeah, it's instant quiet. You are in the instantly. You are in the place in your body and in the inner state of quiet that meditation takes you. You're instantly there. Can you feel that?
Oh, wow. Yeah.
So it's a tool I found because first you empty, then you go down the slide. Ah. And you end up at the end of the breath in that place in your body that is the most receptive intuitive place there is. Now think of a question that you want intuitive guidance on that you want to share.
I'm thinking about what to call my third book.
Okay. Breathe in. Exhale the candles. Breathe in. Go down the slide loud.
And I got a. I got an insight.
Okay. You don't have to share it with us. It'll be a surprise.
Yeah, I don't want to because I don't want anyone buying the domain name.
Okay. But if you practice that on a regular basis. Now, I've got to make some distinctions. You have to breathe out like you're blowing out candles. Then you go down the slide because you shift your awareness. Then my question is, and it has to be an authentic question. If you do this 10 times, you're going to get it pretty quick.
So I'd say my question is yes, and my heart says yes. My question is, I do it 10 times.
But the key is this green light intuition doesn't work. The reason you have to speak it out loud is if you don't, you're in your head. Right in your head isn't your intuitive place.
So you speak it out loud to yourself.
Exactly.
Even if you're in a room alone.
Exactly. Always to yourself. That is the one thing I grew up with. My mom was always as an intuitive person speaking. Speaking to herself all the time. All the time. My vibes say this, my vibes say that.
So we can use green light intuition when we're in any situation where we need to make a decision.
A creative decision.
Amazing.
I like that it works.
And I'm shocked at how rapidly I feel relaxed. So let's now go on to white intuition.
Our white intuition is the intuition of our spiritual path. We are spirits that animate our physical body. We have spiritual integrity. Our spirits come in wanting and needing to express themselves at the highest level. White intuition is an energy that's with you that is. Is sort of like we could call your higher self your higher consciousness. And it is the self that is always traveling with you and letting you know if you are in integrity, which means wholeness. It's so subtle, but it's like the fairytale, the Princess and the pea, you know it's there. And when you start saying it's there, this doesn't feel like me. I'm doing this. I'm making money. I'm going through the motions. But it doesn't feel true. It doesn't resonate. It doesn't. It's off. That's white light intuition. And it's like. It's like shoes that don't fit.
But are there any practices you can think of that can help us tap into white light intuition?
White light intuition is this. We have to. We're used to describing our experiences, we're used to describing our education, but we're not used to describing our spirit. So my favorite exercise in the way I start every workshop is to a. And this is a good one, name your spirit. Now, my spirit's name is Bright Light. And I have conversations with bright light all the time. That is my highest self. And so what would your spirit's name be?
I would go for envisioner.
Okay, so that's the way to start. Because if you name it, you can start having dialogue. Jung had Philemon, Carl Jung. He would go on long walks with his higher self, Philhemon, and he what all his books talk very much about. So name your spirit. And then here's the second thing. This is fun. And this is something to do with your friends and your family. We complain all the time. Change the channel and ask people, what does your spirit love? Your envisionary. What is your invention?
Loves really great food. Discussion with amazing people on how to change the world.
Now, everybody watching this mentoring, watch it more than once because your face changed when you were talking about your spirit. It lit up. And that's visible. Your spirit dropped in and absolutely took over. And if you can start integrating and letting your spirit be your decision maker and express, can you feel how. How your own energy expanded?
You're right. It feels so different. Can we try that exercise with the audience? Can we get them into a state? And can you ask them those three questions?
Okay, so here we go. First, take a breath in through the nose and exhale like you're blowing out candles. Good. You empty. Name your spirit and take the first name that comes. What does your spirit love? Name it out loud. And if you're not already doing this, which I doubt you won't be, smile. Ah.
Now can we. How do we utilize this white light intuition in the world?
Well, here's the most important thing, because I've been doing intuitive counseling for years and the number one question people have is not how can I money, Even how can I be in love? It's like, how can my life have meaning? That is a fundamental, primal need for us as human beings once we're out of survival. Okay, survival is basic. Then meaning. I want meaning. So white light intuition allows you to be who you were born to be and bypass all the obstacles, influences, and imprints of your culture like that. Because not only are you tapping into who you actually authentically are, it takes over.
Now, is this something that we do once? Is this something we do regularly?
I think you do it so much that pretty soon you identify as your spirit. I identify as.
So one question. What does my spirit love? Are there other questions we can ask to identify ourselves with our spirit?
The other question you can ask is, here's a good one that I would introduce to your company every day. Instead of saying, how are you? Say, how's your spirit today? Because you're quicking, you're changing role to role, and you're going spirit to spirit. So that's a game changer. I always ask people, how's your spirit?
I love that.
So you shift the whole conversation up an exponential notch because people are like, whoa. Thanks for asking. Because it implies your most authentic, creative self. How is that person today? How is that part of you? And then if you make decisions that are difficult and you're confused, simply say, well, what does your spirit say?
I love that idea.
So it changes the dynamic. I've worked so hard to make it as simple as possible because if it's not, we won't do it.
That's amazing.
But that one. All these tools work, but that one changes the culture.
Let's go back to a recap of everything we have learned today. We have learned about the importance of intuition. We've learned why sometimes we choose to suppress it or not believe that it's there. But a lot of it has to do with nuance. Intuition isn't one thing. There are many different nuances to intuition. Red light intuition is our body's warning system, often felt within the gut. And a key way to create more red light intuition is to set your rules for what you're going to do when you feel that that situation in your body.
Find the language that you'll stick to even when people laugh at you until you forget about it. It's like, no, stop. It gains respect.
And then green light intuition is the source of inspiration.
It's that the space and quiet.
Yes.
So the quick way is go down the slide.
Notice three things. Why do you make Us notice three.
Things because it gets you out of your head.
It gets you out of your head.
You're immediately present.
And then you take.
You're starting to presence. And then the breath down the slide puts you consciously. Your awareness centers in your heart breath.
You let out a. And then you ask the question yes.
And answer out loud.
And the question is.
Whatever the creative question is. And my heart says, is the.
And you reply with and my heart says. And my heart says. And my heart says now.
And then feel how you feel now.
Why is it that in this technique the reply is and my heart says. In our first interview you would ask and my mind says, and my heart says, and my spirit says, why here? Focus on the heart.
Because I've improved my techniques since we talked last and I fine tuned it and found let's get. Let's give that intellect even less attention.
I like it.
There's so much headspace going on.
And finally there's white light intuition, which is where you name. You give a name to your spirit.
So you transform yourself into your expanded self.
Right? And you check in with your spirit by asking yourself, what does my spirit love doing? What lights my spirit up? What are some other questions?
What does your spirit say? When I grew up as a teenager, my mom, I would ask my mom, we were seven kids in my family. And we'd say to my mom, can I do this or that? Of course we want to go party and do bad things. And she'd say, well, it doesn't matter what I say. What does your spirit say?
It's like, ah, I like that. And again there we're talking about nuance. Exactly. By bringing in spirit, we are seeing, seeing ourselves as a dualistic being.
Right.
Body and spirit.
And do you know what else we're doing? Which is the most important thing? You are becoming the leader of your life instead of following others.
I like that.
That's what you're doing. All of a sudden my spirit is leading me, not you. And you and this and that. My spirit. And that's integrity, that's wholeness.
And that reminds me a quote from Tesla. Instinct is something which transcends knowledge. We have undoubtedly certain finer fibers that enable us to perceive truth when logical deduction or any other willful effort of the brain is futile. And this white light intuition is helping us perceive our own truth.
Exactly. And when we language it and we're willing to stand for it, even though everyone laughs at you and says that's I don't believe that, then you are a truly empowered person.
Amazing. Sonia, if people wanted to follow up on your work, what would be a great book that you would recommend?
They start with Trust yout Vibes.
Trust yout Vibes. I've read that amazing book. So check out Trust yout Vibes and.
Your website is SoniaShoquette.com Awesome.
Take care guys.
So I hope you enjoyed that episode with Sonia Choquette on Tapping into your intuition Intuition, creativity, whatever you want to call it, it is the idea that our brain doesn't just process information internally. Our brain acts as a receiver. And when you can tap into this idea of your brain as a receiver, you open yourself up to so much potential. Now Sonia Chakat is probably the greatest.
Teacher of intuition out there.
She's written over 20 books on the subject and Sonia's official course on intuition called 6th Sense Superpower is available on Mindvalley and I encourage you to check it out. It is a month long program that guides you through the right exercises to slowly but surely open you up to intuition. So if you are looking to go down a path to become a more intuitive human being, to accelerate creativity, to have that inner voice that can guide you during crucial times, to have a beautiful gut instinct that gives you an advantage in work, in life, and love in relationships, and you're going to love this program. And as you can tell, Sonia is an incredible teacher. I'm going to play for you a trailer on Sixth Sense Superpower so you get an idea of what the course is about. And if you find this interesting, Simply go to mindvalley.com and enroll. Mindvalley acts like the Netflix for the world's greatest programs in human development. So when you sign up, you don't just get Sonia Choquette's Sixth Sense Superpower. You get hundreds of programs that can transform every aspect of your life. Here's the trailer for Six Sense Superpower and if you find this interesting, go to mindvalue.com, check it out and enroll.
If you're not using your innate intuitive abilities, you are doing a huge disservice to yourself and the life of your dreams. So many geniuses and their successes have been attributed to this often mysterious form of intelligence called intuition. From Albert Einstein to Steve Jobs to Henry Ford, they have used intuition for scientific hunches, for large scale problem solving in businesses, or making creative calls that would change entire industries, if not the world. Some call it a superpower. I think it's closer to being called the truth and this is inner truth and knowing is accessible to each and.
Every one of us Whether you believe.
It or not, I'm Sonia Choquette. I'm the author of 27 New York Times bestsellers. My books have been translated into 37 languages and read by over a million people worldwide. If you haven't explored your sixth sense, this is going to be the most amazing quest of your life. In week one of the Sixth Sense superpower, I'll teach you what intuition is. That it's not your intellect, that it's in your body, and how to get the intellect out of the way and feel the flow and understand how intuition works. In week two, I'll teach you how to recognize your vibes and get rid of your obstacles. And learn that intuition guides you in the areas that you really love, which is your authentic self. And how to get into the flow of that and get out of any hesitation so you can start seeing results quickly. In week three, things really begin to change because this is no longer something you think and do. It becomes a way of life. I teach you how to check energy quickly and accurately. I call it a vibe check. And you can vibe check everything from.
What you eat for dinner, for what.
You'Re gonna do with your life, to who you're gonna spend time, what world you're going to explore. And it helps you maintain, sustain and amplify your ability to make choices in the moment that align with your most authentic and most creative self. After completing the 21 day journey, you will have real experiences. You will be a different person. For one, you'll be connected to your highest, most authentic spirit, your inner knowing and not head knowing, bone marrow knowing. It'll be effortless. Your decisions will come quickly and they'll be accurate and you'll feel confident because you're congruent, you are in alignment with your with your expanded self. You will overflow with inspirations because your intuition comes from your spirit. And the word inspiration is my spirit is leading. So you will have this confident outer energy that matches the inner expression. So basically you're gonna be the person.
With the good vibes.
Actually, it becomes so magical you'll almost wonder whose life it is. And it'll be yours.
How about it?
Wanna start now? Follow your intuition. It brought you this far. And hopefully perhaps I'll see you in the the quest.
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