How do you know what your intuition is?

[SereneScene]

I go through life with a logical mind but I try to listen to my inner self as well, lets say I have a particular decision to make, my logical mind sees it one way and all of the positives and negatives but regardless of the good or bad I want to do it anyway, how do i know if this is my inner voice though?

What if I want to do this particular something just because of something I might have saw or what someone might have said? How do I know if I want to do something because my intuition is guiding me or becaus of external influences?

I hope I explained this clearly.

[Nighthawk9653]

I'm curious about this as well.

Though for intuition, I've felt it plenty of times, and I can't even explain it. It's just like a feeling of 'knowing' for no particular reason, but you just know. You know something you don't think you should know, Like maybe an oncoming event or something, just that gut feeling.

Well, I think that's what it is...

[Frank Merton]

We know a lot more than ever enters our consciousness at one time. Meditation or sleep or just mulling something over gives our brain a chance to reach down and incorporate these unseen items of information, often leading to a different perspective and even a solution to some problem we had thought unsolvable.

[DeWitz]

Along with Frank's eplication above, I think that what we call "intuition" is a holdover from ancient days (evolutionarily adaptive trait) whereby we sub-consciously assess matters around us and inside of us all the time. Hence when decision-time comes, we have much more than rationality and gathered information to act upon. We have an 'inner sense' of what might be the best way to go, espcially in a challenging or even threatening situation.

[Bendy Demon]

Along with Frank's explanation above, I think that what we call "intuition" is a holdover from ancient days (evolutionarily adaptive trait) whereby we sub-consciously assess matters around us and inside of us all the time. Hence when decision-time comes, we have much more than rationality and gathered information to act upon. We have an 'inner sense' of what might be the best way to go, especially in a challenging or even threatening situation.

That has to be one of the best, non fluffy ways to define intuition that I have seen in a long time.

Thanks.

[John from Lowell]

Hi,

Intuition presents itself as a quick flash of insight about something. Now if the logical brain comes in to negate that inspiration, it was intuition.

The best way to foster intuition is to put those insights into practice. Taking an action based on intuition encourages more intuition and helps the logical brain become more comfortable with it. The source for our intuition is the inner self as the OP so nicely identified.

I would also recommend meditations involving imaginary conversations with our inner wisdom. It is nice to acknowledge we have an inner wisdom this way.

John

[spud the mackem]

Intuition...is having immediate instinctive knowledge or perception of something good or dangerous, its up to you whether you act on it with your conscious mind or subdue the passing thought, and hope you are doing the right thing.(like walking down a dark alleyway to take a short cut or going the long way around)