Mind vs. Intuition: 4 Steps To Access Your Intuition Anytime
Have you ever experienced a deep sense of knowing something was right or true for you? It might have been confidence in finally making a tough decision or finding an answer you’d been searching for. That deep knowing comes from your INTUITION.
Sometimes we assume that every thought we think comes from our minds, but the truth is that something deeper is at work within us. We like to think of that as intuition.
What’s The Difference Between Your Mind and Your Intuition?
Your mind and intuition are two separate things. Both sides offer useful tools to help us in our day-to-day lives and in reaching our potential, but sometimes we give our minds work that is better suited for our intuition.
You can use your intuition to help you make a decision from a deeper knowing and then use your mind to bring it to life physically.
Accessing and using intuition is such a powerful skill and we want to help you develop that skill in this article.
Here’s a quick definition of mind vs. intuition:
The Mind: Your mind works to find problems and solve them. It’s a powerful and useful tool, but relying only on our minds tends to have us living in worry, stress, confusion, and second-guessing. It feels like a busy, buzzing kind of energy that is hard to quiet.
The Intuition: Your intuition might also be called your spirit, your highest self, the inner voice, or the higher brain. When you tune into the frequency of your intuition instead of your mind, it feels calm, trusting, and unhurried. Your intuition has tons of wisdom and knows your potential.
When you start noticing the difference between the two, it can help you understand how to tap into your intuition more frequently.
Your intuition is such a beautiful gift that can help you:
Ease suffering
Solve problems
Create goals and your ideal life
So wouldn’t it be great if you could tap into your intuition more frequently?
We’ve found it SO useful to take a closer look at whatever is causing us to suffer or feel discomfort or not reach our goals — then ask where those thoughts are coming from.
Just start noticing if your thoughts are coming from your mind or intuition. The simple awareness of certain thoughts might be all you need to switch back over to listening to your intuition instead of your mind.
Now let’s go over how to tell the difference between your mind and intuition so you can be more intentional about where your thoughts are coming from and how you are using each one.
You’ll learn what it feels like to be in each one & later we’ll discuss how to access each one more easily.
Getting To Know Your Mind
When it comes to your mind, it’s very important to remember: you are not your brain.
You are not your thoughts.
You are a spirit with a body and a mind.
So many times we attach ourselves to and identify with our thoughts. Remember, you are a spirit WITH a body and a mind.
Your mind, body, and spirit each require their own care and when each one is aligned you’re able to handle life’s ups and downs more easily.
It’s also very important to find separation between your true self and your brain/thoughts. To be aware of each one.
We don’t want to attack the mind or get mad when it’s trying to do its job (protect us or scan for problems.) Instead we can be grateful for mind and call upon it to help us AFTER we have tapped into our intuition.
So let’s get to know your mind a little better.
Helpful language for talking about the mind:
“Natural man”
Brain
Self
Lower brain
What it feels like when you’re working from your mind instead of your intuition:
Worry
Hurry
Confusion
Second-guessing
Lots of problems
Anxious
Rushed
What it sounds like:
Buzzing or chatter
A constant commentary throughout your day: “Watch out for this…” “But what about…” “I’ve never done this before…”
Urgent, as if everything needs to be done at a quicker pace
Feelings that come from your mind’s thoughts:
Stress
Overwhelm
Frustration
Fear
Anger
Hurt
Its main jobs:
To protect you
To find and solve problems (sometimes this means it will see problems unnecessarily, so look out for that!)
*Pro tip: Since your mind is so good at solving problems, be sure to give it a great problem to solve! That’s why making time for your creative projects and running into problems in your creative work can be incredibly helpful — because it gives your mind an important job.
You’ll also learn that when your mind is focused on solving those types of problems it stops looking for problems that aren’t really problems (being annoyed with others for no reason, not being content with your home or what you currently have, etc.).
Getting To Know Your Intuition
As we mentioned above, your intuition is POWERFUL! Connecting with your intuition allows you to find confidence that you’re taking the right action in your life and moving towards your ideal life.
So let’s get to know your intuition a little better.
Helpful language for talking about the intuition:
Spirit
Soul
True self, best self, highest self
Inner voice or inner mentor
Higher brain
Who you truly are
(When it comes to labeling your intuition, feel free to use the word that serves you best! Words have power — each word has a different meaning to each of us, so choose one that inspires you.)
What it feels like to be working from your intuition:
Calm, peaceful
Deep knowing
Confident
Trusting
Quiet
Wise
Unhurried
When you need to access your intuition:
When you find yourself searching for answers (from others, Google, mentors, etc.)
When you’re feeling worried, stressed, or anxious
When you notice a lot of mind drama and overthinking
When you suspect you may be overcomplicating a problem
When you’re trying to reach a goal
How To Start Tuning Into Your Intuition
Start with just awareness of the difference between your mind & intuition. Notice when you are using each one. Notice when others seem to be using their mind vs. their intuition and how that presents itself.
A few things to remember when you start to practice being more aware of your mind vs. your intuition:
Accept that God created us this way for a reason! The human brain is not a weakness, it’s just a tool with specific strengths.
There’s no reason to beat yourself up for having chattering thoughts that need to be sorted out. That is the nature of our minds.
Be aware of the default settings wired into our brains. What settings need customizing? For example: “Oops, looks like my wiring tells me to run from this new opportunity because it’s unknown. This one will require a manual override!”
Remember that even once you see the truth from your intuition, you will still slide back into default human brain mode. That’s perfectly normal! The practice we’re working on here is tuning into intuition as needed.
4 Steps To Access Your Intuition
We’ve found a great 4-step process that helps us access our intuition more regularly. We hope it helps you as well! Here are the 4 steps:
Find the question
Find quiet
Ask your intuition
Make a decision to move forward with
Let’s go over each one in detail.
1. Find the question you want to ask your intuition
Begin by looking closely at any problem you’re facing or something you’re struggling with.
Are you suffering in some way with negative emotion?
Are you not reaching a goal or not getting closer to what you are trying to create in your life?
Is something uncomfortable or nagging at you?
Are you worried?
You can do a thought download or brain dump in your journal or talk it out with a friend or spouse. You might also try talking it out in a voice memo (which you can always delete later!).
However you do it, you just want to get the words out and look at the problems outside your brain.
Once you find the problem, define it as clearly as possible.
Don’t go to your intuition saying, “I’m so confused and frustrated, I don’t know what to do.” Have a specific question you’ve thought through intentionally first.
2. Find quiet
Now’s the time to tune into your intuition. Think of it like a radio wave frequency where you have to just adjust the dial a bit. It’s not hard, just small adjustments to find the right wavelength.
Here are a few ways you can “get in the zone” or tune into your intuition:
Calm your body and environment
Give yourself attention by connecting to your breath (We talk more about how to do this here)
Take time for stillness and/or prayer
Give yourself a chance every single day for your intuition to find you
Pray to invite God to be part of this process
Meditation
Use a mantra
Visualize what you want to create and let God be a part of that too. What are you creating together? How are you working as a team or a partnership to bring this about?
3. Ask your intuition the question
Now you’re ready to journal with questions. Keep in mind that you may need to ask certain questions a couple of times to get the right answer.
First you want to ask the question that you already come up with. Then keep asking questions and keep journaling to see what your intuition tells you.
Here are a few great journaling prompts to ask your intuition:
What do I already know is true?
What feels like calm?
What feels like love?
What feels like a relief?
What is actually most important here?
If I knew what to do, what could the answer feel or sound like?
What decision would feel most like ME?
4. Make a decision from your intuition to move forward with
Once you’ve uncovered answers from your intuition, you are ready to make a decision in confidence and trust!
*Pro Tip: Be sure to watch for when your mind tries to sneak back in to “solve problems.” It sounds like, “But what about…” or “It’s just that…” “It might not work because….”
There’s nothing wrong here, it’s just a signal that you need to tune back into your intuition. The more you dial back into that frequency, the more it will become standard and default for you.
Keep Practicing Tuning Into Your Intuition
We really hope this helps you practice getting in tune with your intuition more regularly. We know you can do it, because you already have! This is something you already know how to do. Now you can work on doing it more often!
We’ve found that the more we tap into our own intuition, the more peace we feel. The more we can start creating from a place of trust and confidence. The more we can reach our potential.
Keep practicing. You’ve got this! If you ever have more questions or want to chat one-on-one, you can contact us here.
Laura + Kristin
Listen to our podcast episodes all about intuition.
Click below or on apple podcasts & choose episode 148 or 149 to listen to the full podcast episodes.
You can also search The Progress Project on any podcast app including Spotify!
Podcast Ep. 148 The Difference Between Mind & Intuition
Listen to today’s episode to learn the difference between your mind and your intuition. Both sides of us offer useful tools to help us in our day-to-day lives and in reaching our potential, but sometimes we give our mind work that is better suited for our intuition.
Listen in to learn:
Why you are not your thoughts
How to separate from all the noise in your head
How to know when you’re leading with intuition
How you can stop beating yourself up for making the same mistakes over and over again
Podcast Ep. 149 Four Steps To Access Your Intuition
Today’s episode is a continuation of last week’s conversation about mind and intuition. You’ll get an in-depth process you can follow to actually access your intuition regularly.
You’ll learn:
How to know when you might need to access your intuition
The simple 4-step process to tuning into your intuition (it’s not hard!)
The key to getting answers from your intuition
A bunch of journal prompts to help you think outside the box
How to many any decision with confidence and move forward with peace
Links Mentioned
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If you liked this topic, you’ll really love these blog posts & podcast episodes!
Ep. 144 Make Progress On The Work You Feel Called To Do
