Many people tell you that you should listen to and trust your inner intuition. But that voice that keeps talking in your head, sometimes encouraging you and sometimes frustrating you, leaves you confused: Is it a wise intuition trying to protect you, or an overgrown anxiety that will not let you take any step?
When the inner voice becomes confusing
From experiences of rejection, betrayal, or frustration, our minds learn to protect us from repeating the pain, remaining alert and pushing us to avoid situations similar to what hurt us previously. This is a logical mechanism that creates wisdom and meaning from our experiences.
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Intuition is the ability to know something without much conscious thought. It is an expectation based in depth on the experiences and knowledge we have accumulated.
The problem appears when the warning sound continues even after conditions change and danger disappears. Then we hesitate to make a decision, and ask ourselves: Is this the voice of wise intuition, or anxiety that holds us back if we let it lead?
How do you know that what you hear is anxiety?
Anxiety is often out of proportion to the size of the situation. It puts you in a high level of distress, disrupts your daily life, and prompts you to avoid and become distracted.
Differentiating between intuition and anxiety is not easy, as they both carry warning messages. But experts advise analyzing the source of the idea and its tone. Try to disassemble what is going on in your head through some questions:
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Can you think calmly?
If you can identify your fears and search for and reflect on additional information, you are closer to the voice of intuition.
If the evidence and reasons do not succeed in allaying your fears, and all that dominates is one voice repeating: “Stop, do not take this step,” then you are most likely hearing the voice of anxiety.
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A sense of urgency or relative calm?
Anxiety stems from fear, which persists and pressures you to act quickly so that the pain stops.
Intuition is a deeper and relatively calm feeling – even when it is warning – that is accompanied by a degree of serenity and clarity.
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Is the sound continuous and restless?
In intuition, a feeling or idea comes to you and then calms down a little.
In anxiety, the brain does not stop recycling the same idea and repeating its scenarios.
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Are you haunted by catastrophic scenarios?
Anxiety manifests itself as a recurring expectation of the worst, a desire to avoid, and a constant feeling of distress.
Intuition may warn sometimes, but it also prompts action and experimentation at other times and gives a relative feeling of openness.
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Are there obvious physical symptoms?
Anxiety is often accompanied by sweating, heart palpitations, muscle tension, and a feeling of tightness.
Judith Beck, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, explains that the brain does not always differentiate between real and imaginary threats, triggering a “fight or flight” response even in the absence of real danger.
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Is the sensation clear but not urgent?
Intuition is a clear but non-clinging feeling that leaves you room to weigh the pros and cons.
Anxiety carries a violent emotional charge, and when you calm down, your view of things sometimes changes completely.
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Are you in a constant cycle of avoidance?
Anxiety disguises itself as apprehension and panic, and pushes you into an impulsive reaction whose main goal is to avoid feeling uncomfortable. If you let him decide for you, you will notice that you miss opportunities and that your quality of life declines.
Psychologist Paloma Garcia Zubieta, according to the Spanish website Hola, advises a simple question to reset the mind: Does my reaction fit the size of the situation, or is it a repeated response to a painful past experience? This question brings you back to the present so that you do not remain a prisoner of the past.
What do you do with anxiety?
Experts advise practicing mindfulness exercises, engaging in activities that calm us, and making room for the voice of reason.
Awareness of the existence of anxiety and understanding its source reduces its severity and impact. When we understand what we feel, we can notice anxiety without allowing it to drive our behavior. Then the wounds of the past stop controlling future decisions.
In the face of anxiety, the goal is not to silence it completely; that is not realistic. The important thing is to realize that it is anxiety and to put it in its correct size and not to hold its leash while handing over the helm to it.
But if anxiety needs to be “regulated” and contained, what about intuition? Can he really be trusted without much thought?
Intuition is a feeling created by experiences, not miracles
Intuition lacks a definitive scientific definition. It is not infallible, because it is based partly on emotional reasoning. But in essence, it is a form of knowledge that our minds store through experiences. It is not based on clear logical arguments, but on a “feeling” shaped by instinct and experience.
For a long time, many scientists viewed intuition as irrational. But recent research, cited in a report in Time magazine, suggests that his judgments are sometimes more realistic than those based solely on slow, logical analysis.
Our past experiences, and the feelings that accompany them, leave a kind of “imprints” on the body and mind, sometimes called “somatosensory markers.” These indicators guide us in moments of decision-making, generating feelings that incline us toward one option or another, even before we have enough time to consciously think.
Intuition is different from the instinct we are born with. Instinct is innate, while intuition is a skill that grows through knowledge and learning. This is similar to a basketball player’s ability to predict the path of the ball and make a split-second decision during a game. This is why intuition is not the same for all people. It is affected by:
- The amount of experience in the same field.
- The ability to learn from experiences.
- The speed of making connections between different information.
- Personality and level of openness to new experiences.
In situations where there is not enough time for analysis or where information is incomplete, intuition plays a greater role in guiding our decisions.
How do we use intuition without falling into the trap of anxiety?
In her book “Everyday Intuition,” author Elizabeth Greenwood asserts that intuition feeds on experience and knowledge, and that benefiting from it requires:
- Notice patterns of feeling that resonate with you personally.
- Distinguish between calm intuition and urgent anxiety.
- Combining logical thinking with inner feeling to reach a balanced decision.
Intuition can be developed through:
- Openness to new experiences and not always running away from difficult situations.
- Reflect on past decisions: When did your intuition get right? When did your fear deceive you?
- Continuous learning that feeds your subconscious mind’s “database”.
Greenwood points out that reflecting on our habits is also important. You will discover, for example, that the worst time to make crucial decisions may be right before sleep, or when you are hungry or tired, and that intuition at these moments is covered by a fog of anxiety or fatigue.
In the end, the inner voice does not disappear. But you can learn to read his tone: When does he push you to expand your life? And when is he just trying to protect you by locking you in a safe zone that narrows over time? The challenge is not to silence the voice completely, but to understand it: to distinguish between intuition that deserves to be listened to, and anxiety that deserves to be comforted, not led.
