I am a scientist, an ecology professor who studies animals so I can better inform conservation strategies to preserve species and habitats. I use logical thinking as a tool to solve problems related to understanding the natural world.
I am also an integrated human and I know that when we rely solely on logic for informing choices, we cut ourselves off from the other tools we possess, such as intuitive guidance, that speak to us via sensations we experience throughout the rest of our physical bodies and feeling selves.
We frequently confuse logic with our thoughts, but they are not the same. Most of our thoughts are simply false stories running through our brains that hold no reality, but we believe them anyway. We turn to those stories for guidance on how to make choices, without spending the time to find, listen to, trust, and follow the messages we receive from our intuitive selves. When your untrue thoughts trick you into believing you are in control, you miss the experience of living with the flow of your life—of being your most authentic self.
You ignore your guidance because you have convinced yourself that your logical being is the only tool worth using. You believe the stories your thought patterns whisper, even when you can objectively determine those thoughts are untrue. You let your desires for what “should” be override the signals from your intuitive guidance telling you what really is. You think you can control your fears and amplify your egoic self by making logical lists for why something is “right” or “wrong,” all the while ignoring the simple wisdom your intuition is providing.
For example, my friend Chris, a former SEAL Team 6 member went through a harrowing day of life or death in a firefight in Iraq. He describes strictly following his intuition and hard-wired training to navigate this terrifying situation. He implicitly trusted his intuitive guidance and that trust helped him remain alive. Years later, when deciding whether to pursue a love interest, Chris’s intuition told him that the woman he sought would never learn to trust him. But she was beautiful, smart, wealthy, and fun and her attention fed his ego and assuaged his fears of being vulnerable to rejection. Thus, he chose to ignore his guidance. They were together for several tumultuous years, and he finally left because she never learned to trust him. His intuition was right all along.
Was it a mistake for him to ignore his intuition? No. But the experience provides valuable data. When you listen to or ignore your intuition, you can note the consequences and learn for the future. By collecting these data you will increase your confidence in your abilities to find, cultivate, and trust your intuition in future situations. You will increasingly make your intuitive self an equal partner with your logical self as you gather data to inform your decisions.
You already know this process. Everyone does. Think back to a time when you had a full-body physical confirmation of a YES or NO when you were faced with a decision. Maybe it didn’t make logical sense what you were doing, but something within you persistently insisted, and you knew that ignoring that voice would have serious consequences for your life, so you followed it. Those feelings of intuitive guidance exist for every single decision in your life, and you can choose to notice your own guidance, value its wisdom, and follow it.
I invite you to recognize, make peace with, and shed your adherence to the false stories running loops in your thoughts. Let them go, then you can act from a place of clarity, wholeness, and authenticity no matter what arises within your life.
When you live this way, then you operate within what I call your guidance groove. You make choices more in alignment with your most authentic self. If the outcome of a decision feels less in alignment with your guidance, you simply make note of that experience, quiet your mind, tap into your intuition, and choose again.
You may need to turn to your logical self to better understand why your intuition is telling you something with strong insistence. You may miss the mark, but you can always refine your connection to your intuition and try again. The more you practice living by your own personal guidance, the more automatic the process becomes.
You will never undo your personality or banish your thoughts or opinions. And your logic is still a wonderful tool that is fantastic at solving problems. However, you can decrease the time it takes for you to recognize that your thoughts, opinions, and logic are not the only tools for informing your decisions. When you listen to and trust the wisdom emanating from your true self, your intuitive guidance, for all your decisions, then you navigate the flow of your beautiful life from a place of increased wholeness—you dance freely to your own guidance groove.
Dr. Carolyn Kurle is a Biology Professor at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of numerous scientific research articles and the book, The Guidance Groove: Escape Unproductive Habits, Trust Your Intuition, and Be True. As a scientist, she relies on logical thinking, but she also values quieting the mind and fully integrating her feeling, intuitive self to navigate the flow of life from a place of wholeness. Her work with hundreds of outstanding students at UCSD, many of whom paradoxically struggle to find ease, motivated her to create The Guidance Groove, an accessible manual for connecting with your intuition to increase personal authenticity and contentment.
