Intuition

Whenever I think about intuition, I question how much I have and how much I use it.

I have learned that people call it by different names. Some call it a gut reaction. Some call it instinct. Some call it an inner voice. For me, intuition feels like a deep knowing.

I know when a situation or person feels comfortable. Other times, I sense that something is not quite right, even if I cannot explain what I am noticing beneath the surface.

I have called on my intuition at different times.

Once, while solo travelling, I was walking along a city street with my camera, looking for my next image. I turned a corner and suddenly felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I looked around carefully and started paying attention to the activity around me. Nothing obvious had happened, but the tension in my body told me this was not the place for me.

I listened. I put my camera away and moved quickly to another location.

Intuition has also shown up for me in gentler ways. I have met people and within minutes known I had made a friend. There is an ease, an energy and a feeling of connection.

Years ago, I was at an event with a friend and her daughter. I went to help another friend who was experiencing difficulty and I became visibly upset with the person who had caused the situation.

Later, my friend told me her daughter had seen the incident from a distance and asked, “Why is Aunt Aderonke upset?”

Her mother brushed it off and said I was not upset, maybe just excited. When she told me this, I explained the situation and urged her to go back and tell her daughter she was right. I had been upset.

That mattered to me.

I wanted her daughter to know that what she saw and sensed was accurate. I wanted her to know her instincts were working. I did not want her to be talked out of what she had correctly observed.

That incident reminded me how easily we can teach people to doubt themselves.

Of course, every feeling is not a fact. Intuition still needs reflection, wisdom and discernment. But I do believe there is something valuable in paying attention.

Our bodies often notice before our minds can explain. Energy shifts. We feel ease or tension with that energy. We feel drawn in or warned away.

There is information there.

Maybe intuition is not something we either have or do not have. Maybe it is something we practice listening to.

How does intuition show up for you?

Is it a feeling in your body, a thought, a pause, a sense of knowing or something else entirely?

Tell me about your intuition. Was there a time when listening to your inner voice made a difference? I’d love to hear from you. Send me an email: aderonke@abwilsonconsulting.com