The cutting edge sword: Intuition
This fellow is one of the most important components that is involved in every decision we make and has guaranteed our survival throughout history yet it is not as it seems to be: The savior.
If you know MBTI “Myer Briggs Type Indicator”, you’ve definitely encountered an “N” letter at the second position of your personality test if you are intuitive or you’ve seen it in your test results. Otherwise, for those who don’t know it, it’s the gut feeling that drives you and enables you to make decisions whenever there is uncertainty. In fact, this trait is so important in the decision-making process, that we use subconsciously in every decision that lacks reasoning we make.
It might seem to you that having a brain infers reasoning and taking decisions based on logic, but in every new situation, the brain has to make a decision based on patterns which we perceive as a hunch. In fact, we believe in it so much as if it’s the best thing, unfortunately, it’s an illusion.
But why our brain is trying to fool us? This question is legitimate, considering the fact that fooling yourself, is insane. But in order to move on, you need to believe at a certain level, that what you’ll be doing next is the best move, so that you do better and increase your chances of succeeding at it.
If you think this absurd, keep in mind, that without it, we will have gone extinct. That feeling made us survive situations and helped us foresee the danger. You see, every living organism evolves to increase it’s chances of survival and one of the evolutions that allowed the human population to thrive is this.
Now back to intuition and why it is a cutting edge sword. We cannot deny all the benefits that we mentioned above, but we need to consider the fact, that correctness can never be guaranteed, Thus, it will fail us sometimes and will do us more harm than good.
The highly intuitive people have the strongest weapon, a human can have, but with it comes great responsibility. We know that intuition is subconscious and you can’t control it, therefore, you’ll have to live with the consequences of your actions sometimes. It depends on the situation and the person, sometimes the environment and childhood education will hinder this ability and make it less dominant, but sometimes it would be the dominant function it will wreak havoc especially in human relationships.
Of course, it is not something that you cannot learn how to deal with, tolerance will build up by practice and the intuition system will adapt with training. Not trusting it will lead to chaos but teaching it will make you better and stronger, you’ll have the ability to foresee danger and unwanted situations and the ability to take the risk and ignore your hunch.
One of the best ways to train it is to analyze every failure and learn your lesson from it, for example, if you missed a big opportunity, look at what made you choose to go a different path, if you missed something you’ll definitely consider it next time. It’s very simple, a neural network was made to learn, anything can be taught, including behavior, that’s why it is possible to treat many behavioral issues these days with simple activities.
I want to highlight the fact that having stronger intuition is the best thing you can have, it will give you knowledge that anyone will kill to get. But in order to live in peace, you must value it, listen to it, educate it whenever you get a bad outcome and the most important one is to trust it.
You’ll definitely encounter bad times that will change your life, but remember bad is good because we learn when we are not in our comfort zone but when we are out of it.
Give yourself time to think and seek clarity whenever you can avoid the fog of war and ambiguous situations as much as possible, to keep your ability on guard for important stuff to come. Be truthful to yourself and embrace forwardness as it saves a gold-mine of time.
This is my opinion and it is based on a personal experience throughout the years that I lived so far but I can’t generalize and claim that this is true. If your intuition is with it, then go with it, otherwise, send me your feedback.
Authored by an INFJ-T
