Today we’re talking about Intuition vs Sensing. I’d like you to picture the enchanting poem by Robert Frost – ‘The Road Not Taken’ in which the poet uses a beautiful metaphor where “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” to encourage you to take the path less travelled in life.
Taking the path less travelled is a brave and bold move that, as Robert Frost tells you, can “Make all the difference”. It’s moments like this that, I think, take you beyond the physical senses and into the realm of Intuition.
Intuition is your internal GPS, guiding you through life, while your sensory perception brings the world to life in vivid technicolour. As a child, you learn about the 5 basic senses. As an adult, you’re probably aware of a few more – after all, sensing, in all forms, is the key to experiencing life to its fullest.
Your body is this extraordinary vessel with a powerhouse of a subconscious mind that processes heaps of info, analyses it, and sends signals to your conscious brain.
You can sense when someone’s watching you, feel the fabric of your clothes against your skin, know where every body part is at any given moment, and even predict a storm from the change in air pressure. Wild, huh?.
Your senses become even more complex the more thought you give them. You can naturally use variation in sound volume to determine the direction and distance of something, like being able to hear a car coming around a blind corner on a country lane you are walking down.
Similarly, you can tell how far away something is by using what is called your depth perception. If something is burning, you can smell it from miles away; you can even look at someone and read their body language and make interpretations about their emotional state. The list is endless, and you do this constantly and mostly unconsciously – intriguing, right?
Keeping your body’s communication channels in tip-top shape is crucial for your sensory perception. Here’s a magical fact: Your hypothalamus interprets signals from your peripheral nervous system. Therefore, a balanced nervous system equals optimal sensing capabilities!
Have you ever heard a long-forgotten song on the radio and suddenly recalled all the lyrics or caught a whiff of a scent that instantly transported you to a distant summer holiday? That’s your subconscious mind using hidden memories to shape how you respond to situations. It’s like Jamal from “Slumdog Millionaire”, whose life experiences provide him with the answers he needs to win the show, a beautiful representation of the power of intuition.
So, if your subconscious is doing all the work, why the fuss about intuition versus sensing? Well, embracing your natural strengths and understanding your go-to decision-making style can lead to greater self-awareness and you growing as a person. By recognising whether you lean more towards intuition or sensing, you can better harness your innate abilities to approach life’s hurdles with confidence.
Balancing intuition and physical sensations is a delicate dance. If you tip the scale too much towards physical sensations and neglect intuition, you can miss out on the profound wisdom of your inner voice.
Sometimes, we think we’re following our intuition, but it could be our body reacting to stress, hunger, or even unprocessed emotions. That’s why it’s vital to pause, take a deep breath, and check in. Is it intuition or a physical reaction driving your decision?
It’s essential to tune in and become more aware of the subtle cues your body provides, as they can offer valuable insights into your well-being and decision-making process. Practices like mindfulness, truth-based journaling, and reflective thinking can help you develop this balance, enabling you to make more informed decisions and live a more fulfilling life.
When you focus solely on physical sensations and disregard your intuitive sense, you might miss out on valuable insights that could guide you in making better decisions. Intuition often serves as a “shortcut” for problem-solving, drawing from your subconscious knowledge and past experiences to help you navigate complex situations quickly and efficiently.
By overlooking your intuition, you might become overly reliant on logic and tangible information, which can lead to indecision, analysis paralysis, or taking longer to reach conclusions – it’s like ignoring your GPS and relying solely on road signs.
Learning to feel the difference between intuition and your body’s messages equips you for making well-rounded decisions. By cultivating a deeper awareness of your physical and emotional state, you’ll be able to tap into your intuition more effectively while also addressing your body’s needs. Striking the right balance between these two sources of information can empower you to face life’s hurdles with greater confidence and clarity. It’s like being the conductor of an orchestra, with your intuition and sensory inputs playing in perfect harmony.
Intuition is more than just decision-making, it’s a creativity cocktail too! By trusting your intuitive sense, you can uncover fresh ideas, create connections, and explore possibilities that might be unavailable through sensory input alone. Ignoring intuition can limit your creative potential, making it more challenging to think outside the box and develop novel solutions.
Buckle up because, in an upcoming episode, we’re going to plunge even deeper into the labyrinth of our senses and discover how to cultivate them better.
Remember, trust your instincts, follow your intuition; the world needs your voice and the magic it brings to us all. After all, the road less travelled might just be the one your intuition is nudging you towards.
I’d love to hear a time when you’ve listened to your intuition over your physical senses – comment below and tag someone you think would benefit from reading this blog!
As always, I remain a cheerleader for your inner self-worth,
