Intuition is an absolute necessity for me. I sometimes close my eyes, take a breath and try to get a sense of something before I make a decision. Other times, it just happens randomly. I feel a pause, almost a flutter in my stomach. I stop and pay attention to what is happening at that moment. Am I overwhelmed by emotion? If not, then I know there is something that I need to pay attention to. Life is meant to be lived in the moment without constantly thinking you are getting warning signs, but when your intuition is telling you something, pay attention. The important thing is to differentiate between pure emotion and true intuition.
You should allow yourself to be vulnerable, open, and giving. You also need to be aware of toxic people and situations and do your best to protect your energies, especially when you sense something is off. This is a delicate balance. Your past experiences shape how you perceive situations, as well as how you react in the present and future. If you didn’t intuitively realize something was bad for you until you were in the thick of things, and you didn’t avoid the pain, you may become overly cautious moving forward.
Being too cautious can cut you off from people and experiences that may actually be positive and give you joy. So you need to make sure that what you are sensing is truly your intuition.
I have to admit, as much as I pride myself on being balanced, I experience these moments of confusion about whether my emotions (particularly fear) are due to past negative experiences or whether they are truly intuitive pings.
How do you find that balance?
Sometimes it’s difficult. Especially as we get older and we experience pain and heartache, we become less sure about whether to take risks and more careful before jumping into things.
The line between intuition and fear becomes blurred. We try to sense what our intuition is telling us, but there’s a pull to the “dark side,” the fear that pain is surely coming our way.
You need to relax and really feel the depth of your emotions, really think about where they’re coming from. Is this really your intuition telling you to be careful? Or are your feelings coming from a deep fear? Write down your thoughts, your feelings, anything that comes to your mind. Uncensored—there is no judgment when you write. Then, step away for a bit. Go for a walk, meditate, etc. Go back later to what you wrote, with a clear head and balanced emotions. Sort through your reflections, look for patterns, work through the confusion.
I also believe that Intuition is not necessarily a horrible feeling of impending doom. For me, intuition is calm, clear, and pretty balanced. That powerful feeling of fear that you might attribute to your intuition, is more likely just that—fear. You sense the fear and you think to yourself: who wants pain? If it can be prevented, you might as well walk away, right? Don’t always trust the extreme emotions, including those extreme feelings of absolute happiness and bliss. When you get caught up in the frenzy of something that you really want, and you believe it will bring you complete happiness, you may also be mistaking this feeling for intuition. Intuition is a clear and definitive knowing that something is not quite right. Or it is absolutely right.
You have to clear the fear away before you can really understand what your intuition is telling you. Once you do, you will see things clearly and know which path to follow.
It’s not easy. Sometimes it takes a lot of inner work to reach the point of differentiating between pure emotion and intuition. But it is 100% worth it so you can make choices that help you move forward on a positive path.