Gut feelings, hunches, how do you perceive intuition?

I'm asking because I think I always had trouble following my intuition, and many times just let logic and preconceived notions or fears guide me.
Which are all very helpful of course, but many times I've felt regret in not doing things differently or more creatively.
And does creativity play a part in intuition?
How is it for you, what exactly happens in your thoughts or minds in decision making? I hear some people get actual physical gut feelings (hence the name I guess).
And also have there been times where a gut feeling or hunch was so strong that you couldn't help but go with it?

I don't know in my larger life, but I remember in school that one of most important things I learned about taking multiple choice tests was to always trust your gut. It seemed that when you knew a little about the topic but weren't 100% about it, your gut response to a question was often more correct than the answer you would second guess. At least it always seemed that way to me.

A person has 2 types of logic , Deductive and intuitive, Which is better ? Cant say. I usually go with the intuitive (spidey sense) side.

Trust them. For the most part you know already so yeah trust them.

Feel suddenly like crossing the street ? Do it. Think the long way home is a better idea. You need to go to the store anyway you tell yourself. Go with that. Sometimes intuition needs justification or an excuse to influence us.
Think your kid is engaging in dangerous behavior? Amp up the parent thing. Think your other is cheating. Hmmm pay close attention.
I'm not encouraging a suspicious mind but if your gut insists it's not unwise to investigate or act.
I read a story once about a school on a mountainside that was destroyed by a rock slide. Of the 100 or so students a full third did not show up for school that day. Some citing illness but many said they had a bad dream or a bad feeling. One even said the school was going to be destroyed according to her parents.

Animals have instincts and we are the top of the animal kingdom our instincts are most likely superior too. If we were encouraged to developers them that is.

My significant other has astonishing powers of intuition; And I don't hesitate to use the word psychic.

I have learned to pay close attention to her "hunches"....We make a great team at the holdem or Omaha tables.

originally posted by: olaru12
My significant other has astonishing powers of intuition; And I don't hesitate to use the word psychic.

I have learned to pay close attention to her "hunches"....We make a great team at the holdem or Omaha tables.

Yeah I have a pretty good handle on hunches too. I hesitate to say it's a woman thing but perhaps because we're physically weaker we use them in judging safety and learn to trust those spidey senses because we have to. Practice makes perfect. Like working a muscle over and over. Kids, cooking, require a bit of instinct. Women use it more I think. .

PS I've had my share of luck at the gaming tables and slot machines and at the racetrack. They say I'm lucky.

a reply to: ketsuko

If that's the case, I can thank my intuition for passing a lot of exams back in school then, in a period when I wasn't particularly very attentive


So in that case it's like just going for the option that inexplicably attracts you, rather then letting doubt control your choice?

a reply to: athousandlives

My "Spidey" senses tingle.

a reply to: Sillyolme

Sometimes intuition needs justification or an excuse to influence us.

Hmm, maybe I know what you mean. Times when I tried to really justify a random decision, or telling myself that if I had to make a choice then something else will happen to help me confirm it.

Animals have instincts and we are the top of the animal kingdom our instincts are most likely superior too. If we were encouraged to developers them that is.

I know, I think some animals actually feel much subtler changes in electro-magnetic fields and frequencies, so you think that human instinct and intuition could be like sensing other frequencies or 'disturbances in the force'?

a reply to: athousandlives

Yes i always go with my intuition, always! When i feel hesitant, or when i feel something is 'off' i listen to my higher self and go with what's being fed to my physical if that makes sense. I can usually feel it inside, like a wave. That is how i determine specific things occurring around me, that and I'm psychic.

An interesting piece of info for you:
Gut Instincts: Scientists Prove You Have a Second Brain in Your Stomach

“Some of the best advice you’ll ever get will come from your gut instinct”. We’ve all heard expressions about trusting our gut and following our instincts, but now, science is finally giving us the evidence to support it.

Dubbed “The Second Brain” by Michael Gershon, Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. The network of neurons that line our guts are filled with (over 100 million) neurotransmitters which to put it simply, do a lot more than simply digest our food

What Gershon found is that the enteric nervous system directly connects to the larger central system at the base of the skull, that assists in feeding information to our brains through the hypothalamus and pituitary, known as the Gut Brain Axis. This information exchange than helps to determine our mental state, as well as “playing a crucial role when it comes to disease in the body.”

thespiritscience.net...

a reply to: athousandlives

Funny you should bring this subject up as I had listened to a CBC podcast on the very subject .

Whether you call it a hunch, a sixth sense, or just a gut feeling — new research suggests it's important to pay attention to it. A new Cambridge University study, published in the the journal Scientific Reports, delves into understanding that gut feeling by focusing on financial traders. The study suggests stock traders who follow their own gut feelings make more profitable trades, and even have longer careers.

www.cbc.ca... 198 Might be worth checking out .

a reply to: athousandlives

does creativity play a part in intuition?

Not so much. (but see below) But I find having the ability and open mindedness to see all points of view on issues --yes absolutely; rigid thinking in absolutes -- only black and white --by definition shuts out alternative possibilities that hide in the shades of gray.

My intuition manifest as a feeling of "just knowing"-- a certain kind of stillness at your core-- don't think just do

they had a bad dream

Definitely. Dreamed -more like pure nightmare--mom was being attacked by bears-next morning called her -you ok?-they were sitting in the ER waiting for a room to become available-she was diagnosed that morning with the "widowmaker" heart blockage and docs were going to place a stent, etc. She was waiting till they got into a room before they called family. Imagine my dad's surprise when I called them first!

Dreamed ex was hanging with some not so cool ppl in Myrtle Bch - told my son to be careful as he had just renewed contact with his Dad--Son was like "how'd you know he was in Myrtle Bch?"--I hadn't talked to ex in years; Still don't. To my knowledge he was still way out of state.

9/11--God don't get me started.

I find also it's not so much a "little voice in your head" or "thoughts" as in words or left-side bran logic--more of a "picture that is not a picture"- more of a sense- which is a right-brain function, which correlates to the artistic side of the brain.

Hope this helps.

originally posted by: athousandlives
a reply to: ketsuko

If that's the case, I can thank my intuition for passing a lot of exams back in school then, in a period when I wasn't particularly very attentive

So in that case it's like just going for the option that inexplicably attracts you, rather then letting doubt control your choice?

It's called educated guessing. Usually when you aren't 100% positive, your first inclination is most likely to be the right answer than when you start to second guess yourself.

Now if you haven't had any exposure to the subject in question, it really won't matter.

a reply to: athousandlives

Intuition is that quiet little voice that speaks first, but is quickly drown out by logic, doubt, and fear.

It drives my peers who are meticulous planners crazy, but im the opposite. I usually go with that quiet little voice that speaks first To such a degree that I had to learn logic when I got older. I think a lot..but usually after the decisions are made.

It takes all types to make this world go round, though. So don't force yourself to think in ways that are wholly foreign.

a reply to: athousandlives

Its a sensation you cant pave into existence. You have to chip away what it is not.

It is a clarity not from focus but rather by being in a void of distractions. They are alwas there, but awareness of the fact that what you wish to focus on is there as well is paramount to living with pure functional instinct.

Its like leaving the last chip on a shared platter.

Either you grab it or not. Either you are only thinking of others, or only of yourself in that moment. Preserving the self or the self through the group. That is instinct at play.

Group or self

If you percieve thoughts that you have, you may end up understanding the thoughts of others. That is a source of instinct. Prediction.

Impulse, is what passion cultivates. Passion is also instinct....good and bad, however you set your scale.

The physical aspect is the same as instinct to pull away from fire when too hot or curl into warmth when cold.

You percieve the painful sensation or the comforting one. You predict it, your drive, passion, spirit,....is what moves you after your totality void of distractions decides to preserve its own existence...or threaten it.

In the same way you "feel" your thoughts, and hopefully those of others...which completes the circuit of instinct, you can feel instinct.

It is motion and gnosis in one. Self affirmation and withdrawl. Instant drop of true you.

Either you take the last chip or you dont.

Everything dealing with instinct is that last chip.

a reply to: athousandlives

I use my intuition daily in my job and other places. For the record, my job deals with a lot of database and programming, something where you are supposed to use facts. When I am on the job, I could get a random series of events, and have the actual problem in my head before the facts support it. You might come to me saying your computer is not booting up, and someone else comes to me saying they cannot save an attachment to the bug tracking software, and I'll immediately know to make sure the network isn't acting up. It annoys my coworkers and managers all the time, because they will try (and repeatedly fail) to say it's something else, and I'll look like the fool in the meeting...until their idea fails.

I do get the gut feelings as well - The best example of this was I was dating someone a long time ago that was quite emotional. Well, I was riding in the car one day with my mom, and out of nowhere, I felt this immense wall of sadness. One minute, I'm fine, next **BOOM** it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was like we passed through an intense cloud of it. Told my mom I need to get back and check on my friends...now - Someone was in pain. I was actually crying from being worried. Sure enough, I get home, and check my emails - Around the time of this, the person I was dating sent a 2 page letter via email saying she wanted to break it off. You could feel the virtual tears dripping off the words.

-fossilera

a reply to: athousandlives

I tend to go with my gut instinct even if I almost always over analyze the situation at hand.
With people that I meet, I sometimes let the relationship play out even if I know (instinctively) that it is not a good situation, likely, and I am almost never wrong. I'm not sure why I do that.

In my job, I can just tell when someone shows up for their first day if they are going to last/or make it or not. I have never been wrong about that. My supervisors even ask me what I think and I am always spot on. In all fairness, in the field that I am in, it takes a certain 'heart' or personality to do the work so, that is sort of easy to gauge in my opinion.

On those rare occasions that I am out in the world by myself and I have a decision to make, I almost always listen to my gut. For example, going off the beaten path or finding oneself lost and not sure which way to go. I'm still here after may adventures so, there must be something to listening to your gut instincts when choosing a path.

I believe that if folks listen to their inner self more that it may save them some heartache and grief with poor choices but who am I to say as I am just as guilty of ignoring the screaming inner voice telling you 'NO'.

a reply to: athousandlives

The force?? Ok for metaphoric value. I don't know what the mechanics are. There is no conscious action that I'm aware of. It's like breathing or hearts beating. It happens without conscious effort.
But I do think if you ignore it your mind will find a way to shout it to you. Like suddenly thinking I should go home the other way because I need to stop at the dry cleaners.
Or suddenly thinking hey ill stop by my husband's job see if he want to have lunch. Then discovering he's already having lunch...with someone else.

a reply to: awareness10

That is very interesting thanks!
I wonder if it's connected to how a lot of foods seem to affect our moods, even when we are not aware of it.

a reply to: tadaman

If you percieve thoughts that you have, you may end up understanding the thoughts of others

Since you mention that, I think I sometimes 'understand' others behaviours or moods, with no words being said, sometimes to the point that it affects my own mood. I have found myself at times, to sympathise or connect with people who were being reviled by others, because of it.