Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than the intellect.
- Steve Jobs
We have all experienced moments of unexpected clarity at certain points in our lives. Moments where we just know what to do or what decision to take. Instances where, as if guided by an ethereal force, we know if an action will bring about a good result without spending much effort on rational thinking.
These flashes of knowledge has been labeled by many terms: hunch, gutfeel, insight, but psychologists posits that these terms all point to our built-in compass that is responsible for giving us such moments of clarity. It is called intuition, and it will be the subject of my blog this week.
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Intuition may seem like a "magical" function of our psychology; an ability that comes from a "higher realm" that is beyond our understanding. But developments in psychology, neurology, and modern science has allowed for a realistic explanation on what it really is, how it functions, and how we can consciously influence it to serve our life's goals.
What is intuition?
Intuition, like instinct and intellect, is a psychological function that we use to process sensory and cognitive information. It helps us make better decisions and take right actions. Whereas instinct comes as fixed biological responses to stimuli; and intellect includes our deliberate analysis of data, intuition is a flash of knowing that arises in our conscious thought that provides potential solutions to our problems.
Intuition differs from instinct in that we can choose to either take action on it or ignore it. Unlike the latter, there's a "gap," so to speak, between intuition and our response to it that allow us to decide whether we will heed it's guidance, or decide alternative courses of actions using our other psychological faculties. In most cases, our intuition takes into consideration a bigger context of our problems than our instinct and intellect. Its scope is more holistic and and inclusive.
Intuition appear to be holistic- [it combines] insights from multiple sources.
-Jeremy Sutton Ph. D (From PositivePsychology.com)
Contrary to common belief, the state of knowing that we get from our intuition comes not from an intervention of some external "magical" source but from a culmination of our own knowledge, imagination, sensory perception, and life experiences. Based on these, intuition provides us with a generalized mental picture or feelings to aid us in problem solving. It is not operating from a point external to us. Rather, its responses comes from a natural function hardwired into our psyches.
How intuition works
The solutions to problems that we access through our intuition comes from our mind's ability to recognize patterns in our environment and our behaviors. Our knowledge, experiences, sensory perceptions-and even imaginations-are probed by our intuitive faculty; processed, learned, and produced as plausible courses of action that we can opt to use in the moment or in the future.
Sadghuru, an Indian Yogi and Author sharing his thoughts on Intuition
These flow of ideas, courses of actions or mental pictures comes instantaneously. These are the things we consider as hunches or gut feels. They are the by-product of the unconscious processing that our intuition undertake.
Intuition involves a sense of knowing without knowing how one knows.
-Seymour Epstein, American Psychologist
Given that intuition operates on a subconscious level, we don't need to decipher information deliberately like when we use reason or logic. Intuition functions involuntarily, just like our heartbeat or our sweat glands. It automatically presents us with the best possible actions that we can take to ensure our equilibrium as a living being, according to our repository of knowledge and life experiences.
Intuition offers a reduction in overall cognitive load.
-R.M. Hogarth (from his research paper titled Intuition: a challenge for psychological research on decision making, 2010)
We can think of intuition as a supervisor of our life experiences. It sees more, considers more, and the solutions it comes up with, though generalized, can be as effective as a solution developed through long periods of conscious thinking.
Intuition allows us to process the constant bombardment of sensory and mental information in our everyday living that proves too much for our conscious mind to analyze. The cognitive spill-overs, so to speak, carry on and is handled by our intuition. Through this process, we can reach decisions faster, especially in high stake situations that needs immediate conclusions.
Intuition in action
Here are some instances of intuition at work:
1. A woman has been dating a man for weeks now. Everything looks perfect. The guy is kind, financially stable, and takes care of himself well. He seems to have his life figured out and the woman has taken a liking to him. But over the next few weeks, the woman felt doubts and hesitation permeating her emotions. She can't explain where it's coming from or what can justify her sudden turn of feeling and thinking. During one argument, her hunches became clear when the man showed his violent tendencies. Her doubts and hesitation are subconscious preemptive signs from her intuition, telling her that the man she's dating has repressed anger issues waiting to be unleashed at the slightest bit of provocation.
2. A painter has to decide what subject he will paint next. His merchant, the one selling his paintings, points to to him that he should paint another landscape because it has proved to be the preference of their patrons. It has earned them well for many years now. But the artist has been getting persistent urges to paint portraits, though he hasn't tried it before. He also does not know if it will be well-receive by their patrons. The merchant objected to his desire but he went on anyway; he trusted the "call" inside him and painted portraits. After completing them, they went on sale and it turned out that the patrons didn't mind the artist's new subjects. In fact, they liked it better than the landscape ones. The artist soon realized that the urge he felt are commands from his intuition to explore other subjects in order for him to expand his capabilities as a painter.
3. "Too good to be true" realizations are brought by our intuition. A notable example of this would be financial scams. Suppose a man and a few of his friends gets invited into an investment plan where they were promised that their investment will be tripled in just a month's time. The company representative went into elaborate details describing the order of the business, showed certificates of legitimacy, and presented everything with charisma. On the outside, the company representative looked like a trust-worthy person. Some of the man's friends get bought by the idea of investing but he remained skeptical. Even with all the elaborate explanation and promise of good fortune, he can't bring himself to invest. And he did not know why, even though he is also in need of money. Later, it turned out that the company was a scam. His friends lost their money-without hopes of getting it back. The man then knew that it was his intuition that helped him avoid such fate by subconsciously picking on the representative's intentions. The investment plan seemed "too good to be true." His intuition translated the deal as something that he should not put trust in. And it turned out that his intuition made the right call.
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It should be noted that our intuition can sometimes provide us with epiphanies that go beyond our common conception of rationality. This, however, does not entirely relinquish their effectiveness in helping us deal with our problems. Sudden urges like bringing an umbrella during a fair weathered day on the basis that one "feels" it will rain, exceeds rational explanation. We know such moments, and we have ample proof in the world and in our experience that these sudden urges can hit the mark. It can, indeed, rain even if the weather is fair. Or radical life changes like moving to a new city on a "hunch" can bring satisfaction even though it is not a reasonable thing to do at the time.
It's a matter of wisdom on our part to know when to put trust on our intuition. We are conscious agents after all and intuition is a subconscious psychological faculty. In order to make sure that we can, indeed, trust our intuition, the best thing we can do is to influence it. And modern psychology points out that we definitely can.
Harnessing our intuition
We can make our intuition serve our best ends by exposing ourselves to well-processed experiences and knowledge. Remember, our intuition functions as an unconscious processor. It provides us guidance based on the data given to it. Thereby, giving it diverse and accurate data from our life experience allows it to formulate solutions that are well-informed and rightly suited to our present predicaments.
Intuition can be explicitly educated.
-R.M. Hogarth
To improve our intuition's responses, changes must occur in our conscious thinking. We can use our rational thinking to filter our experiences and beliefs before they get taken in by our intuition. We can refine what we feed to our intuition by weeding out beneficial beliefs from disadvantageous ones. Our intuition alone does not make this distinction. Therefore, if we feed it bad beliefs, it will naturally produce self-defeating solutions. On the other hand, if we consciously feed it with empowering beliefs and goals, it will become an ally that we can put our trust on.
Training ourselves to take caution of what we impress to our intuition is the key towards ensuring that it is working on our favor. Over time, if fed with good inputs, our intuition will congeal its operation and certain decisions that seemed difficult for us to make in the past will be made easy. It will present us with constant advantageous courses of action that will allow us to respond to problems appropriately and accurately.
The cost of ignoring intuition
Intuition, as we have discussed, is designed to work in our favor. If we know that it is in a beneficial condition and yet we opt to ignore its guidance, we will incur costs. These costs could manifest in the form of regret, self-doubt, and psychological or emotional disturbance. At worst, we could lose trust on our intuition altogether.
Ignoring intuition causes it to be weak and inaccurate. Prolonged dismissal of its guidance can make it ineffective at coming up with proper responses to our problems. Given this, it would be helpful to give it the proper space in our lives where it can speak more clearly. A space where we can also listen to it with proper attention.
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Conclusion
Modern psychology has been able to unravel the workings of our intuition but it nevertheless remains a case of wonder. Now that we know more about it, our marvel on the ingenious solutions it provide us has extended into an appreciation of its intricate design.
We must remember that our intuition is always within our disposal; it seeks to guide us towards our best interests. So, let's not overlook it. Let's put it to use like a compass as we navigate the complex mazes that is our daily lives.
References:
Articles
https://positivepsychology.com/intuition/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition
https://psychology.fandom.com/wiki/Intuition
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-25197-006
Videos
Ted-ed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ71pKKDe1E
Ted-ed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFywJfkvnvg
Sadghuru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dwEdhM0YsM
Sadghuru: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFdnIRA1X0M
Osho international: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1lplzKBE6Y
Wireless Philosophy:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGo7i7gtO8w
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