It’s a feeling- a quiet knowing or gentle persuasion that something is awesome, needs attention, or is off. Intuition is a delicate voice that makes it easy to overlook. Intuition is described in the Cambridge Dictionary as a capability to understand or know something without thinking about it or use reason to discover it.
According to Hey Sigmund, intuition used to be dismissed as pseudo-science but presently science supports it. Researchers from Leeds University have found that intuition is a genuine psychological process. The brain uses previous experiences and cues from your experience and the environment to make quick decisions, even before you’re consciously aware of them.
Two systems can be found in human brain. One is quick, effortless and instinctual. That’s where intuition exists. To make quick judgments, intuitive decision-making depend on patterns from your past experiences. Reports indicate that this happens outside of your conscious awareness.
The other system is slower, more conscious and more analytical. Intuition complements this system. Helping you navigate day-to-day decision with a blend of instinct and thoughtful consideration, even if you’re not totally mindful of it. Intuition exists in everyone. Even though individuals acknowledge it or not. Understanding it more allows you to connect its power for positive change in your life.
Psychology Today reports indicates that intuition and instinct are sometimes entangled, but they are really different concepts. Intuition involves arriving at knowledge without depending on reason or inference, while instinct is a hardwired and less flexible response to stimuli.
Psychology says, instinct is a hereditary and unchangeable tendency of organisms which responds to environmental stimuli without including reasons.
However, intuition is more complex on the other hand, to make decisions they look at previous experiences which may involve some shades of gray between instinct and analytical thinking, the article explains. Analytical thinking, driven by logic, involves normal problem-solving, by carefully seeing each question and referencing spreadsheets and receipts, when completing a monthly budget. While intuition plays an important role in decision-making, some situations, like an exam, call for more analytical and logical methods.
Sharpening and nurturing your intuition can be extremely beneficial. It can guide you effectively, when intuition is well-developed. The first step in learning how to nourish and cultivate your intuition so it becomes a reliable advisor is to keep an eye out for synchronicities, those meaningful coincidences that act as a second opinion on your intuition.
To open yourself to your intuition, you must consider to pay attention, trust your gut, and feel, asserts Hay Sigmund. If you are not listening, your intuition cannot communicate with you. Good thing will come your way only when you start to notice and listen.
You’ll realize your intuition is at play, when you feel goosebumps on your skin, shivers down your spine, a quickened breath or racing heart.
At the beginning trusting your intuition may be challenging, but gradually you will learn to trust it more, and it will be worth it at the end.
So next time when you feel that gentle nudge or inner knowing, don’t ignore it. Embrace your intuition, for it has the capability to be life-changing in ways you may not even realize.
