The understanding of a language

My native language is Danish, but I don’t speak it all the time. I speak English on a daily basis too. And then there’s the voice inside, my intuition. I’m not sure what language it speaks, but lately I feel like it’s been speaking my language.

When I was 19, I went to England to work. Having learned English in school since I was 12, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the English language (and also because I grew up watching, mainly American films and series and listening to songs in English). When I got there, I must admit, that I struggled in the beginning to really understand everything. I would understand the overall things, but it toke me some time to understand the language on a higher level. Although my English lessons had prepared me to some extent, I wasn’t prepared for The accent. The culture. The shortening of words. The humor. The music. The local history and stories that had shaped the language in the area, where I was living.

When I had babies I was introduced to a whole new level of language. The sounds. The noises. The crying. The words. Constantly alert trying to read the signals. The needs. Constant interpretation. Although I had been reading books, listening to other people talking about their children, there was no way I was really prepared for it.  

Today I got to thinking about, how understanding and interpretation of my inner voice, my intuition is like a language of it’s own. Sometimes it speaks to me in Danish, sometimes in English (or a combination of the two – a bit like myself sometimes 🙂 ). Sometimes it speaks to me in symbols. In letters. In numbers (number 11 being the favorite it seems). In pictures. In animals. In feathers. Sometimes it will add a little humor to the message (I once thought, that it was always suppose to be something serious, but I know understand, that it changes, depending on the situation).

Sometimes it will play a song for me. Sometimes it gives me a “tunnel vision”, that makes me look at one specific thing. Sometimes it drags me out of bed in the night to show me something. Sometimes it keeps me awake at night. Sometimes it wants me to take a picture of something without telling me straight away why (I guess it’s a way of getting my attention in the first place?). Sometimes it makes me notice a thing, that’s been with me for years, and all of a sudden I can’t stop looking at it or think about it. Trying to work out the connection. The words. The message.

That makes me wonder, if following your intuition is a matter of understanding the “language” of which it speaks to you? And if that is the case, do you then need to practice it? Like learning a foreign language? Like learning about babies way of communicating? Or is your intuition always your native language? And if so how do you make sure it speaks in a way, that you always understand?