Intuition is like knowing in advance.
Intuition – is the feeling of knowing exactly what will be bad for you (more often) and what will be good (less often).
Intuition – is like an inner voice, a clue from life itself about what will be good for you.
However, it is not an exact knowledge of what exactly will happen; it appears as a certain feeling. In my opinion, the nature of intuition is not fully understood. How does a person feel it? Is it certain thoughts that come to mind, which are then analyzed, leading to a new perspective different from their original one? I am more inclined to believe that it is a feeling of knowing, without any details—like a life system that helps everyone navigate towards well-being.
If we do things that make us feel good, we usually don’t feel intuition. But as soon as we start to hurry or go somewhere we don’t need to be, we immediately start to feel it, as if we know it will be bad. In most cases, we agree with ourselves, find plenty of arguments for why we should do it—and then feel bad, even though we knew in advance. I think everyone has such stories.
Some people do the opposite, listening to their intuition, doing something they wouldn’t normally do, and it brings success. Let me share a vivid example from my experience: I promised to attend a farewell party. On that day, I didn’t really want to go. I had a feeling that maybe it wasn’t necessary, but I convinced myself there would be good people and useful contacts for business. As I was getting ready to leave, putting on a new shirt, a button came off. I had to go back up to my house to get another shirt, and the feeling of unease intensified. Still, I negotiated with myself and decided to go for a short ride.
15 minutes later, a dog ran under the wheels of my motorcycle, and I fell at a speed of 80 km/h, breaking my leg and damaging many ligaments. At the moment of the fall, all the clues from that day came together like a puzzle. Once again, I realized that it’s better to listen to intuition.
Anyway, there are no clear criteria to determine that it is the intuition and it should be listened to with 100% certainty. Therefore, it is better to consider intuition as one of the arguments—potentially a significant one—when solving problems.
Since there are no clear criteria about intuition, I believe it is impossible to develop it directly. However, there are things we can do:
- Develop sensitivity that allows us to recognize intuition more often.
- Train or develop the skill to distinguish intuition from thoughts.
Intuition is easy to distinguish from thoughts: if you focus close attention on intuition (the feeling), it remains; if you focus on a thought, it disappears. No thought can withstand close attention. More on thoughts here.
We must clearly distinguish the meaning of words to stop self-deception.
- Desires, doubts, fears – These are thoughts, and they are not inherently yours. If you direct your attention to them, they will seem to disappear.
- Needs – These are essential for survival or for realizing your abilities and talents.
- Intuition – This is the knowledge of what exactly should or should not be done. It is usually illogical knowledge.
However, there are people who live using intuition without consciously thinking about it, and that’s perfectly fine. But since you are reading this, you probably find it challenging to understand your intuition.
Should you use your intuition? Yes! But I’m not sure if it’s worth using it to the max 100% and all the time. I prefer a balanced approach that uses both intuition and rational thought as valid arguments. It requires attention to notice intuition. There are situations where it’s simply not possible to follow your intuition, even if you are 99% sure that your feeling is correct.