It’s happened to all of us at one point in our lives.
Rationally, a move doesn’t make sense. We’ve been advised against doing anything rash but… we have a strong intuition telling us “this is right for me.”
How do we know when to trust that voice? How seriously do we weigh that internal tug against our own or others’ reasoning? What do I do with this gut feeling?
WHAT IS INTUITION?
Psychology Today defines intuition as “a form of knowledge that appears in consciousness without obvious deliberation. It is not magical but rather a faculty in which hunches are generated by the unconscious mind rapidly sifting through past experience and cumulative knowledge.”
Intuition is our thinking that works faster and more broadly than our conscious mind. It’s pulling from more sources of experience and analyzing that information more rapidly than we can grasp with our verbal thoughts.
Intuition is our knowledge and understanding that emerges without our conscious awareness.
SHOULD I TRUST MY INTUITION?
Without knowing the specific experiences that intuition is founded upon – or the chain of reasoning that has led you to that gut feeling – it can be hard to trust.
How many times have you been in a situation and thought, “something is not right.”
You’re not aware of it at the moment, but your mind is processing thousands of pieces of information too quickly for your conscious mind to grasp. Your unconscious mind then sends a signal – a tightening in the gut or the word ‘no’ – to let you know it’s picked up on a pattern that signaled a problem in the past.
Although you can’t put your finger on what the problem is, it can be a legitimate reason to leave first and ask questions later or to investigate further.
There are times when you should be especially careful about following your intuition. For example, if you’re feeling strong emotions, these can throw your intuition out-of-whack. Even the flush of excitement that comes with falling in love can be a time when your intuition is less reliable!
When you’re feeling balanced is a good time to listen to your intuition.
THINKING WITH OTHERS
We often go to others for advice – friends, family, even the internet crowd!
You’ll find all kinds of advice. If you continue to feel a tug away from the advice you’re given, perhaps you have more information – or understand yourself and the situation better – than anyone dispensing well-meaning and confident advice.
It can be invaluable to talk through your situation with trusted advisors. Equally important is how your gut feels and reacts to all the advice and scenarios you talk through with others.
TRUSTING YOUR INTUITION
Intuition isn’t a perfect guidepost every time but there are plenty of examples of intuition guiding a decision that didn’t make sense “on paper” but was absolutely perfect for the person feeling that tug.
Artists following their instincts have…
- Started a festival in a place that didn’t ‘make sense’
- Moved their work to a new country
- Founded a new artistic movement that no one understood when they started!
LISTENING TO INTUITION AS AN ARTIST
As artists, we can always turn up the volume on our intuition by listening.
If we give space and time to allow our intuition to guide us, it will start to speak up more often.
This can be journaling, quiet morning coffee with a view, or artistic time without goals or plans.
It can also be trying out that courageous move that your gut keeps yelling at you to do…and you’ve been ignoring until now.
How do you feel when you make that decision? Lighter? Happier? Assured?
We have so much knowledge that emerges without our rational, conscious, reasoning minds.
Take time to shut down the usual chatter and listen…. what bubbles up? What do you feel?
