Your Intuition is Biased, Too

I heard something the other day that made me bristle. It was a white woman in wellness talking about how we can use our bodies & our intuition as a "barometer of truth."

There is a lot of talk about this in the wellness space. That we "know" the truth for ourselves. When it comes to filtering through stories, information and perspectives, people are called to "use their discernment".

On the surface, I buy in to this.

Like many with trauma histories, it has taken me a long time to feel that I could trust myself - my decisions, my body, my intuition.  My body does house my history, and I have used talk therapy, yoga, writing & creative tools to regulate my nervous system and to move outside of the fight/flight/freeze/fawn trauma response.

Under the surface though, I question it the whole "your body is a barometer of truth". Especially in the world today where violence against black people being filmed and disseminated.

Police officers "seeing" guns in people's hands when it was really candy/a phone/nothing. Women putting keys through their knuckle-creases as they walk in a parking lot, sensing that something was "off" - but no one is there. A young child sees  monster in the corner of the room, which turns out to be a pile of clothes.

These feelings, no doubt, felt very real to the feeler.  And yet, here are instances of your intuition leading you astray. None of these situations were truly threatening, but the person sensed a threat none the less. 

And what of the bias that is steeped in our culture regarding the "threat" of black people? Of course we use language to demonize and de-humanize black and people of color. We also have built in biases FELT in the body when we see black bodies. Crossing the street, averting eyes, assuming wrong-doing. It is highly prevalent.

So how do I reconcile these two things? Does your "body as barometer" hold true? Or is it just upholding our fears, biases, and past traumas?

I've come to the conclusion that our intuition *might not be* magic. I don't want to say it isn't magic, because there are still elements I can't quite explain. But the brain is magic, after all, and intuition is a brain function.

Our brains are constantly predicting what is about to happen in order to keep us physically safe. So in this sense, the brain is total magic. These predictions are based on previous experiences (inclusive of thoughts, feelings, and actions).  The predictions help us navigate through our lives so that every occurrence isn't a complete shock to the system.

Intuition is knowing something "without evident rational thought and inference."  Intuition is still our brain trying to predict the future - just without our conscious involvement.

But what about the tingling in the stomach? The feeling of a cold shadow? What about The Body Keeps the Score? Yes. We feel memories in the body. We have these sensations and we have attached stories to them, patterned it in to our bodies, and we feel it. It is a programmed pattern.

The intuitive senses we receive are predictions based on past situations. They are shouts of "making sense" that our brain offers to us. AND, our intuitive senses can be wrong. They are delivering our past to us as present. Including all of those old thoughts, movies, songs we listened to, emails, past boyfriends and side-ways glances, past slights and digs and lost loves.

Just like our brains and our bodies, our intuition is also steeped in our culture, our education and experience, our families, etc. 

Our intuition is just as racist as you are - maybe even more than your conscious awareness!  Since intuition is often subconscious, it is mired in the implicit bias that might not be at your attention in any moment.

So what can be done?

Keep growing, keep opening up, keep finding new perspectives. 

The more that we broaden our experiences and concepts (thank you, Lisa Feldman Barrett), the more you open your mind to new predictions. It is possible to continue shaping and honing your intuition. 

We TRUST our intuition because we are NOTICING when we are right about it. The more you notice it, the more you see it. Our intuition is the "barometer" of truth because you are shaping your perception that it works.

The next time you sense there is danger ahead or feel like "the right next step is x, y, z", I'm not saying don't listen to it. I'm not saying DO listen to it.

I'm saying - get a little curious about it.

Could you intuit even more when you start to move outside the box?