Psychic readings from symbolic charts or cards is not necessarily “intuitive” but an intellectual process. Our minds have many powers and intuition is only one – and these powers can be hard to sort out. Just know intuition involves both the body and mind, and they have to be your body and mind.
Intuition means “learning from within,” and it can feel like a fluttering or grinding sensation in the gut – different for each person — but true intuition will always involve both body and mind. They are each other’s check and balance.
Laura felt strongly, as she had never felt in her life, that her father would not be safe driving on the night of a severe ice storm, and while he dressed for the weather, Laura felt a bit sick to her stomach and wanted to beg him to stay home. But if she did and he asked her why, she could only tell him she sensed he was endangered. (Dominating her mind was a picture of their car, crashed, with her father in it.) He might laugh or say she had a wild imagination, or even that she had a Freudian death wish on him. So Laura said nothing and prayed he would not go. He went outdoors and after a minute came back in and said it was too icy to drive.
Laura was so relieved she had to sit down. She would never know whether her intuition – that her father might be seriously hurt – was right. She was, however, certain in her heart and soul that her boyfriend Sean was the only guy for her and that they would marry when they both turned 18, a couple of years from now. She had felt their connection from the moment they met. She dreamed in great detail about their wedding. She’d even seen, in flashes, the house they were going to build and live in.
Is Laura intuitive?
Maybe — but not about her romantic life. Intuition, one of the human mind’s greatest treasures, is spot-on, people say, about 50 percent of the time, but has been proven to be at its most faulty when people are in love.
When Can You Trust Intuition?
We have all been gratified to find our intuition was correct, and at other times ignored our intuition and felt sorry we did. Because intuition feels inborn, nonverbal and instinctive we might believe it’s superior to conscious thought and better than logic or reason, those workman-like mental processes we are not born with but must be taught.
In the New Age we are often urged to trust intuition as our guide.We are told to get out of our own way, mind our feelings, let our intuition flow and lead us to our best life and highest good. It can really work! But as time teaches us, intuition is not infallible and its guidance is not perfect, so do not count on intuition alone when the decision is life-changing.
When You Shouldn’t Trust It
- Don’t trust your intuition when you are crushing or falling in love. A body being driven by a rush and flutter of hormones and a mind filled with a pleasurable self-esteem and fantasies are on life’s greatest high! And anyone who is high doesn’t care much, at that moment, about reason or facts. Being ecstatic or being depressed, or sexually intrigued or turned-on, can paralyze or override intuition, which is more delicate and sophisticated than a sex drive. How would you like a dollar for every time you “intuited” that “This one is Mr. or Ms. Right!”?
- Intuition is one of our survival tools, and its fuel is the love of life. Hate, suspicion, stress, fear, anxiety, neediness, numbness or any other unwholesome feelings, or physical tiredness or pain, will keep your intuition off-center. This is how your parents “just knew” you were up to no good when you were late coming home from school.
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Intuition operates in the present moment. If, like Laura, it’s the future you’re seeing and you think it’s intuition, think again. Intuitions about events that will take years to happen and require others to cooperate and act as we would like them to are probably not intuitions but wishes. Wishes, dreams and visualizations of a desired outcome can inspire us, but they are not intuitions.
- If you are emotionally invested in an outcome centered on your satisfaction, emotions can fool you into believing your intuition must be right. All day long at school a girl’s friends did not mention that it was her birthday, or tell her happy birthday, although they knew through social media. She figured their silence was deliberate and conspiratorial. Later as she dressed to join her friends at an ice-skating rink, she suddenly “just knew” they had planned for that evening a surprise party in her honor. She felt so confident that she put on party clothes and makeup and braced herself to hear them chorus “Surprise!” When they did not, she was quite disappointed.
- A choice has to “feel right,” but a gut feeling is only one of the factors that should go into a decision as to whether to move, marry, divorce, change careers, invest, and so on.
Just because it’s intuition doesn’t mean it’s correct. Intuition is not magical. It’s a tool, one among many our marvelous minds provide. Like any tool, it will work best when it’s the right tool for the task and we are calm and centered.
