Intuition: When should you listen to it?

May 27, 2017

Everyone has intuition. This is a feeling that your subconscious wants to communicate to your conscious in some situations that you can do something different with the situation than you think, for example. The feeling of an offer that is too good to be true is a clear example of intuition trying to tell you something and everyone has experienced this at one time or another.

To find out when it is wise to listen to your intuition and whether your intuition is really right, in this blog I will discuss what intuition is, when to follow it and whether men and women have different intuitions.

What is intuition?

Through science, several definitions have been coined for intuition, namely:

1: "intuitions are affectively charged judgments that arise through rapid, non-conscious and holistic associations"

2: "intuition is a non-sequential information processing mode, which comprises both cognitive and affective elements and results in direct knowing without any use of conscious reasoning."

So your intuition is that you instinctively know something immediately without actually having any facts to back it up. Your subconscious plays an important role for your intuition. Precisely because you don't always have all the facts, some people have trouble trusting their intuition.

For example, the offer that is too good to be true is one of those times when you start to think there must be a catch.

Sometimes your intuition can indeed sound the alarm a bit too quickly. For example, if you’ve fallen or been hurt in the past, and you find yourself in a similar situation, you may be overwhelmed by gut feelings.

Intuition is therefore sometimes called an illogical thought process, as it lacks the logic of reason.

Among managers, decisions based on intuition are often called analysis habits that have been ingrained through much experience. This often allows a manager to make decisions quickly because practice makes perfect.

Man and intuition

Most research on intuition and how it works predates 1966. This also shows directly that we as a society have become incredibly focused on rationality and on knowledge and argumentation. As a result, much less is known about intuition than could be known if we had continued to do massive research on intuition.

Factors that contribute to intuition

Still, intuition comes from somewhere. There are several factors that contribute to how our intuition works, namely:

Experience
Implicit learning
External features
Context
And experience making conscious decisions (which may or may not have gone well).

With that comes literal gut feelings. When researching intuition, many people indicate that a physical reaction occurs when there is a moment when your intuition tells you something. These are also called gut feelings.

But anyone who has ever walked around at night with an intuitive feeling of insecurity also knows that this feeling can be felt even in your legs or arms, because then you walk home a lot faster anyway.

So intuition is about risks, but it’s also about the feeling that something just feels completely right. When someone you already know to be trustworthy comes along with an offer that’s simply amazing, it often doesn’t feel like something that’s too good to be true, but rather something that’s just 100% right.

In addition to those gut feelings, evoked emotions also play a role in making that split-second decision.

In a very quick way, you make a kind of probability calculation as to whether the decision you are about to make is good or bad for you. You calculate the probability that someone telling you something is trustworthy or not.

For example, when it comes to external characteristics, this is a cue you use in the probability calculation to check whether someone is trustworthy or not. This does not necessarily mean the same thing for everyone, as it again depends on experiences with people who have such appearance. All kinds of factors combine in the subconscious to make some kind of decision in a split second.

Intuition in your brain

Research also shows that other parts of the brain are controlled when a person has to make a conscious decision or, on the contrary, a decision is made based on intuition. In the case of an intuitive decision, the part of the brain that is also important for reflexes is controlled and other parts close to the brain stem.

Denying intuition

That lightning-fast decision can also be the decision that you just need more information to come to a good decision. So your initial feelings can be denied and postponed in order to arrive at a decision based on reason, but they don't have to be.

Follow your intuition

Following your intuition is something many people do. Research also shows that following your intuition often turns out well. Especially when you have to make a quick decision under stress, your intuition often turns out to be very important. Also, when you have to solve a complex problem, your intuition can certainly come in handy.

Especially if you have a lot of experience in making certain decisions, your intuition can certainly be trusted in a similar situation.

Therefore, it is also important to recognize your intuition and check if you can strengthen your intuition.

Your intuition can therefore be used in almost all parts of your life, but is often most important when finding friends and when making business decisions or decisions where money plays a major role, such as buying a new home.

Improve Intuition

Your intuition is your subconscious trying to make something clear to your conscious mind, which is based on past experiences.

Research has been conducted to determine whether mindfulness helps improve your intuition. When making decisions, people were asked to focus on their feelings, but contrary to expectations, mindfulness actually did not help strengthen their intuition or make better decisions based on it.

This may be because your intuition is your subconscious, and when you are engaged in mindfulness you are actually very aware of your conscious world.

Hypnosis is, in fact, a mental technique that taps into your subconscious. A good way to illustrate this is by showing how hypnosis can help people get rid of irrational fears almost immediately. In that case, your intuition doesn’t help you at all, because you’re suddenly afraid of a goldfish—and that gut feeling is definitely wrong.

Through hypnosis, you can uncover the beliefs underlying your intuition and identify the experiences that cause you to feel great about one situation and, conversely, very bad about another.

Because hypnosis allows you to eliminate your fears, it can also help you trust your intuition correctly.

Self-hypnosis to enhance intuition

This can include self-hypnosis exercises. For example, with hypnotic suggestions on trusting your intuition.

Initially, you then relax and sit or lie down in a comfortable place. You breathe through your belly and try to make the inhales and exhales the same length. So 3 counts of inhalation and 3 counts of exhalation. You close your eyes and relax.

Then you can use hypnotic suggestions to strengthen your intuition and trust in it, such as:

I have enough experience to trust my gut.

My gut has my best interests at heart.

My first feeling is usually right.

You may judge people by their appearance when it comes to your safety.

You may judge people by their appearance when it comes to confidence.

These are general suggestions. You can also go to a hypnotherapist for personal suggestions that apply to your feelings regarding your intuition.

Heads or tails exercise

Need to make a decision and don't know what your intuition is telling you? Then you can do the heads-or-tails exercise. You give the head the choice yes and the coin the choice no. Then you flip the coin and place it on your hand.

Then, if you are happy with what the heads or tails says, you know that choice is the right one. On the contrary, are you not happy with the heads-or-tails result? Then you know your intuition is leading you to the other choice.

Want to learn more about how hypnosis can affect your subconscious and how it can improve your life? Then come to a seminar or workshop. In addition, you can also view and follow the training courses of the Hypnosis Institute Netherlands. You can help other people with this as well.

Sources:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201506/when-should-you-trust-your-intuition

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726715602047