CE Insight: Attuning To Our Intuition & Instincts

Before You Begin: Take a breath. Turn your attention to your body and release any tension. Breathe slowly into the area of your heart for 60 seconds, focusing on feeling a sense of ease. Stay connected to your body as you read. Click here to learn why we suggest this.

The dance between intuition and cognition is something I've considered for most of my life.

These days, we are literally drowning in information, data, and the possibilities of AI, but are we wiser? Are we connected to our expanded ways of knowing? Are we living happier and healthier lives?

I believe we have gained a lot from advancing ourselves in our thinking and logic, but I believe a deep synchronization between the mind, emotions, body and intuition is where we stay connected to wisdom.

I don't believe we should throw out cognition for intuition. Nor should we throw our intuition for cognition. Synchronization is the key.

Confucius said of cultivating intuition:

“In the early stages of training, an aspiring Confucian gentleman needs to memorize entire shelves of archaic texts, learn the precise angle at which to bow, and learn the lengths of the steps with which he is to enter a room.

His sitting mat must always be perfectly straight.

All of this rigor and restraint, however, is ultimately aimed at producing a cultivated, but nonetheless genuine, form of spontaneity.”

What I take from this is that we should look to intentionally expand our knowledge, take care of ourselves and our environment, but in the process not lose connection to what can arise out of the present moment - out of spontaneity.

In a simple way, we must remain present and connected to ourselves in the pursuit of knowledge.

Purely assessing our lives and world through data and cognition can strangle our intuition.

I'm speaking here of implicit intuition. An intuition that isn't coming from a channelled or outside source, but from inside of us.

This intuition is felt, sensed, and picked up through our physical body. If we can listen to our body, we can listen more easily and efficiently to our intuition.

While intuition doesn't necessarily tell us the entire truth behind something, it can lead us in meaningful directions data and cognition may not be able to.

In a world filled with so much data, especially conflicting data, being able to rely on intuition to help move forward is becoming increasingly important.

Sure, intuition likely won't tell us the entire truth about something, but it is a powerful guide. Working in concert with our cognition, we become significantly wiser.

In a modern culture that feels cut off from the body, always inviting us into our heads, we must take the time and care to slow down, and stay present and connected to the source of our intuition.

This week, think about ways you can slow down. Think about what you can do to stay present and connected to the environment around you and your body. This is to say, make a point to not get stuck in your head.