Listening to your intuition

[Chrystalline22]

I’m not sure if this is the right sub forum to post a thread about intuition?

Anyway, how much attention do you all pay to your intuition? Should you trust it if more often than not it turns out to be right? Its always after the event that you realize you should have listened to your inner voice and not done or done something. Its learning how to trust it enough at the time when its telling you something, and let it guide you in your decision making - that’s what I find difficult because I let other people talk me round or I give people the benefit of the doubt.

Most people are brought up to think logically about things and if you can’t prove something then don’t rely on it too much. That’s often the argument made by the very people that are trying to pull the wool over your eyes!

[Sarian]

I have to follow my intuition. I'm more of an intuition and follow my heart type of person. my very best friend who I admire more than anyone in my life is a mind person. Proves to be very challenging to say the least. If I am entirely too emotional, I have to stand back because it can cloud my intuition and I can make poor judgement calls. I am an emotional person, so this can be a challenge to say the least. But when I am not in such an emotional state where things in my life are tossing me to and fro...I am very level headed and thoughtful and wise even. I have had many occasion when my intuition kicks into high gear...and they usually involve odd things, out of the norm things...that most people would think ludicrous...so I think on it, and allow myself to feel what I am feeling. I set it aside. I guess you can say I will analyze it, if I go with my 'mind' and go against the intuition, all sorts of red flags come up, hesitations, down right road blocks to get me to stop, emotional upheavels...so before I go against my intuition, I paid heed to all the things coming forth to not 'get rational' this time. I will say when I have gone against my intuition, I wish I hadn't. When I went with it, no matter how ludicrous it seemed, it was the right thing to do. My friend who relies on his mind as he says he doesn't trust his feelings (he says feelings come, feelings go...) I can't seem to get him to understand that intuition may involved feelings and/or thoughts, but it's much, much more than that...but he doesn't get it, so he's a mind man, as many are...but wow...I sit and watch and I think to myself, what are you doing to yourself...life doesn't have to be as hard as you are making it. Sad. He has at times thought that I'm trying to pull the wool over his eyes...but he's also had to eat a lot of crow too...and wipe the egg off his face after accusing me of such things.

[DulcePoetica]

What I have learned is to be confident and aware at all times that I have already made the decision to trust my intuition.

Sometimes I try to find "real-life" logic to back up my inner sense of how things are, but I hardly ever find it until long after the fact. This is precisely why people end up looking back to say "I should have trusted my gut." becuase the reality is, this statement is only ever made when the gut instinct was the only noticeable reason for concern.

I also had to learn that I don't need a "legitimate" reason for the decisions i make. And I don't owe anyone an explanation. Nowadays, I just don't place more value on logic than my inner guidance. And while I can certainly contemplate another person's point of view, it should never be a substitute for being aware of my own sense of things.

[7luminaries]

100% agree. Wise words :)

[Beautiful]

Never ignore your intuition, but at the same time be wise about it. Be careful not to jump too hastily into life altering decisions. :wink:

[Chrystalline22]

What I have learned is to be confident and aware at all times that I have already made the decision to trust my intuition.

Sometimes I try to find "real-life" logic to back up my inner sense of how things are, but I hardly ever find it until long after the fact. This is precisely why people end up looking back to say "I should have trusted my gut." becuase the reality is, this statement is only ever made when the gut instinct was the only noticeable reason for concern.

I also had to learn that I don't need a "legitimate" reason for the decisions i make. And I don't owe anyone an explanation. Nowadays, I just don't place more value on logic than my inner guidance. And while I can certainly contemplate another person's point of view, it should never be a substitute for being aware of my own sense of things.

Yes, I agree with what you’ve said here, and also with what Sarian has said. Its about trusting yourself and having more confidence in what you know to be true. But how do you know these things…its more than just thoughts or feelings…its something which goes much deeper and can‘t be explained.

I do trust my intuition, its just that I’m scared to rely on it and let it guide me through life, because I can’t find something logical to base it on,

[QUOTE=Beautiful]Never ignore your intuition, but at the same time be wise about it. Be careful not to jump too hastily into life altering decisions[QUOTE]

and as Beautiful says, you have to be wise when it comes to life changing decisions. I had a very strong negative intuitive feeling about not following a certain course of action a good number of years ago now - relocating - and although I could come up with plenty potentially good reasons in its favour, there was still this overwhelming fear/panic attached to it. I thought I was just being silly and didn’t listen to my intuition and have regretted it ever since. Sometimes I say to myself that maybe it was meant to happen for the ‘bigger picture’, whatever that may be, but I haven’t found out yet!!!

That leads me onto my next question. Do you believe things happen in your life for a reason? Even the negative stuff? :smile:

[Mr Interesting]

Funnily enough I find that logic often supports my intuition, well almost always actually, and that comes home when the intuition is followed by "well, obviously"

Actually thinking about it it does take time for the logical mind to forgo it's ruling position and become a adjutant to intuition but it will eventually and then come in quicker to support the changes of direction given by intuition.

That said though the logic itself mutates into what I like to call intuitive logic which may seem to be an oxymoron to many but the idea is to be patient.

Let intuition have it's guiding hand and trust that but don't throw out the babay with the bathwater by discarding logic. Logic just needs time to adjust it's ways and means from being the king of the roust but change it will as it realises it actually has more power and ability being subservient to intuition.

But in the end it isn't about one being better than the other when they're just different sides of the same coin.

I am both logically intuitive and intuitively logical.

Does everything happen for a reason?

Does cause create effect?

The idea may be to make the subconscious conscious and therefore have an understanding of effects playing out from causes created long ago... or even yesterday.

[DulcePoetica]

I think it actually is wise, especially if a decision will be life changing, to go with any overwhelming intuitive sense. For me, that is a rule I live by. Not all of my intuitive insight is overwhelming, that is a special category which I always follow and have never regretted. Ever. And I don't even spend time trying to figure out what i was picking up on anymore. I just trust myself.

Though i will say that trusting my intuition has heightened my perception, so it gets easier to interpret. Oftentimes, after the fact, I do end up realizing that I was picking up on subtle non verbal cues a person was giving off, or I had buried a piece of information in my subconscious that was triggering alarms because i knew something relevant, but not on a totally conscious level.

I don't know if things happen for a reason. I won't deny the strange coincidences that have occurred with alarming frequency in my life since I began to take a more spiritual approach to life. This could mean that there are things being placed in my path to help me with my journey, or it could just as easily mean that my heightened awareness of the spiritual path intuitively highlights those opportunities (which have always been there) more often.

Either way, it's the intuition that gets me there.

Isn't living by a set of personal principles helpful for making decisions? One of my guidelines is that I will not do anything that leaves me with an uncomfortable feeling that I am in trouble or doing something wrong.

[geminilite]

always my intuition :) .. its never let me down, the only time i have been let down is when i didnt listen to it.... and yes it can be daunting at times, but its always turned out right :)

[Chrystalline22]

Thank you very much everyone for your comments and taking the time to reply to my questions....much appreciated. :smile:

[Aquarian]

There's a presupposition that we can distinguish intuition from other noise -- the latter being probably the trickiest yet most important skill for anyone here.

I just updated my intuition verfication strategies here (http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=390944&postcount=68).

[SerpentQueen]

When making a decision, I use logic and intuition together in harmony. For example, when I bought my house, I spent a long time researching the local market, going to open houses, and building elaborate spreadsheets to help me determine analytically what features in a house would make a good investment. Then one day, months into my search, I walked into this house and my intuition screamed, "This is it! This is home!" ... before I'd even toured the whole place. I made an offer that very day, and have never regretted it. Yes, my intuition knew instantly; but all that logical homework sure helped.

I make my best decisions that way: take all the logical, rational input I can find, pour it into my head, sift, analyze, then sit down in a quiet place without anyone's influence, and ask my gut what the right answer is. Or "sleep on it" overnight.

How that translates in the work world -- I often wind up making huge and creative leaps of logic that connect all the dots nobody else is seeing because they are too down in the weeds, or that leaps past all the dots and comes up with an entirely new solution or approach nobody has considered.

I may at times be guilty of "paralysis of analysis" but usually that's not about lack of data input; it's about my intuition telling me two conflicting things. I.e., if choosing between A or B, both have merits and my gut says I can't go wrong either way. I've learned over the years that sometimes the right response is to do nothing, as frustrating as that can be, since I usually like to make a decision and move on. Although I should also add that a sure-fire sign I'm depressed is when I get stuck thinking there are only two choices, and forget that doing nothing IS a choice, and there's always C, D, E, etc too...

[SerpentQueen]

Though i will say that trusting my intuition has heightened my perception, so it gets easier to interpret. Oftentimes, after the fact, I do end up realizing that I was picking up on subtle non verbal cues a person was giving off,

Hope you don't mind me nit-picking on this one. I'm extremely adept at reading non verbal cues. So much so, I used to have a boss who relied on me for this skill; she'd bring me into negotiation meetings in which I was not to say anything at all, but only sit there and read body cues. I'd then text her under the table with what I was picking up on -- "that one is not buying what you're selling." Etc.

In personal life, people have said "it's like you could read my mind" -- when really all I was doing was reading their nonverbal cues.

I've always prided myself on this "skill" -- until I read about this research study that was done recently. They took mug shots, a combo of people never charged with a crime, and people charged with various crimes (violent and nonviolent). And had participants guess which were the criminals, and what type of crime.

Women excelled in this test compared to men; except for the rapists! They could not pick out the rapists. Whereas men could spot the rapists.

I thought this was fascinating but I was SURE I could do much better. So I took the online version of the test. And I flunked it. Not only could I not pick out the rapists either, I did poorly on the rest too. Apparently I am hard-wired to view most people as innocent and inherently good.

Arguably, viewing a mug shot is a lot different than meeting someone in person. I'm only saying that this made me question everything. And, I think it is a good practice to question everything, and not make assumptions.

If you think about it (and not saying you do this, Dulce; only making a general statement), humans tend to size someone up within first 20 seconds of meeting each other. We all know this, right? It's why first impressions are so important. The trouble is that often our first impression -- the one based on intuition -- closes us off for truly seeing a person. Our first impression may be loaded with culturally conditioned judgment and prejudice.

Yes, I still think I am an intuitive person and generally I do trust it. All I'm saying is that I don't trust it *alone* and if I do get a strong, first gut impression about someone, I am very careful to try to keep an open mind that my intuition about a person may be dead wrong.

[DulcePoetica]

I get what you are saying, and I suppose I would say I let intuition guide me, but not govern me. If alarms are going off about a person I meet, I don't write them off permanently, I just proceed with caution where they are concerned.

Once, I stopped at a convenience store on my way home for work and a car pulled up beside me. I felt fear immediately, and looked at them, but it was only a bunch of teenagers out having fun. But I couldn't shake the feeling of fear that I would be in danger if I went inside while they were there. So I left. I have no idea why, and to my knowledge, nothing bad happened in there that day, but I still feel very good about trusting myself only on my intuition that time.

Usually it is a partnership with logic, but when I am overwhelmed by a sense like that, I'll still go with it.

[Aquarian]

If you can read auras well, it's pretty difficult to be wrong about a person. :wink:

I get all my female friends to introduce their potential boyfriends to me for this reason alone.

[santacruz18]

What is the difference between listening to your intuition and worried thinking? if I've explained that properly...

[Aquarian]

What is the difference between listening to your intuition and worried thinking? if I've explained that properly...
Worries and wishful thinking are the main barriers to your intuition.

If you can do clearing technique (and if not why not?!?) then clear your fears and wishes before using intuition. If you are neutral about the result of your intuition, you're about 500% more likely to be accurate.

[Chrystalline22]

If you can read auras well, it's pretty difficult to be wrong about a person.

How do you read someone's aura? What do you have to do to be able to tune into it?

[Lightspirit]

I am learning to. Intuition goes against my logical male mind. I think it is something girls are naturally better at. I am trying and am finding it refreshingly productive.

[Mr Interesting]

I've just started reading a book about intention and in introducing the use of intention the Author has sited studies by scientists within rigorous scientific testing to gauge activity of an electrical and electromagnetic nature around the area of the heart and the gut, as well as the brain, and come back with results that basically resolve around the nature of intuition as being a phenomenon of measurable quality.
It's about the quantum energy fields that surround us and our perceptiveness in resolving the nature of those fields as tangible insights into the undercurrents at play all around us.
One interesting thing was that our hearts are in contact with our brains and tend to be faster at registering these fields and so connect with the brain.
Another interesting part of these studies is that meditation is almost a requirement in that it seems to settle the interconnections and make them more valid in the sense that the body becomes more tuned into itself as both a sender and receiver of information.

The book is "The Intention Experiment" by Anne McTaggart and bears reading.

Over time I've developed my own understanding of intuition and how it works for me and also tried to get the gist of intention and the two together give me a lucky streak much greater than most I know but this book is going to be very helpful in ratifying the underlying mechanics and will go a long way, as well, in my own understanding of the interplay between Ideals and Logic. It also will help, I feel, in bringing me alot closer to defining the use of intention as a partner with intuition.

I suppose I'm starting to see that Intention and Intuition are a loop, alike Idealism and Logic, that follows or is modelled on breathing.

It's almost as if the interconnections between receiving-transmitting, intention-intuition, Idealism-Logic, breathing in and breathing out are all interconnected into a holistic interplay that ever becomes more balanced if all the parts are taken into account.

In this regard questioning of intuition isn't necessarily required if all the other parts are balanced with it.

[Aquarian]

How do you read someone's aura? What do you have to do to be able to tune into it?
Could write a book on this. Took me several years to learn to do it well.

Start off with feeling it. Read Brennan. Find a way to test what you perceive.

I don't know if it's just me but my spleen meridians flow strongly when I'm perceiving auras.

[Avalancediscoverer]

Great thread. I used to also have doubts about my intuitions. And most of the times I still do. But I am slowly opening up to trust my own guts, and it actually brings you joy.

[froebellian]

If it feels wrong.. it will turn out wrong. I am a logical thinker and get conflicted with my intuition .. needless to say I find out the hard way that intuition is greater than the logical.

[Hez0405]

Personally, I trust my intuition utterly and completely - if what I think/say feels like the truth to me I trust myself to know that it is. Always trust your inner voice, if you really feel like doing something is a bad idea - it probably is.

IMO, You need to stay quite logical though even though I beleive nothings impossible you dont want to go into a shop a shop and buy 100 lottery tickets because you feel you may win and you end up losing.. hope this helped :)

[BeautifulLife]

"More importantly, real gut instinct is recognized by the fact that it doesn't feel like conventional wisdom - in fact, it often flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Real gut instinct is something that comes from 'outside the box' - it's a left field thing! And, when you follow real gut instinct, normal people around you may well think that you're crazy."


When your intuition agrees with logic than it is usually correct.

When you intuition opposes logic than you have to figure out if its inline with conventional wisdom or not. Meaning that if your intuition is telling you something that is completly in conflict with what other people would think than most likely your intuition is correct and is picking up on subconscious clues.

[Lynn]

Hello


It takes a lot of time and patients to understand that "inner voice" we all have to learn to trust it and know its our voice we are hearing.

I run on that intuition feeling but I too know well what is "MY" voice and what is the voice of the Spirits that be around me. That took time to get to. When it feels wrong it usually is and if we take the TIME to stop even for a moment and look at the situation we might see it more clearly. We rush around too fast in life and forget we do have that moment to stop and take in that breath that might bring some clarity. Even in communications there is no harm in stopping for a split second to think on what one might say so it does not come out in a way we so want back.

I know that I be often called "odd" in that I live in the "NOW" moment but I have the foundations laid for a future....that I pause to feel things out before I might speak them out....

We so many times lack that self trust of confidence in ourselves and lack that voice to speak for us....when we can tune into out inner voice and make that a part of our outter voice we do so grow.


Lynn

[Duke]

always my intuition :) .. its never let me down, the only time i have been let down is when i didnt listen to it.... and yes it can be daunting at times, but its always turned out right :)
Exactly i listen to mine 100% now,

[amy green]

Worries and wishful thinking are the main barriers to your intuition.

If you can do clearing technique (and if not why not?!?) then clear your fears and wishes before using intuition. If you are neutral about the result of your intuition, you're about 500% more likely to be accurate.


Very wise, pertinent advice Aquarian. I find that the more I tune into my intuition, the better/more developed it gets. The answer just kinds of "comes" to you. No effort and feels right. If ignored, it kind of "nags" at you until you realise/take on board the advice...to not heed it feels like swimming against the tide.

[BeautifulLife]

"If your intuition is telling you to do something you think is a huge change or difficult or looks potentially risky, then listen even more carefully!! If it's that big, it's going to be interesting to say the least. And no life should be lived entirely in safety. Life is to be lived! Intuition-driven changes are the really exciting moments in your life!!"

[kindheart]

Worries and wishful thinking are the main barriers to your intuition.

If you can do clearing technique (and if not why not?!?) then clear your fears and wishes before using intuition. If you are neutral about the result of your intuition, you're about 500% more likely to be accurate.

Interesting! Can you tell us more about clearing techniques? Also, how to do make the difference between ego and intuition? I think I understand that worries and wishful thinking can both come from ego, but is it really the same? Can clearing techniques help minimize the ego? Or are there more appropriate techniques for that?