Hi there, My name is Antonia, and I am the creator of Divinely Develop, a personal and spiritual growth brand devoted to helping people connect to their inner self, build a better lifestyle and live a happier and more meaningful life. Through years of practicing intuition as well as learning about it, I've come to see intuition as a deeply spiritual experience. Most spiritual coaches would tell you that intuition is not loud; it's a quiet inner voice or a subtle feeling that shows up when it's needed. Intuition is kind of like an energetic muscle. When you ignore it, it gets quieter until you can barely hear it, but if you choose to listen to it, it gets more powerful each time. We could say many things about the source of intuition, depending on our understanding of the world, but the fact is, many people have failed to listen to their intuition and regretted it, while far fewer have regretted listening to it. Intuition and common sense are connected, but their guidance is often completely different. Common sense acts on previous experiences, perceived knowledge, and trust we have in a certain situation. But, if our 'common sense' was nearly as smart as we trust it to be, we'd all be making far fewer mistakes, wouldn't we? This is not to say that intuition is always right, but that is mostly because what we think is intuition is a lot of times inaccurate. Spiritual growth and mindfulness help us discern our mind from our heart and soul. When we know ourselves and when we spend time in our inner world, it's much easier to understand what is our intuition and what is just poor judgment. Intuition is best used in combination with common sense and intelligence to understand when it's best to take a step back and reconsider because our intuition is telling us something is off. My intuition has been quite loud for years, but as a 'rational' person, I failed to listen to it more times than I can count. And guess what? I regretted it every single time. Intuition guides both small and big decisions, so a good way to start is to listen to small hints first to get comfortable with it and strengthen trust. Ultimately, intuition comes from a connection with our inner self who understands and sees things we might not see initially. Whether you believe it to be just you or something higher guiding your way, it's worth listening to that inner guidance once in a while, and who knows, it might lead you exactly where you're meant to be.
Imagine life without intuition and you will immediately see its value. There is no step-by-step guide book on starting your business. Yes, there are basic guides on starting a business and maybe even the same type of business you're starting, but it's not your business. Sometimes intuition is all you have when you're just starting out. Intuition is the gut feeling to take a risk, it's the foundation of an exciting new idea. Sometimes your intuition fails you, but you need to be able to accept that and be able to rely on your intuition again, especially when running a business.
Hi Hudi and Yitzi, I'm a sex and relationship therapist and I want to pitch something for your intuition series that I think most people in this space get wrong: not every gut feeling is wisdom. Some are old wounds running the show. I work with clients in healthy, stable relationships that feel "wrong" to them because they grew up in unsafe environments. Safety registers as boring, suspicious, or "something's off." Their intuition is screaming danger when they're actually safe for the first time. That's not body wisdom. Their wires got crossed. I don't think intuition alone is enough for big decisions. "Should I leave this relationship" doesn't have an objectively right answer, you need both critical thinking and intuition working together to live a meaningful life. What I help people do is distinguish between common sense and actual intuition. Common sense is the beliefs you absorbed from your cultural environment, social scripts like: what relationships are supposed to look like, what's "normal," what you should want, how much money leads to happiness etc. Intuition is different. It's how your body is responding moment to moment, processing sensory input and making meaning out of it in real time. The gift of intuition is it tells you how you actually feel about something and whether it's aligned with your values. Common sense gives you wisdom, structure, and a path that has worked. You need both. Intuition without common sense leads to impulsivity, purposelessness, and may provide short-term satisfaction. Common sense without intuition leads to self-betrayal and a life that looks right but feels empty. In my practice, I teach clients to understand the difference so they can live a life that is uniquely theirs. Before becoming an actor in NYC before becoming a therapist. As a second-generation Iranian-American I was always "too white" for Middle Eastern roles and "not white enough" to read as neutral, so I got very good at reading rooms and adjusting myself to fit. I thought that was intuition. It was hypervigilance. Learning the difference changed how I think about all of this. I'm an LCSW, Level 2 Internal Family Systems (IFS) trained, a yoga therapist, and a realist. I integrate somatic, experiential, systems-focused approaches that lead to embodied change. If I'm not a fit for this, please consider me for other pieces focused on mental health, sexuality, and relationships. Looking forward to hearing from you!
In my experience, the best way to get in touch with your intuition is to quiet your thinking, rational mind. Pros and cons lists can be helpful when you are trying to analyze the logistics or details of a particular decision. But, as I've often told my clients, what does the part of you that is NOT your brain say? There are some steps to getting in touch with this part of yourself, which I can detail. In brief, it involves finding what I like to call the "off button" in your thinking and rational brain, and then sitting with how each option feels for you (if you are trying to make a decision on something). As far as when to trust your intuition when making decisions, I would say that the answer is always. The one caveat would be that this answer assumes that you have truly gotten in touch with that part of yourself which has that profound wisdom and have not deluded uourself in to just trying to move towards a decision that you would prefer. Where does intuition come from? This is a fascinating question, which harkens back to my days as an undergraduate philosophy student. I think that it comes from either one or both of two possible places, both of which are steeped in mystery. The collective unconscious or subconscious mind and your limbic system. I'm happy to talk about both in more detail. Seems like a great topic! Stephen
Psychotherapist and Clinical Educator at The Place Psychological Services, PLLC
Answered 4 months ago
People who do not believe in intuition likely don't know the science of it. That innate understanding that happens without any type of analysis can actually be traced back to science. We are all born with these internal temperature gauges. The scientific term for the automatic process of checking the temperature of a situation is called neuroception. During this process, our brains scan our environment and combine that information with our lived experiences to come to a well-informed conclusion without us ever having to think about it. It is an in-built protective feature we all have. Translating this to intuition and the question of if it can be trusted, I'd say if a person has good enough insight, it definitely can be trusted. Intuition differs from common sense because common sense implies common knowledge. Intuition is unique and specific to each individual, because each individual has a different lived-experience and biological make-up that will shift how their nervous system (neuroception...temperature gauge) responds. The trustworthiness of intuition comes into question when there is unresolved trauma history or attachment wounding, but even with these barriers, insight and self-awareness (often developed with the help of a mental health professional) helps reinforce our ability to trust our intuition.
As the Founder of MyLifeCoach.com and Executive Life Coach of over 20 years, a large part of my coaching focuses on building the intuition of the client, so that they are connected to who they are, what feels right and wrong to them, and they have a grounded, centered basis to make decisions from. Getting in touch with your intuition is really about building and strengthening your connection to your intuition, which is always there, we just often can't hear it. We lose touch over time by overriding ourselves, listening to the outside (including other people) instead of our insides, and not consciously acknowledging what our intuition is telling us, even if we make a conscious choice to go in another direction. Usually we just ignore our intuition because the truth of what it is telling us scares us. Part of getting back in touch involves balancing our energies and tending to our energies and internal environment such that all input from the intuition is welcome. Practising making decisions based on intuition is *how* we both learn to trust our intuition, and make the connection even stronger. I'm happy to discuss concrete techniques for getting in touch with your intuition and learning how and when to trust your intuition when making decisions.
It wasn't until I built and scaled Infinite Medical Group that I understood intuition for what it really is, just pattern recognition that the brain cannot fully comprehend. In business, intuition isn't emotional or impulsive....it's the calmest voice in the room. Fear is loud. Ego is loud. Urgency is loud. Intuition is the unexplainable, quiet knowing. When I first started my business I tried to ignore my intuition by doing things that looked good on paper. I got into partnerships that seemed that they should be right, but didn't feel right. I hired the resume instead of the person. That's when I realized intuition and common sense need to be partners in business. When both are around and a part of the process decisions are simple.
My strong intuition felt like somewhat of a weakness prior to becoming a therapist. I can't answer the "where does it come from," but I do think it can be trusted on an internal level. The problem with it is when more than intuition is needed to make a judgement call, like when presenting information to others. It can look like you're missing data and going on "vibes" which is not acceptable in many circumstances. I've found myself struggling to back up my thoughts on a client when consulting on cases due to not having asked more clarifying questions, that in the moment, I did not feel needed to be asked because I "just knew." The same happened when I was a background investigator for top secret clearances; I often had to return to the person to ask for more explanation to include in my report, which of course was annoying to them. As I've grown as a therapist I am careful to slow down the intuition feeling and comment on facial expressions, shifts in body language, tone, and other messages I am picking up on in a session. This helps the client feel truly seen and understood, gives more language (ie evidence) to the sense I'm getting, and also gives them a chance to clarify if I did in fact make a false assumption. In my role as a therapist, when clients want guidance on trusting their own intuition, I am careful to help them look logically at a situation and "Check the Facts" (DBT skill), while also encouraging them to acknowledge their feelings about a situation. Another DBT skill, "Wise Mind," can be really helpful because it helps a client to see reason and logic while also validating feelings and senses of "just knowing," and coming to a decision that sits at the intersection of logic and emotion in the Wise Mind Venn diagram.
About 20% of what this question's about is actually just about trust. When it comes down to it, I see intuition as fast-pattern recognition based on your own life experience, not some mystical thing. It gets sharper when you're not getting distracted by all the background noise. I test my intuition on the small things first - if it works out, that gives me more trust in it on the bigger calls. I never rely solely on my intuition, but I do use it to keep a check on data and get a quick read on what might be going on. Anyone can tune in to their own intuition by filtering out some of the background noise, fewer opinions, less clutter. Intuition will speak up when you've got a clear mind and are not overloaded.
I'd love to be considered for this series. I'm Gina Dunn, founder of OG Solutions and a brand strategist who works with founders and executives on clarity-led decision making and leadership signal. My perspective on intuition is grounded and practical: intuition is often compressed experience and pattern recognition, paired with nervous system feedback. I've found it's most trustworthy when it's calm and consistent, and least trustworthy when it's urgent or reactive. I'd be glad to share how leaders can tune into intuition, test it against reality, and use it alongside data when making decisions.
Hi! My name is Stella Kimbrough and I'm a licensed psychotherapist (LCSW) and have insight and experience on the topic of intuition. I would love to help you with your piece. I think about intuition as an innate feeling about something based on the culmination of emotion, logic, and memory. Everyone has the capacity to access their intuition, but some people might have difficulty tuning in or understanding what their intuition is. Sometimes people can mistake strong emotions for intuition. While emotions play a role in intuition, they aren't the whole story. Accessing intuition is a skill that can be strengthened with practice. Using the skill of accessing intuition can be both powerful, quick, and effective in helping to navigate difficult or stressful circumstances. Please let me know if you'd like me to answer any specific questions. Warmly, Stella
Hello, Yudi & Hitzi! The serial founders and family business owners that I coach absolutely have the ability to understand something immediately, from looking at their financial statements to detect something is amiss in a line item before doing the math and getting the historical comparison data...to knowing situational instances in their business that require a certain solution, which some refer to this as institutional knowledge. Intuition develops from wisdom + experience. It's not some magical force that only a few have. Here's a quick way to detect intuition for those who seem indecisive: the coin flip "test." You have a decision to make, and you are just ailing over it. You have the data. You have narrowed it down to two choices. Assign heads to one and tails to the other. Flip the coin. How are you feeling about what the coin has told you to choose? Intuition will drive a feeling of satisfaction if the coin flip came up heads and it's the right decision. If it came up heads and you aren't feeling good about it, intuition is telling you this as well. (And, you always then ask yourself about how you'd feel about it if the other side of the coin turned up in the flip.) Common sense is part of wisdom, which is part of intuition. You build your intuition the more challenges you face. It's not about age, per se. It's about experiences. This is why some who are younger seem to be wiser than their elders and make great mentors or advisors. We tend to use the word "intuition" when we feel as though we aren't making a data-based decision or when we feel as though we don't have an explanation that's "good enough" for making a certain decision. To better get in touch with your intuition, some may need to schedule more time in their day to reflect. That doesn't mean sitting around. Some are better at reflection when they walk in nature or just walk away from their desk. I coach my clients to always trust their intuition. This doesn't mean to make a decision in the moment base don that intuition. It means to "listen" to it as part of directing your time toward finding the data that can help you make that decision. Thank you for the opportunity to answer this one! My LinkedIn: https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/RyanKauth Email: RyanKauth@gmail.com Text: (920) 393-3095 my Authority Magazine article: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/ryan-kauth-of-business-coach-executive-five-things-you-need-to-create-a-highly-successful-career-37e09e141161
In my opinion, intuition is the culmination of experience processed in an extremely quick manner. The way an individual who has spent a long period of time reviewing hiring patterns and observing how companies make hiring decisions will be able to identify trends before they are even apparent in the available data. In my opinion, this is not a gut feeling but rather insight gained through many hours of work. I consider intuition as a signal, not a definitive answer. If I have an instinct about something being right, I verify it with data or feedback from my colleagues. If the data indicates that I was wrong, I take my time in making a decision. When the data and instinct become one, this is usually the best decision. In order to maintain contact with my intuition, I create an environment within myself where there are minimal distractions, set priorities, and short pauses for self reflection. I find that a person's ability to identify true insights from stress and impulsivity is much higher when the insight comes from experience, and when it is compared to logic.
Leadership & Transformation Career Coach & Founder, PCC at Radiant Firefly
Answered 4 months ago
Go to college, get a job, work hard, get married, and do all the prescribed things that in theory should make us all happy, but do we ever stop and ask ourselves if it's really what we want or need? Or are we doing it because it's expected of us? From my own personal experiences, and working with 100's of clients looking to change careers, get promoted, navigate work and life in a way that feels more congruent to them, intuition is one of the most overlooked and neglected pieces keeping us from existing day to day in a way that feels more in balance and attuned to our individual needs, natural strengths, and what we actually want. So many of us work tirelessly trying to achieve and please bosses, partners, family, and friends. We seldomly stop and pause to see if a new job, position, partner, places and ways we spend our time really serve us or someone or something else. If we don't get out of this autopilot, and truly know how to answer the question, what do I want and need, and have some sort of process to check in with ourselves, our intuition, frequently, are we ever living a life true to us? I don't believe it needs to be a complicated process, but there needs to be an awareness. Unless we check in with how we actually feel given certain circumstances or decisions, we give our energy and power to everything else but ourselves, leading to bitterness or resentment. - I'll ask clients who are interviewing if they feel drained or energized by their interviews. Checking in with how they felt, their intuition, coming out of that process can signal if the company will be a good fit for them. - Clients that have been laid off after working for decades at the same organization want to give something different a whirl, and they've journaled at the end of each week what they enjoyed or what they didn't to eliminate options and get clarity on what the right thing is. - A young client of mine felt his manager wasn't providing a good environment for him to thrive, and was terrified of letting his team down if he left. He made a priority list and started doing internal informational interviews, and found a team that honored his non-negotiables. He's keeping this list and not afraid any longer to address what doesn't align with him. He followed his intuition and couldn't be happier with the outcome. Rewiring our neuropathways to create change can be hard, but learning to listen to what our intuition is telling us can lead to more fulfillment day to day.
Psychotherapist, TEDx Speaker, Award Winning Author at Live More Psychotherapy
Answered 4 months ago
We are often told to trust our gut. For people living with trauma or chronic stress, those signals can be confusing. What feels like intuition is often fear trying to keep us safe. My name is Dr. Maria Grace Wolk. I am a licensed psychotherapist, TEDx speaker, and author. My work is rooted in neuroscience and trauma-informed care, while remaining respectful of how people experience intuition as inner knowing. I help clients learn when those internal signals can be trusted and when they are shaped by stress, fear, or survival responses. Intuition is both biological and meaningful. It reflects how the brain and body rapidly process information based on past experience and present cues. When the nervous system is regulated, intuition is clear and reliable. When it is overwhelmed, fear often takes the lead. Learning to tell the difference is essential for sound decision-making.
Intuition is a form of internal wisdom that helps navigate complexity when logic or data are not enough. In some cases, I believe that intuition is better than having a lot of data. I once left a professional project where, although the data said I did the right thing, it was my intuition that truly told me that the future effort wasn't worth it, bringing me immediate relief after closing that door. Trust your intuition when it warns you that a dream or project is sacrificing your physical and mental health. If your gut tells you "that's it," use that perspective to let go. In entrepreneurship, there are times you must choose which path to follow so you can sleep peacefully at night. If the spreadsheet says one thing but your instinct keeps you awake, listen to your inner voice. To hear that "small inner voice," I believe you must first silence the external noise and create the right mental conditions. What I usually do is: - Prioritize rest: I have learned that there is no worse state for making decisions than exhaustion. I maintain that you must listen to your inner voice and rest when your mind and body demand it, as tiredness clouds judgment. - Move and change my environment: Physical activity, especially running, is my favorite tool to "clear the mind" and reconnect with what is essential. It helps me organize ideas and solve things. - Practice intentional introspection: I create deliberate spaces for self-reflection. This includes walking, being in nature, sitting alone in a cafe, or taking small trips to move away from the habitual environment of "doing".
As beings who pride ourselves on our intellect and rationality, most people would argue that your logical brain is the best guide of actions, but there's a fatal flaw in this reasoning when it comes to major life decision: Your logical brain can only possibly operate with the information and the variables that it is given. But the truth of the matter is that there are infinite logical variables involved in making grand life decisions. Imagine, for example, that you were to choose who to marry based solely on logic and rationality. You could try to calculate everything from their attitude on TV shows to preferred foods, to their genetic predisposition to allergies and how fast they read, to their leadership qualities and experience in business so that you could calculate their earning potential, etc... The list is literally endless. And you would never be able to predict how anyone them would play out. Intuition on the other hand, is far more nuanced. It is connected with who you are at your core. It doesn't consider logical variables. It works on vibe. A kind of emotional and personality radar, if you will. It's a subliminal part of your personality telling you what feels right and what doesn't. Now, here's the real secret: Your intellect can be convinced to believe anything. You can talk yourself into anything. The mind is actually quite fickle that way. But your intuition knows what it knows and wants what it wants and that's all there is to it, because it's connecting with something innate about your personality. Which means that if you insist on following your intellect even when it betrays your intuition, you will always feel inner conflict because you can't change what your intuition is telling you. This self-betrayal leads to anxiety, depression and self-doubt. But if you follow your intuition even when your intellect is uncertain about that decision, you can always convince your intellect that it was the right decision, and live in peace. The intellect is no more infallible than intuition. But at least when you follow your intuition, you'll be acting in a way that is true to yourself and can lead you to a life of authenticity, love, and self-awareness. Of course, there's a time and place for each. Let the intellect choose your investment portfolio, but let your intuition tell you what kind of person you want to be.
Hey Authority Magazine, I am the CEO of Aitherapy, an AI mental health companion designed with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Since the AI and Mental Health field is very new and at the very cutting edge of tech, there are no path that has been previoulsy taken, so in a lot of situations the facts in hand is not enough to give a healthy decision so I trust my intuituion a lot. I would love to contribute to this series
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner & Practice Owner at Praxis Mental Health
Answered 4 months ago
Intuition is often framed as mystical: "knowing without knowing why." From a neuroscience lens, it's usually rapid pattern recognition. The brain continuously takes in information outside conscious awareness, like facial expressions, tone, timing, context, and then unconsciously compares this to cognitive templates built from past experience. When something fits (or doesn't!), it produces that "gut feeling" we call intuition. Pattern recognition happens automatically as our brains process sensory information, resulting in a vague perception of coherence that we can't immediately describe. Instead, it feels like an embodied sensation. This unconscious cognitive activity can become conscious when we process that input intentionally. Is intuition helpful? Sometimes! It depends on how we process it. The key is creating space for reflection by deliberately pausing between the intuitive feeling and your action. Mindfulness and cognitive training teach us to enter "metacognitive processing," essentially thinking about how we think. First, practice noticing when intuition arises by identifying the physical sensations or emotions that accompany your gut reactions. This builds interoceptive awareness, which is the ability to sense internal bodily signals, such as heartbeat, breathing, and muscle tension. Second, create psychological distance by pausing and labeling what you're experiencing. Try saying, "My gut feeling is telling me X." Next, utilize structured questions from mindfulness and CBT. Ask yourself what patterns your brain may be recognizing and which of your past experiences may drive this intuitive feeling. This allows us to shift from bias into broader perspective-taking by generating at least two alternative explanations or interpretations. Lastly, weigh the costs and benefits of following your intuition and considering the short-term and long-term consequences of following it versus going with other options. Ultimately we need to make a conscious decision whether to act on, modify, or override the intuitive impulse based on your analytical evaluation. After all is said and done, use something called reflective practice, a common healthcare technique in which we continually reflect to improve our practice and achieve better outcomes. Reflecting on the outcome will calibrate your intuition over time.
I've built my career on trusting intuition at critical moments, but I've learned that intuition without data is just guessing. The real power comes from training your intuition through experience, then knowing when to listen to it. When I founded Fulfill.com, my intuition told me the 3PL industry needed a marketplace model to connect e-commerce brands with the right fulfillment partners. Everyone said it wouldn't work because logistics is too complex and relationships matter too much. But I had spent years in warehouses, talking to brands struggling to find reliable fulfillment, and I could feel the pain point. That intuition was built on thousands of conversations and real operational experience. I trusted it, and we've now helped thousands of brands scale their fulfillment operations. Here's what I've learned about developing reliable intuition in business. First, intuition is pattern recognition your brain does subconsciously. The more quality data you feed it through direct experience, the sharper it gets. I spend time in warehouses, on client calls, and reviewing operations data not just to manage the business, but to train my intuition. When something feels off with a potential warehouse partner, it's usually because my brain has picked up subtle patterns I've seen before that led to problems. Second, I've created a framework for when to trust intuition versus demanding more analysis. For reversible decisions like testing a new marketing channel, I trust my gut and move fast. We can always pivot. For irreversible decisions like major technology investments or partnership agreements, I use intuition as a starting point but validate with data and team input. My intuition might flag an opportunity, but we dig deep before committing. Third, I've learned to distinguish between intuition and fear. Intuition feels calm and clear, even when it's telling you something difficult. Fear feels anxious and reactive. When I'm deciding whether to pursue a major strategic shift, I ask myself: Am I avoiding this because I'm genuinely seeing problems, or because change is uncomfortable? True intuition points toward growth, even when it's scary. The most practical advice I can give is to create feedback loops. When you make an intuition-based decision, track the outcome. I keep a decision journal where I note what my intuition told me and what actually happened. Over time, you learn where your intuition is reliable and where it needs more training.