13 Practices for Developing Clairsentience

Do you feel that you may be clairsentient, but you don’t know where to start? Maybe you instinctively feel things. Perhaps you use the words “I feel…” instead of “I see…” or “I think…”. These are all clues that you are on the right track.

Developing clairsentience for your spiritual life and overall wellness is not only possible, but it becomes easier with only a few practices.

Make no mistake, these practices are intensive and may take a long time to fully come to fruition, but once you’re set on the path, using your clairsentient abilities becomes second nature!

What is Clairsentience?

Clairsentience means “clear feeling”. It is an extrasensory or “sixth sense” that linked with the ability to instinctively feel what isn’t perceptible with our five senses. Clairsentients are extremely sensitive and emotional, and they can use their psychic skills to read others’ emotions with ease.

If you’re clairsentient, you may have many of the following experiences:

• You use the term “I feel…”
• You’re often accused of being too sensitive or overly emotional
• You experience being overly stimulated regularly
• You love to be alone, especially in nature
• You’re really affected by negative energy
• You rely on your instincts
• You’ve been called an empath

Clairsentients are often introverts and get overwhelmed being around people a lot. This is because you absorb the energy of the people around you.

All the “Clairs”

Clairsentience is only one of several types of extra-sensory experiences you can have.

Clairvoyance is the most common, and it means “clear sight”.

Clairaudience means “clear hearing”.

Claircognizance means “clear knowing”.

Clairgustance is being able to taste something without actually putting it in your mouth.

Clairairalience is smelling something without it being there.

What I Experience as a Clairsentient

I’ve only recently embraced my ability as a clairsentient, but I feel that the clues were always there! Here are the four main things that I experience as a clairsentient.

1) I can read auras instinctively

I’ve been taking a course on Udemy to enhance my ability to read auras, and the course instructor, Astrid the Psychic Witch, teaches from the perspective of clairvoyance. I had a hard time resonating with her teaching to read the aura because of this.

Even though I can’t see the actual aura, I can instinctively sense that it’s there, and I can read the colors without seeing them. I could feel her aura as indigo or deep bluish-purple, and when she confirmed that her aura is indeed indigo, I wasn’t at all surprised.

2) I can read people’s emotions, even from a distance

When I’m in a room with a person, just one look at them can be a clue that something is wrong (or right). As soon as I ask them, they confirm their emotions.

This is a type of sense that I get by thinking of them or seeing them that I can instinctively sense their energy.

Reading a person often feels like heat or cold that is radiating from a source, but rather than temperature, I’m perceiving energy, vibes, and emotions. I experience it often on my skin or in my heart.

3) I get exhausted and over-stimulated extremely easily

I definitely consider myself a high-sensitive person and an empath, which means that the energy of other people and even my environment can wear on me tremendously.

I’m a teacher, and when I am teaching my students, I am not only transforming myself into a high-energy extrovert while I’m in class, but I’m also taking in the energy of all my students. If someone is hurting, not engaged, experiencing negative emotions, or leaking energy in any way, I experience it all.

Even my own children can be over stimulating to me when they’re playing and making noise.

I LOVE silence! I love turning the lights off and working in a dark room. I love meditating, taking a warm bath, or hiking by myself in nature.

4) I can connect with people who have passed on

I’ve been visited from spirits of people and animals who passed away many times. I am not skilled enough at channeling to be able to channel people I have never met, but those who knew me in this life come to me and I’m able to sense their presence.

After I started my first teaching job in 2007, one night I was visited by my childhood dog Shea who had passed away a year earlier.

A few months after my grandpa passed away in 2014, I was organizing things on my kitchen floor, and he visited me. We had a conversation about education and travel while I was sitting on the floor.

After my grandma passed away in 2020, I was able to be there spiritually as she reunited with her sisters, who had passed away many years earlier.

I experienced all of these connections purely through energy, feeling, and extra-sensory perception.

Developing Clairsentience vs. Being Born With It

Like all things in life, many people are gifted with clairsentience from birth. (I fall into that category.)

But any person can develop clear feeling with a regular practice and devotion, because all people are born with the ability to tap into these inherent skills. Sure, it may be easier for some people than others, but with time, you can learn to enhance your own “clear feeling”.

13 Methods to Develop Clairsentience for Your Spiritual Growth

1) Listen to your gut

As a clairsentient, your instincts, gut, or inner barometer… whatever you call it… is your #1 guide in your life.

You have to trust yourself. You have to love yourself. There is no clairsentience without self-trust and self-love.

(This is your 3rd Charka, Solar Plexus.)

2) Feed your life-force

Kasia Urbaniak likes to talk about the difference between choosing things that feed us versus things that are energy vampires. This can be anything, from choosing foods that nourish our bodies, to resting when we are feeling overworked, to learning something new to keep our minds stimulated.

Consistently choosing the things that feed us and fill our cups is another essential step to allowing your clairsentience to flourish.

When we are able to stay rooted in the flow of Source, our root chakra is grounded and clear.

2) Cut out the things that don’t serve you

But choosing what serves you also means cutting out the dead weight of our lives. What is an energy vampire in your life? What takes your energy away?

Maybe it’s a person–a friend or acquaintance–who leaves you feeling drained. Learn to set strong boundaries to preserve your energy. Maybe it’s junk food, drinking, or other harmful or toxic substances that you put in your body that you need to give up. Maybe it’s a harmful mindset or limiting belief that is preventing you from tapping into your true potential.

It also means that we can’t be too busy. When we overload our lives with activities and things to do, we don’t allow space for energy to reach us (or we bury it underneath all our stuff).

Allowing ourselves to let go of the things in our lives that don’t serve us is absolutely essential to developing our clairsentient skills.

3) Clear Your Third Eye and Meditate

While your third eye is going to be more linked with clairvoyance than with clairsentience, you absolutely need a clear mind and clear sight in order to use those feeling senses.

When our minds are clouded with thoughts, distractions, we become numb to our feelings.

I often give the advice to meditate. And I didn’t always meditate. But once I did, I started to feel my extra-sensory perception absolutely explode.

Meditation helps you clear the clutter in your brain. You release thoughts, to-do lists, and even memories that you replay over and over. It allows you to be with yourself without all the external stuff that modern life tells us that we need.

Because what you need is only yourself. You are your own refuge and safe place.

RELATED POST: My Review of Plum Village Meditation and Mindfulness Online Retreat

4) Really embrace your emotions

Acceptance of all of your emotions is very important for working on building your clairsentient abilities.

We’re told in this patriarchal society to “control our emotions” and suppress them. This is so toxic and harmful to our mental and spiritual (even physical) wellness.

We need to let them out in a healthy, supportive space and allow them to breathe. Whether than means journaling, meditating, or talking with a supportive friend, it is essential to allow ourselves to experience our emotions and get to the other side of them.

(This one is for your heart chakra.)

RELATED POST: 16 Books for Your Spiritual Development

5) Heal trauma and codependency issues

Again, your psychic abilities will be suppressed if you have unresolved PTSD, generational trauma and abuse, codependency issues, or the like.

When we’re tapped into those patterns of trauma, we pick up on those energies. This can come in the form of anxiety, only seeing the energies of one person (as in the case of an abuser or codependency), or other mental illness that can hamper your clairsentient skills.

Find a therapist, get a good journal, and meditate to get through these major psychic blocks.

6) Practice gratitude

As mentioned above, clairsentients are extremely sensitive. As such, negative energies can be very taxing. Gratitude is an amazing way to counter the negative energies we encounter on a day to day basis.

Gratitude is the practice of feeling appreciation for the blessing that are in our lives. And we all have SO many blessings, regardless of whether we see them.

In my recent Plum Village Buddhist retreat, Brother Phap Huu told the story of Thich Nhat Hanh (Zen Buddhist Master) finding such wonder and joy in seeing green moss on a tree.

Whether it’s the amazement at green moss, a beautiful sunset, a steady job, food on the table, people in our lives who love us unconditionally, there are always beautiful things around us to feel grateful for.

7) Use spiritual protection

Spiritual protection has been another essential step in my journey, and I use many different kinds of spiritual protection.

One type of spiritual protection is simple prayer. You can ask for Archangel Michael, or your guardian angel, or Jesus, or Muhammad, or whomever you pray to, for protection. Ask them to guard you from negative energies. Ask them to protect the sovereignty of your spirit.

You can use crystals, too (more on that below).

Spiritual protection is a great way to protect yourself from getting too drained.

RELATED POST: Feeling Lost after a Spiritual Awakening is Totally Normal

8) Learn to Communicate

One of the things that can prevent yourself from getting too overwhelmed with other peoples’ energies is to learn effective communication. (This one is for your throat chakra!)

When I learned how to not fall for someone who was baiting me, learned to ask questions, and learned to walk away from conversations with people who were consumed with anger, I felt myself rise to a new level of freedom and personal sovereignty.

Communicating effectively frees you from being subject to negative energies and being in control of your limitations and boundaries.

9) Enhance your sacral and heart chakras

Clairsentience stems from your sacral chakra, or your creative center. This is the energy you use to create and birth a child as well as energy you use when you create music, make art, make love, and many other creatively stimulating activities.

Clairsentient people tend to be very empathetic, which is both empowering for compassion and loving-kindness, but also can be draining.

Using meditations and spiritual activities to clear and boost your sacral (orange) and heart (green) chakras can help you tap into your psychic feeling.

10) Use crystals

Crystals are amazing, beautiful pieces of earth that each have vibrational energies to match different traits and chakras.

For example, rose quartz and green aventurine are excellent for the heart chakra. Citrine is good for boosting your self-esteem and joy (solar plexus chakra).

Black obsidian, onyx, and tiger’s eye all work well to protect your spirit and energy levels from being drained by negativity or energy vampires.

Use crystals during meditation or other spiritual practices like tarot or oracle readings to enhance the energies of the vibration you’re trying to match.

11) Explore

When I first started to think about developing clairsentience in my life, I did a tarot reading. I asked the Field Tarot deck two questions, first, “Should I develop my clairsentience?”

I drew the three of cups, which is celebration and friendship. I understood this as a strong yes, with the potential for working with others and connecting it to my desire for a strong sisterhood of female friends.

Next, I asked, “How do I develop my clairsentience?”

The card I drew was the Princess of Wands (Page of Wands in the traditional Rider-Waite). In the Field Tarot, Princess of Wands is all about exploration. In the Rider-Waite, Page of Wands is about limitless potential and discovery.

Explore by noticing when you feel clairsentient. What is going on around you when you begin to feel things instinctively? What has been going on in your life when you’re naturally more feeling?

After you notice your clairsentience more, then you can begin to play around with it!

RELATED POST: 20 Tarot Decks to Try that are Absolutely Fantastic!

12) Practice Self-Hypnosis for Spiritual Development

Personally, I feel that my clairsentience resides in a place within me… deep DEEP within me. And sometimes that place is hard to touch unless I’m practicing regular, consistent, deep, and meaningful spiritual practices.

I’m working on self-hypnosis that I can fall into whenever I want to experience that deep place that my clairsentience resides.

I’ve already used self-hypnosis for giving birth, and it has opened doors for me to many other aspects of life.

13) Stretch out with your feelings

In the original Star Wars movie (1977), Jedi Master Obi-Wan tells Luke Skywalker to “Stretch out with your feelings. A Jedi can feel the force flowing through him.”

I find clairsentience to be a bit like that!

If you have a spare moment with other people, perhaps out at a coffeeshop or people-watching, practice using your clairsentience by reaching out with your energies to see what you can learn about people. Can you read their aura? Can you tell what kind of a mood they’re in?

Try it with your eyes closed.

Trust your instincts.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a highly sensitive person or an empath and you think you might have the ability of clear feeling, only you can be the one to determine if you have those skills and want to work on them.

I’ve found that it is 100% worth it to develop my clairsentient abilities. And if you’re not resonating with clairsentience, perhaps try clairvoyance, clairaudience, or claircognizance!

There are no wrong answers.

Good luck on your psychic journey!

Tell me, are you clairsentient? Do you feel the same things I do?

Drop a comment below!

I also consider myself a Lightworker Witch as well as clairsentient witch. Read more about what it means to be a witch here.