SHOULD YOU REALLY TRUST YOUR INTUITION?

You know those times when you really want to do something, like go for a big promotion or start a new business, or perhaps you want to trust somebody and start a new relationship or a new business partnership but something in the pit off your stomach says “Nope. This is not right for me”.


Are we to listen to that gut feeling?

Now remember your instincts and your intuition are really all a function of your subconscious processing. Our emotional responses are outside of our conscious control, so when we feel uneasy about a decision or a situation it is inevitably down to the patterns of thought we are running in our subconscious mind.The great thing about the subconscious is that it calculates and responds to situations incredibly quickly, correlating all the things we have learnt over the years in the blink of an eye and choosing what it believes to be the best path forward.

However, this can also be the bad thing about our subconscious. Of all the things it values in its quest to steer you towards happiness, safety is HUGE! You see you can’t easily feel happy if you don’t feel safe.

So when you are approaching a crossroads in your life the choice you make will be shaped according to previous learnings. As a result any harmful, or even vaguely unpleasant experience in your life will result in a piece of learning that may well steer you away from repeating such an experience.

This will cause you to reject opportunities that involve even the most remote possibility of unpleasantness. For example when we get a vaccination jab in our arm as a child and it hurts a bit, we might find ourselves terrified of needles in later life because our subconscious has decided to steer us clear of that experience forever! This is all very well until we get ill and need some vital medicine administered via an injection. In this instance the part of you seeking to keep you safe from harm is now stopping you getting the one thing that might make you well. 


But your gut instincts can often be really useful. How many times have you stayed away from someone for no other reason than you had a bad feeling about them, and then later on discovered that your caution proved to be wise.

So how do we decide when our subconscious is steering us in the right direction?



Here’s a basic rule of thumb. When you have a gut feeling about something, ask yourself this.
Are you responding due to fear? And if you are, then ask yourself is that fear valid? 
You have gut feelings for a reason, but you have a logical side for a reason as well. You do get to measure the accuracy of your instincts using that logical, experienced part of your mind we call the conscious.



Treat your gut instinct like a friend whose opinion you value but don’t blindly follow.
It’s like a parent who can always be trusted to want the best for you, but not always trusted to know what’s right for you NOW.