Hearing Your Intuition
and the art of discernment
Welcome back and another happy Sunday to you all! I appreciate your patience while I took some much-needed rest time. I am now back in full swing, let’s get right to it.
To recap, we’ve been spending the last few weeks of summer getting a head start on prepping our intuition for the Fall season. We are finishing our series today by talking about some of the obstacles that keep us from accessing this beneficial part of ourselves and how to build and trust the discernment within ourselves. If you missed the last two articles on intuition, you can catch up here and here.
Intuition is a part of our intelligence and, in my opinion, the better part ;) When we tap into this part of ourselves, we excel in things like better decision-making, improved relationships, improved overall mental and physical health, and aligning our lives to our soul’s purpose.
In working with women in holistic therapy, the two main antagonists to intuition I frequently see are fear and burnout (survival mode). Many human characteristics will interfere with accessing one's intuition, but these two are the most prominent players- especially for women.
Before I dive in, I want to emphasize that if you are dealing with chronic burnout and/or are living in survival mode, it's crucial to seek professional help for nervous system healing and/or trauma processing, as these conditions can interfere with your ability to discern your intuition from fear (which we will dissect below). This article is meant to inform women about the potential of using intuition and discernment and how to remove habitual blocks to intuition, not to downplay the importance of professional support. I am always here if you want to explore that more or have any questions. Feel free to reach out.
The Antagonists: Fear and Burnout
Fear can severely disrupt our intuitive abilities by creating mental, emotional, and physiological barriers that cloud our inner guidance. One of the primary ways this happens is through overthinking and anxiety, where fear causes us to over-rely on logic and external validation. Fear disconnects us from our bodies, where intuition often communicates through sensations like a "gut feeling" or subtle physical cues.
Fear also fosters self-doubt, undermining our confidence and causing us to question our ability to make sound decisions. This leads to an over-reliance on outside opinions, further distancing us from our intuitive insights.
Suppressing emotions is another way fear overpowers intuition, as emotional intelligence is closely tied to our intuitive abilities (for more on this, see last week’s article here). Fear also makes us avoid risks, even when intuition is pushing us toward positive growth, keeping us in a comfort zone and limiting our potential.
In survival mode, fear narrows our focus to immediate safety. When we are in survival mode, our intuition—rooted in calm, clarity, and connection to deeper wisdom—becomes inaccessible. When fear triggers the fight-or-flight response, we focus more on reacting to perceived threats than tuning into our inner guidance. Physiologically, survival mode triggers the brain’s limbic system, prioritizing short-term safety over higher-level thinking. The body's stress response takes over, flooding the system with cortisol and adrenaline, heightening vigilance and suppressing non-essential functions, including intuitive processing.
Burnout keeps us trapped in a state of constant activity, depriving us of the rest and reflection necessary to access deeper wisdom. Like fear, the heightened stress response that burnout triggers prioritizes survival over intuition, diminishing our ability to tune into long-term guidance.
Burnout disrupts our intuitive abilities by draining the mental, emotional, and physical resources needed to connect with inner guidance. Emotional exhaustion from burnout depletes our ability to engage with deeper feelings, making recognizing or trusting intuitive insights difficult. Mental fog and overload, common in burnout, scatter our thoughts, hindering the clarity needed for intuition to thrive. Burnout erodes self-trust, a critical foundation for intuition, because it makes decision-making more difficult, leaving us more reliant on external validation and disconnected from our own inner wisdom.
Additionally, burnout creates a disconnection from the body, as we often ignore physical signals of stress to keep going. This detachment makes it challenging to pick up on the physical sensations that are key to intuition, such as "gut feelings." Burnout also fosters emotional numbness, dulling our sensitivity to intuitive cues, which require emotional openness.
The Role of Discernment
Discernment is the ability to judge well- especially in distinguishing between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, or authentic insights and misleading information. It involves the careful evaluation of thoughts, feelings, and external stimuli to make sound, informed decisions.
Discernment combines intuition, wisdom, and rational analysis to assess situations or information with clarity and understanding. In spiritual or personal development contexts, discernment often refers to the ability to perceive deeper truths and distinguish between intuitive guidance and distractions or impulses influenced by fear, desire, or external pressures.
Using discernment when receiving intuitive hits is essential to ensure that the guidance you're receiving is clear, trustworthy, and aligned with your highest good. In essence, discernment allows you to navigate intuitive hits with wisdom, ensuring that you're not merely reacting but engaging in thoughtful, reflective, and conscious decision-making.
Hearing our Intuition and Sharpening Discernment
Taking the time to listen to your intuition and honor your discernment will create unshakeable confidence in your life and decision-making process. Here are some ways to flex this inner power and enhance the benefits of your intuition:
Distinguishing Between Fear and Intuition: Fear often feels chaotic, urgent, and reactive, pushing you to make decisions out of anxiety. Intuition tends to feel calm, clear, and steady, even if it's guiding you toward something challenging. Use discernment by asking yourself whether the feeling you're receiving is coming from a place of fear and avoidance or from deeper inner knowing and trust.
Grounding and Centering: Before trusting an intuitive hit, ensure you're grounded and centered. Intuition flows better when your mind and body are balanced, whereas stress, fatigue, or emotional overwhelm can distort your perception. Practices like meditation, breathwork, or spending time in nature help clear mental clutter, allowing for more accurate discernment of intuitive messages.
Check for Emotional Triggers: Discern whether an intuitive hit is influenced by unresolved emotional issues or past experiences. Intuition can sometimes be confused with emotional reactions. For example, if you're feeling triggered by a situation, your emotions might cloud true intuitive guidance. Reflect on whether the insight comes from a neutral, peaceful place or if it's being colored by strong emotional states.
Trust Your Body's Signals: Intuition often communicates through bodily sensations. Pay attention to how your body feels when you receive an intuitive hit. Does it feel expansive and aligned, or tense and contracted? Use discernment by observing how your body reacts to the guidance. True intuition often comes with a feeling of ease, even if the message itself is difficult to accept. To grow this connection for yourself, you can use somatic exercises.
Time and Space for Reflection: Some intuitive hits may require time to fully understand or validate. Practicing discernment means allowing yourself the space to reflect rather than immediately acting on every insight. Check if the message feels consistent and still resonates after some time has passed. Rushing into action without reflection can lead to misinterpretation.
Context Matters: Consider the broader context of your life when evaluating an intuitive hit. Is the guidance aligned with your values, goals, and higher purpose? Sometimes what may seem intuitive in the moment may not align with your long-term path. Discernment helps you filter whether an insight is situational or truly universal to your personal growth and well-being.
Recognize Ego vs. Intuition: The ego often speaks from a place of desire, attachment, or need for control. Intuition, on the other hand, often feels detached from personal agenda, providing guidance that is in your best interest even if it's uncomfortable. Use discernment by asking yourself whether the message is driven by ego (validation, success, fear of failure) or by a deeper, more selfless source of wisdom.
Look for Consistency: True intuition often provides consistent signals over time. If you keep receiving the same intuitive nudges, it's likely worth paying attention to. Random, conflicting feelings or ideas may not be intuitive hits but rather mental noise or fleeting thoughts. Discern by noticing recurring themes in your intuitive hits, rather than impulsively acting on a single message.
Balance Logic and Intuition: While intuition is powerful, it works best when balanced with logic and critical thinking. Discernment involves cross-referencing intuitive insights with facts, reason, and practical considerations to ensure you're not acting impulsively or irrationally. Intuition and logic are complementary, not mutually exclusive, and discernment helps you integrate both for wise decision-making.
That is all for today. Remember, the purpose of this article is to empower you to recognize and remove obstacles to accessing your intuition. Experiment with all of this and see what you learn about yourself.
I am super looking forward to next week. One of our community members recently requested that we talk about regulating emotions, an excellent topic that I can’t wait to dive into. See you all next week! Enjoy your Sunday.