Intuition - Your Gut Feeling

"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

We know more than we know we know. Scientifically, this is known as dual processing.

Intuition is our inner voice that life experience makes stronger and more powerful. Do you find yourself sizing up someone in an instant? The little bits of someone's behaviour such as gestures and manner of speaking can reveal much and form lasting impressions.

A study at carried out on New York University students, revealed that we're finding that everything is evaluated as good or bad within a quarter of a second, before rational thought is engaged, and proving that conscious thought overrates its own control of our actions.

Experts describe it as a form of unconscious reasoning coming from the way our brains collect and store information. As you gather knowledge your brain begins to recognise patterns and unconsciously organises them into blocks of information.

So when you see a tiny detail of a familiar pattern, you instantly recognise the larger pattern. This makes intuition a learnt expertise, disguised as a gut feeling.

Learning to use that inner voice is therefore easy as your life experience means you already have everything you need to use your intuition.

Yes, you probably do!

We all know that nagging feeling of making a decision although something was telling us that it wasn't quite right.

Hindsight, being 20:20 vision, tells us we were daft to ignore that inner voice, and we need to tune into our internal Sat Nav system and trust our intuitive powers.

Intuition feeds our expertise, creativity, love and spirituality. Although it is a wonder it can also be perilous. Our intuition needs to be fortified, sharpened and deepened. We need to think smarter while listening to the creative whispers of our unseen mind.

Define Intuition:

Your inner voice feels positive and on your side, giving you the information neutrally and unemotionally.

It's different from the knee-jerk reactions we feel from irrational fear or anger and we need to be able to tell the difference.

Fear:

This emotion is charged and adrenalin fueled, feels physical and can bring up old psychological hurts. Irrational fear is based on past insecurities, not learnt experiences and acquired wisdom.

Listen carefully, is your intuition talking about a new opportunity.

Try these:
To shake you out of a routine, for one day, try doing the opposite of what your normally do. It will help you tune in to your feelings and wake up your sixth sense.

Make a list of the last three decisions you made that were right and wrong. Did intuition pay a part in the wrong decisions, or were they all made on facts or other people's advice?

How did you feel when you made the decisions that were right? This exercise should help you separate influences your need to bring to the fore.

Turn the volume up on the Sat Nav

If there are too many voices in our head saying 'should' or 'have to', to get in touch with our intuition, go for a quiet walk or shut the door.

Your body is also talking to you, become aware of your breathing and the tension you feel about certain situations. Are you physically comfortable about he decision or churned up inside?

Ask yourself questions and then give your subconscious time to do the work. Sleep on it and quite often we wake with the answer in our heads. Be specific with your questions, and your answers will be better.

Your unconscious will sift through all the paraphernalia and come up with the best solution - often far better than the cognitive part of the brain we always use.

Tuning into your intuition doesn't mean throwing facts and rational assessment out the window. For example, is someone telling the truth? Perception is valuable, but assess all the evidence before making a decision.

Small factors can trigger feelings, for example someone's great for the job on paper, but their perfume or mannerism reminds you of someone you dislike. Watch for emotional triggers as it helps to differentiate them from intuitive feelings.

In other areas all the facts won't be at your disposal. For example if you've a nagging feeling about a medical problem, pursue it until your're happy. Your body often knows what is going on before you do.

Science believes that your intuition may be better if you practice meditation. The greater the meditation experience, the more developed were the brain regions associated with sensitivity to the body's signals and sensory processing.

Your intuition connects you with your own inner knowledge, that part of you that has an overview of your life that has your best interest at heart. It can also be a valuable guide on the road to creating your dreams.

"The only real valuable thing is intuition." - Albert Einstein

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do." - Benjamin Spock

"Systems die; instincts remain." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover." - Henri Poincare

"Intuition is the supra-logic that cuts out all the routine processes of thought and leaps straight from the problem to the answer." - Robert Graves