Your intuition guides you and warns you when something is wrong with your mind, body, or soul. A strong gut feeling can help keep you safe and help you make better decisions. However, many people have difficulty listening to their intuition because they feel it may not be right or are unsure about trusting themselves.
There are normally two things that prevent us from listening to our intuition, including:
- Past experiences of being made to feel ashamed of expressing our feelings.
- Society’s lack of understanding.
As you learn to understand intuition and trust yourself more, you will see that you can use this tool to stay safe and live your best life.
What Intuition Is and What Intuition Isn’t
Before we learn to understand intuition and how to develop it, it is important to know the difference between it and other emotional responses, such as anxiety.
Anxiety
Anxiety often comes from past failures or experiences that have made us feel bad about ourselves or have brought trauma into our lives. For example, If you have ever been in a car accident, you might feel nervous about going on a road trip.
This anxiety can come from your brain’s attempt to avoid the harm that you faced in the past.
Even though anxiety and stress can be overwhelming, it is important to know that anxiety and intuition aren’t the same. Intuition is there to help you and doesn’t come from past fears.
Intuition vs. Defense Mechanisms
We all have a built-in defense mechanism that is triggered by our ego. For example:
- You might feel strange around someone who is more successful than you, which is part of your low self-esteem.
This also isn’t intuition but just your mind trying to keep you safe from feeling inadequate.
What is Intuition?
Real intuition happens suddenly and doesn’t come from your emotions. It is immediate and unexpected.
Your intuition can make you feel positive or negative, and this is when you sense something isn’t right. It can be a gut feeling that makes you aware without using logic.
How Does Intuition Protect You?
When your intuition tells you that you are in a dangerous or uncomfortable situation, your subconscious mind will pick up cues around you. These cues can come from people, the situation, or even the environment.
Identifying Unsafe People or Situations
- Your intuition may sense aggressive or harmful energy from someone long before their behavior confirms it. For example, you might feel an inexplicable unease in someone’s presence, signaling that they may pose a threat to your safety or well-being.
Recognizing Manipulation
- Manipulative individuals often attempt to control their actions by evoking emotions like guilt, shame, or sympathy. Your intuition can detect these underlying motivations, even if the manipulation is subtle or well-concealed.
Listening to these signals that your intuition is giving you allows you to avoid a situation that could cause you harm. Removing yourself from the situation can be enough to protect yourself.
Why is it Hard to Trust Your Intuition?
Shame
Some people have trouble trusting their intuition because someone has made them feel bad for expressing their feelings. This could have happened as a child or even as an adult. Maybe you were criticized or dismissed, and then you decided to shield yourself from showing emotion.
People-Pleasing Behavior
Some people suppress their own feelings and ignore their intuition to achieve peace and avoid conflict. They might avoid people who make them feel uncomfortable, and instead of expressing their feelings, they are polite to avoid confrontation. This suppresses intuition and prioritizes other people’s feelings over their own.
How to Reclaim and Strengthen Your Intuition
By reconnecting with your intuition and becoming more self-aware, you can embrace it and learn to develop and listen to your inner self.
Focus on Past Experiences
- Think about a time that you ignored your intuition and later you regretted it. What cues did you miss?
- Recall times that you trusted your intuition, and it helped you.
By noticing these patterns, you will be more likely to listen to your intuition.
Be Mindful
- Being mindful allows you to get rid of distractions and focus on the present.
- Quiet your mind and recognize the signals that your intuition gives you.
- Meditate and do deep breathing exercises to clear your mind.
Embrace Your Feelings
- Acknowledge your emotions, and don’t be hard on yourself.
- When you feel uneasy about something, ask yourself why.
- Give yourself permission to act on your intuition, even if it doesn’t seem to make sense.
Set Boundaries
- If there are certain people that cause your intuition to be set off, listen to it.
- Set boundaries and protect your energies.
Journaling
- Keep a journal of the times you listened to your intuition, the times you didn’t, and what happened when you didn’t.
Why is Listening to Your Intuition Important?
Your intuition is there to help you stay safe and make good decisions. It works inside of you, guiding you to what feels right and pushing you away from harm. Ignoring this inner voice makes you vulnerable, and it can cause you to miss out on good things. It can also cause you to walk right into harm’s way.
If You Doubt, Listen to Your Intuition
- If something doesn’t feel right, let your intuition guide you.
- Take action to what your intuition is telling you.
- It is better to be more cautious than to do something that you will regret later.
Overcoming Self-Doubt
If you’re afraid to listen to your intuition because of your past, don’t be afraid. Remind yourself that you have feelings for a reason. Act on your intuition. This doesn’t mean that you will get it right all the time, but do your best not to let your past experiences hold you back.
What Does Listening to Your Intuition Do?
When you learn to trust and honor your intuitive side, you’ll notice several positive changes in your life:
- Increased Confidence: Trusting your gut helps you feel more secure in your decisions, reducing self-doubt.
- Better Relationships: Recognizing manipulative or harmful behavior early can save you from unhealthy dynamics.
- Improved Decision-Making: Intuition complements logic, helping you make well-rounded choices.
- Enhanced Self-Awareness: Tuning into your inner voice deepens your understanding of yourself and your needs.
Final Thoughts
Your intuition is a gift given to you by the universe to guide you and keep you safe. It can also help you to embrace your energies and to get the chance to face good things. Please don’t ignore your intuition; learn to develop and embrace it.
The next time that your gut tells you something, take time to pause and listen. Whether it’s subtle or a considerable warning, honor your intuition and trust it. By doing this, you will respect yourself. This can be a tool that can help you to work through life’s challenges and to be able to face new opportunities with courage.
This article has opened my eyes about how society often undermines personal feelings by labeling them as irrational or untrustworthy. It resonates with me as someone who has struggled with self-doubt due to external pressures telling me what ‘feels right.’ I’m keen on exploring ways to reconnect with myself through mindfulness practices mentioned here while setting boundaries against negativity from others.
Exactly! Taking back control over our emotions is empowering.
This article seems overly simplistic and lacks depth. While intuition can be useful, it’s often unreliable and can lead people astray, especially if they confuse it with anxiety or fear. The author dismisses the complexities of human emotion and psychology, which is concerning. It’s crucial to approach decisions with a balanced mindset, rather than solely trusting gut feelings without rational thought.
Reading this made me chuckle a bit because it feels like every self-help article tells us we’re capable of anything if we just ‘trust our gut.’ Sure thing! Next time I’m faced with a decision at work, I’ll just close my eyes and chant ‘intuition’ until things magically resolve themselves! If only life were that easy!
Haha true! If only we could simply wish away our problems by channeling our inner vibes!
Did anyone else notice how the article simplifies complex emotional responses? Intuition isn’t just some magical inner voice; it’s influenced by our past experiences, biases, and even societal pressures. We must recognize that sometimes our ‘gut feeling’ can be a reflection of deep-seated fears or trauma rather than genuine intuition. It’s essential we discern between these emotions before making decisions based solely on instinct.
I absolutely love this article! It’s so empowering to read about the importance of intuition. I’ve often doubted my gut feelings, but now I realize that they are a gift. The tips on how to strengthen my intuition are particularly helpful. I can’t wait to start journaling and being more mindful. This is exactly what I needed to boost my confidence and trust myself more. Thank you for sharing such valuable insights!
I totally agree! It’s refreshing to see a piece that encourages people to listen to their inner voice instead of just relying on logic all the time.
Oh sure, just trust your gut and everything will be fine! This sounds like something out of a self-help book! If I had trusted my instincts every time, I’d probably still be living in my parents’ basement! Life isn’t that simple; sometimes you need actual logic and facts! Intuition? More like delusion if you ask me.
“Delusion” is quite an exaggeration, don’t you think? Sometimes intuition can lead us in the right direction when logic fails us—ever heard of gut instincts saving someone from danger?
“Your intuition is a gift from the universe.” Really? Sounds like something out of a fortune cookie! While it’s nice to think our feelings have cosmic significance, let’s not forget that sometimes they just lead us into awkward situations or bad choices! I’d rather rely on statistics and data instead of trusting some vague ‘gut feeling’. Who needs psychic abilities when you have spreadsheets?
(Sigh) It’s really hard for me to trust my intuition since I’ve been criticized so much in the past for expressing my feelings. This article touched on something very personal for me—the struggle between wanting validation from others while also wanting to honor myself. It makes sense that shame could interfere with one’s ability to listen closely to their own inner voice. I appreciate this perspective.