When Intuition Appears to Fail You (Blog)

[Erin Pavlina]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Erin Pavlina's blog:

When Intuition Appears to Fail You

[Mom2boys]

This reminds me of the song at the end of the Cars movie:

When we go through life
So sure of where we're heading
And we wind up lost and it's
The best thing that could have happened
‘Cause sometimes when you lose your way it's really just as well
Because that's when you find yourself

J

[Isis Kali]

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Erin Pavlina's blog:

When Intuition Appears to Fail You

You know what always trips me up? The difference between intuition and ego. I've written a lot about intuition. It's a great guide, but yeah...sometimes you're like, "That defies logic!", and it works out anyway. Go figure.

[The David]

Has there ever been a time, though, when that happened, and there were no blessings (at least not obvious ones)?

[Nneka]

Jumping right into self-employment...because poverty is a great motivator...but the upcoming profits are even better!

Love your sig :-)

Erin, how do you always know the perfect message for me. Today it's keep going you're on the right track. Even if you can't see the road, keep going.

Thanks,
Nneka

[Jeff Lilly]

A few years ago I lost my job (and me with a pregnant wife and two kids to support! ). This was right after 9-11, the tech boom was dying, and the only jobs available were in the defense industry. I struggled between going with my intuition -- which said, against all logic, to go for building a start-up with a friend of mine -- and my logical mind -- which said, against all intuition, to look for a job in defense.

I tried to do both: I looked for a job while trying to build software with my friend on the side. But without funding, our software project was going nowhere fast. And both of us were too scared to go look for funding. :-)

After five months of essentially nothing, I suddenly had three offers in the defense industry simultaneously. One was in the Washington, DC, area, where I was already living; but I rejected that because both logic and intuition said we needed to move away from there. One was in Florida, and the third was in Buffalo, NY. The Florida position was one where I would get a lot of say in the projects I worked on, and more money than the Buffalo position as well; plus, it was, you know, in Florida. But my gut said Buffalo. This time I followed my gut...

* A year later, the area of Florida where I would have been working was struck by a hurricane.
* In Florida, we would have been home-schooling, because the public schools were terrible and private schools hard to find. In Buffalo, we found a Waldorf school, which was perfect for us. Waldorf has affected our lives in many wonderful ways.
* In Buffalo, I wasn't in charge -- but that was good, because I wasn't ready to be. I learned a tremendous amount from the people there.
* Shortly before I left Buffalo, I found that the Buffalo company was competing for a contract against the Florida company. The Buffalo company won.

When I first moved to Buffalo, things were difficult, and I wondered if following my gut had been such a good idea. But it turned out my intuition was right.

Since then, I've done a better job of following my intution. A year and a half ago, against all logic, I left my job in Buffalo and headed with my family (now grown to four children) to unemployment in Massachusetts. I found a new job in four months -- one I'm very happy with, for more money, that allows me to work from home three days a week, and a lot of flexibility. We're not all the way to Nirvana yet -- we're still in a small apartment, for example, instead of the relatively expansive home in the suburbs of Buffalo -- but we'll get there. I know it!

[Erin Pavlina]

Great story, Jeff! Way to follow that intuition.

The David: I've had times where I followed my intuition and it seemed like something bad resulted from it, but later I realized it was something that had to happen in order for me to achieve the results I want in life, and the results I intended for myself before I incarnated.

[Abundance]

I had an interesting experience just a couple of days ago on learning to trust your intuition.

My husband & I decided to give ourselves Monday afternoon off from work (we work for ourselves) as an anniversary treat & go somewhere for afternoon tea.

My husband asked me where I wanted to go & I said "I don't know". I was debating whether we should we go up the hills for a drive, somewhere new, shopping centre etc when the thought came to me, go to "The Glen". The Glen is one of 3 regional shopping centres that we can visit within a half hour drive from where we live.

I initially resisted the thought, but because of the reading I've done recently I thought "No, it's telling me to go there, so listen". So we set off & I'm thinking well this isn't a very exciting place to go for our anniversary, we probably should have gone somewhere else.

When we arrived inside one of the first stores we saw was Dymock's, so we decided to check it out. To my surprise & pleasure I found their section on personal development contained a really good selection of books by authors I have become interested in reading. I had a hard time deciding which book to purchase because of the choice available. Everywhere else that I have visited over the past several weeks, (including other Dymock's stores) have only had one book or none of the authors at all that I was interested in.

I found this interesting because since the middle of November last year I have made my personal development in a number of areas my number one priority.

My husband also found a really good book on computer programming that he hadn't seen before, which he purchased. So we both were happy, we ended up having a very nice coffee & cake for afternoon tea & I have now discovered where to go when I'm ready to purchase my next book.

Sharyn

[Erin Pavlina]

Very cool, yes. Sometimes logic will say, "No, that can't be the right way to go." But often when you just trust your intuition you end up with a very pleasant experience.

[elainevdw]

I agree with Isis Kali -- it's all intuition vs. ego, and they can be so hard to tell apart!

I have a decision to make every morning. I drive an hour to work, but I can either take one direction, which consistently has traffic in the morning, or another direction, which can have road blockages and closures.

One day the weather was great and I was trying to figure out which way to take. Ego says, I don't want to wait in traffic! Besides, the weather is clear. There's not going to be any blockages the other direction. My intuition said, heck, just deal with the traffic. After the traffic, it's a pretty drive, anyway.

I could not tell what my intuition was telling me. Was it telling me that the traffic was going to be so bad I shouldn't go that way? Was it telling me that the drive after the trafficy part was so pretty I should go that way?

I decided to go that way anyway. The traffic was normal. After I got to the office, I found out that the other way was completely blocked -- not because of weather here, but weather elsewhere. That road goes past a ski resort, which that day happened to be the only one in the area that was open. It was sheltered from the wind, and the other resorts were closed due to wind advisories. There were so many skiers on that little road going to the resort that it was bumper to bumper the entire way, which I never would have guessed because it wasn't windy where I was!

[VeganMelissa]

Erin,
Thank you for that article, it came at exactly the right time for me. It reminded me to trust my intution. I have a 3 year old dog who I rescued from a dog shelter in Newark NJ over 2 years ago. I love her and could not have gotten a better dog. So I wasn't looking for another. This past Monday I was compelled to go online to the Petfinder.com website and I saw a picture of a dog that I immediately connected with. I tried to push him from my mind but I kept going back to the site. After I read your article I realized that there was a reason I checked out that website to begin with and Buddy was meant to be a part of our family. Last night I went down to the pound and picked him up. The bond was definately there and I brought Chia (my 3 year old rescue) to meet him. They got along great. I will be bringing Buddy home today after he is fixed. I occasionally have doubts that Chia will feel slighted with a new dog around by my intuition tells me that this is the right thing to do. We have so much love in our home that one more dog is only going to make that love grow bigger.
Thank you!

[Isis Kali]

Originally Posted by VeganMelissa

Erin,
Thank you for that article, it came at exactly the right time for me. It reminded me to trust my intution. I have a 3 year old dog who I rescued from a dog shelter in Newark NJ over 2 years ago. I love her and could not have gotten a better dog. So I wasn't looking for another. This past Monday I was compelled to go online to the Petfinder.com website and I saw a picture of a dog that I immediately connected with. I tried to push him from my mind but I kept going back to the site. After I read your article I realized that there was a reason I checked out that website to begin with and Buddy was meant to be a part of our family. Last night I went down to the pound and picked him up. The bond was definately there and I brought Chia (my 3 year old rescue) to meet him. They got along great. I will be bringing Buddy home today after he is fixed. I occasionally have doubts that Chia will feel slighted with a new dog around by my intuition tells me that this is the right thing to do. We have so much love in our home that one more dog is only going to make that love grow bigger.
Thank you!

Awwww! Doggy! What a great story...good luck! You should post pics!

I've been having ego vs. intuition run-ins lately involving my love life. I've been hurt a lot in the past, and abandoned by men several times. So, I've developed a really great defense mechanism (/sarcasm). Pretty much, if I feel slighted, threatened, jealous, or angry, I'll break things off immediately before the other person can do something to me.

I've had to catch myself at least 4 times in the past few days in order to keep myself from breaking things off I noticed that my IM program is crashing and freezing suddenly. I've had it for several years, with no problems. Funny, that, because we communicate a lot by IM, and I was watching to see if he'd write to me. The crashing program finally made me just abandon that altogether.

My ego was telling me, "He's gonna hurt you! Tell him off! He's a jerk! Better to kick him out than to wait for him to dump you, like you know he will!" My intuition was in the background screaming, "NOOOOOOOO! He's what you want, spirit put y'all together, and you have things to learn from this situation, so stop your bitching!"

Intuition can lead you into some really painful places, though. I'm so afraid, and I know that it's my past haunting me...and that's the ego. Intuition is making me suffer. I almost equate following my heart and gut with pain at this point. That's how blurred the line can get. If I want or feel a pull to something or someone, that thing will hurt me. Has anyone else every experienced that?

[VeganMelissa]

Originally Posted by Isis Kali

I almost equate following my heart and gut with pain at this point. That's how blurred the line can get. If I want or feel a pull to something or someone, that thing will hurt me. Has anyone else every experienced that?

I think lots of people feel that. We sabotage something that could be really great because we are either scared of being hurt or scared of being loved.
I think you have to allow yourself to open up.
I have been hurt many times in my past but I always tell myself that if I'm true to myself and I do and say things to the person I'm in a relationship with that I feel good about I will never be sorry for my actions. It's difficult to do sometimes because some people may take advantage of me because I'm so open but atleast I will never regret how I acted and I will always know that the other person knew how I felt.
Being open, I no longer have those moment where I think, "I should have told them how i felt. Maybe that would have mattered." becuase I did tell them.
Obviously with relationships you don't pour everything out on the table on the first meeting but as it feels good to you, just be open and honest about your feelings.
Well, at least that's how I feel about it.
Stop sabotaging yourself and start trusting your heart. Let yourself feel love. Let yourself be happy.

[Tassie]

Hi, over the last few years I've worked on developing my intuition and have been helped many times by it - even had help avoiding 2 accidents. However I have had times when I just didn't know if I was being directed or as someone said above perhaps I was just responding to ego.
A particular incident a year ago is still a mystery to me. I'll have to give details for it to be understandable. In 2005 I started a yoga club in my small, fairly isolated town as there were no yoga teachers that year in our area. I couldn't imagine not being able to go to a yoga class! I asked another woman to help teach and she and I led the sessions on alternate months. We had alot of fun and met some great people and decided to run the club again in 2006. However as the time got closer to start the club again (after summer break) I kept getting messages to not teach... repeatedly. I talked this over with the other teacher and she became (understandably) upset so I consented to teach for the year even though my intuition was still telling me not to get involved. Well, we had a great year and I'm glad that I taught the club again but I have this ongoing undercurrent of doubt about my intuition now. My husband said it was just nerves related to not teaching over the summer months that caused my doubts but I really don't think it was that. I used the same connecting techniques that I usually use for my intuition and I believe it was telling me not to get involved.
I still rely upon my intuition but I'm a little wary of it now as if I had followed it I would have missed out on a great experience and alot of fun.
Does anyone have any thoughts for this kind of scenario? Do you think in time I will get an answer or see things in perspective? The experience lingers for me and I wonder if I will get a resolution.
Thanks for any responses.

[Andrew Brunelle]

Tassie, maybe if you didn't teach, you would have had a BETTER experience doing something different. Without teaching, you could have been open to a new opportunity that would far exceed the time you had teaching yoga. It's possible.

[Tassie]

Well, that's a possibility Andrew and thank you for responding. It gives me a bit of a chuckle, though as there's not too much happening in my town in the evenings. But you're right, maybe I missed another opportunity, however this did turn out to be a very good opportunity. Maybe it was a lesson to not totally trust intuition? To not put all your eggs in 1 basket, as they say.

[mtrimpe]

This is almost a rhetorical question, but what would you recommend if you're personally not afraid of following your intuition but your partner is? What if your intuition is too crazy for your partner?

I'm not at all attached to material things. Virtually everyone around me thinks it's a bad quality, but betting every material thing that I own is about as scary for me as walking up to someone I don't know. Therefore I have intuitions that guide me to take actions that, to my partner, often border on insanity and I really can't blame him for it.

For me, this resulted in a bind. I now fear that by following my intuitions I will draw him into something that will hurt him in some way and trying to convince him that my intuition is the right way to go seems pointless since I can't even explain it to myself. So, somewhere I got stuck.

Is there maybe some fault in my reasoning someone can point me to? What do you do if you want to follow your intuition but your traveling companions are afraid of following you? Should I trust my intuition?

[Glass Joe]

Originally Posted by Tassie

Hi, over the last few years I've worked on developing my intuition and have been helped many times by it - even had help avoiding 2 accidents. However I have had times when I just didn't know if I was being directed or as someone said above perhaps I was just responding to ego.
A particular incident a year ago is still a mystery to me. I'll have to give details for it to be understandable. In 2005 I started a yoga club in my small, fairly isolated town as there were no yoga teachers that year in our area. I couldn't imagine not being able to go to a yoga class! I asked another woman to help teach and she and I led the sessions on alternate months. We had alot of fun and met some great people and decided to run the club again in 2006. However as the time got closer to start the club again (after summer break) I kept getting messages to not teach... repeatedly. I talked this over with the other teacher and she became (understandably) upset so I consented to teach for the year even though my intuition was still telling me not to get involved. Well, we had a great year and I'm glad that I taught the club again but I have this ongoing undercurrent of doubt about my intuition now. My husband said it was just nerves related to not teaching over the summer months that caused my doubts but I really don't think it was that. I used the same connecting techniques that I usually use for my intuition and I believe it was telling me not to get involved.
I still rely upon my intuition but I'm a little wary of it now as if I had followed it I would have missed out on a great experience and alot of fun.
Does anyone have any thoughts for this kind of scenario? Do you think in time I will get an answer or see things in perspective? The experience lingers for me and I wonder if I will get a resolution.
Thanks for any responses.

For some reason my intuition compelled me to join these forums and take a stab at answering your question.

Here are some possibilities:

(1) Since you originally started the club and were excited about it, maybe subconsciously you were unsure about the other teacher's level of enthusiasm, so your intuition urged you to talk about quitting the yoga club just to see how your friend would respond. For example, maybe you or someone you know seriously considered quitting a job or a relationship, but didn't really know why, but for some strange reason just felt this overwhelming need to quit. So maybe you or this other person walked in with the intention of leaving, only to learn how important the job or relationship was to all the other people involved. So even though your intuition pulled you toward doing one thing, which was leaving, the actual outcome was something totally different, and much better all around. It's like in the original Matrix movie where the Oracle tells Neo that he's going to die. The Oracle didn't tell him he was going to die just as a matter of fact, like a weather forecaster would tell someone that it's going to rain tomorrow. The Oracle told Neo he was going to die because that was exactly what he needed to hear in order to act and move toward the best outcome.

(2) One thing I often forget is that intuition and also synchronicity are really a two-way street. You are a part of other people's movies just as much as other people are a part of your own. Just as various other people, seemingly for no logical reason, come out of the woodwork to support you. You too, seemingly for no apparent reason, show up on the scene and support other people in there time of need. You may at times not even be aware of how you are helping someone. It sounds like your friend really enjoys teaching yoga with you. So she might have missed out on that opportunity if you didn't start the club in the first place. And if you didn't talk to her about your thoughts about leaving when you did, maybe she wouldn't have realized how much fun the club was and how important it was to her to keep it going. Maybe she would have taken it for granted or eventually looked at it as a burden.

(3) Last one I can think of is that maybe some other event many MANY years down the road is somehow tied in with your recent intuition around the yoga club. For example, in my experience, I may not know why something apparently "bad" is happening to me right there in the moment. But a couple years later or even a week later, something else that's related to that bad experience will then happen to me. And in the moment while it's happening or later on afterwards, I'll remember that past bad experience and say to myself "Wow! I'm really glad that I had to go through that difficult experience back then or this great thing that's happening now wouldn't have even occurred. And even if it did still occur, I wouldn't be able to see it or even know how to react to it."

I'm sure there are other possible explanations too. Hope this helps.

[Tassie]

"One thing I often forget is that intuition and also synchronicity are really a two-way street. You are a part of other people's movies just as much as other people are a part of your own."

Hmmm, this rings a bell with me, Glass Joe. I hadn't really considered my friend being an integral part of this. Was focused on myself. Things seem to be falling into better perspective with this point although things played out differently than the scenario you propose, I think that you have helped me see things a little differently. Thanks. Maybe my intuition will be vindicated yet!

Tassie
It's the crack that lets the light come in... Leonard Cohen

[Scientist]

But how do you tell the difference between intuition and anxiety?

I'm often anxious about things I should pursue instead of run from. So, sometimes, I'll do things even though I'm anxious about it. But, sometimes, the anxiety was justified it turned out that I was putting myself in a situation that I didn't want to be in.

How do you tell the difference? They often feel the same to me. It forces me to resort to speculation and logic in order to try to figure out what I'm supposed to do. And, unfortunately, my results from using speculation and logic haven't been all that great either.

[PerDev]

Hi all,

Just wanted to share one of my experience which i dont know can be called as psychic or coincidence or strong intuition or destiny or something else.

From last one year I started noting things i observe and fell using journaling and was noting on my mobile itself

Now on this month I just gone through my journaling and come to know some strange thing - One of my note which was written on 28th Oct 2007 that note says "I have some unknown fear I am witnessing - may be i am changing"

after around month and two on December 2007 suddenly i was having gretest tragedy of my life and was really frightening event happen to me which also destroy all my support system and suffer a lot and it which also changed me a lot.

Now today after that event passed and i was just casuaaly going through the journal and come to knopw thay this thing i have already written on my journal

what can be called to it - ANY IDEA ?

[eternomi]

Blink is a good book to read regarding when intuition is superior and when it can fail you.

[winterwind]

Originally Posted by Tassie

Hi, over the last few years I've worked on developing my intuition and have been helped many times by it - even had help avoiding 2 accidents. However I have had times when I just didn't know if I was being directed or as someone said above perhaps I was just responding to ego.
A particular incident a year ago is still a mystery to me. I'll have to give details for it to be understandable. In 2005 I started a yoga club in my small, fairly isolated town as there were no yoga teachers that year in our area. I couldn't imagine not being able to go to a yoga class! I asked another woman to help teach and she and I led the sessions on alternate months. We had alot of fun and met some great people and decided to run the club again in 2006. However as the time got closer to start the club again (after summer break) I kept getting messages to not teach... repeatedly. I talked this over with the other teacher and she became (understandably) upset so I consented to teach for the year even though my intuition was still telling me not to get involved. Well, we had a great year and I'm glad that I taught the club again but I have this ongoing undercurrent of doubt about my intuition now. My husband said it was just nerves related to not teaching over the summer months that caused my doubts but I really don't think it was that. I used the same connecting techniques that I usually use for my intuition and I believe it was telling me not to get involved.
I still rely upon my intuition but I'm a little wary of it now as if I had followed it I would have missed out on a great experience and alot of fun.
Does anyone have any thoughts for this kind of scenario? Do you think in time I will get an answer or see things in perspective? The experience lingers for me and I wonder if I will get a resolution.
Thanks for any responses.

I was in a similar situation this year. I was asked to volunteer for a position that on the surface was ideal for my career. Once I started, because I try to help everyone in any way that I can, it became overwhelming to the point where I would feel physically bad everyday, and the position was not even paid. I believe it was my Inner Self/God within/Light telling me to step away. But I had made a commitment to the company and I didn't want to seem flaky.

One day, when I actually considered NOT spending a holiday weekend with my family so that I could catch up with work from this volunteer position, I stopped myself, woke up and sent a resignation letter.

I felt so much better after that! I even ended up finishing my book as a result of having more time to do things that I wanted to do.

Follow your heart. You've committed enough time to this venture. Don't do anything that you do not absolutely love with a passion. It's your life, live it how you want to live it.

Many Blessings!