Intuition Isn’t Your Most Powerful Tool
There’s a tool that’s more important and more powerful than your intuition. No one is talking about it, but everyone should be.
Some folks believe that intuition is the ultimate tool of discernment, and they would be wrong. In fact, their order of operations is completely backward.
I'm seeing many "intuitive" and "spiritual" people - of which I count myself one - struggling with discernment.
Sometimes, folks often confuse what they want to believe or think they know with their intuition. That confusion stems from underdeveloped discernment combined with what I call a taproot.
A taproot is a large central root from which other roots sprout. In this context, the taproot can be a thought, value, or belief that’s embedded in your subconscious. It can stem from your family of origin, education, religious or spiritual experiences, any form of trauma, or any formative experience or environment in which you've had extended exposure. These taproots can be unknowingly biased, prejudiced, or nonsensical. We’re often completely unaware of their existence, and we all have them.
This taproot represents our predisposition to believe some things with zero resistance and to doubt others with extreme resistance based on very little input. (We'll come back to input.)
The things we don't have any resistance to believing can easily sprout off from our existing taproots. For example, I'm predisposed to believe that people I perceive as greedy are in all ways morally and ethically bankrupt. So, when I hear that someone I understand to be greedy or hoarding resources got caught doing something shitty, I'll believe it before I look at the facts/evidence.
That's not my intuition. That's a function of my belief system.
Conversely, we have extreme resistance or doubt towards things that don't have a corresponding taproot in our subconscious to sprout off from. This isn't a bad thing, but it's important to understand that resistance is sometimes simply a function of not having a direct plug-in, not having an easy way of joining our network of thoughts, ideas, and opinions.
A great example is my aversion to pizza. I have had lots of pizzas that I like, but I got so burnt out on cheap, greasy pizza as a child that my gut response to, "Do you want to try this pizza? It's really good!" is "Ew, no! I never eat pizza." Even though that's functionally not true, I immediately reject the idea that the pizza could be good with no real input, and I’m also actively ignoring input from my friend that this pizza is, in fact, good.
My intuition isn't telling me pizza is bad. That response is again a function of my belief system or thought network.
So far, I've talked about our responses without input. What constitutes input anyway, if not my thoughts?
Input can be anything that consciously informs or colors our beliefs.
However, some input types are better than others. Those are:
first-hand experiences
data from direct or primary sources
analysis from an expert
genuine consensus
well-developed intuition
I could spend a day talking about the nuance beneath each of these input types, but we're just going to focus on intuition.
Intuition doesn't show up the same way for every person. Just like we have physical senses, we have intuitive senses. Some will naturally be stronger or more sensitive than others, but all can be tapped into, developed, and honed. Your intuition might manifest as a feeling in your bones or a sign or symbol you see that has specific meaning for you. It might be something you hear like a whisper on the wind or the call of a particular bird or a tingle in your belly or on your skin. You might connect best with your intuition through tools like tarot, runes, or pendulums, where a rush of insight comes through that isn't seemingly connected to your personal thought network.
Your bias is not your intuition, but it’s sure gonna make your intuition hard to find and may block or obscure it entirely.
There are many valid expressions of intuition! But again, a predisposition to believe or not believe something is NOT intuition. Your bias is not your intuition, but it's sure gonna make your intuition hard to find and may block or obscure it entirely. When this happens, it may feel like your inner knowing is telling you something, when in reality that’s your taproot talking.
The subconscious is powerful like that! Those taproots are BIG.
This is where discernment comes in.
Discernment is the most important tool in our spiritual practices.
Bar none. No cap. It's at the top of the list without exception. It’s absolutely critical to our spiritual and healing practices - and frankly in our lives as a whole.
Discernment helps us to understand how to categorize and prioritize input, including intuition. It's the piece of the puzzle that helps us accurately assess input. It helps us answer questions like, is this from my intuition or feedback from a taproot? Is this capital-T True? Does it seem that something is missing here? Why do I trust this and not that?
Not only does discernment help us parse out what is and isn't intuition, it helps us understand our predispositions and biases in a larger context so that they're less likely to obscure our intuition.
There are many ways to sharpen your discernment!
However, these two practices are going to serve you best in the long-term:
Therapy
Shadow Work
Along with those, here are some ways you can continue building discernment:
Create an argument for something you disagree with. Challenge your own beliefs. Assume that what you know isn't necessarily true and ask questions until you form a new foundation of belief. Your original opinion might remain, or it might have newfound nuance or even shift.
Ask your mentors and teachers hard questions. Start delineating between capital-T True and small-t true for you. If something is stated as fact, ask how it's known. Seek opinions from people who don't share your experiences or aren't like you. Within organizations or businesses, identify core beliefs and examine how the organization benefits from you believing the same. Does that change how you feel about that belief? See what there's literal consensus on in your communities and figure out if other communities have consensus around the opposite view and why.
In challenging some of the structural belief systems we engage with, you might find new paths to knowledge, new perspectives, or a refined understanding around how you know things and what you're willing to accept as truth.
Assume that what you know isn’t necessarily true and ask questions until you form a new foundation or belief.
As you explore, know that not all taproots or ingrained thought systems are inherently bad. They developed to serve a purpose for us at one time or another — usually, a purpose connected to protection, safety, and belonging.
For example, one of my core values is service. I will do just about anything if I believe it’s helping or protecting someone else. I'm absolutely predisposed to ignoring my personal needs in service of others. On its face, that's not so bad, but in the extreme, it led to very disordered decision making.
In therapy and through shadow work, I've examined every inch of that taproot. I know exactly where it started, what fed it, and what sprouts from it. There is trauma and fear spun into that network, but at the end of the day, I don't want to uproot it. I get genuine joy from helping others, and I've found ways to do that that are nourishing for me.
I don't need to pull that taproot out. Through discernment, though, I'm able to understand and see how it impacts my beliefs and predispositions. From there, I can make better choices and enjoy a clearer connection to my intuition.
If you're wondering how to work on your intuition, want to explore spirituality but aren't sure where to start or who to trust, start with discernment.
With love,
Sydney
That's a LOT. So, let's hear it! What are your thoughts, questions, or reservations?
