The Power of Intuition

What is Intuition?
Intuition is known as a person’s capacity to obtain or have direct knowledge and/or immediate insight, without outside observation or regular mental reason. It’s that “gut feeling” you get. People often place an enormous amount of faith in their intuition and make decisions that seem to go against all available evidence.  Many business people use their intuition on a regular basis, calling them ‘hunches’.
You may also want to think of it this way: when you are asked what intuition is, you already and automatically know what it is; an immediate understanding or knowing something without reasoning.

Intuitive thinking is basically the kind of thinking that helps you understand reality in the moment, without logic or analysis. There’s no language involved in it either; meaning no words. So, really, it would be more of an Intuitive feeling or sensing and not mentally figuring it out by ‘thinking’.  It’s entirely about signs and sensations. One simply knows.

With that stated, it is obviously challenging to say just what intention is. Famous scientists such as Albert Einstein, top leaders and folks such as Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs, (who said Intuition was “more powerful than intellect”) have stated that their success had a lot to do with following their intuition.
The “knowing” of intuition and the idea alone that people can make very successful choices without investing time in their analytical thought process has deeply intrigued many scientists, philosophers and everyone in-between since at least the time of ancient Greeks.

How do we hear our Intuition and how do we pay attention to it?
Here are a few suggestions on how to connect with your intuition:
Meditation: By bringing your focus and attention within can quiet what we call our ‘monkey mind’. The act of meditation allows one to listen with feeling instead of words. There are a variety of guided meditations on youtube to choose from to get you going. Try one hour of meditation every day and be ready to experience change. Use your intuition to find which meditation feels right for you!

Spend Time Alone: By taking time to spend alone where you are not on your phone or computer (basically, without a lot of outside focus) will allow you to connect with your intuition and your inner wisdom.  Our minds can quiet and creativity can come in the way of new senses and ideas or pictures without interruption.

Practicing Mindfulness: When one practices mindfulness and focuses their attention in the present moment, it is much easier to listen to our intuition, connect with situations and interact with the environment.

By feeding (paying attention to) and connecting with our intuition we can feel the wisdom which assists us to thrive in all aspects of our lives. Some people connect intuition with being psychic or ‘woo-woo’. However, as people that already know and use their intuition will tell you what new research now shows; how going with our instincts and intuition, such as a “gut instinct” can assist in guiding us to more rapid and accurate decisions.
Galang Lifityanto, Chris Donkin and Joel Pearson published in Psychological Science, Measuring Intuition: Nonconscious Emotional Information Boosts Accuracy and Confidence, “introducing a technique in which subliminal emotional information is presented to subjects while they make fully conscious sensory decisions. Our behavioral and physiological data, along with evidence-accumulator models, show that nonconscious emotional information can boost accuracy and confidence in a concurrent emotion-free decision task, while also speeding up response times.”

My own life certainly seems to get easier when I am clear and follow my intuition. Some call it women’s intuition, or “my little voice” or “tingly spidey-senses”. However a person chooses to relate to their intuition, they know when they feel it and that they are connecting to that special sense of awareness. Whether one chooses to follow their intuition is another choice indeed!

Learn more about intuition with the staff at Returning Balance Therapies in Glenwood Springs Colorado.