Before a decision, do you poll your friends, your partner, your group chat and the internet, and then do what you suspected you'd do all along? Most of us were taught to call that being careful. Often, it's a way of not trusting the quiet knowing that showed up first.
That knowing belongs to the third eye chakra, the sixth of the seven, between the eyebrows.
Where it sits, and what it does
The third eye sits at the center of the forehead, between the brows. It's traditionally associated with indigo, a deep blue-purple, and the element of light.
Ajna, its Sanskrit name, means "to perceive" or "to command." This is where we take in what's actually happening, both around us and inside us. It's also where imagination lives, the ability to picture something that doesn't exist yet.
Anodea Judith, whose work we teach from, gives this center the right to see, and describes it as the place where logic and intuition meet. Clear seeing tends to use both. We wrote more about how the seven fit together in what it means to have your chakras aligned.
Intuition with one foot on the ground
Intuition can feel mystical. It's also very ordinary. It's the sense that you shouldn't take that job, before you can explain why. It's knowing a friend is having a hard time from one short text.
Intuition stays connected to your life. If you find yourself floating, more in the unseen than in your own kitchen, come back down through the root. The third eye sees further when the rest of you has somewhere to stand.
Fear and intuition can feel alike
How do you know whether it's intuition or just anxiety?
There's no perfect test, and the two can sit very close together. In our experience, fear tends to be loud and urgent, and it comes with a story about what's going to go wrong. Intuition tends to be quieter. It often says something once and then waits.
If you can't tell, breathe for a minute and ask again. Whatever is still there once your body has settled is worth listening to.
On "blocked" third eyes
Search for this chakra and you'll find plenty of warnings about a blocked or closed third eye, and promises to "open" it fast.
We don't use that word, and a lot of those warnings are fear-mongering. Nothing is wrong with you if you can't see visions, and there's no rush to see anything. Energy is neutral. Most of us were simply trained out of trusting ourselves, and that kind of training can be unlearned slowly.
Instead of "blocked," we might say there's some dense energy here, like a fog over your sense of direction. Or the third eye could use some quiet, since it's hard to hear anything over a lot of noise.
How it can show up
Here's what it can look like when this center wants attention:
- You ask everyone's opinion before you let yourself have one.
- You had a feeling, overrode it, and later wished you hadn't.
- Everything needs proof before you'll trust it.
- You feel foggy about your direction, or lost in the bigger picture.
- Your imagination has gone quiet, and it's hard to picture what you want.
- At other times, it goes the other way. Your mind won't stop running, or daydreams start to replace the life in front of you.
This part is mine
Intuition feels steady and short. It doesn't usually come with an explanation or a story. You just know.
I've had my intuition tell me I wasn't meant to attend an event, to turn left instead of right, to reach out to an old friend, to stay in and to go out. Often with no explanation, and the story only revealed itself to me after I had listened.
Intuition thrives on steady trust, and our vision sharpens when we use it.
A practice: review the evidence
This one comes from our free chakra course, and it takes about two minutes.
- Close your eyes and remember the last time you had a gut feeling and followed it. What happened?
- Now remember a time you overrode one. What happened then?
- That's all. You're just reviewing the evidence.
Your intuition has a track record. It helps to look at it.
If you'd like to write, these are the third eye questions from Inner Alchemy, as they appear in the course:
- When was the last time I listened to my intuition? How did it guide me, and what was the outcome?
- What creative practices help me access my inner wisdom and imagination? How can I make time for them this weekend?
- What does my inner voice sound like? How do I distinguish it from fear or doubt?
If you'd rather move than sit, this is the third eye movement from the same course. Yonatan leads it, and it takes under two minutes.
Making room to see
- Turn down the input. Take one decision this week and make it before you ask anyone. Silence helps too, even ten minutes without a phone.
- Go outside. Time in nature has a way of clearing the fog. Let your eyes rest on something far away.
- Write first thing. Before the day's opinions arrive, write down what you already know about whatever's on your mind.
- Picture it. Close your eyes and imagine the thing you want in detail. Imagination gets stronger with use.
- Use a map. Our Chakra Alignment workbook can help you notice where you're clear and where you're foggy.
Where this fits in the seven
The third eye sits just above the throat, and they work as a pair. One sees what's true, and the other says it.
You'll meet it on day six of our free course, 7 Days, 7 Chakras. Inner Alchemy, our 28-day self-paced course, spends three days here, returning to the same third eye movement and meditation with a new question each day.