Intuition: Nothing Up My Sleeve...

This week, WonderBranding takes a look at intuition -- what it means and why it's more prevalent in women.

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Every once in awhile, the right brain pulls a response out of its file drawer that doesn’t quite fit the moment at hand. Why would the hair on the back of your neck stand up as you walk alone toward your car late one night? Why would you get a knot in your stomach when a normally trustworthy colleague tries talking you into a business decision that will move your company in a whole new direction?

Hmm, could it be… intuition?

Ah, intuition – the least understood, oft-maligned trait of human existence. I’m betting you’ve had situations when you’ve gone against your intuition and regretted it; likewise, you’ve followed your intuition when everyone told you it was crazy to do so, and you succeeded beyond your dreams.

If someone asked you to describe intuition, could you? It’s an elusive and amorphous trait. The word intuition has its roots in French and Latin – in, meaning ‘inside,’ and tuicion, meaning ‘to watch, guard, protect.’ In ancient history, people used this term when referring to an unconscious source of information that was used to protect oneself.

In other words, “knowing something without knowing how you know.”

Intuition seems to bypass the left hemisphere of the brain, offering sharp insight and accurate guesses in lieu of rational thought. When certain situations arise, you somehow just “know” that there is something deep within yourself to draw upon, based not on theory, but feelings and experience. Individual and unpredictable, intuition manifests itself in many ways – a “flash” of knowing, for example, or a “gut” feeling. At times, intuition even presents itself in dreams (many great scientists and physicists have had their “Aha!” moment during the dream state).

To think that intuition is ethereal and mysterious is akin to believing that a magician actually makes the playing card “appear” during a sleight-of-hand trick – it’s an illusion. Just as the card seems to pop out of nowhere, you’re really only experiencing the end product of the intuition process. By the time a “feeling” hits you, your body and brain have gone through more contortions than Harry Houdini inside a steamer trunk.

Thanks to our old friend the Corpus Callosum (See "Woman Does Not Live by Hormones Alone" 3/4/04), a woman has the advantage of being able to rapidly link and process information on both sides of the brain. With this “crossover” brainpower, she is pulling in all kinds of information from her surroundings. She is unconsciously accessing those file drawers of the right brain, tapping into emotional memories and feelings, sorting and looking for similarities and relationships to what she is presently encountering.

Stay tuned for more on intuitition....