(Nimue)
Using your intuition depends on being able to trust yourself. You need a sense that your instincts are good, that your ability to interpret is good and that your sense of how to act based on that intuition is good. This isn't always easy and many people will have had experiences that undermine their intuition.
Being lied to takes a toll. If you're experiencing something one way and being told it's another, this can make you doubt your judgement. If it happens a lot, your ability to trust your own perceptions and responses can be sorely undermined. This is a deliberate goal with gaslighting where the victim is lied to in order that they become unable to trust themselves.
It's tricky if you don't want the things you are told to want. If your heart doesn't lie in some conventional space, then you may have heard a lot of things that undermine your trust in yourself. To be wilder and crave wild things when surrounded by people who are all about the money may make you second guess yourself. If you crave magic when everyone around you is obsessed with their paycheck… if you long for justice when surrounded by people who want power over others…all of these experiences can make it harder to invest in your own truth.
There are lots of ways of being in the world. However, some of those ways don't have room for diversity, and some people are threatened by difference. Living your own truth and trusting your own vision can be an existential threat for some of the people who will encounter you. If your way of existing makes some people uncomfortable they will try and crush you to avoid their own discomfort.
If you aren't living your truth, then you won't be able to work with your own intuition. If your feelings have to come second to what everyone else wants, it won't matter what your gut tells you. If you aren't allowed to have boundaries or your own emotional responses then there is no room for your intuition to occupy.
There's a flip side. If you have the power to make other people go along with what you feel is true regardless of any and all evidence to the contrary, you're not being intuitive. For people who already have power, intuition is just another thing that can be weaponised for bullying. Is it really intuition? Or is it a neat trick for getting your own way? Trusting intuition certainly doesn't mean being obliged to go along with someone's power-over moves, no matter what they try to dress it up in.
Our intuition is strongly linked to identity, boundaries and what is right for us. How we read the dynamics of a situation should be about our own needs and preferences. If something doesn't feel right for you, then it isn't right and you should never be called upon to have to justify those feelings. Equally, if you feel that something would help you, or be good for you then you are entitled to those feelings no matter how anyone else sees things. We all have a duty not to harm each other, but so long as we aren't causing harm, we should be free to do as we see fit. Intuition should be part of our navigation systems as we decide what we need and what we don't need. If you aren't able to trust your gut feelings, it may say far more about your circumstances than about whether your intuition is reliable.
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