How Your Intuition Can Protect You

Its importance, how we've disconnected from it, and what we can do to heighten it

Intuition is a powerful instinct. Yet, we’ve lost it in our modern-day society. Intuition tells us when to leave a bad situation before we are hurt. It tells us whether we should pursue someone as a friend or lover, or not. It can help us make a scary leap like moving to a new city or taking a new job.

Our ancestors relied on their intuition to survive. They didn’t have cell phones, Facetime, security cameras, or side hustles to protect them. They had to trust their gut and go with it.

Technology, although helpful in many aspects, has become a burden on our intuition. Societal norms themselves have created hurdles for our intuition. We fear offending someone by doing what’s best for us. Or, we trust someone’s Facebook profile more so than our gut instinct. To thrive as a species, we need to turn inwards to our intuition.

Importance of Intuition

One of my favorite books of all time is The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker. Here, Becker discusses our fear instinct and how it has helped us survive as a species.

Fear is what protects you when deciding not to walk down a dark alley alone at night. Fear and intuition go hand in hand. Fear is your intuition telling you that something isn’t right.

When I lived in the city, I commuted every day to work on the metro. There were many instances where I got a gut feeling telling me to exit the metro card. Either someone was acting strange or carrying something that doesn’t sit well with me.

I always trusted my instincts and exited the metro car.

Nowadays many people fear offending others. But, at the end of the day, you need to do what is best for you. Cross the street to the other side if you feel you are in danger. Exit the Uber early if you don’t like how the driver is acting.

Women are conditioned to be polite and please others. However, it’s so important that we listen to our intuition if it is telling us to leave a situation. Stop worrying about offending someone and put your own safety first.

Whether we are in physical danger or mental danger, our intuition will let us know.

While these situations seem drastic, our intuition not only guides us in safety situations but also in energic situations. Your intuition could tell you not to continue hanging out with a certain friend or to reject a job offer.

In these situations, our intuition is protecting us from a mental burden. It could be saving us from a friendship that tears down our self-confidence or a job that causes immense stress and anxiety. Intuition serves as your personal bodyguard, ensuring no harm comes your way.

How we’ve disconnected from intuition

Unfortunately, a lot of us don’t listen to our intuition. We feel like we need to have concrete explanations for a feeling we have. However, intuition doesn’t have reason attached to it. It’s just a deep knowing that you can’t explain.

I believe technology is a huge part of this, as well as the disconnect we have with our bodies.

Technology

If you walk down the street of any major city I guarantee you 75% of the people you pass will be looking down at their phones. Our modern world is so BUSY. Who is actually 100% present anymore?

When we are distracted by technology and the crowded world around us, we leave no room for our minds to think. We have no time to observe our surroundings. Our body forgets simple reflexes because it’s over-stimulated by sounds and colors.

Just go watch this viral video of a lady at an ice cream stand who saves a little girl from being trafficked.

Had this lady been looking down at her phone, not paying attention to her surroundings, that little girl would have been snatched. Her family most likely would have never seen her again. Awareness was what saved this girl.

I’ve seen other similar videos such as a man pushing a woman out of the way as a car flies onto the sidewalk. If that man was on his phone she would have been dead. These videos seem to be taken in poorer countries where technology isn’t as common. I wonder if the same thing were to happen in an American city, would the woman be alive or dead?

Our bodies

Many of us self-medicate to the point we don’t even understand the signals our body gives us. It is normal for your heart to speed up when you’re scared. It is normal for you to sweat when you are nervous. Our bodies are helping prepare us for fight-or-flight situations.

But how many of us are actually aware of how our body feels at any given moment? If we feel any kind of pain we pop a Tylenol to make it go away. If we are nervous, we may have a cocktail to take the edge off. If we’re anxious, we smoke a blunt to forget our worries.

Instead of listening to our body’s messages, we try to escape them. The physical sensations in our bodies are a large part of our intuition. Our bodies know things before we do.

What we can do

Our intuition is essential yet we’ve become disconnected from it. To start, I recommend reading The Gift of Fear to understand how powerful fear can be, especially if you are a woman. This book could save your life someday.

Second, you need to learn to be present. Being present in our bodies and minds will help sharpen our intuition. Meditation, sound journey, and silence are the best ways to do this.

Meditation

At this point, it almost sounds cliche, but there’s a reason everyone mentions it. Meditation. Meditation helps you release thoughts that are no longer serving you. It teaches you how to be in the present moment.

Through practice, you build up the skills to be more present in all areas of your life. You’ll learn to enjoy a walk outside without having to pop in your AirPods. You’ll enjoy driving without music on, observing the scenes you pass by.

Sound Journey

Sound journies use music to help us drift into a meditative state. It can help you reach parts of yourself that you otherwise would not be able to reach. I wrote a whole post about my first sound bath experience, which you can read here. In fact, I am currently in training to become a sound practitioner!

Silence

We all know those people that talk and talk because they are so scared of silence. These types of people don’t know how to be alone. Being alone is powerful for honing in on one’s intuition. You are developing your sense of self without the input of anyone else.

You are alone with only you. You don’t hear the opinions of your mom, your friend, your sister, or your boyfriend. You learn about yourself by being silent. Like meditation, you learn to be in the moment and enjoy where you are at. You aren’t looking for any external validation or opinions from others to guide you.

I’ve heard of people who have “silence days” once a month. They won’t talk to anyone for the entire day.

Take action: Maybe work your way up to a day of silence, but until then try eating a meal in silence. Better yet, if you have a family, have them join in the silence with you.

How do you plan on connecting to your intuition? Has acting on your intuition ever saved you from a bad situation?

Connecting with yourself

You can’t develop your intuition if you don’t want to follow your intuition. The first step is recognizing that you’re out of touch with your natural instincts. Start with meditation and use that as a tool to bring awareness to your lack of self. Once you are ready to accept that you have moved away from your intuition, you can work on gaining it back.

The biggest barrier is staying true to yourself. Listen to your intuition at all costs. Don’t let society or someone else tell you how or what to feel. The only person that knows you is you. Having conviction in your own choices is the utmost important thing.