Intuition is a powerful decision-making tool we can use when we are faced with medical decisions that are difficult to make. We've heard intuition called "trusting your gut," an inner voice, a sixth sense, seeing the light, having a hunch, and other phrases. All of those fit.
While many people believe that concept wholeheartedly, not all do. That's, perhaps, because they don't really understand what intuition is.
Intuition is the experience of your unconscious mind providing you with an answer. It's decision-making without rational, step-by-step thought. It's the ability of your brain to assess a situation, process it based on either instinct, or deep rooted knowledge you may have acquired without realizing it, then turning that into a piece of knowledge you can choose to act on. Whether you choose to act on it is usually based on how well you trust your intuition.
We all have intuition. We all have the ability to make these snap assessments. The problem is, not everyone taps into their intuition, or trusts it to help them make decisions. It's not like psychic ability or talking to the dead! It's a process that scientists believe takes place deep inside the brain.
The way we are raised or our cultural background may affect how we view intuition. Parents who never used or trusted intuition will raise their children not to trust it either. Some cultures value intuition; others do not.
There is a gender stereotype that women are more intuitive than men. Women are said to have a "sixth sense." I can't find any research that proves or disproves that theory. My guess is that women are either better at tapping into their intuition, or perhaps they are willing to talk about it more.
But intuition is an important tool that, when used effectively, can be enormously helpful. Even the the United States Customs Service and Homeland Security work with their officers to tap into their intuition when making decisions about people crossing the borders into the United States.
When it comes to our health, trusting our intuition can make a difference in our outcomes. It can even be lifesaving.
I'm proof of that. When I was diagnosed with cancer and told I had only a few months to live, although chemotherapy would buy me an extra year of time, that little voice inside me, my intuition, knew there was something wrong with the diagnosis. I listened, acted, and figured out I had no cancer.
I hear many stories from patients about "knowing" something was wrong, even though doctors told them nothing turned up in one medical test or another. The people who pursued second opinions lived to tell those stories.
Malcolm Gladwell, author and columnist for the New Yorker Magazine, wrote an entire book about intuition called Blink. He tells dozens of stories of real people using intuition to make decisions, and even offers proof that intuition, when correctly identified, is more accurate than researched and more rational decision-making. He asserts that "snap" decisions based on our intuition may be more useful to us than the ones we spend a lot of time thinking through.
How to Use Intuition to Make Medical Decisions
For many of us, the ability to trust our intuition for an important, potentially life-changing decision has never been tested. So when we come to a point in our lives when we need to make a huge decision, we just don't know how to go about it. Here are some suggestions for making health or medical decisions using your intuition.
Begin by learning to identify when you have an intuitive or instinctive knowledge about something. Some people report a nagging in their heads. Others report a real physical reaction in the pits of their stomachs, the "gut" reaction. Still others can't sleep.
Once you tap into that sense that you are having an intuition response to a question, then work on identifying what it is. This may be a bit more difficult -- but it may not matter because there are steps you can take to figure it out.
Separate Intuition from Wishful Thinking
Along with not being able to identify what your intuition is telling you is the concept of wishful thinking. You may be mixing up your intuition with your wishful thinking. For example, say you are told you need surgery, and you have a nagging feeling that your choice of surgeons, or your choice of surgical approaches, or your choice of timing may make a difference. Wishful thinking might tell you that the surgeon who is nicer is a better choice, but real intuition might tell you the other would do a better job.
Instead of fretting about it, use that quandary to help you do some more background research. Write down your choices, circle the one you WISH was true and the one you think your GUT tells you is true. Don't even worry about which one is which. For the moment, it doesn't matter. Now, as best you can, gather more information about both of them.
In the case of choosing a surgeon, you could get still a third opinion, you could read about the two different procedures they planned to use to decide which procedure is better for you, you could go online to look up their surgical track records or find out if either has been guilty of malpractice, you could ask other patients about their experiences. In short, if you can just identify what the possibilities are, then you can verify that your intuition is right, and your wishful thinking is less useful, and you'll have the confidence to trust your intuition to make the right decision for you.
Have you used your intuition to help you make decisions? Click on the link below to share your story.
