Whether one understands the inner voice as something that shows us the right way in dangerous situations (e.g., not to board a certain plane) or conveys indirect messages to us (e.g., an inexplicable feeling of unease before the death of someone close), there are numerous, often spectacular, examples of how someone benefited from having listened to their inner voice.
What is intuition?
Today we commonly call the inner voice intuition, meaning that another voice “speaks” within us in addition to our rational considerations. You guessed it: it must have something to do with our two hemispheres of the brain. The right one for intuition, feeling and creative sense, the left one for logic and analysis.
If we don’t confuse intuition with wishful thinking (I’m sure I’ll win the lottery) or mistrust (I feel exactly that it can’t be trusted), prejudice or false self-assessment, then it can be a useful complement to reason and logic. After all, to solve some problems we need more intuitive skills such as empathy, perception, openness and sensitivity.
Using intuition the right way:
- Relaxation: intuition loves the relaxed moments. Therefore, solutions to problems sometimes occur to us only when we go for a long walk, lie in the bath or are about to fall asleep.
- Time out: If you have puzzled over a problem for a long time and unsuccessfully, only one thing helps: take a creative (!) Break.
- Brainstorming: spontaneously write down all aspects of a problem or issue. Perhaps you can discover a solution in the chaos.
- Listen properly: Consciously pay attention to when in which situations your inner voice comes forward. Often you realize only afterwards that you had the right idea.
- Let guide: In situations where you otherwise acted according to reason and logic, make once a feeling decision, for example, in the diet (your body knows what is good for you), in the daily or weekly planning, in education. In some circumstances, you can rely on your feeling better than you know.
