Intuition, what is it?

May 5

Anna-with-pampas-grass — *Photo by* *Monika Meska*

Intuition, what is it?

Before I explain what intuition is, I would like to share my personal experience first.

My intuition story

Another day working from home. I get on a call with a new leadership team I've met before. There are 6 people on the call and it's a similar call to the previous ones. Nothing new to see here.

The next morning I woke up with a feeling that I must reach out to Shyla, one of the leaders I was on the call with yesterday. There weren't any action points I needed to follow up on and I didn't have any particular questions for Shyla but I just had a feeling to reach out.

Shyla and I spoke for over 1h, it felt like we knew each other already. We connected. We discussed the underlying challenges the teams were facing and what might help to address them. Shyla liked some ideas and we got busy collaborating to bring them to life.

I let my intuition guide me and I was able to help the client in a deeper and more meaningful way because I did not ignore that gut feeling.

INTUITION is a gut feeling but it is also a legitimate scientific construct.

There are two distinct information processing systems in the human brain :

1. conscious and deliberative
2. unconscious and intuitive.

INTUITION is a process of thinking.

It happens when information, knowledge and wisdom stored in our long-term memory is processed automatically without our conscious awareness. The output of this process is a FEELING that can serve as a basis for judgments and decisions.

INTUITION can be…

be scary sometimes as we do not fully understand that part of our brain
be confused with fear or excitement when we are not familiar with our feelings
guide us loudly and clearly when we are open to listening to it and acting on it
lead to amazing results that could have not been achieved any other way

Summary

Intuition is a gut feeling and a scientific construct.
Intuition is a process of thinking that occurs automatically and can serve as a basis for judgments and decisions.
Intuition can be scary, confused with fear or excitement, guide us when we listen and act on it, and lead to amazing results.

Above all, I hope that this blog about intuition reminds you to always trust your intuition.

I think you might also like my blog about human connection - take a look