Our intuition comes from a place of inner wisdom whilst our instinct is activated when the question is one of survival of self. Instincts are old brain, intuition is new brain. Or is it? Let’s get cracking.
Do we follow our instincts or our intuition? Do we know the difference if at all there is on? Do they both serve the same function?
When have you intuitively just known something? When have you been guided by your instincts? Intuition is an innate voice in you not influenced by a fear of survival but rather a neutral balanced guide. An instinct is primal, also innate but whose main purpose is survival. An instinct is subjective and very dependent on your experiences whilst intuition is self generated and most likely a product of our consciousness which intuition will be borne of.
Maternal instinct for example comes from the transition of a woman to a mother. The physical body changes. It will be primal to need to protect her offspring. Instincts are what nature has given us to navigate our physical lives. In our physicality is our body, and in that we have the all important brain and mind. Apart from these we have consciousness that commands the whole scene except we might have given the reigns to our minds. Imagine, if your body was subjected to experiences that made you feel unsafe right from the beginning. These will be encoded in the brain. Your survival instincts will run high and you are likely to mistake an instinct for intuition. Our instinct can be inaccurate if these come from a false persona. That will be fear leading instead of taking nature’s lead to protect preserve and nourish Nature. We are part of Nature too.
Nature, surely, never intended to make parenting so stressful. Why then is it so? Are we acting out of our natural instincts when we:
Withhold affection (sign of avoidant attachment in own infancy)
Get overwhelmed when infant cries or gets hurt (sign of anxious attachment in own infancy)
Do not engage with our children; are not phased; feel nothing; get on with our own work; happy to leave them at daycare even when we are able to stay at home (sign of ambivalent attachment in own infancy)
Get frustrated; sometimes give a love over dose to infant; other times act super cross; sometimes irritable other times very affectionate (sign of disorganised attachment in own infancy)
The above simply cannot be instinctive right? Yet we might think these are our survival mechanisms but they are in fact our untold stories that lurk underneath the armpit persona and garb of person you are right now.
And then we have intuition that will clarify whether you are in tune with your natural instincts or not. Intuitively we just know. That all knowing is a wisdom that has nothing to lose or gain. It is self sufficient.
Our self awareness and self mastery will bridge the gap between the two so that you know you act from natural instincts in line with what is nature as opposed to a “nature” that is anything but what Mother Nature intended.
Something to think about. How intuitive are you? And how sure are you that what your instinct tells you about what triggers you isn’t in fact a part of you that wants to maintain your false sense of self, one that was born soon after you realised you “had” to pretend to be someone else to get by.
Meditate on this.