The Difference Between Instinct and Intuition: A Fearless Path To Creativity
Have you ever considered the difference between instinct and intuition?
Many believe that they are the same, but they absolutely are not. These silent forces are fundamentally different and play unique roles in our creativity.
Joel Pearson, in his book The Intuition Toolkit: The New Science of Knowing What without Knowing Why, states that “instinct and intuition can feel the same, so it’s easy to mistake one for the other – many articles and books, in fact, use the two words interchangeably.”
Instinct is biological, an inborn impulse that propels us to react for survival. It’s a physical reaction to something and is hard to define. On the flip side, intuition is our internal guide, shaped by experience. Intrinsic to both is a “gut feeling” we may experience that feels right.
The fear you feel of the unknown is not your intuition telling you something is wrong, it’s an instinct, and instincts are innate. Intuition is learnt and adaptable. It adapts to your environment.
Joel Pearson
How can we distinguish between these two concepts, and how can we be sure that we are making decisions based on either instinct or intuition when confronted with a challenge or dilemma?
Instinct is biological: how your body communicates to you.
We are born as creative beings making creativity a biological instinct.
In a 2023 interview, legendary music producer Rick Rubin describes his approach when working with an artist to create a song. Led by feeling what’s going on in his body he allows his sensations to let him know if he’s onto something exciting and new.
He concluded, “there’s an energy and you either feel it, or you don’t.” Essentially, Rubin has shown us how instinct is like our body’s built-in software.
For many, your instinctive feelings arise in your belly or your neck, but for others, your body responds differently.
The key is to figure out how your body responds to a yes or a no. Your body may change temperature, give you goosebumps, make you shiver or even cause tingling on your arms or legs.
How to develop instinct:
Learning how to slow down, which you can read about in my blog The Art of Slow Living: Tap Into Your Creative Potential is a pathway to becoming attuned to the language of your body.
Practice listening to your body and mind.
Pay close attention to physical sensations and emotional responses.
Engage in a body scan activity to recognise different sensations.
Build a sensation word list.
Having self-awareness and trust in oneself is essential for being in tune with your instincts.
Intuition is not magic: a growth mindset for intuitive self-esteem
Once you realise what a yes or no feels like in your body, you can start exploring a more in-depth conversation.
This is when you’ll be talking with your intuition. It’s that “gut feeling” that guides you without a clear rational process. It’s the sudden hunch that nudges you to take a different route to work or the grocery store. You can't explain why, but you just feel it’s the right decision. In her book Real Life Intuition, Melanie Barnum presents stories of how people listening to their gut feeling of intuition saved them from catastrophe.
Intuition is a powerful untapped aspect of our human potential, an excellent resource that is ready to be proudly brought into use, not just for our personal happiness but also for our collective future.
Amisha Ghadiiali from Intuition: Access Your Wisdom. Trust Your Instincts. Find Your Path
It’s this quiet whisper from within, generated by our subconscious that becomes a guiding force.
Creatives live through their intuition; many musicians talk about hearing the songs from their inner voice, the lyrics and chords fully formed. Intuition is also dynamic and can be nurtured and refined.
A painter may begin with a basic intuition for colour, but through practice and exposure, their intuitive grasp of complex colour combinations matures.
Your mindset makes all the difference when developing your creativity. Leaning toward the view that your skill and talent can be developed and grow over time through commitment and investment is a growth mindset.
According to Harvard Business Review: “We all have our own fixed-mindset triggers. When we face challenges, receive criticism, or fare poorly compared with others, we can become insecure or defensive, which inhibits growth.”
But to receive intuitive insights, you will need to identify and work with your triggers to transform fear into Intuitive Self-Esteem. Get to know the difference between fear and intuition.
How to develop intuition:
Practice Mindfulness and stay in the present moment by avoiding thoughts about the past or worrying about the future.
Practice Visualisation Meditation.
Pay attention to what you notice.
Give your analytical mind a break and spend time in right brain activities like painting, drawing, gardening, singing and dancing.
Affirm your intuition by listening to it and asking it for help.
Over time you can learn to distinguish between a fear-based response and a deeper knowing. As you develop your intuition you will become more confident in trusting your feelings.
Discernment for Intuitive Intelligence: balance instinct and intuition with rational thinking
Discernment in creativity is essential to truly create something unique and impactful.
As you begin to develop your intuition, pay extra attention to the difference between your mind assigning meaning to something or your intuition communicating with you.
Knowing how to separate the good ideas from the bad, to know when to push forward and when to pivot in another direction is a learned skill. It involves the courage to take risks and experiment with new concepts and is a skill that can be honed through practice, self-reflection, and rational thinking.
In Radical Intuition: A Revolutionary Guide to Using Your Inner Power, Kim Chestney remarks; “Discernment is the meeting point of intuition and the intellectual mind.
Through this process, you can bring conscious meaning to the superconscious insight you receive.” Rubin shows us how instinctively feeling good about an idea and intuitively knowing how to bring it to fruition is imperative in the creative process.
By honing your discernment skills, you can sift through the multitude of options and possibilities that come with creating and find the paths that will lead to the most successful outcomes.
How to develop discernment:
Gather evidence and data to support or refute your instinct or intuition.
Weigh the pros and cons of different options to make an informed decision.
Develop a decision-making framework that leverages a combination of instinct, intuition, and analytical thinking.
Practice releasing things that don't resonate with your instinct or intuition, even if your logic tells you otherwise.
Seeking out a variety of viewpoints and feedback to push you out of your comfort zone.
Ultimately, having trust in your creative ability through discernment can lead to magical creative endeavours.
Final thoughts
Instinct is a doorway to intuition.
Instinct is where Rubin’s creative power lives, in feeling the sensations of the moment and then allowing intuition to be the guide.
Recognising when to heed the ancestral call of our instincts and when to listen to the whisper of intuition can lead to a harmony of choices that resonate with both our nature and our personal narrative.
Amisha Ghadiiali from Intuition: Access Your Wisdom. Trust Your Instincts. Find Your Path
It’s important to remember that we’re all intuitive and it’s not possible to lose our intuitive abilities or have bad instincts. Embrace the wisdom of both, and you may find yourself navigating creativity with a newfound grace.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
If you really enjoyed what you read above and want to learn more about The Embodiment Approach… you want to explore your creative flow and nourish yourself at the same time, join The Embodied Approach Newsletter. Each month we will send you the latest blog information, musings and a Nourish Playbook to help you set the tone for the month.
