We all pride ourselves one day on having been able to thwart the traps that presented themselves to us. This pride is based on our intuition, which we believe to be omniscient. However, are we really sure that it is intuition? Have we not simply been fooled by prejudices that we have disguised as intuition? Let’s see together what can distinguish prejudice from intuition. Let’s see how to prevent them.
Prejudices communicate negative ideas to us
Although fear is intimately linked to the body, it is nevertheless a mechanism that originates in the archaic part of the brain. Although fear is necessary for survival, when it dominates our existence, we begin to behave like a survivalist rather than a living individual.
Intuition improves with time
What we notice is that intuition is a characteristic of wise people. They have managed to gain experience and have applied reflection to it to become wisdom. Intuition is characterized by a rather open and positive way of thinking.
Prejudices are cultural, intuition is intimate
What society teaches us is not always to look at others in a benevolent way. Human relations on a macroscopic scale (geopolitics in particular) mean that nations can oppose each other. This opposition generates friction that can translate into resentment against the people who constitute this nation. To progress, we must stop seeing life only through the judgments that have been made for us and that we have assimilated. Prejudices are not something that we develop ourselves, but rather that we inherit from our culture and our environment.
Intuition necessarily implies to think with the belly
Prejudice is the result of a mental process, which means that we see the world around us through the labels and filters that we have been taught. Typically, this means that we see the world through tinted glasses that prevent us from seeing clearly. Conversely, intuition emanates from our whole body. It is what is communicated to us by our intestines and all the particles in our body that capture unconscious and invisible information. Finally, listening to your intuition is neither more nor less than having a second source of information that is not our brain. It is making a decision with more data.
Being prejudiced does not make us great
If prejudices allow us to avoid certain problems, since they can be effective: by discriminating by default, it happens that we can make good decisions. The problem is that it does not allow us to make case by case decisions and we base our choices on totally arbitrary criteria, which prevents us from acting with justice, integrity and compassion. Of course, if we are totally ignorant of a given situation, it is preferable to protect ourselves by default, and not to trust the first person who comes along. This attitude may be desirable in particular cases (when traveling alone at the end of the world, for example) at the beginning, but it is relatively disabling in the long run. If one cannot trust one’s intuition because one is clinging to one’s prejudices, it is unlikely that one will make progress in one’s relationships or personal life.
Overcoming prejudice
Prejudices are a manifestation of our intellect, whereas intuition is a process that starts with the body and the senses. In order to develop your intuition, you have to abandon the thoughts that run in a loop in your mind and trust activities that give more weight to the body. There are a thousand ways to stimulate your intuition. We can engage in sports, yoga, hiking, etc. All these activities help to create a certain sense of well-being. All these activities help to create a certain silence in our mind. It is by emancipating ourselves from the daily hubbub that we can develop our intuition serenely.
The harmony of body and mind
Ultimately, it is by synchronizing our body and mind that we are best able to make wise decisions that go beyond appearances and are simply not filled with fear. Prejudices are developed to deal with anxiety-provoking situations in which we do not have a safe way to make decisions. It is because we are afraid of making bad decisions that may impact our safety or integrity that we develop automatic thinking “systems” commonly referred to as prejudice. Once we gain more knowledge of a situation, we are able to make decisions that are not based on a fear of the unknown.
In order to progress, you have to scare yourself a little bit every day
Progress is possible if we push the boundaries of our fears. This allows us to gain both confidence and knowledge. These two elements act like the two sentences of a car moving forward in the dark. It is thanks to them that we can move forward at high speed without fear of hitting a wild animal that would suddenly cross the road. To get better every day, we must either do something we imagine to be difficult or do something that scares us a little. In this way, we arm ourselves with essential qualities to act in a more intuitive way.
To summarize:
We must distinguish between prejudice and intuition. Prejudices are based on negative assumptions that prevent us from acting with discernment.
There is a simple way to eradicate prejudices, it is to develop one’s intuition. To do this, you need to give your body more of a say in your decision making. Venturing away from things that frighten us and doing activities that require more communion of the body with the mind allows us to become more intuitive.
