The Psychology of Intuition: Following Where Our Gut Leads
Have you ever had a gut feeling about someone that turned out to be right? Or felt an immediate reaction to a situation that seemed off, only to find out later your fears were correct? Sometimes these inner signals are loud and visceral, heralding excitement or butterflies in our stomach, or they warn us to step back in the face of potential danger. Other times, they are gentler whispers infusing our actions with a quiet clarity and confidence.
We all share this ability to integrate spontaneous information from our unconscious and conscious minds into our decision making, and many consider this process as using intuition. Intuition can show up via near-instantaneous realizations, or through a nagging inner pull that requires deeper introspection. Regardless of how attentive we are to its voice, we have the daily opportunity to incorporate its messages into life choices that align with our true nature.
WHERE DOES INTUITION COME FROM?
Our intuition arises from a complex interplay of neurological, physiological, emotional, and unconscious processes, and even engages the spirit as we pursue soulful, authentic living. It is the result of our entire sensory network working together to integrate internal and external cues, recognize patterns from past experience, apply hard-won wisdom, draw from unconscious insight, and utilize our emotional reasoning skills in the pursuit of aligned living.
We can also balance the call of intuition with higher-order processing and logical reasoning that supports both creative and strategic decision making in response to uncertainty.
Scanning Our Environment for Cues
On a daily basis, complex situations come up that require a calculated response, and our ability to do this efficiently is embedded in our highly adaptive brain networks. Our nervous system is constantly interpreting external cues, noting sensations through our five senses and sending messages to our brain in a sequence that is described by interpersonal neurobiologist Dan Siegel as a “bottom up” process. First, our cranial nerves receive neural impulses from our limbs and transmit them to the lower limbic areas of the brain where the amygdala appraises environmental cues for pleasure, neutrality, or threat.
Next, this information is sent upwards to the middle prefrontal cortex (mPFC). This region in our frontal lobe is dedicated to integrating complex data for decision making and emotional regulation. The mPFC evaluates the cues from the limbic system, gauging their emotional significance and orchestrating appropriate neurophysiological and behavioral responses.
Together, these lower and upper brain areas form integrated circuits that manage our exteroceptive and interoceptive awareness, using environmental and internal data to maintain a healthy mind-body connection. These systems underescore the difference between intuition and instinct. Instinct originates in limbic system structures controlling the sympathetic nervous system which activate fight, flight, or freeze behaviors in response to danger. These biological reactions are fundamental to survival. In contrast, intuition is a multi-layered process of interpreting numerous sensations through referencing patterns across lived experience.
Our brains are incredibly efficient in interpreting present-day cues such as body language, micro-expressions, and other subtle movements. For example, studies show that it takes only 200 milliseconds for our brain to notice and register the subtle micro-expressions flitting across someone else’s face, then evaluate them as suggesting boredom, irritation or other important relational feedback.
Connections Between Our Brain and Gut
If our brain is so integral to this discernment process, why do we often associate intuition with a “gut feeling”? The answer lies in research on the brain-gut axis, a complex neural network that unites our mind and body. In our gastrointestinal system, digestion is controlled by a network of over 100 million neurons called the enteric nervous system (ENS). The ENS is considered our “second brain” because its activity throughout the lining of the gut not only operates independently from our central nervous system, but can also profoundly impact our emotional states. In fact, stress and inflammation of the ENS has been linked to the onset of mood disorder symptoms including depression and anxiety.
The gut is connected to the brain by the vagus nerve, a primary component of the parasympathetic nervous system that sends signals from the gut to key brain areas including the amygdala. There are several ways in which this connection influences intuitive reasoning. First, the gut microbiome impacts emotional and mental abilities through generating 95% of the neurotransmitter serotonin in our body. Second, our gut stimulates physical sensations in response to our environment, such as a “sinking feeling” or a “pit in our stomach” that provide valuable information.
Emotional Intelligence in Action
The sensations that our gut and brain generate are critical data we can then use our emotional intellect to decode. Emotional intelligence (EI) was first conceptualized in the 1990s as the ability to be aware of and understand complex emotional states in ourselves and others. It helps us answer the question of what we do with the constant internal feedback.
It is essential to avoid fusing with our emotional reactions and to instead maintain objective distance as we engage. This prevents confusing intuition with anxiety, cognitive biases, or primal survival instincts. Emotional intelligence enables us to pause, regulate, and incorporate logical processing into evaluating even the most nuanced situations.
For some, EI is partially an innate ability and partly a learned skill that was modeled by caregivers in early life. However, at any age it is possible to strengthen EI through introspection, self-awareness, and regulation practice. EI has been shown to support better work performance, relationship-building, lower stress levels, greater overall happiness, and improved health and well-being. Learning to stay emotionally grounded can help mediate the effects of cortisol spikes and help us respond skillfully to stress.
Integrating With Our Analytical Mind
Emotional intelligence is one piece of the puzzle, as it complements the gifts of our analytical mind. While intuition is often instantaneous, it is designed to be balanced with thoughtful reasoning. This allows us to draw from implicit and explicit knowledge in an integrative process considered in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy as invoking our “wise mind”.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a therapeutic modality created in the 1980s to help clients experiencing high emotional distress find mindful acceptance of circumstance while also making changes to improve their lives. Core skills include practicing mindful awareness of the inner world and external realities, while adopting a non-judgmental stance.
When we combine use of emotion and reason, we are able to access our wise mind. In this state of mindful detachment facts of a situation become clear as we steadily explore choice points. In my work as a therapist, some DBT skills that I have introduced to clients include breath work, naming emotions, grounding in the moment, and developing tolerance for sitting with emotions. These skills are not easy to learn; however, committed practice has consistently led to more grounded responses to daily stress, and fewer intense fluctuations in mood.
Looking To Past Experience
Intuition as unconscious insight also draws from our well of life experience. At any age, our cumulative experiences form a memory bank we can reference to recognize similar situations in the present, and use to make strategic judgments for how to respond. More specifically, the meaning-making we made after those prior experiences largely determines how we are now inclined to act.
Many researchers emphasize this pattern-matching aspect of intuition, where our mind looks for repetition and uses imagination to extrapolate what should be done in a similar scenario. Many patterns are drawn from implicit memories stored in our unconscious mind, including old information and dormant skills such as muscle memory.
This is why intuition often feels like a deep, familiar knowing that is hard to put into words. Placing a finger on the why behind our reaction is challenging because the associated memories are non-declarative and take time to articulate.
WISDOM OF SOUL AND SPIRIT
The Value of Knowing Yourself
Beyond the intricate mechanisms of our brain, intuition is also born of accumulated wisdom. Self-awareness is a prerequisite for accessing our inner wisdom, and is a time-tested subject mined by philosophers even in ancient times. As Aristotle stated, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” It is however a hard-won skill that results from finely honed interoception, core values work, and self-attunement.
Wisdom in all its forms represents “the ideal integration of knowledge and action, mind and virtue”. It helps us discern how, when, and where to tolerate uncertainty and risk, or invoke self-protective measures. It can also support making good judgment calls that allow us to know with confidence that we lived a life true to ourselves.
Wisdom In Our Unconscious Mind
Carl Jung, the founder of psychoanalysis, recognized the more soulful aspects of accessing intuition. He viewed highly intuitive individuals as people who use inner wisdom to “draw the souls out of things”. He also believed that “intuition is perception via the unconscious that brings forth ideas, images, new possibilities, and ways out of blocked situations”. It is one of the core functions of our psyche, the whole of our unconscious and conscious minds.
Importantly, Jung framed intuition as messages from the unconscious that draw from not only implicit memories, but also from universal energies that we can tap into on an individual level. He called these drives archetypes, patterns in the psyche that are embedded in the collective unconscious shared by all humans.
One archetype is that of the Wise Old Man or Woman who embodies wisdom in all its forms. It represents an intra-psychic force that offers each of us spiritual insight and vast knowledge, and works to guide us toward wholeness. In this way it serves as a personal mentor speaking through our intuition. As we listen to its impulses and honor its perspectives, we come to embody more and more wisdom.
Congruence As a Path to Fulfillment
Authentic living also involves acting in congruence with our values, beliefs, and deep desires. This is not an easy task. Indeed, it is easy to make decisions that are incongruent with our authentic voice when we are swayed by social pressures, internalized assumptions, and other voices drowning out our intuition.
Virginia Satir was a family systems therapist in the mid-1900s who honed the theory of pursuing whole-person congruence as a primary life goal. To her, to live an aligned life was to fulfill an existential imperative leading to greater meaning and richness. However, when our life-giving energies become blocked by performance or inauthenticity, mental health symptoms can emerge. Rather than a source of despair, they are urgent cries from our souls calling for us to return to our true Self.
Sometimes these warnings show up as a vaguely troubled feeling, a sense that something is not quite right, or a pervasive feeling of dissatisfaction with where you are in life. Such signs are worth exploring, as research shows that alignment of our emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and values can lead to more relational, psychological, and spiritual peace and fulfillment. A primary goal of such self actualization is to live an authentic life that feels profoundly satisfying.
WHEN INTUITION GOES OFFLINE
Maintaining whole-person congruence requires walking a narrow path, and life constantly throws situations at us that quickly steer us off this path. For example, overwhelming and painful experiences can cause trauma that traps us in fear and survival responses that distort our true selves.
Trauma Distorts Intuition
For some, the result of trauma is pervasive dread and fear of impending danger. This leads to hyper-vigilance and chronically elevated stress in our body that makes it difficult to regulate emotions and live mindfully. Another result is avoiding situations that trigger us. This can limit possibilities as we navigate the world, even opportunities we deeply long for. A third common symptom is dissociation from the present moment, a protective state the mind and body adopt that is deeply disempowering.
Anxiety symptoms can also block access to our intuition. These often manifest as a false sense of urgency that can increase impulsivity. Fear of social rejection can also impair our ability to communicate our full truth. Incessant worries invading our thoughts may predict catastrophe and drown out the calm, reassuring voice of our spirit. Physical restlessness, edginess, and lack of focus also make it difficult to sit with ourselves long enough to access new insight.
For those battling depression, the inner critic can be a dominating, persistent force that leaves no room for unbiased thinking. Feelings of hopelessness prevent us from proactively uncovering opportunities to improve our circumstances. Heavy sadness also colors our interpretation of situations and relationships, easily perpetuating feelings of being trapped and alone.
Nervous System Shutdown
Polyvagal theory is an emerging area of psychology and neuroscience research begun in the 1990s that seeks to explain how such mental health symptoms manifest in our nervous system. The theory explores how healthy functioning of our vagus nerve can be noticeably altered by acute or chronic traumas.
A key proposal of polyvagal theory is that threats cause the dorsal vagal area of the vagus nerve to shut down. Thus, in order to restore our “rest and digest” autonomic nervous system, we must find ways to reactivate the ventral vagal pathway responsible for modulating stress, dropping our defenses, and reawakening feelings of calm.
However, neuroscientists continue to question the empirical basis for the theory, emphasizing need for more neuroimaging studies and psychophysiological experiments to substantiate its claims. Others note the positive, practical applications of the theory for developing therapeutic approaches that focus specifically on nervous system regulation for those who have experienced trauma.
Social Pressure Causes Incongruence
Beyond mental health challenges, there are broader social pressures that can cause us to disconnect from our intuition. These include internalized expectations to behave in certain ways, make specific types of choices, and value particular things. For example, in my work as a therapist I encounter many clients whose inner voices have fallen dormant. Some abnegated their need for self care and rest , having grown up in environments where it was considered selfish. Others had grown accustomed to overworking out of fear of being called lazy or having a character flaw.
Tragically, we can invalidate our authentic needs by conforming to social pressures that, if we were left to our own devices, we would likely reject. Examples include buying material possessions under the false promise of greater life satisfaction, working long hours to the detriment of our relationships, or undergoing risky experiences to earn praise even when our bodies communicate a firm no.
Stories from the lives of those in hospice put these types of life decisions into sobering perspective. In 2012, palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware documented conversations with her patients who were near death, and compiled a list of top five life regrets that they frequently shared. These regrets were:
Abiding by social expectations instead of honoring personal dreams and living true to themselves
Prioritizing work over quality time with family and loved ones
Suppressing pent-up feelings of resentment that turned into bitterness
Investing in pursuits like career instead of meaningful friendships
Pretending to be happy and avoiding change that might have enhanced their happiness
Reflecting on these end-of-life realizations can help us at any age to uncover discrepancies between heartfelt desires and our current situation. Rather than blaming ourselves, we can pour energy into realigning our actions with what feels most true.
RESTORING OUR INTUITION
For those of us who are stalled by uncertainty and struggle to attune to our inner compass, there are many ways to gradually strengthen intuition through steady practice.
Solitude and Turning Inward
To know ourselves, we must learn to pause and spend time in quiet reflection. Solitude can help foster an ideal environment for this. In quiet spaces, we can use our interoception to attune to body sensations, and explore associations, impulses, and other subtle responses to life quandaries. This enables us to exercise emotional intelligence and access our wise mind.
Research on resting in silence has shown that staying in a quiet environment helps to calm our nervous system, boosts creativity, uncovers spontaneous insight, reduces stress, and enables us to read our internal signals more clearly. This is possible through amplification of our Default Mode Network, a collection of brain regions that drive self-reflection, imagination, recalling memories, and daydreaming about the future. Quiet even helps generate new brain cells in our hippocampus and enhances our brain’s ability to learn and consolidate experiences.
A few practices that foster a quieter life are time in nature, meditation, turning off distracting devices, and limiting extraneous noise. Other mental exercises that support embodied presence are attuning to your five senses with grounding techniques, checking in with yourself to gauge and name your feelings, allowing space for boredom, and participating in spiritual activities. Each practice can help strengthen self-awareness and self-trust.
Values Work
A life of self-attunement also requires clarifying our core values. Values guide our decisions large and small by incorporating intuitive data with thoughtful analysis. In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), practitioners teach clients how to identify and act on their personal priorities. These are not the same as goals that direct our pursuits; rather, they are overarching organizing principles that help us set aside unimportant factors and take actions that are uniquely life-giving.
Some ACT approaches include reflecting on implicit values that have guided your life thus far, envisioning the kind of person you want to be, ranking common values through process of elimination, and using psychological flexibility to find opportunities for value-based action. Self-assessment tools like the Values Bridge and the Life Values Inventory can also help with reconnecting to core values, and remind us of our “true north” whenever fear causes confusion or self-doubt.
Enhancing Our Imagination
There are Jungian practices that can help us attune to the messages of our unconscious mind with greater speed and clarity. One is dream work, where we write down and analyze our nightly dreams to draw insight applicable to daily life. Another is active imagination for fostering dialogue with unfamiliar or suppressed parts of our psyche that can offer us wise perspectives.
Dream work is the disciplined practice of sourcing meaning from our dreams to support wholeness as fully fleshed-out individuals. Some elements include writing down dream details, finding associations to our lives, using guiding principles for dream interpretation, and honoring new realizations through symbolic ritual. Active imagination is a more free-flowing process of turning inwards in quiet solitude, following the leading of your creative mind, and dialoguing with parts of your psyche that arise spontaneously.
A highly practical resource that explores both practices is psychoanalyst Robert Johnson’s 1986 classic book Inner Work, where he outlines simple, methodical steps for depth work.
Therapy Helps Restore Inner Congruence
Therapy also offers evidence-based support in rebuilding trust in your body’s sensations, fostering creative expression, deconstructing limiting beliefs, and learning practical skills for aligned living.
Body-based somatic therapies like Somatic Experiencing and EMDR are available to decrease hyper-vigilance and support regulation when trauma symptoms are triggered. Symptoms can be permanently reduced, and clients learn regulating techniques to navigate future distress.
Creative Arts Therapies help with accessing and expressing our inner world. Options include dance, poetry, art, and even film therapy. Clients engage in creative tasks that encourage free association and embodiment of authentic feelings, opening up to inspiration within themselves and in their surroundings.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a well-researched approach that builds self-awareness skills for noticing cognitive distortions and reshaping how we speak to ourselves. By noticing when catastrophizing or all-or-nothing thinking are causing false urgency, we can infuse our inner monologue with greater curiosity and compassion.
Relationship-focused therapies aid in learning communication skills to advocate for ourselves in relationships, expressing true wants and needs unapologetically and with less anxiety. This can counter feelings of helplessness and enhance real self-empowerment.
Mindfulness-focused therapies including Dialectical Behavior Therapy emphasize using distress tolerance skills to manage distress. Learning to regulate feelings helps us to tolerate uncomfortable experiences that could actually turn out to enrich our life.
Conclusion
Think back to the gut feeling we began with, the one that turned out to be right, and the whisper that guided you toward possibility or safety. These moments were not magical; rather, they involved body, mind, inner wisdom, and lived experience working together to provide guidance. Each day we are collecting new experiences that deepen our well of wisdom. The question is not whether we have access to this inner compass, but whether we choose to turn inward and listen.
Personally, I have benefited from many of the practices described here. Increasing my comfortability with solitude helped me to hear the voice buried under my anxious inner monologue. Dream work taught me to honor my unconscious mind’s symbolic messages. Weekly meditation and expressive arts transformed boredom and dissatisfaction into creative problem-solving. Behavioral therapy skills challenged my emotional, intuitive disposition to make space for calm logic when I needed it most.
Wherever you are in your self-discovery journey, whether beginning to attune to your body's signals or recovering from traumas that taught you to mistrust them, there are resources available. Fearful instincts can be transformed into opportunities for self-trust, and survival patterns can soften into openness. We can use crossroads in life as opportunities to practice curiosity and courage, and allow our intuitive wisdom to guide our way home.
Additional Reading
Trust Your Vibes by Sonia Choquette
The Answers Are Within You by Amber Rae
