Fear or Intuition?

I get asked all the time, “How can I tell the difference between my fear and my intuition?”

I usually reply, “When your first instinct about something is, “Yes, I want to do that!” But then a little while later, you feel uncomfortable thinking about doing it and you say, “Actually, my intuition is telling me it isn’t right”…….that isn’t your intuition speaking.

Of course this is over simplifying what can feel like a really confusing process. So let’s break down what Fear and Intuition actually are and more importantly, what they feel like in your body.

Fear

Fear is an animal instinct.

It is a biological response, in-built into our physical system, for the purpose of pure survival. It is a warning signal that triggers responses in our body-mind that tells us to run away from something that may cause us serious bodily harm, or in the worst case scenario, death. However, this system in our bodies that alert us to danger is 10,000 years out of date.

The challenge for us to integrate that system into our modern way of life means that we need to work to elevate ourselves out of being led by our animal instincts, to recognise that our physical well-being and survival is not being threatened and to see our fear for what it really is: a signpost that points to something we need to look at in order to get to know ourselves better.

So…..

What if running towards something that terrifies us, actually increases our feelings of safety?

OK, controversial I know, but hear me out.

Maybe the only way to discover if something is true for us, is to do it and directly experience its impact.

How would you feel if you did something in spite of your fear?

What would you learn about fear itself if it is unable to stop you?

When fear arises next time, how would you choose to act after the direct experience of this insight?

What Fear feels like in the body

Fear always comes with emotional turbulence and conflict. We feel contraction, tightness or tension in the body, often accompanied by emotions like anxiety, uncertainty and doubt. We often get sensations of restlessness as well which is the energy ramping up in us to run away. When this energy is not expressed outward, it goes straight up into our heads and we will say things like:

“I’m trying to figure it out…”

“I’m still trying to decide….”

“But I don’t have the time….”

Fear based conditioning will mask itself as intuition, trying to encourage us to stay in our comfort zone. If we feel the panic of fear related to doing something new that initially excited us, that’s NOT our intuition speaking.

How do we deal with it?

We are all afraid sometimes. It is part of the human condition. We must accept that fear is a part of our experience. What we do not need to accept is our fear stopping us from living our full potential. So how do we do that?

We do that by committing to a fruitful, life long relationship with our fear. We commit to looking at it, running towards what makes us afraid. We commit to looking at what our fear is pointing to. We commit to using our fear as a tool of self-knowledge and not as a protector.

Easier said than done, but entirely possible - if we are willing.

If we are not willing, then we need to look at what we are holding on to so tightly that this feels impossible, but that is a whole other blog post.

Intuition

Intuition is an inner knowing.

It cannot be explained by logic or common sense. The mind is not present when our intuition is activated. We usually cannot say why we know what we know when we listen to it. It is a natural intelligence that we all have access to, an inner compass that lets us know when we are going in the right direction.

The path to recognising our intuition lies in learning to trust that inner knowing, in the moment it arises and staying centred in that trust, no matter what the mind tries to tell us afterwards. To build trust in our intuition, means taking action based on our intuition, rather than our doubting fearful mind.

A decision made that comes from our inner knowing is more often than not, something that takes us out of our comfort zone. But the more we do it, the more evidence we build that our intuition always guides us towards alignment in ourselves.

This is particularly difficult since almost all of us have been trained not to trust it.

But know this: by making decisions that override our intuitive wisdom, we betray ourselves and break our self-trust. Repeating this over and over again creates internal blockages that cuts us off from our intuition and becomes a vicious cycle of denying our own inner wisdom.

On the flip side, the more we take action based on our intuitive guidance, the more we open ourselves up to access its wisdom.

What Intuition feels like

The way we each feel out intuition can be wildly different. IF you are not yet familiar with the language of your own intuition, it is fortunately like a muscle you can train. The 4 most common ways that our intuition makes itself known are:

Seeing, Knowing, Feeling & Hearing

Having just read this, which one of these do you immediately recognise?

Seeing is about getting images, no matter how vague or vivid, that you see as truth. Knowing is when you suddenly just quietly know that something is true. Feeling is very body based, where your whole body quietly sings or vibrates when something is true or right. Hearing is usually hearing words or sentences that seem to arrive quietly out of nowhere but that you hear as truth.

Notice what kicks in next time. Some of us have one dominant sense, while others can experience all 4 at once, and everything in between. Learn the language of your intuition and train your mind not to get in the way.

A choice / decision that is made from our intuition is always underpinned by stillness, calm and grounded in the moment the knowing arises. An intuitive nudge not to do something always feels like a calm inner “no” with no need to justify itself. It is very likely that in the next moment, the mind kicks in and tells us something different. The trick is to learn how to tell the difference.

To stay in the stillness of that moment of truth, and not lose ourselves to the illusion of a mental narrative that is fed by fear and doubt.