Who is Talking: Your intellect or your intuition?

nature-914711_1920

I was in my 20s when I first learned that your intuition always has the right answer over your intellect. It felt right to me on many levels. So, I began playing scientist. I continued to read as much as I could about intuition and observe my everyday choices. I wanted to be clear on how it felt when I was trusting my intuition vs. my head, or when I was using both in decision making. I remember my first tests of intuition being in my simple everyday choices. Should I take a taxi or subway that day? Should I stop for a latte or should I go right to the office? I would find the answers by being flexible with these little choices and then letting the answer unfold as my day moved on- was it seamless or challenging? I would take notes when perhaps I talked myself out of the taxi because my mind said don’t spend the extra cash and then take the subway, only to find that it was delayed, throwing my day off. I would notice that my intuition was right: I should have taken the taxi. I don’t take a taxi every morning, so if that thought even drops into my consciousness, then that is spirit saying, “Make your life easier and take a taxi today!” Try it yourself. Maybe you don’t live in a city, but find something that you can “test” and use it every day. This will strengthen your ability to tune into your intuition and listen to your spirit. That is, try to start recognizing when your Spirit is trying to help you with an “aha” suggestion.

 

Intuition can be referred to as your “gut,” or a feeling that moves you. Your mind, which is equally important, should work with your intuition, not against it. Your mind is the one that slows you down and makes you question yourself, just like it did in my taxi transportation experiments. So, if you are trying to better tune into your intuition, know you are using your intuition when you don’t overthink your decisions. Instead, you are making a decision based on how it feels. I had done this countless times before I read books that explained to me I was in fact using my intuition. It has changed my entire life to gain this understanding. I believe that if we all worked on really trying to feel our intuition and listen to our spirit, supported by our logical mind, then the world would be a much easier and more harmonious place for everyone.

 

I find it can be more difficult to distinguish between your intellect and your intuition when making important decisions. The sure-sign way I have figured out whether my mind or intuition is talking to me is by observing my actions. Yes, the old saying, “Actions, speak louder than words,” is the truth. For instance, have you ever thought, “I don’t think I want to go to this event or party,” but something within you gives you a feeling that you should just go? That’s your spirit dropping in and your intuition telling you to move ahead. This is when I will literally talk to myself and say, “Mind, please stop. Spirit is moving me to get dressed, so I’m just going to trust this feeling and go.” This is when it is so important to be open and trust. In order to live by your intuition, you must be flexible and move with life.

 

When anxiety or fear pushes you to do something, it is your mind—not your intuition—speaking. This leaves you feeling drained and frantic. Spirit does not drain you when you are moved by your intuition- it moves you. You are moved out the door to something that doesn’t make sense, causing a disagreement in your mind; you are moved to take an action by maybe stopping somewhere, or emailing or calling someone.

 

Finally, what I have observed from being a scientist on the topic of intuition is that almost all of the very successful people I have gotten to know during my last 17 years in this city are extremely intuitive and live that way without thinking about it. They trust when Spirit just drops in and go with it. They might not classify it as intuition, but they trust themselves or their gut. They don’t over think it. One could call it a carefree way to live, or even brave. I think it is brave, or maybe someone would call it having faith in situations, but I think they are one in the same. What I think it comes down to is that living by your intuition and spirit requires you to move with life and be fearless while working with your mind in harmony, which ultimately creates a journey of wonder and surprises. It makes life interesting, for sure.

 

Try it. Experiment. You won’t be disappointed.

-Mo