Transcript for Episode 112 Creative Intuition: The Skill That Makes Life and Work Easier

With Lisa Cooper Ellison

Lisa Cooper Ellison [0:00]
 Listeners, would you like to know when to say yes or no, how to tell which piece of feedback is right for you or your book, or how to proceed with greater ease if you're working on a book—let's say a memoir? Would you like to spend more time having your characters tell you what to write and less time trying to figure it out? I'm going to raise my hand right there. And guess what? I am happy to report that the solution is easier than you might think, and that is what we're going to talk about today as we take a deep dive into one of my favorite topics: building your creative intuition. Be sure to stick around for the final part, where I share how to use the tool you already have in your tool belt to connect with your intuition and strengthen it. Let's dive in.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [0:48]
 Well, hello everyone. I'm Lisa Cooper Ellison, your resident Story Alchemist and the host of this show. So often on the podcast, I speak to you as a writer and writing coach, and I am definitely channeling all of that with you today. But this week, I am pulling in some of the other trainings I have to help you tap into this amazing, easy-to-access wisdom that you already have available to you.

And here is the best part: this wisdom is faster than ChatGPT, it will not hallucinate, and it will always be on your side. So, what is that? That is your intuition.

This is a topic that can be really fraught for people because many think it’s magical or that only people with special gifts have it. They might say, “Oh, that person is touched,” or “That person has second sight,” or “That person is psychic.” And while it is true that some people are more naturally gifted with their intuition or have a stronger connection to it, this isn’t magical. It is something every single person has. All you have to do is learn to recognize it and then strengthen your connection to it.

So, let’s begin by talking about what your intuition actually is. Intuition is sometimes called your sixth sense—and that’s because that is exactly what it is. We often talk about the five senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. Those senses pull in information from the environment so that you can respond to it.

Your intuition is an unconscious sense that pulls in information—sometimes from very far away, sometimes from your immediate environment—very, very quickly. It combines that information with your experiences and your wisdom, pulls it all together rapidly, and then gives you a quick answer.

So, the question becomes: how do you know that you're getting an intuitive answer? You pay attention to your “Clairs.” These are simply different ways you connect with that wisdom.

One you’ve probably heard of is clairvoyance. We often think of clairvoyance as a psychic ability—seeing into the future. Sometimes that is how it works. But it can also be much simpler. If you’re a writer, you’ve experienced clairvoyance when you’ve been in a state of flow.

Think about a time when you were working on a creative project and you could just see what was going to happen, like it was a movie in your head. That is clairvoyance. Sometimes, when we’re working through a problem, we suddenly have an “aha,” and it shows up as an image in our minds. We might see an iceberg and think, “Oh, most of the answer is underneath.” That visual helps us wrestle with something and come up with an answer.

So that’s clairvoyance. There are actually eight different forms of Clairs. We’re not going to talk about all of them today—just the most common ones, because those are the ones I want you to begin connecting with and strengthening.

We’ve talked about clairvoyance. The next one is clairaudience. Clairaudience is when you hear the information. We often experience this as the still, small voice inside us—that calm, peaceful voice that is part of our inner monologue.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [5:00]
 We are always talking to ourselves. That’s part of being human—how we make decisions and meaning out of our experiences. That still, small voice will speak to you and tell you something about what’s happening or which direction you should go.

What I want you to pay attention to is the difference between that still, small voice—your clairaudience—and the voice of the anxious mind. When it’s the anxious mind, number one, you’ll feel anxiety. There won’t be certainty. It may feel frenetic: “Maybe I should do this. Maybe I should do that.” You’ll be reasoning it out, and you’ll actually feel that experience in your brain. You’ll feel like you’re in your head.

When you’re experiencing clairaudience, you’ll feel calm. You may hear something internally, but you won’t feel stuck in your head in the same way.

These are two of the most common Clairs. In the writing life, clairaudience often shows up when it feels like your characters are speaking to you and telling you how to work with your story.

Two other common ones are claircognizance and clairsentience. Claircognizance is clear knowing. This is when you just know something. You’re at a crossroads and you simply know which way to go. Someone tells you something and you just know it’s true—or you know they’re lying.

It’s a very clear inner knowing, and again, it carries a sense of peace. When you experience it, you just know what’s right. You don’t necessarily need a pro-con list. You don’t need to over-research. You just know. And part of the journey is trusting that.

The last one I’ll talk about is clairsentience. Clairsentience is when you experience a feeling. You may have had tingling in your body, goosebumps, or what we call a gut feeling. That tug inside your gut—that’s one way it shows up. You might also experience a strong emotion.

I’ll share a story about how this works for me. I am an extreme empath, which means it’s very easy for me to experience other people’s feelings. I can sometimes feel them even if they don’t tell me what they’re feeling. When I was younger, that helped me a lot. But now, it can distract me from my own feelings and isn’t generally useful unless I’m doing something like an Akashic Records reading or working with a client.

In everyday life, I’m grateful I don’t need that skill in the same way anymore. But here’s a time when it flooded through me.

A few years ago, I went to Washington, DC, and visited the Vietnam Memorial on the National Mall. Both of my parents lost friends in the Vietnam War. They were in high school when their friends were drafted. I never met those people. I don’t have personal loss connected to that war.

But as soon as I walked into the exhibit, I was flooded with profound grief. It felt like I could feel the grief of all the people who had stood there and found their loved one’s name on the wall. I was overwhelmed. Tears streamed down my face. I wanted to curl over and sob.

I knew what was happening, so I kept taking deep breaths and walked through the exhibit.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [10:00]
 When I reached the other side, I felt totally free of it. That was clairsentience for me.

What I want you to do is get curious about how these show up in your life. And if they don’t feel obvious yet, don’t fret. These are skills you can develop. Intuition isn’t just for special people—it’s for all of us.

You can use intuition as part of your creative practice. That’s why I call it creative intuition. It becomes a dialogue you move with creatively, and it can deeply support your projects.

So how do we develop these skills?

Step one: be in your body.

So many of us try to make decisions from the neck up. We rely entirely on our brains. But your wisdom lies in your body. No one says, “I had a head feeling.” We say, “I had a gut feeling.” That’s where the wisdom comes from.

In order to access that wisdom, you have to be in your body and paying attention.

How do you spend more time in your body?

Number one: put your phone down. Spend time during the day without your phone.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [11:45]
 Here are some ways to do that. Put your phone in a completely different room. You can also put it on airplane mode. You can have it on airplane mode in the room that you're in, but it’s going to be more powerful if you put it on airplane mode for a period of time and place it somewhere else.

That alone is going to help you feel more present. We have so many dings, pings, pops, and notifications on our phones that pull us into our heads and actually out of our bodies as we think about all that information and everything out there. So, take a break from your phone.

The next thing you can do is walk in nature. Being in nature—in this creative, dynamic space—is going to help you feel more present in your life. And if you can walk on the ground, preferably barefoot for a few minutes in the grass, that can ground you. It’s another way of being in your body.

A third thing you can do is take some deep breaths. Let’s go ahead and do that now so you can notice the difference. If you are driving or operating heavy machinery, please do not close your eyes—but you can still participate.

Start by noticing how you are feeling right now. Are you in your body, or do you feel like you're in your head?

Lisa Cooper Ellison [13:12]
 Once you've had a chance to check in—and there’s no judgment if you're in your head; so many of us are there all the time, myself included—what I want you to do is, again, if you’re not driving or using heavy machinery, you can close your eyes or simply soften your gaze.

Let’s take a few deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Inhaling…

Lisa Cooper Ellison [13:38]
 …and exhaling.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [13:42]
 Inhaling…

Lisa Cooper Ellison [13:45]
 …and exhaling.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [13:48]
 And one more time, inhaling…

Lisa Cooper Ellison [13:52]
 …and exhaling.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [13:55]
 Just notice how you feel.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [13:58]
 What was that like for you?

Lisa Cooper Ellison [14:04]
 I want you to pay attention. Are you more in your body? Because that’s what we want, right? We want that experience. And the breath is a very easy way for us to get there.

Once you’ve done this breathing exercise, you can try the bonus-points activity: spend a few minutes doing nothing. That means no scrolling on your phone, no reading a book, no spinning your wheels on different things you could be working on—just doing nothing.

If that feels really uncomfortable, start with one minute and work up to five. It doesn’t need to be a long stretch of time. Just do a little and notice what happens.

That leads to the next thing you need to do, and that is to be open. First, you have to be in your body. Then you have to be open to the information coming in.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [15:00]
 You can do that in a few different ways. You can simply say out loud, “Okay, I’m open to the answer,” and then go take a shower. The shower is a great place for intuitive hits. Say, “I’m going to take an intuitive shower,” get in, and see what happens.

You can also get out your journal and ask a question. Instead of trying to work out the answer, write automatically and see what comes out. What comes out is often coming from your intuition.

If you keep a dream journal, you can write down a question before bed or say to yourself, “I’m having this problem, and I don’t know where to go. Brain, intuition, can you help me work this out while I’m sleeping?”

Lisa Cooper Ellison [15:43]
 Just ask—and then see what happens. By morning, you may find that the answer comes easily.

You can also check in with your body. When someone asks you a question, notice whether you have a physical response. Does your body go, “Yay”? Or does it recoil—“Ooh, I want to get away from that”? Pay attention.

You can imagine different scenarios and ask, “If I say yes to this, how does it feel in my body?” Notice what your muscles say. Sometimes your intuition speaks through your muscles. These are all things to be curious about as you open yourself up.

That leads to number three—and this is where I’ll talk about the tool I mentioned at the beginning. That tool is your journal.

Your journal is the most powerful tool you can use to strengthen your connection to your intuition, which in turn boosts your creative intuition.

This comes from my training as an Akashic Records reader and healer. When I was training, one of the first things we were told to do was get a journal and write in it every day.

I have an uncensored journal practice, similar to morning pages, where I simply write things down. And as I’m writing, if an intuitive hit comes—if I suddenly think of someone I haven’t talked to in a while, see their face, or hear their voice—I write it down. If anything else arises, I write that down too.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [17:44]
 The reason you do this is that sometimes intuitive hits come before you need the answer. When you write them down, you are collecting data.

The more data you collect around your intuition, the more you will trust it.

For example, if you start thinking about someone and then that person calls you, it’s not just a fleeting thought you can dismiss. You have proof. You wrote it down.

Let me share a personal story about how this showed up powerfully for me.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [18:30]
 Last year, something happened in my marriage that made me very angry. When you’re in partnership, things aren’t perfect every day. This situation made me really mad, and I happened to be traveling when it occurred.

The situation happened, and I immediately had to leave town. While I was traveling, I was ruminating on it. It felt like something that needed to be discussed in person, not over the phone. So, it just sat there, eating at me.

I didn’t know what to do, so I said to my intuition, “If there’s something I need to understand about this situation that will lead to a resolution, let me know.” Then I went to sleep.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [19:23]
 That night, I had a vivid dream where I heard something that felt very true. I immediately wrote it down.

Here’s what was interesting: it felt true, and it felt like something I did not want to hear.

Not only did I write it down, but I also wrote, “This sucks. I hate this. I don’t want this to be true.” I let myself have my angry feelings.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [20:00]
 The trip ended. I went home still feeling angry. I knew I needed to address the issue.

But here’s what was different: I had already received the intuitive insight. I had already written it down. So, when I finally sat down to have the conversation, I wasn’t just operating from anger. I was operating from clarity.

And because I had written it down, I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t received that insight. I had evidence of what had come through.

That conversation led to a much deeper resolution than I think would have happened if I had just gone in fueled by emotion.

That is the power of journaling your intuition.

You build trust. You collect data. And over time, you begin to recognize the voice, the feeling, the knowing.

And when you trust your intuition, you bring that trust into your creative life.

You know which feedback to take and which to leave.
 You know when to say yes to an opportunity and when to decline.
 You know when your character is telling you something true.

Your intuition becomes your creative partner.

And that, my friends, is a tool that will never hallucinate, will never betray you, and will always be on your side.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [20:15]
 And so I did—in a pretty angry way—which was okay, right? Sometimes we need to express our anger. It wasn’t wrong, but it was uncomfortable, that’s for sure.

I shared what I was feeling, and then my husband said, “Are you ready to listen to my perspective? To my side?”

The first thing I said was, “No, I am not,” because I wasn’t. I still had a lot of anger inside me. But even in that moment, that still, small voice inside me said, you need to listen.

Because I’ve been working with my intuition long enough, even though the angry part of me wanted to flip him a bunch of birds, I was like, Damn it. I need to listen. So, I said, “Fine.”

Lisa Cooper Ellison [21:02]
 “Tell me your side. Tell me what you want me to hear.”

I didn’t want to listen at all. I was just going to stand there and humor him for a second and continue stewing. But what he said was completely aligned with what had come through in my dream.

And I was like, Oh my God. That’s it.

That was a moment of profound trust in my intuition. If I hadn’t written that dream down—if I didn’t have it on paper with a date—I probably would have questioned it. I might have told myself, “Maybe that didn’t happen. Maybe I made that up.”

But no. The more you write things down, the stronger your connection to your intuition becomes. The more you connect with it, the stronger it grows. And the stronger it grows, the more you can use it in every area of your life—including your writing life.

Another helpful practice is to pay attention to signs. Sometimes we think intuition only shows up in dreams or gut feelings, but it can also show up out in the world. Pay attention to billboards, bumper stickers, songs that come on the radio. All of that can be intuition supporting you.

Let me share one more story before I give you an exercise.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [22:41]
 February 8 is the anniversary of my brother’s death.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [22:45]
 My brother died by suicide in 1997.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [22:48]
 He was 20 years old, and I was 22.

So, I’ve now gone through 29 anniversaries. If you’ve ever lost someone close to you, you know anniversaries can show up in many different ways. Sometimes they’re hard. Sometimes they’re surprisingly easy.

This particular year, as the day approached, I wasn’t feeling much. I kept checking in with myself: How are you doing? And I felt okay.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [23:18]
 That morning, same thing. I checked in. I was doing fine.

Later that day, I was working on something, and all of a sudden—bam—it hit me. A tremendous wave of grief.

When someone you love has been gone for 29 years, and that span of time is longer than they were alive, it can start to feel like their life was a dream. That’s how it felt to me. I was thinking, Was he even alive? Did our relationship actually happen?

Lisa Cooper Ellison [23:52]
 So many of my memories with him now have this dreamlike quality because they’re so far away in time. I felt this deep sense of disconnection—heartache, disbelief in our life together. And I started crying.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [24:12]
 Every year on the anniversary, usually when the tears come, I listen to three songs.

First, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which we loved when we were kids. Then “Do You Realize?” by The Flaming Lips. And then “Hallelujah.”

So, I listened to those songs. Spotify kept playing afterward. And then, suddenly, “Just Breathe” by Pearl Jam came on.

As soon as it started, it felt like I was sitting with my brother and that he was singing that song to me.

That was intuition.

It wasn’t that my brother was literally there. It wasn’t something mystical in that sense. It was that my system, my psyche, my heart, aligned with that moment in a way that brought comfort. It felt like a message: Just breathe. I’m here in the ways that matter. This was real.

And in that moment, the grief softened. Not because the loss disappeared, but because I felt connected again.

That’s how intuition can work through signs. Through timing. Through resonance. Through meaning.

So, here’s the exercise I want to give you.

For the next seven days, keep a small notebook with you—or use your regular journal. Each day, write down:

1.     Any intuitive hits you notice—images, phrases, gut feelings, dreams.

2.     Any signs that feel meaningful—songs, repeated words, strange timing.

3.     What happens afterward.

You’re not trying to force anything. You’re just collecting data.

At the end of the week, look back. Notice the patterns. Notice what felt calm versus what felt anxious. Notice what proved accurate.

This is how you build trust.

And when you build trust with your intuition, your creative life changes.

You stop chasing every piece of feedback.
 You stop second-guessing every decision.
 You stop forcing the story.

Instead, you listen.

And when you listen, your writing deepens. Your characters breathe. Your path becomes clearer.

Your intuition is not separate from your creativity. It is the well it draws from.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [25:00]
 It was that connection—and a reminder that our connection was real. Our experience together was real. Our life was real. And even though he is no longer here, he still lives inside me.

That helped me rewrite the story of that day. It helped me be with my feelings and experience comfort. Intuition can offer so many benefits, and that just happens to be one of them.

Because I want you to experience those benefits, I want you to pause for a second and ask yourself: What is my connection to my intuition? Just sit with that and notice how it feels.

If you’re still thinking, I don’t know. Maybe I have intuition. Maybe I don’t, that’s okay. Either way, I want you to try this experiment. It’s either going to work or it’s not—and if it doesn’t, no big deal.

Here’s what I want you to do. Think about a low-stakes experience in your life. Something simple—like going to get ice cream. Write about it in your journal: I’m going to get ice cream. What flavor should I get? Then automatically write down an answer. Don’t think. Just let your pen hit the page.

Maybe you’ve always gotten chocolate because it’s your favorite. But if you write down butter pecan, here’s the next step: go get it. Whatever that low-stakes thing is—especially if it feels weird or strange—don’t question it. Just do it.

As you practice and observe the results—especially if the results feel good—keep going. Gradually up the ante a little more and a little more.

You may eventually find yourself in a moment like I did—really angry, unsure what to do—and instead of reacting blindly, you connect with your intuition. You become open. An answer arises. And you act on it.

That is how powerful this can be.

When you start getting feedback on your writing and you wonder, Should I trust this or not?—even if the feedback isn’t “bad,” it just may not align with your vision—you’ll immediately know. Because you can tap into your intuition.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [27:40]
 The other thing I want you to do is follow your bliss. Do what you want—at least at some point during your week. If you feel a pull to go thrift-store shopping, or bake cookies, or take a spontaneous walk, do it. Then pay attention to the outcome.

Those little sparks of desire—those urges toward joy—are often your intuition speaking. If you continue to follow them, you will trust your intuition more and more.

If you’re still thinking, Lisa, I don’t even know if I have intuition, here’s one of the easiest ways to discover it: look at your past.

Think of one or two times in your life when you had a gut feeling and either followed it or ignored it. What was the outcome?

In my own life—big decisions and small—I can say this: when I honor those gut feelings, things tend to work out. When I ignore them, I usually learn a hard lesson.

Notice what’s true for you. Then journal about it. The more you write about these moments, the more you’ll see that your intuition has been there all along trying to guide you, trying to help you.

My deepest hope is that you begin to connect with those inner messages and follow them. When you do, your life becomes easier and more aligned.

Does that mean you’ll never have problems? No. As long as we’re here on Earth, we’ll experience hardships. That’s part of being human.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [30:00]
 And that’s how we grow. It’s not a bad thing. But when you go through hardship knowing you can rely on your intuition, you move through it with greater grace. It feels steadier. It feels more supported.

Lisa Cooper Ellison [30:21]
 Thank you so much for listening. If you want to take this further, press pause and grab your journal. Don’t worry—I’ll wait.

Now that you’re back, answer this question: If my intuition could speak to me in one sentence right now, what would it say?

Leave your answer on YouTube—I would love to hear what your intuition is telling you.

And speaking of your thoughts and feedback, I want to give a huge shout-out and heartfelt thanks to Nancy Keeler for sharing your thoughts about the podcast on Instagram and for adding so many recent episodes to your listen list. You mentioned you’re a little behind and have a lot to catch up on—but just knowing the show is in your library made my day.

Listeners, if you haven’t connected with the show yet, please make my day by reaching out—especially on YouTube. I would truly love to hear from you.