Should you trust your intuition? In this episode of Be School, we dive into the paradox of intuition, the value of listening to your inner voice, and when to question it.
I love looking at numbers and seeking out feedback, but I regularly consult my gut when I’m making decisions. This shows up in my Human design, my Myers Briggs, and pretty much every personality assessment I take. I can be completely guided by my feelings if I’m not careful.
In the last episodes, we’ve been talking about paradoxes, and this week I want to look into the paradox of intuition. In case you forgot, a paradox simply means that two things can be true at the same time. You can trust your intuition. You can’t trust it. Both are valid takes.
Trusting your intuition
I’ve spent several years learning how to trust my intuition, and I’m still learning how to do it. My tendency is to look for an external source to confirm that I'm on the right path. That constant need for an external opinion can disconnect you from your own intuition and cause you to ignore your inner voice.
Our society values rational decision making wherein rational means going with the norm. Just because a lot of people take one path doesn’t necessarily mean that is the right or rational path to take.
There’s often a disconnect between what you intuitively feel is right for you and what you “should” be doing. You bridge that gap every time you honor your inner voice in the decision-making process. Trusting your inner voice can lead to incredible outcomes.
Not trusting your intuition
Even as it’s important to listen to your inner voice, you have to acknowledge that your intuition can be biased.
It can be shaped by different factors:
- Your life experiences
- What you see
- What you hear
- The things you learned from your parents
- What you have been exposed to
Your brain takes all those experiences and creates shortcuts that underscore your actions. This can bias your intuition. For example, your inner voice might tell you that someone is or isn’t trustworthy, but it’s really a reflection of your life experiences and comfort level with the situation.
In this regard, your intuition is a product of how you’ve experienced the world. That means that your inner voice can share valuable wisdom with you and it can also be perpetuating some of the ugliness in the world. Both can be true. So...
...What do you do with your intuition?
- Listen to your intuition and ask questions
- Allow yourself to honor your wisdom and also acknowledge that it may be biased
- Be grateful for whatever your inner voice shares and be curious about where that insight stems from
- Crosscheck your intuition with your values
Dealing with paradoxes can be tricky. You need to be engaged with every aspect of your life if you want to explore them. At the end of the day, it is all about asking questions, and there are no black or white answers.
I invite you to observe your intuition this week, to listen to it, to ask it questions, and to see what nuances exist in your intuitive process.
