Intuition: A Precious Friend

Intuition: A Precious Friend

Have you ever been in a situation where despite the complexity or the unknowns, you saw what to do? You didn’t have to think about it. There were no mental gymnastics, no mental pros and cons or internal debate. You just knew.

The mind has the ability to understand what’s happening, access personal knowledge and experience, and even be informed about things we have not come across before, and synthesize this into a clear view of what to do.

Sully Sullenberger’s decision to land his crippled plane on the Hudson instead of heading for one of the nearby airports is a striking example. If you see his numerous interviews or read his autobiography he describes, that in the moment,  “I just knew”.

We call this capacity intuition, the ability to know something deeply without having to think about it. It’s the ability to draw on a brilliant inner resource to see our way to success without overthinking and stressing. We all have it. It’s built-in to the human mind. We know it’s there. If it is powerful and innate – why don’t we experience it and deliberately use it more often?

There are several reasons.

While this capacity may have baled us out of many dicey situations, we don’t always give it credit. The answer came so fast, without fanfare, and we didn’t notice the source.

The intellect is highly valued and intuition takes a back seat. To quote Einstein, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Most importantly, however, we can’t optimize (or even use) something we don’t understand. Good luck using a computer effectively and efficiently if no one’s ever told you how it works.

Finally, we hear instructions like, “trust/go with your gut” but what does that mean? Is this a skill we have to learn and develop? Is there something we are supposed to do?

Yes and no.

The critical factor is our realization of how the mind is designed. Einstein must have known that both capacities – intellect and intuition were built into the perfect design of the human mind. And he knew which one should lead and which one should follow. When we realize that there is an intelligence behind life and that via the function of thought and consciousness we can access this intelligence, we, like Einstein, know what to prioritize.

With this understanding you start to notice examples:

• A colleague of yours is working on a project and you get the sense of something that would be useful for them. You tell them and it really helps.
• You get a feeling you are going to get a call from someone and the phone rings and there they are.
• You’re about to head off and you get a sense to go back and check something. It turns out you had missed or forgotten something important. 

By registering and acknowledging the gentle sense that re-directed you, you begin to build faith in this capacity. You might be inspired to deliberately turn over some challenging problem to that inner wisdom, rather than grinding away on it.  As you wait for a solution to come to you, notice how insights invariably arrive if you can relax your mind.

When you see the phenomenon of a quieter mind equals more insights, you might begin to practice creating space for your intuition. There are many names for this: reflection, contemplation, meditation, prayer, turning it over to a higher power, wondering. You might stay in this space longer and let your inner intelligence work. It is remarkable how brilliant our inner resources are.

This deep capacity to know intuitively is a wise and precious friend that is always with you, always there to be asked and ready to help out.

With all the transition and chaos going on in our world these days, we need all the friends we can get!

Sandy, Robin and Ken