What Is Intuition? & Intuition Examples

Do you ever get that feeling in your stomach when you know something is just not ‘quite right’? That feeling is your intuition or sometimes called ‘gut feeling’. You don’t just have a feeling in your gut but you often have a voice in your head telling you something is wrong and you should not go into that abandoned house.

This feeling is your intuition. Different people have different names for it but it’s the thing that stops you from doing stupid things. Some people even refer to your intuition as your sixth sense, as if you have some kind of a superpower that you can let guide you through life.

Personally, I don’t think your intuition is a ‘superpower’ but I do think that it is all too often ignored or at least not explored at least. Truth be told, no one really knows what it is or where it comes from but it seems obvious it’s origins are grounded in our evolution as animals.

Your intuition is different from your instincts in the sense that your instincts are correlated to your natural physical behaviour whereas your intuition is linked with your through processes. Having intuition is when you have a quick insight into something without relying on reason. You almost already know the answer to something when you have intuition.

Often times your intuition or ‘gut feeling’ isn’t logical and yet it still feels like the right direction. You can’t explain why you’re making a certain call but you know it’s the right thing to do. Your intuition is naturally guiding you to the right answer.

Like a cat instinctively knows how far it can jump, we as humans instinctively know that we should avoid a place we believe to be dangerous. We may have no reason or way to explain to others why we feel a certain place is dangerous and yet we still strongly feel it.

There’s no understanding of how far it can go or how useful your intuition can be and that’s why some people believe it’s some kind of superpower that pretty much all of us process. As mentioned, intuition often gets looked over, possibly because it cannot be explained in logical terms but I believe it can be something useful to focus on.

Is Intuition A Gift?

Many people also believe that intuition is a gift as if given to us by our creator to guide us properly through a difficult life that’s filled with obstacles. Intuition isn’t of course always used to avoid danger, it often manifests itself when we feel inspired or excited and feel a sudden urge to do something good.

For example, you may see something that you know will be the perfect gift for your friends birthday and you get a sudden rush of clarity where you fully believe that this is the thing that will make them the happiest out of anything you could get them. Your gut points you in the right direction.

What Is Women’s Intuition?

Often times you’ll hear people talking about women’s intuition as if women have a superpower that us guys don’t. However, this is simply a myth and thought to be coined because women are known to obsessively think and pick things part, often allowing them to reach the ‘correct’ answer to situations faster than men.

Does Everyone Have Intuition?

Everybody has intuition whether they realise it or not. Everyone will have at some point feel a gut feeling about something that they couldn’t rationalise. Often this manifests itself after an event where somebody will say; “I knew it, I knew that would happen”, as if they were somehow able to predict the future thanks to their gut feeling.

Are We Born With Intuition?

Everyone is born with intuition, some more so than others. Us humans are born with a level of understanding of what is right and wrong. For example, many people are born into families that want them to do certain jobs but they don’t want to follow those plans themselves. They have a gut feeling that doing that job just because their parents want them to won’t make them happy. Only an individual can read their own ‘intuition manual’ because each one is unique.

The little voice in your head and your gut has always been there and probably stopped you eating those bugs when you were a kid!

How Can Intuition Help You?

You’ll have known when your intuition has helped you before because like I said above, everyone has it. If you cannot judge a situation through logic and evidence, sometimes listening to your gut feeling can help you find the answer. If you feel uneasy about something then it may be best to avoid that situation.

The only issue with this, of course, is the fact that your intuition is not always 100% accurate and can be hit or miss. It is better to work with physical evidence and your intuition together as a mix to get a good feeling for a situation, rather than relying on your intuition alone.

Examples Of Intuition

1. Love – As well as hormones playing their part, you can often tell that you love someone intuitively. You can’t explain why you love them or what you love about them but you feel a natural pull towards them.
2. Negative Vibes – You’ll often meet people in your life that seem perfectly fine but for some reason, you just get a bad vibe from the. Your intuition lets you know that you should probably avoid these people even though you can’t explain why.
3. Bad business deal – You may be on the edge of your seat and being sold a great business deal. It seems like the chance of a lifetime but there’s still something in the back of your head telling you that you should back away whilst you still can. Again, you have no idea why and can’t explain it.
4. Something good – You’ll often find yourselves wanting to go somewhere because you ‘know’ that by doing so something good will happen that day.

Real-Life Examples Of Intuition

Here are some of my real-life examples of intuition to give you a better understanding;

1. I was sick and tired of my depressing night job. Logically, I believed that I would be too tired to go to a job interview to try and get a new job and I also wouldn’t have enough time to due to working five nights a week. However, I found some inner strength after something in my gut told me to just ‘go for it’. Thank god I did because I ended up being able to leave and my whole life improved dramatically.
2. When I was a teenager I was torn between two girls, my ex and a new girl on the scene. I loved both of them but didn’t know what to do. I was stuck and didn’t want to hurt either one of them. I couldn’t use logic to decide and so I fell back on my intuition and chose the new girl. We are now very happy and I knew it was the right choice.
3. I hadn’t seen my school friends for years but it was only when a friend of ours sadly passed away that we met back up for a few drinks in a nearby town. I knew things would be the same as they were between us (even though logically I wasn’t really sure) but it turned out to be a great evening and they were all great and still just as cool to be around.

When Is Intuition Negative?

As mentioned, your intuition isn’t always right and a lot of the time it can be biased. Much of our natural feelings about something can be influenced by past experiences. At the same time, those who suffer from bad anxiety might feel anxious about almost everything and therefore have ‘inaccurate gut feelings.’

For example, when I left school I was invited to go away for a holiday with my friends. I knew logically that it would be amazing but something in the back of my head told me I shouldn’t go. I didn’t want to leave my new girlfriend behind in the fear that she might leave me, even though I was only going to be gon for two weeks. I always regretted that decision and wished I had gone.

On that particular occasion, my gut feeling did me a disservice. It would have been a great experience at a time when I had no real responsibilities.

How To Access Intuition

Whilst your intuition may not always be 100% accurate it’s an undervalued asset in my opinion. Being able to access it can help you to improve your decision making in daily life when paired with physical evidence.

How to access your intuition;

1. Find a time and space where you can be relaxed and undisturbed
2. Contemplate a subject that has been bothering you
3. Ask yourself questions about the subject but do not answer with judgement
4. Write down any answers
5. Explore the feeling in your gut

Accessing your intuition comes in conjunction with acting mindfully and watching your thoughts as they come to you with judgement. Some people will experience a feeling of peace in their chest and others will feel a sinking feeling in their stomach when experiencing their intuition talking to them.

In most cases, your intuition will manifest itself naturally.