I’ve noticed that many people are prone to confuse intuition with fear when they’re trying to get answers to something they’re already stressed about. But when you’re already wound up about a problem, you will project that fear onto everything else around you. Let’s say you don’t know if your job contract will be renewed and you have a difficult boss. This is a super-stressful situation. Your livelihood depends on the job, the job depends on the relationship you have with the boss—so you’re understandably fearful. You walk around thinking almost 24/7 about whether your boss likes you or doesn’t like you. Will he keep you based on your job performance? Is she favoring the new person because they are younger, even if they’re less qualified? You can’t really stop obsessing. You’re feeling anxious and need an answer or solution to feel secure again. Then, in the middle of days of this worry, you get a flash of a new person sitting at your desk and are sure that you’re going to be replaced. Your heart rate shoots up even further, and you fully believe you’re right. You are sure you’ve had a psychic flash. Or have you? This is probably not true intuition. You’re too far gone down the rabbit hole to be objective in that vision. Accurate intuition will look more like this: You’re in the middle of doing the laundry while thinking about what to make for supper. You get a flash of a person sitting at your desk at work. You can describe them in detail. You have zero emotional reaction to the person you see. They walked through your brain like a photobomb, then you carry on doing the laundry. Ten hours later, you have the same flash while driving to the pharmacy. There’s still no emotional reaction, just more curiosity. That’s intuition. Now you can describe the person you saw in even more detail. You can start to get a sense of who they are and why they are there. You may be right; someone is sitting at your desk. But the vision isn’t charged one way or another, and it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be fired. Clairvoyance is a quick slice-of-life image; clairaudience is a subtle word or short phrase that pops to mind; clairsentience is a bodily sensation that quickly comes to you and leaves. True intuition comes when we are not focused on the person or problem. That is craving. It comes in a whisper that is received as fully clear. Fear and anxiety cause us to obsess, avoid, and overanalyze. Intuition comes from calm, detached mindfulness. It is nuanced, clear, and subtle. If you’re unsure if you can trust yourself, check your heart rate, calm your breath, and be honest if you have been worrying. Accurate intuitive information won’t cause or provoke more anxiety. It will feel interesting, curious, matter-of-fact, and reassuring. To hear and heed our intuitive guidance, we need to address the roots of our fear and anxiety so we get to the sweetness that intuition will bring—a life of greater ease and a deep connection to yourself.
