Intuition – Love It – Or Miss Out On A Great Resource

Issue #158, June 30, 2026

Welcome to Insights and Implications!

All of us at Insight Principles

If you have a good life, are healthy and relatively successful, you are using your intuition often – whether you realize it or not. Your business success depends on it greatly, whether you acknowledge it or not.

It takes an enormous amount of intelligence to be human. Much more than our minds can manage. Our bodies run without our conscious thinking. Innumerable mental functions (memory, understanding, integrating our sensory data, and much more) go on all the time without our deliberate effort.

Where does all this intelligence come from and how does it keep working on our behalf? How come we wake up knowing who we are and what our life is about? How come we keep getting useful thinking to run our daily schedule and relationships? Our intelligent life force is running the show while we entertain ourselves with our work and personal interests and challenges. This is a great mystery for our conscious minds, yet one to contemplate nevertheless.

As we discussed in our last newsletter, we have been well trained in our analytical and intellectual abilities and we use these to run much of our lives. Our attention is dominated by chronic thinking and we often fail to notice, let alone appreciate, all the deep intelligence working on our behalf.

Yet, this deep intelligence is actually smarter than we are and can be the source of great wisdom and perspective making our lives easier, more efficient, and more successful. It’s hard to admit there is something smarter than us!

The channel, or faculty that flows this wisdom into our consciousness, I call intuition. Some refer to this as a gut feeling or subconscious knowing. I like to refer to intuition as the channel through which our deep intelligence speaks to us or shows us what we need to see.

When we relax our mind, this intuition orients us to the present moment with ease and grace. If we relax enough, we can enjoy the moment without necessarily knowing what will happen next yet confident that we have the wisdom, heart, and strength to respond intelligently to whatever may happen. Being relaxed in this space of the “unknown” can be scary at first, but it is a lovely place to make friends with.

My early life was dominated by worry and strong thinking. I loved math and science and spent a lot of time solving puzzles. The first summer away from college, I spent hiking and camping in the Rocky Mountains and the beaches of the West Coast. My mind got really quiet and relaxed. When I got back to school fully enrolled in advanced math and science courses, I found I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) use that analytical part of my brain. I was so enjoying a relaxed mind. I switched to my other passion, psychology. I didn’t understand that shift as I do now.

Though my early psychology training was primarily analytical and kept me thinking hard, at some point I noticed if I relaxed and didn’t think so hard with my clients, I would have insights. I found I could relax and trust my invisible intuition and wisdom to show me how best to help. My work with clients became much more effective and enjoyable.

When I eventually learned more about how the human mind works, I was able to shift my attention from my strong analytical mind to my gentle yet powerful intuition – my direct connection to the intelligence behind life.

The shift to intuition is not difficult. We do it all the time. We may reflect on what to eat for our next meal, and we get a sense of what would be best. We may wonder where to go on vacation or what movie to go see, and before we know it, we have a good idea. We may clear our mind after an argument and get an insight about how to solve a difficult interaction. We do this often.

But making it a conscious way of life can be challenging because we have been trained to use our intellect to solve everything. It is also challenging because our chronic thinking gives us the sense that we are in control of our lives. Letting go of that control can seem scary, even irresponsible.

The general counsel from a large corporation came to our leadership retreat. She had a very strong mind and had been up against many challenges in her life. As a lawyer, she was trained to think hard and work hard to solve problems. Sitting still for her retreat was quite challenging yet she participated well. We pointed to her intuition many times and she got a sense of it but she couldn’t quite relax. Her mind stayed gripped and she was actually relieved when the retreat was over.

When she returned to her work she was faced with some serious challenges with individuals on her team. She reached out to us for help. We reminded her about how the mind works – the power of thought and separate realities.

With her intuition she could observe others more closely (without reacting to their thoughts and behaviors).

It took a while for her to avoid reacting, to relax her mind and allow her intuition to guide her. She had the wisdom and humanity necessary to see what to do with kindness and firmness.

And she finally caught on. She realized that if she could allow herself to NOT KNOW, even for a few minutes, a flow of good thoughts would come. She had the insight that she operated this way naturally with her large and wonderful family. Leading others, including those challenging personalities, became more fun and rewarding for her. And she was very effective as well, balancing her skill and her inner sense of confidence in her wisdom at work.

Habits can be hard to change sometimes, yet new ones can often upgrade our life in powerful ways.

If you find yourself overthinking a lot and feeling tired or stressed with too much to think about, try letting go of control of your thoughts. Find a place of quiet or ease. Begin to notice what happens in your mind. Begin to appreciate the insights and good ideas that naturally arise. The more you do this, the more you will realize the resource you have within no matter the circumstances.

Cultivate this awareness, it is a wonderful balance to your well developed mental abilities.

All the best,

Ken