Six reasons why your intuition is your most valuable life tool
Intuitive intelligence is an inherent human capacity. We are all born with intuitive skills even if we are unaware of it and they are never consciously developed. However, highly sensitive people (HSP) have a gift of accessing intuitive information with ease due to their sensitive nature.
I believe as a HSP developing our intuitive senses is an important part of managing and learning about your sensitivity to enable you to ground and not feel overwhelmed by all that you pick up in the world on a subtle level - albeit unconsciously. It's a necessity to learn how to manage your intuitive sensitivity as a HSP - in fact it would be really handy if just like Harry Potter receiving his letter from Hogwarts, as a HSP we would receive a similar letter, sending us to intuitive training!
But beyond this, why would I suggest your intuition is your most valuable life tool? Well here are just some of the reasons why which will hopefully encourage you to begin to think about developing your intuitive skills…
1. Saving you big problems
You may know the feeling when an opportunity or prospect all looks ‘perfect’ on paper and logically you ‘should’ go for it but you just feel uncomfortable about it, or ‘something’ is telling you not to but you can’t see or know why. You know the feeling? Maybe your gut tightens, you feel uncomfortable or your heart has a shadow cast over it, or a knowing (or however it presents for you) but you don’t know why - sometimes it’s subtle, sometimes loud. Maybe it’s too subtle so you just ignore it, but then…
You rent the flat - but the neighbours are a nightmare or the landlady decides to sell after 6 months
You take the job - but it’s not what you were sold so you’re unhappy or you have a difficult team you don’t enjoy
You go by train instead of the car to London to the theatre - but there are trade union strikes on the day and it’s bus service replacements
You pick the holiday destination and dates - but there are freak storms or the tour guide goes bust
A friend gets a new boyfriend but you just don’t like him - you try to ignore the feeling and say nothing but he turns out to be a liar and a cheat etc.
You knew ‘something’ wasn’t right or felt off, but either it wasn’t enough to listen, there was no logical reason for it or you just consciously ignored it. I'll give you an example that happened to me recently, one that was subtle so I ignored it but it could have had big consequences. I had organised a play date between my daughter and one of her friends but I just had this feeling it wouldn't happen - a subtle shadow in my gut. But I dutifully pencilled it in, not telling my daughter as I assumed that either she would get sick or he might do or some family thing would come up. But nothing happened, so to my surprise we went round and had a lovely time. But the next day after the visit, he developed chickenpox. Now ordinarily, that would be fine, life happens, but we were getting married three weeks later - so waited and lived with the fear she would catch it then couldn’t go to our wedding. I kicked myself for not listening and realised the feeling was a warning - not to go round.
When we listen to that intuitive sense, it can save us, or our loved ones if they are open to it, from a lot of time, heartache, money, pain, or difficulty etc. It's not that we can carve out the perfect life and avoid all difficulties because suffering happens, and this can be part of our growth. But we do live with an intuitive intelligence within us which is always communicating to us. This intuitive intelligence has knowledge and access to information FAR beyond the limited scope of our logical or conscious mind. We can utilise this to create greater flow within our lives and ease, to put our energy into meaningful challenges and our growth as HSP’s.
2. Hunches leading to gold
If you really begin to trust and lean into your intuitive intelligence like following a ‘hunch’ it can lead to phenomenal outcomes. Famous entrepreneurs use their intuitive faculties to develop their businesses and inventors work with their intuition to come up with radical ideas. Following a hunch can lead you to be at the right place at the right time - meeting you now husband or the perfect teacher at an important stage in your development, or you had a hunch to buy a lottery ticket when you don’t bother normally and have a windfall etc.
So why don't more of us trust or follow our hunches? Because it takes trust in the unknown, sometimes a leap of faith. We are being asked to follow a feeling, an invisible knowing or sense rather than the material logical world that's in front of us. It goes against our school training for the most part and the training of our conscious mind. It asks us to open up to possibility, to step into the flow and trust. This is easier for some than others, for most it requires practice and training.
We are not separate from the universe, and we are in constant dialogue with the world around us on a subtle level. By nature, we are natural receivers and transmitters of information. When we train our sensitivity, becoming more aware of the subtle realms through our internal responses, as well as giving credence to our intuitive answers then by following them through, we begin to develop our intuitive intelligence and live in the great flow of synchronicity of knowledge which would otherwise be unknown. As a HSP you could have this at your fingertips.
3. Intuitive answers and expression
One of the biggest reasons most of us want to learn to listen to our intuition is for guidance and answers on life's questions, big and small, right? Should I move here, should I take this job, should I marry this person, should I still be friends with this person, should I have another child, should I do this degree etc? We are constantly needing to make decisions within our lives, and our intuition can be a fantastic tool to navigate this when we learn to trust it. Not only for the big questions, but to build our intuitive muscle day today with the small questions - where are my keys, which direction should I go, what time should I call mum today etc.
I remember one of my steps of learning to listen to my intuition, more deeply. It was a teacher, saying I needed to listen to the three spaces within my body for a response to a question: head, heart and gut. But the truth is my head and my heart, could only be in charge for so long as the final say, would always go to my gut. If my gut said no, it wasn't happening - It didn't matter how much logic or love was used to try to persuade it. Eventually, I learned to listen to this aspect of my intuitive response as my first port of call, not the last that I ignored.
Our intuition can be incredibly instructive when we open up to it. When we open up to intuitivity flow, it can feel like we step out of the way completely and allow information, creativity or ideas to just flow through us naturally without cognitive thought. It’s as though we are channelling our responses; be this through writing a blog, or creating a painting, or knowing where to put a plant as we learn to garden... The more we can switch our cognitive mines off and open to intuitive flow for answers or expression the more easeful, beautiful and inspiring our lives can become.
4. Deepens connections
Your intuition can keep you connected at important times with friends and loved ones. It can also be an incredible tool for growth, support and guidance in your relationships - when we both trust and learn to lean into it. This goes beyond the notion of somatic empathy - experiencing what other people feel and therefore being able to connect more deeply with their experience, which HSP’s are incredibly good at. Let me give you some examples of what I mean, you may have experience with some of these as a giver in the friendship or receiver:
Connection:
They are in your dream, they are upset - so you text them the next day to let check they are OK and then find out they've broken up with their boy/girlfriend out of the blue.
You think of them repeatedly, or they come to mind but you’re not sure why - so you call to check in. You find out they have been thinking about you and wanted to talk
Support:
You intuitively know what words to write in the card which really lands for them
You trust in your knowledge of how they are feeling and are connected and present for them
You have a sense of what they might need most in this moment without words, a hug, turn up with groceries when they are drained etc
Channelling guidance intuitively (unknowingly):
You intuitively suggest ideas or guidance for friends in conversation when they are stuck which lands perfectly
You have a hunch to buy them a certain book in a charity shop but you don’t know why and it’s life changing for them
Opening up to your intuitive awareness and knowledge that can flow through you in your friendships or relationships (work, family, intimate) can open up a greater sense of trust between you. Trusting that you will receive what you need to know for others and when you need to know to be supportive by following your intuitive nudges, deepens your connections as well as creates a sense of ease for you. This can allow something to come ‘through’ you rather than feel you need to ‘hold’ too much for others which can be a problem for many HSP’s. Working with your intuitive intelligence can create a much greater sense of flow, connection, love and ease in your relationship dynamics.
5. Your true calling
Listening to your intuition, can help direct you to your sense of calling in life which can be incredibly central for HSP’s driven by a deep sense of purpose. Often discovering our calling as a HSP can be a difficult or complex process to navigate as our natural gift of sensitivity may not make traditional, conventional or known roles or environments in the career marketplace a good fit for us. We often have an alternative path of self healing and discovery to uncover our greatest sense of fulfilment or calling (Blog: Eight Reflections to help reveal your calling). So how can our intuition aid us on this journey to?:
lead us to a course to study
lead us to teachers or coaches to work with
develop our own techniques or practices
discover a great passion or joy through a hunch
Instead of being led only by the mind or by the heart, if we start to tune into our gut for ‘knowing’ in the process this can be a powerful practice. Even if we feel clueless, we can set the intention of finding a role, which gives us great fulfilment that we love, then go from there to see what ideas come to us or suggestions are made to us by friends, or use our intuition to help us let go of ideas that feel wrong, or just not right.
Your intuition is always there to try and keep you on track. Even when you feel like you’re walking in the pitch black with just a torch it can become your internal compass guiding the way as you travel. But we do have to trust that feeling and have faith in that process of becoming andt when we do, great things can happen - we begin to flourish and step into our role within the community, which can be incredibly fulfilling.
6. Save your life
Your ‘gut feeling’ can even save your life, or the lives of others. I remember reading or hearing accounts of people choosing not to get on flights because of a ‘bad feeling’ then the plane goes down after they choose not to board, or a hitch hiker not taking a lift from a stranger as it ‘didn’t feel safe’ - then finding out in the papers they were a convicted killer, or simply choosing a different road to drive down as ‘something didn’t feel right’ then finding out there was a car pile up on that road at around that time.
Many of us have heard of these stories I’m sure? Maybe you have even had it yourself or something similar even if less dramatic? That your body is able to pick up on ‘something’ unsaid or unknown and warn you with a feeling, not to continue on this path, even though it's not ‘logical’ - the gut nags at you uncomfortably so you change course.
That is another example of intuition in action, the subtle body picking up on unseen knowledge of future potentials, unfolding events we can’t yet see, then communicating this to us as a ‘no’ or ‘dread’ in the body - but we have to learn to listen and trust that information as it comes in, then act on it, to allow your intuitive sense to maybe even save your life one day or the life of another.
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