Angela Artemis invited her readers in a recent newsletter to ask her a question related to intuition. My question for her was, "should you always follow your intuition?" Here's what she shared as a reply to my email (she also wrote a full post elaborating on this and other questions about intuition):
Yes, I believe you should always follow your intuition, that is if you are sure it was your intuition and not your rational mind posing as your intuition.
I say yes because our intuition is the source of our most original and inspired ideas. Inspiration is never found in the day to day sequential thinking we do. It comes when we least expect it usually while we are doing something else. If you want to live an inspired life you do need to listen to your intuition.
Many people hear a thought and attribute it to intuition when it is really their ego or rational mind.
The way to tell the difference is to pay close attention to how you feel.
If there are any "shoulds" attached to this "intuitive guidance" it is not coming from your intuition.
Intuition feels inspiring, right, and like a knowing from deep down inside.
Thoughts we confuse as being intuition make us feel as if we "should do it" because there are logical reasons and benefits for doing it.
Say, I have an idea come to me about a new book I want to write. The idea excites me and I can hardly wait to get started researching it. If it came from my logical mind it would be more on the lines of, "I like this idea. This is a really hot topic right now. I could sell a lot books if I moved fast to capture the public's interest in this...." Do you see the difference?