Why trusting your gut is essential to your survival

Have you ever had a certain “feeling” about something – a “hunch” that something’s wrong, or that you just “know” that what you’re about to do is a good idea? This perceptive insight is called by many names, such as gut instinct, intuition, and “sixth sense.” (h/t to PreppersWill.com.)

Gut instinct may refer to a deeper level of consciousness, which is an essential tool in basic everyday life scenarios, but may be particularly useful in off-grid or survival situations. However, unless you know how to recognize and listen to your intuitive sense, you may completely miss or outright ignore your gut instincts.

Intuition is a sort of “knowing” – an ability to acquire knowledge without reason or any rational processing, which allows a person to have a sense of something that may not be immediately evident. It is a phenomenon of the human mind.

Your so-called sixth sense may present itself in various scenarios; whether you have a feeling of certainty that something good will come out of a particular decision or that something bad is about to happen.

Types of intuition

Some animals have claws, talons, tusks, horns, antlers, and what-have-you as a means to defend themselves. Human beings, on the other hand, have their remarkable brains for this purpose.

Intuition is a prediction of the outcome of a situation, such as steering clear of a suspicious person because your mind predicts that something bad may happen to you if you don’t.

Numerous scenarios may trigger your intuitive sense. The following is a non-comprehensive list of the types of intuition. (h/t to MindBodyGreen.com)

• Primitive instinct – This intuition stems from a human being’s primal reaction to certain things, be it the flight-or-fight response, avoidance response, pleasure-seeking, or instinctive responses to primary needs such as hunger.
• Conditioned emotional responses – Also called “conditioned suppression” or “conditioned fear response,” emotions, such as fear, aversion, and suspicion, trigger this type of intuition. For instance, a child that was once bitten by a dog will associate the pain with any dog he sees; thus seeing a dog may elicit fear in the child (conditioned response).
• Bodily intuition – They say we should “listen” to our bodies. Bodily intuition is a message your body tries to tell you about its needs and conditions, such as when something suddenly feels painful.
• Mystical intuition – Some people claim to be more spiritually inclined than others, or have the “eye” that allows them to tap into their “prophetic insight” or psychic intuition. People with mystical intuition tend to have different forms of ESP (extrasensory perception) such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition.
• Interpersonal intuition – This is the ability to pick up clues about relationships, and the capacity for empathy and character judgment.
• Practical intuition – A person with practical intuition can solve everyday problems with ease, or is always the one who comes up with the best solution quickly.

A “hunch” may indicate some sort of pending danger, or an urge to do something specific. A true sign of an actual intuition, gut feeling, or hunch is during a neutral situation — you are doing something totally unrelated and you picked up a hunch or felt the urge to do something, whether you feel that it will lead to something good or that it will allow you to avoid something bad. This may prove to be helpful in situations wherein your survival is your top priority.

Another form of intuition is symbolic dreams. These dreams are forms of symbolic messages for us to interpret. Symbols are part of language and communication. (Related: 7 of the most common dreams and what your subconscious may be trying to tell you.)

Some people have vivid dreams, or sometimes recurrent dreams, which may have some sort of significance. Be wary of the message that is portrayed in dreams.

Your intuition will subconsciously direct your attention to something fascinating or warn you to avoid a potentially dangerous situation. Learn more about listening to your gut instincts at Mind.news.

Sources include:

PreppersWill.com

MindBodyGreen.com