Injured Instincts: Understanding The Relationship between Anxiety and Intuition

You have probably often heard the phrase "trust your gut" or "When you know, you know." Although these phrases are used to be helpful, it can often lead to a sense of confusion. What if you don't know what your gut feeling is? Or what if you are confusing your gut feeling for anxiety? What even is a gut feeling? In essence, a gut feeling is a signal from your intuition, and intuition is a form of knowledge or belief that is not necessarily based on logic or reasoning but rather on a general inclination and inner knowingness. Being able to clearly hear your intuition and choosing whether to listen to it is an indication of self-trust, and so when there is confusion or uncertainty about what this means, it can feel like you do not know how to trust yourself and that can feel unsettling, or even scary. But remember, the power to trust yourself and understand your intuition is within you.

 Author, psychoanalyst, and post-trauma specialist Clarissa Pinkola Estés coined the term "injured instincts" in her book Women Who Run with the Wolves. Estés describes that when we are growing up and going through the trials and tribulations of life, we all receive injuries to instinct. She supports this by highlighting how women for centuries were taught to be friendly and well-mannered to be accepted in society and protect themselves from harm. This way of protecting and safeguarding oneself then becomes the very thing that places a dent in one's instinctual nature, which can lead to a period ahead of confusion, distrust, and denial of one's truth. In a sense, when we are taught to talk ourselves out of our natural feelings and authentic voice, we tell our intuition that its information and signaling is incorrect, unnecessary, or unheard. Over time, our intuition gets neglected and shut down, and because of its repeated rejection, it becomes injured.

 Injured instincts are, of course, not just present in women; it is demonstrated throughout all gender identities. If you sense that you cannot identify harmful patterns and feel frozen in time, or the opposite, you feel stuck in a hypervigilant state of always sensing and preparing for danger, your instincts may have been injured. When someone is living in a state of hyperarousal, or the other end, dissociation, there is little room to hear the voice of intuition.

 So, how do we differentiate anxiety from intuition? Anxiety can manifest in various ways, such as racing thoughts, rapid heartbeat, or a sense of impending doom. It is often rooted in fear, past experiences, or insecurities. When you are experiencing anxiety, especially if your anxiety has been persistent, it can be easy to think that your anxiety is, in fact, your intuition. This makes sense - anxiety is a loud, dominating voice that gives us physical cues that we may mistake as important information and learn to trust. However, unlike anxiety, intuition is calm and steady. While intuition is often described as a gut feeling, anxiety can cause physical discomfort, disconnection to self, and behaviors and responses that may not feel authentic. Intuition is like an easeful tide - a peaceful, clear, inner knowing that brings a sense of clarity and alignment. Intuition is a feeling that something just is or is not right without a cascade of thoughts attached to it. The main distinguishing factor that differentiates anxiety from intuition is that intuition is about sensing something, not really overthinking something. Anxiety is merely a loud, distracting part of someone's self, whereas intuition comes from the center of oneself.   

 You might ask: How do I begin the process of healing my instincts? Breathwork, mindfulness, and seeking support from a therapist using evidence-based interventions can all be productive tools in helping you understand and manage symptoms of anxiety and any negative recent or childhood experiences that you have felt heavily impacted by. These tools are not just helpful, they are essential in the healing process. Once you begin to understand the gap between the mind and the present reality, you can begin to explore the experience of anxiety directly, without being carried away by it. With time, through using these tools and practices, you open the potential for deeply understanding that anxiety is one part of you having an experience, and by having that ongoing awareness, you create space for anxiety to take a rest and for intuition to step into the light.

 Overall, it's important to note that intuition is not a perfect, all-knowing occurrence. However, as we start to sense our intuition and familiarize ourselves with it more, we may sometimes want to give it significant consideration. It is up to us to decide whether we give significance to our intuition. But that is intuition's beautiful power. Our intuition is not there to boss us around and dictate our lives; it is there to give us valuable and sensational insight and information that can serve as a guide into a direction that aligns with our true voice, values, and life's purpose.