Trusting your Instincts
You are walking through the grocery store on a Monday evening. The store is not very crowded and yet you continue to see the same man over and over. You are sure it is a coincidence but still skip a few aisles just to be safe. He appears again. This time you notice he doesn’t have a shopping cart or basket. He isn’t holding any groceries either. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up. This is what is known as gut instinct or intuition. Trusting your instincts can be very helpful in identifying potential dangerous situations.
Gut Wrenching Scenarios
The grocery scenario is a common one, but people have reported many examples of situations where they knew something just felt “off” and were glad afterward for their caution.
A woman was driving on a long stretch of highway and saw a car pulled over to the side of the road on the opposite side of the highway. That, in and of itself, wasn’t particularly odd. But she thought she saw the driver sleeping or leaning over on the steering wheel. She kept driving but then couldn’t get it out of her head. At the next opportunity, she turned around and headed back in the opposite direction. When she pulled up to the car, the driver was in fact, slumped over. She called 911. The woman had a heart attack while driving and paramedics worried she might not have survived if they had reached her much later. The police told the woman who stopped that, in their experience, most people would not have followed their gut like she did.
A commonly described scenario when discussing intuition is about a woman waiting for an elevator. When it finally comes, the doors open and a man stands alone inside. She immediately gets a bad feeling. The man has a look in his eye and seems out of place in the building. But even without recognizing those facts, she just doesn’t feel safe. She pretends to have forgotten something and turns away from the elevator. She won’t ever know if she was in danger, but feels a huge sense of relief.
Better Safe than Sorry
The thing about instinct or intuition is that often it is based on emotion more than fact. This sometimes allows us to discount it or worry about being wrong. If a situation turns out to be dangerous, those worries are far outweighed by the actual threat. If in doubt whether the situation is real or imagined, err on the side of caution. The woman driving on the highway would have at worst added 15 minutes to her trip, but in fact, she probably saved a life.
The woman at the elevator has been taught her whole life to be polite and not to be judgmental. It is very difficult to walk away from the elevator based only on a feeling. What if he thinks she is rude or what if he is offended? It is just these types of worries that would allow many people to get on that elevator even with the concern they feel. That is why we must train ourselves to trust our instincts without worrying about violating societal norms.
Trusting Yourself
Here are some helpful tips for identifying when your intuition is trying to tell you something.
- Is there a physical component to your unease? Did you get goosebumps? Did your face flush? Are you breathing heavy? Is your heart racing? Many of these can be part of your body’s fight or flight response and should not be ignored!
- Is the “coincidence” too difficult to have been left to chance? Why did the man in the grocery store have no groceries? What are the chances he would be so in-step with your activities?
- Are you trying to justify something that is clearly not right?
- Check the story. If a “cable guy” shows up unscheduled and needs to check your backyard, call the company and confirm.
- Think worst case scenario. What’s the worst thing that happens if you turn and run? What’s the worst thing that happens if you don’t?
Intuition is there for a reason and often defies rational thinking. Train yourself to listen to your body and trust your gut to keep yourself safe and out of harm’s way.
