It’s easy to get caught up in the details of day-to-day life: picking up the cleaning, doing the dishes, going to the gym, or going to work. The list is endless. You’re constantly bombarded by outer stimulation and demands, keeping you busy doing what’s right in front of you. Then there are the inner conflicts, not only our thoughts and feelings about these responsibilities, but also our internal responses to life as it unfolds.

Yet, as you strive to live a more conscious life, you’ll become more aware of your inner promptings: go here; listen to him; do this; don’t do that. You’ll open to subtle layers of your being and connect to an inner rudder of sorts. But how do you know if this inner voice or sense of guidance is your deeper-self speaking its wisdom, your unconscious childhood programming, or the voice of your Aunt Matilda? Discerning between an automatic response stemming from family beliefs, childhood distortions, or the culture you were raised in, versus guidance from your connection with your higher/deeper self, makes life, success, and relationships so much easier.

The methods of communication from both your inner wisdom and unconscious programming are similar. Both can feel true at times. When you’re present and discerning, you’ll know when your wisdom is talking. As you learn to understand your unique internal language, becoming more sensitive to things beyond your usual range of perception, you’ll move into a deeper level of self-trust and self-knowledge. It’s your birthright to feel that inner connection guiding you, but exactly how this inner wisdom, guidance, gut, or intuition speaks is slightly different for everyone. Many ways of perceiving are available to us, and the more open we are to deeper levels of Reality, the more wisdom we have access to.

Your inner voice “speaks” to you in six distinct languages. You might have access to a few of these or all of them, but most find one or two languages easier to access. As with everything, the signs range from subtle to obvious, but the greater your connection to your higher self, the more you automatically open to these languages. Let’s now look at each of them a little more closely:

1: Bodily sensations or kinesthetic awareness. We’ve all had gut feelings from time to time. It doesn’t have to be a sensation that occurs literally in the gut or stomach, but your body often gives you clues. I’m sure at some point in your life you’ve experienced a visceral response to something, a feeling in the pit of your stomach, but what did it mean? Is the message saying that this is something to avoid for your own good? Is it a fear of something that would be good for you, or is it actual wisdom about what’s happening? This is why discernment is so important.

With gut feelings coming from wisdom, you’ll sense that a certain person, place, or direction feels right or wrong. You breathe more easily when something feels right. Your belly relaxes, even if it seems the answer will make your life temporarily harder. All these sensations are your body’s way of communicating bits of information, and you might feel different sensations as you continue to investigate. You might feel your heart opening or your throat closing as you consider an idea. As your body awareness informs you, you might sense another’s energy, or feel drawn to something without logical explanation. This is clairsentience; a clear, conscious feeling.

2: Auditory—when you hear an answer inside of you. You might perceive sounds or questions or thoughts, however fleeting, which inform you about a situation at hand. You can develop keener listening with words and dialogue, giving you perspective or new ideas. It can come as a whisper in the shower, a thought that stands out in meditation, or something that occurs to you as you’re driving. This is clairaudience, or clear hearing and listening. Tuning into silence facilitates this capacity opening more fully. Taking this a bit further, some might say that we can tune into our relatives who have passed, or even God, when we are deeply listening. Keep in mind, thoughts from childhood programming seem so familiar that you can misperceive them as a wise answer.

3: Mental images—seeing through your mind’s eye, or clairvoyance. This isn’t just normal seeing, but “having insight” beyond our physical vision. You might receive an impression or image during meditation, while daydreaming, or in another unexpected way. An image can be a literal scene with all the right players in the right places, or you might be seeing something symbolic to you. As with dream images, your internal vision can be deciphered with practice. Some people have been known to see events before or after they happened, and some see into other people’s bodies to assist with healing.

4: Direct knowing, even when you’re not sure how or why you know. It might feel like a sudden burst of inspiration, a vehicle for creative ideas and solutions, or just a calm sense of certainty. Direct knowing is recognizing the answer, completely, and in precise detail. You might know about something small, such as that open parking space around the corner, or you might get a complete picture of someone’s health you’ve been asked about.

5: Accessed through your sense of smell, or clairalience, and the other through your sense of taste, or clairgustance. Memories are connected to smells and tastes, and sometimes in deep meditation specific aromas or tastes will arise with visual images.

6: Angels and Guides. It’s said the angels were uttered into being at the beginning of creation. Most of you have heard about someone having an experience receiving help from an angel. It happens more often than we might think. It helps if we spend time opening our connection to them.

We also receive guidance from other nonphysical beings. Some might help us find things, whereas others might help with specific problems. Still others are teachers, and we also have connections with master teachers. All of this is available for our support and learning. The more you connect to the whole of you, the more available you are to receive from these other realms.

Excerpted with permission of the publisher, From Your Ultimate Life Plan: How To Deeply Transform Your Everyday Experience And Create Changes That Last © 2013 Dr. Jennifer Howard. Published by New Page Books a division of Career Press, Pompton Plains, NJ.

Dr. Jennifer Howard is a licensed psychotherapist, business and life coach, energy healer, and spiritual teacher. She’s the author of Your Ultimate Life Plan, Huffington Post blogger and the host of the weekly radio talk show, A Conscious Life. Visit her website, www.DrJenniferHoward.com, for meditations, articles, and free gifts.