How do you use your intuition?

[Rose of Cairo]

This is a question to Erin and everybody else too. I'm interested in knowing what intuition represents exactly for you and how you use it in making decisions.

I'm asking because this past year I've been focusing on developing my intuition and listening to it when making decisions. Instead of listening to rational arguments, I've been following my gut feeling, even when it seemed to be really stupid. I couldn't explain it, but I "just knew" what I had to do and was very stubborn about doing it, no matter how difficult it was for me (or others) to do it.

So far the results have been great!

Recently I'm wanting to kick my intuition's butt though. I feel unfree. If I'm always following what I know I have to do, I'm not really making my own choices, am I? Where's my free will??

So I'm asking, how do you use your intuition? Do you follow it like this too? Do you think it collides with your free will? Why not?

Thanks

[Erin Pavlina]

Imagine you're in a forest and you're trying to reach a destination. But you don't have a map. However, there are signs periodically as you travel, telling you where you are and which way to the goal. Do you read the signs or ignore them, preferring to simply explore and wander through the forest, knowing that if you needed to, you could begin following the signs and get to your destination sooner?

Some days I follow the signs, anxious to get somewhere without the struggle, and sometimes I don't look for signs, happy to just be out in nature exploring, even if I get lost or get attacked by a bear

[Angela]

I dunno, I've got some hugely conflicting messages going on between my intuitive sense and external sources -- I'm feeling a bit crazed by it, like Ingrid Bergman in "Gaslight."

I want to trust myself, but it's really difficult to get my bearings right now. Ack.

Now I wonder if my intuition is going to help me along by having a building fall on top of me. In a way, I guess I am looking out for some tremendously unequivocal answer, like that, except I hope it doesn't have to be that dramatic.

Argh.

[Xanafax]

My intuition is like a pressure inside me, telling me what is right. However if I think about it too much my own conscious thoughts interfere.

I follow it mostly, but sometimes - I just don't trust it.

[Rose of Cairo]

Originally Posted by Xanafax

My intuition is like a pressure inside me, telling me what is right.

Yes, I can relate to this It's like a pressure, or physical impulse, and I "just know" what's right. I can find sensible arguments to rationalize it afterwards, but actually I can't explain it, I just know that's what I have to do. I can find many arguments against it too, and I usually do but it doesn't change anything about this stubborn knowledge and will to do it the way I feel is right.

Erin, thank you, what a fantastic image, this forest with the signs! Shows that I don't have to follow the signs, they're just here to help me, but I can of course go and get eaten by a bear if I prefer adventure

What if I don't know which goal those signs lead to? And what if I don't even know which goal I want to reach?

I'm asking because in some areas of my life, I'm very clear about what I want. In those areas, my intuition works wonderfully and I get the most excellent results with following it without any hesitation, no matter how crazy my decisions seem to be.

In other areas, I don't know what I want, so I see all kinds of signs in the forest, some of them pointing to different directions, but I don't know where I want to go and where those signs would lead me to. Makes it a bit difficult to know which ones I should follow...

[eskimo]

So Rose et al, if I may, I'd like to follow up on this intuition thing of yours.

You say it's a pressure you feel inside, but where do you feel the pressure? In your gut, heart? Somewhere else?

And how do you apply it to your decision making? That is, if you think about doing something and you feel this pressure, do you decide to do the exact opposite? Or do you do anything else besides that first thing? How exactly does it work for you?

I'm asking because I'm new at developing this intuition thing and I'd like to calibrate it for maximum efficiency.

Thanks,
Steve