The Difference Between Intuition and Fear: How to Tell Which One Is Guiding You?

In our life, we are faced with making decisions on a day-to-day basis. Some of these decisions are small, like what to eat, where to go, when to go. And some of these decisions are huge, like, is this the right person for me in this relationship? Is this the right career for me? And so on.

While making these decisions, your inner world might look like a marketplace with too many thoughts and noises. You might have an urge or a want or a strong feeling towards making a particular decision.

Now, one of these voices can be your intuition. Your intuition is pure and the voice of your soul. It will always tell you the truth and show you the right path to find your peace.

On the other hand, there’s another voice, which is fear. And that voice comes from your ego, which is the part that will guide you towards temporary happiness or help you avoid temporary pain. But it might not be guiding you towards the right path.

Its only job is to protect you from the world and nothing else. And by you, I mean the voice of fear only protects your physical body, but not your soul. Whereas your intuition tries to only guide your soul.

If you listen to the voice of fear, there’s no doubt that you will always be worried, restless, and confused. Whereas, if you hear the voice of your intuition, you’ll find peace, calmness, and a well-thought-out direction for your life.

Now, in this article, let us look carefully at how both of these voices operate, so that we can recognize fear and distinguish it from intuition.

Let’s understand fear – the voice of the ego

In order to understand fear, you need to understand the root cause of fear, the place where it is born.

Fear comes from attachment and desire. When you become attached to your materialistic world, your possessions, your physical body, social status, money, you start worrying about losing it. And that’s how fear is born.

Your attachment to these worldly pleasures will give birth to grief and fear at the same time.

Fear is a natural defense system of your mind. It’s basically a made-up world of your mind. It tries to protect your ego.

As we all know, the mind is dangerously hard to control and tame. And when fear takes over a human being, he cannot act in his right consciousness. It blocks his ability to see clearly and often makes him forget his own divine power that rests inside his soul.

Here are some ways to recognize the voice of fear and distinguish it from the voice of intuition.

1. Fear is physically agitating.

When you react out of fear, you will see that your body is often restless. Your breath will become fast and shallow. You might even get panic attacks or other physical symptoms associated with fear.

2. The voice of fear is often demanding.

You will always find a sense of urgency when you hear that voice of fear. It tells you that you need to act immediately.

You need to get rid of your sickness immediately. You need to get rid of your lack of money immediately. Otherwise, it’s going to cause more trouble and bring in more pain.

3. The voice of fear is always about the past or the future.

There’s a wonderful saying that fear is a prisoner of time. Your voice of fear is attached to your past painful memories or to your wild, negative imaginations of the future.

Fear cannot exist in the beauty of the present moment.

4. Fear will often make you feel helpless.

You will find yourself getting stressed out about situations which are out of your hands. You will try to control those situations to feed your ego.

It’s because your ego mind tells you that you have to be in control otherwise, your life will fall apart.

Let’s understand intuition – the voice of our soul

Intuition is a gentle and steady voice which comes from deep within us.

If you want to understand how intuition works, then let me explain with the help of an example.

Think of your five senses and your thoughts like a torch. A torch basically shines its beam in a very narrow path, which falls directly on the object in front of it and leaves everything around it in total darkness.

Whereas your intuition is kind of a spherical light, just like a bulb in your room. Once you switch on that bulb, your room becomes bright from all directions, revealing every single corner of the room. There’s no darkness left anymore.

Intuition connects your thoughts and feelings to your divine self. It acts like a golden bridge between them.

Here are some ways to recognize the voice of intuition and distinguish it from the voice of fear.

It’s easier than you think because the voice of intuition is completely different from the voice of fear, and you can easily differentiate it.

These are just a few ways the voice of intuition works.

1. Intuition has stillness and calmness around it.

Unlike fear, which is very loud, demanding, and urgent, intuition only manifests when you are calm from the inside.

If your mind is constantly anxious because of all the worries, then you’ll never hear the voice of intuition.

2. Intuition doesn’t argue or hesitate.

When there’s a voice of fear, you’ll always find yourself questioning, being undecided, and constantly changing your thoughts and arguing back and forth.

Whereas the voice of intuition doesn’t argue with you. It doesn’t hesitate and carries a deep sense of conviction.

Your mind will stop analyzing and solving puzzles and will simply see the truth directly.

3. The voice of intuition doesn’t derive from intellect or knowledge from books.

The voice of intuition is nothing but a perception of the truth that comes from deep inside you.

It doesn’t gather facts and figures from data around you.

4. The voice of intuition brings complete peace.

When you follow your voice of intuition, you will never have any worry or excitement. Your mind just settles in a deep state of calmness and satisfaction.

Just like you’re meditating with your eyes open.

Why stillness is necessary

It’s very important to understand why stillness is necessary.

Now, imagine your mind as a bowl of water. If you boil that water, mix it with some dark colors, and stir it up, can you ever see your face as a reflection?

Obviously not. Your reflection will be distorted.

But now, if the water becomes crystal clear, still, and unclouded, then you can see yourself clearly.

This is the exact scenario with our physical being. When you keep aside your likes and dislikes and let your thoughts settle, then you can make proper judgment and see the bright reflection of your soul much more clearly and naturally.

The five stages of intuition

Intuition keeps growing inside you as you become more spiritual and spend more time with your inner self.

It will express itself in five different forms within your consciousness. Now, let’s understand the five different forms.

1. The physical level

This is the most basic form, where you have that innate feeling of “I exist” inside your physical body.

2. The energy level

Here, you realize that you are the soul, the life force which is flowing through your body.

You might even start seeing some bright light inside of you or hear some subtle sounds when you meditate.

3. The mind level

Here, your attention to the physical world diminishes and moves inwards towards your inner world.

You will experience a deep sense of calm, peace, and inner visions, and you will feel much closer to the divine.

4. The wisdom level

Here, you rise above the normal chatter of your brain and have a quiet understanding of the things around you.

And you experience very deep, effortless wisdom that guides your day-to-day choices.

5. The bliss level

This is the most beautiful stage, where you experience a pure, sweet joy kind of a stage.

This is where your inner state, whether it’s happiness or anger or sadness or disappointment, doesn’t depend upon the outside world, any other person, or condition.

It is that blissful state that you always remain in, where happiness flows continuously, non-stop.

Once you have attained the blissful level, you are very close to “pure soul intuition,” where you are no longer separate from the divine.

You become the light. Your soul merges with the divine source. And you become a very clear reflection of the divine.

And you feel a deep, loving kinship with every single creature and object, whether living or non-living, and everything that the universe encompasses.

A lifelong journey

It’s a lifelong journey to learn the difference between intuition and fear. And when you finally make that difference, your life becomes completely different.

You’ll have a much more enjoyable experience in the physical plane.

Just practice daily stillness. Calm your breath. Let go of any selfish need, the need to control, and the need to satisfy your ego.

The next time you face a choice, come up with a choice to not take any action or make any decision out of panic.

Step back. Take a deep breath. Get rid of your sensory chatter.

And listen to the beautiful, silent wisdom that’s already inside you.