10 Things Highly Intuitive People Do Differently

10 Things Highly Intuitive People Do Differently 1

Intuition is challenging to define, despite the huge role it plays in our everyday lives. Steve Jobs called it, for instance, โ€œmore powerful than intellect.โ€ But however we put it into words, we all, well, intuitively know just what it is.

Pretty much everyone has experienced a gut feeling โ€” that unconscious reasoning that propels us to do something without telling us why or how. But the nature of intuition has long eluded us and has inspired centuriesโ€™ worth of research and inquiry in the fields of philosophy and psychology.

โ€œI define intuition as the subtle knowing without ever having any idea why you know it,โ€ Sophy Burnham, bestselling author of The Art of Intuition, tells The Huffington Post. โ€œItโ€™s different from thinking, itโ€™s different from logic or analysis โ€ฆ Itโ€™s a knowing without knowing.โ€

Our intuition is always there, whether weโ€™re aware of it or not. As HuffPost President and Editor-in-Chief Arianna Huffington puts it in her upcoming bookThrive:

Even when weโ€™re not at a fork in the road, wondering what to do and trying to hear that inner voice, our intuition is always there, always reading the situation, always trying to steer us the right way. But can we hear it? Are we paying attention? Are we living a life that keeps the pathway to our intuition unblocked? Feeding and nurturing our intuition, and living a life in which we can make use of its wisdom, is one key way to thrive, at work and in life.

Cognitive science is beginning to demystify the strong but sometimes inexplicable presence of unconscious reasoning in our lives and thought. Often dismissed as unscientific because of its connections to the psychic and paranormal, intuition isnโ€™t just a bunch of hoo-ha about our โ€œSpidey sensesโ€ โ€” the U.S. military is even investigating the power of intuition, which has helped troops to make quick judgments during combat that ended up saving lives.

โ€œThere is a growing body of anecdotal evidence, combined with solid research efforts, that suggests intuition is a critical aspect of how we humans interact with our environment and how, ultimately, we make many of our decisions,โ€ Ivy Estabrooke, a program manager at the Office of Naval Research, told the New York Times in 2012.

Here are 10 things that people in touch with their intuition do differently.

1.They listen to that inner voice.

โ€œItโ€™s very easy to dismiss intuition,โ€ says Burnham. โ€œBut itโ€™s a great gift that needs to be noticed.โ€

The No. 1 thing that distinguishes intuitive people is that they listen to, rather than ignore, the guidance of their intuitions and gut feelings.

โ€œEverybody is connected to their intuition, but some people donโ€™t pay attention to it as intuition,โ€ Burnham say. โ€œI have yet to meet a successful businessman that didnโ€™t say, โ€˜I donโ€™t know why I did that, it was just a hunch.โ€™โ€

In order to make our best decisions, we need a balance of intuition โ€” which serves to bridge the gap between instinct and reasoning โ€” and rational thinking, according to Francis Cholle, author of The Intuitive Compass. But the cultural bias against following oneโ€™s instinct or intuition often leads to disregarding our hunches โ€” to our own detriment.

โ€œWe donโ€™t have to reject scientific logic in order to benefit from instinct,โ€ says Cholle. โ€œWe can honor and call upon all of these tools, and we can seek balance. And by seeking this balance we will finally bring all of the resources of our brain into action.โ€

2.They take time for solitude.

effective way. Just as solitude can help give rise to creative thinking, it can also help us connect to our deepest inner wisdom.

Intuitive people are often introverted, according to Burnham. But whether youโ€™re an introvert or not, taking time for solitude can help you engage in deeper thought and reconnect with yourself.

โ€œYou have to be able to have a little bit of solitude; a little bit of silence,โ€ she says. โ€œIn the middle of craziness โ€ฆ you canโ€™t recognize [intuition] above all of the noise of everyday life.โ€

3.They create.

โ€œCreativity does its best work when it functions intuitively,โ€ writes researcher and author Carla Woolf.

In fact, creative people are highly intuitive, explains Burnham, and just as you can increase your creativity through practice, you can boost your intuition. In fact, practicing one may build up the other.

4.They practice mindfulness.

Meditation and other mindfulness practices can be an excellent way to tap into your intuition. As the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute explains, โ€œMindfulness can help you filter out mental chatter, weigh your options objectively, tune into your intuition and ultimately make a decision that you can stand behind completely.โ€

Mindfulness can also connect you to your intuition by boosting self-knowledge. A 2013 study published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science showed that mindfulness โ€” defined as โ€œpaying attention to oneโ€™s current experience in a non-judgmental wayโ€ โ€” may help us to better understand our own personalities. And as Arianna Huffington notes in Thrive, increased intuition, compassion, creativity and peace are all wonderful side effects of meditating.

5.They observe everything.

โ€œThe first thing to do is notice โ€” keep a little journal, and notice when odd things happen,โ€ Burnham says. Youโ€™ll gain a keen sense for how often coincidences, surprising connections, and on-the-dot intuitions occur in your daily life โ€” in other words, youโ€™ll start to tap into your intuition.

6.They listen to their bodies.

Intuitive people learn to tune into their bodies and heed their โ€œgut feelings.โ€

If youโ€™ve ever started feeling sick to your stomach when you knew something was wrong but couldnโ€™t put your finger on what, you understand that intuitions can cause a physical sensation in the body. Our gut feelings are called gut feelings for a reason โ€” research suggests that emotion and intuition are very much rooted in theย โ€œsecond brainโ€ in the gut.

Read The Power of Self-Care for Sensitive People

7.They connect deeply with others.

Mind reading may seem like the stuff of fantasy and pseudo-science, but itโ€™s actually something we do every day. Itโ€™s called empathic accuracy, a term in psychology that refers to the โ€œseemingly magical ability to map someoneโ€™s mental terrain from their words, emotions and body language,โ€ according to Psychology Today.

โ€œWhen you see a spider crawling up someoneโ€™s leg, you feel a creepy sensation,โ€ Marcia Reynolds writes in Psychology Today. โ€œSimilarly, when you observe someone reach out to a friend, and they are pushed away, your brain registers the sensation of rejection. When you watch your team win or a couple of embrace on television, you feel their emotions as if you are there. Social emotions like guilt, shame, pride, embarrassment, disgust, and lust can all be experienced by watching others.โ€

Tuning into your own emotions, and spending time both observing and listening to others face-to-face can help boost your powers of empathy, says Reynolds.

8. They pay attention to their dreams.

Burnham recommends paying attention to your dreams as a way to get in touch with your mindโ€™s unconscious thinking processes. Both dreams and intuition spring from the unconscious, so you can begin to tap into this part of your mind by paying attention to your dreams.

โ€œAt night, when youโ€™re dreaming, youโ€™re receiving information from the unconscious or intuitive part of your brain,โ€ says Burnham. โ€œIf youโ€™re attuned to your dreams, you can get a lot of information about how to live your life.โ€

9. They enjoy plenty of down time.

Few things stifle intuition as easily as constant busyness, multitasking, connectivity to digital devices, and stress and burnout. According to Huffington, we always have an intuitive sense about the people in our lives โ€” on a deep level, we know the good ones from the โ€œflatterers and dissemblersโ€ โ€” but weโ€™re not always awake enough to our intuition to acknowledge the difference to ourselves. The problem is that weโ€™re simply too busy.

โ€œWe always get warnings from our heart and our intuition when they appear,โ€ she writes in Thrive. โ€œBut we are often too busy to notice.โ€

10. They mindfully let go of negative emotions.

Strong emotions โ€” particularly negative ones โ€” can cloud our intuition. Many of us know that we feel out of sorts or โ€œnot ourselvesโ€ when weโ€™re upset, and it may be because weโ€™re disconnected from our intuition.

Read 8 Tips To Strengthen The Voice Of Your Intuition

โ€œWhen you are very depressed, you may find your intuition fails,โ€ says Burnham. โ€œWhen youโ€™re angry or in a heightened emotional state โ€ฆ your intuition [can] fail you completely.โ€

The evidence isnโ€™t just anecdotal: A 2013 study published in the journalย Psychological Science showed that being in a positive mood boosted the ability to make intuitive judgments in a word game.


Written byย Carolyn Gregoire

Thatโ€™s not to say that intuitive people never get upset โ€” but your intuition will fare better if youโ€™re able to mindfully accept and let go of negative emotions for the most part, rather than suppressing or dwelling on them.

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