“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Albert Einstein
Intuition is a real thing.
Scientists tell us that the intuitive brain harvests information sourced from non-conscious emotional cues, including past information about rewards and punishments. This stored mental data then give us hunches about the potential outcome of actions we might take or about situations that are already in train. According to Dr Judith Orloff, these hunches are “optimized for rapid intuitive decision making”.
Orloff and others also point out that these clues can also come from the gut. That is because the cellular structure of the brain and the gut are similar. You know. That old “gut feeling” thing?
So how is it that we ignore the wisdom that come from the deepest, wisest, most informed parts of us? I’ve done this many times myself, usually to my regret.
I believe this is due to an over-active thinking brain coupled with a lack of self-trust.
Nora ignores her gut
Nora enjoys a close relationship with her neighbors Cliff and Jon. They often share afternoon tea or an outing at the local cinema. One day she notices that there is a change to the routine at their house – no lights turn on after dark, yet their cars are visible in the driveway. She wonders if something is wrong but tells herself that they may have gone out of town for the weekend or … . And so she concocts a number of other theories about this unusual lack of activity at their place. It is later that she learns about a sinister development in Cliff and Jon’s household. Nora is distraught. She cannot believe that she paid no heed to her gut feeling that something was wrong.
Ray senses something is “off”
Ray was expecting his partner to arrive home from work at around 5 PM, after confirming this fact earlier in the day. The clock kept ticking – 5.30 PM, then 6:30 PM. By this time Ray just sensed something was wrong. He was supposed to meet a friend for drinks at his local, but knew that he could not, should not leave home. In fact he felt compelled to sit on the sofa, phone in hand, and wait. He somehow knew that an incoming phone call was imminent and so it was. At around 7PM, the police rang to say that his partner had been in a car accident and was taken to hospital.
The question is, in both cases, what evidence, what clues were evident that needed to be heeded and which were ignored? How could Nora ignore the obvious? What deeply compelling clues captivated Ray?
The Thinking Brain Tends to Cancel Out Intuition
“… [Intuition] is the ability to know something without analytic reasoning, bridging the gap between the conscious and non-conscious parts of our mind.” Alexandra Mysoor
We are so used to imagining the worst that when we notice that there are things amiss, we just tell ourselves that it is our usual pattern of catastrophizing. Thus, we talk ourselves out of any deeper sense of “off-ness”. We begin to rationalize. We refuse to believe our inner knowing. We believe the hype that intuition is only a fantasy.
One thing that helps me to determine which is which is to check in with my body. In my experience my intuitive messages tend to come from a different place in my body than thoughts originating in my over-worrying, hyper-active brain. Of course, the bodily location of these two very different messaging systems may vary from person to person.
I invite you to identify those for yourself based on your own experience.
“You will never follow your own inner voice until you clear up the doubts in your mind.”
Roy T. Bennett
