Going with your gut or intuition

[Lychee]

I'm having difficult learning how to listen or tune into my gut feeling or intuition. Usually when I meet people or when I try to evaluate people I've known for some time, I am unable to come up with a distinct feeling or impression regarding that person. It seems very fuzzy to me. I've tried to develop my intuition by asking myself questions, but I feel like I am answering myself and I cannot distinguish between my feelings. One feeling may be saying to go right, another may be saying to go left and still I have no idea where to go. My inability to follow my intuition has resulted in many unfortunate circumstances and I think it's about time I start to learn.

This is quite frustrating to me as these circumstances may have been avoidable but I simply just do not know what to do. I don't know if my head is talking or my heart. I tried going with the "ego" and "love" based decisions but still I end up being confused. I need to learn how to awaken the intuition within me, I want to be able to discern complicated situations and choose what is right. I was hoping I could find some helpful answers here. Thanks.

[IndigoKim]

I've had similar problems with this. For me, what has been helpful is to go with my 'first thought or feeling' about something -- because that's usually the correct one. If I second guess, then my ego mind has time to talk me out of it.

I try not to let it!

[moviestar]

I've learned that the first thought or feeling is wrong a lot of times. I can count many times where I thought a person was not worth meeting or hostile, but in the end he/she was a great friend.
I think a better approach than intuition is just to assume that all people are good and have value.

[absvan]

I have the same problem too. I have ended up judging people wrong.

What I do is I ask myself how much influence this person is gonna be to me in my life? Eg: If its someone I work on a project, then I know its gonna be only a work based realtionship and nothing beyond that. I then go by what movie star said - to assume that all people are good and have value.

I have also used subjective reality. So if I judge, then I am the only one who is thinking so and I would rather think healthy and good thoughts. Its more on the lines of Steve's podcast about overcoming fears.

[IndigoKim]

I've found that my intution has never let me down in that way, when I choose to pay attention to it. Which isn't to say that I don't assume that all people are good and have value, because I truly believe they do, even those who've harmed me in some way. Listening to your intuition and believing in the inherent goodness of people aren't mutually exclusive at all.

In fact, sometimes believing in that goodness has gotten me into more 'trouble.'

An example: One evening I was meeting a friend at a sporting event. I drove in to the arena parking lot and saw this man standing amongst the vehicles. My first thought was: "He's up to no good". I had no apparent reason to think that, he could've belonged to the car he was standing beside, but it just came to me. I got out of my car and started to walk into the building, with this nagging feeling that something wasn't right. I even paused for a minute, to see what he was doing...even took a few steps back toward him, with my intuition screaming at me "get inside... NOW!"

I went inside, and by the time I got inside the doors, my ego had convinced me that my intuition was wrong, and that there was nothing out of the ordinary happening there. So I told no one.

The man I saw in the parking lot broke into and vandalized six cars in the parking lot that evening.

The trick is to distinguish between the messages from your intuition and from your ego mind. Ego mind always reacts in fear. It's that little voice that says "no, you're wrong. You don't know. This is how it REALLY is." The intuition speaks in love. It doesn't need to convince, it just IS. It's a pure 'knowing'. And the more you trust it, the stronger it gets.

[bellbird]

IndigoKim, thank you for that post. I've been having similar experiences

It's a pure 'knowing'. And the more you trust it, the stronger it gets.

The thing that gets in my way is that I like to see the good in others, so even if my intuition warns me there might be more then I wanted to see/know I went; no it is ok (ego). Guess what , it always is right on the money. I've had some 'muck ups' and I learned to trust it. It can be like a nagging feeling sometimes. (Must be someone shouting in my ear and I am just picking up whispers like, being a stubborn bugger haha)

I've had discussions with other people when they say 'how do you know'? I just do. I've learned to trust that certain feeling and believe in it. It works as a truth for me. It's hard to say where it's located (not in the head for sure), but it is an 'overall' one. So basically from experience I know whether it's my head, that knowing part (gut) or my emotions. Well most of the time anyway, heck I'm human!

[Lychee]

Some emotions which initially came up weren't necessarily accurate or correct when I first felt it. I end up judging people wrong sometimes.

IndigoKim-By paying attention to it, do you just concentrate mentally on the state of your emotions at a particular moment?

Thankfully you did not end up getting hurt from that, but how do you differentiate from the ego and from your intuition besides the fear-based response?

I don't feel any "pure 'knowing'" feeling

[Liara Covert]

Hi Lychee,

Perfection isn't a human trait. It would seem we can learn from perceived errors in judgment, wouldn't you agree? What did you gain from past errors?

Why not reflect on the emotions behind your track record. Consider the feelings you may have associated with people in the past and what you learned about your instincts and intuition. Did you base your thoughts on heresay, your observations, personal bias or suspicion? What you learn and retain from the past will help you sharpen your instincts in the future.

[starlet]

It took me a long time to trust my intuition. The very last time I did not listen, I got into a huge car accident. Never again! I trust it completely and always listen. I confuse my friends sometimes when I will suddenly say "turn here!" when our turn is not for a few more blocks, then we'll see later on the news that a car ran a red and hit another car at the same time we would have been there.

I have learned to be flexible and mentally loose. When relaxed and in a positive state my intuition comes through very loudly. I've also gotten to the point where sometims it will take over my physical form and I'll find myself signaling and turning left instead of right for some reason. I do not fight it anymore.