Aligning Intuition with Intelligence.

Intuition has become a big buzz word lately, which is great!  It shows that the world is evolving, as more humans are looking to tap back into their innate intelligence.  We used to hear the term “intuition” used more in esoteric fields.  It was almost as if we needed to be a “chosen one” with psychic abilities to be intuitive.  These days we are hearing it all over the place in yoga, wellness, business, and even scientific fields.

While it’s super exciting that more of us are making this connection, as we progress in different ways on our self-growth paths, it’s important that we understand how to align our intuition with our intelligence.  Especially when it comes to our daily habits!  Following intuition or intelligence alone is a recipe for deep misalignment in our body, mind, and spirit.

To understand how to align intuition with intelligence, let’s review what each means individually.

Intuition is our ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.  It’s a deep knowing.  Like our cells have this information in them already and it just needs to be uncovered and reactivated with our connected awareness.  It’s following our hearts.

Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.  It’s taking information into our brains.  As we take in knowledge, our minds process and make sense of it on a conscious level.  It’s using our brains.

What happens when we have one without the other?

Letting our intuition lead us by only following our hearts, without any intelligence to back it up, is not always the best idea.  If we take a moment for personal reflection on this matter, I’m sure many of us have some kind of tragic story of letting our intuition guide us in a “feel good” moment or moments, without using intelligence to support it.  Whether it ended in money problems, tumultuous relationships, or maybe even a health problem, simply following our hearts without using our brains can lead to heartbreak.

If we are only guided by our intuition, we can get stuck in a pattern of doing what feels good in the moment, while not making the mental connection if it is truly good for us.  Think of an addictive pattern you have or have had.   As a former smoker, I would follow my heart, understanding that my nervous system would relax at my next puff, ignoring the intelligence that I was also absorbing toxic chemicals into my body with that puff.

Another, more general, example is when our habits are guided by what “feels good” in the moment.  While what feels good in the moment might vary from eating a pint of ice cream all the way to scrolling through Instagram into the late-night hours, those are not actions that are truly good for us if we back them up with intelligence. Our hearts often can get feeling good at the moment confused with the deeper desire.   If we look at the intelligence behind the desire of eating a pint of ice cream, we may discover that we need more grounding and comfort.  We can instead try a warm bath or a calming tea to fulfill this desire.  Connecting intelligence to the desire of phone scrolling in bed might reveal a need to quiet and settle the mind.  Practices such as meditation, journaling, or light and inspiring reading would be a more aligned way to accomplish this.  When we find our hearts guiding us in ways that bring these temporary “feel good” moments, this is a great opportunity to stop and look for the intelligence that connects with following our hearts.  What deeper desire leads your heart there and what knowledge can lead you into true fulfillment of that desire?

Now, what about intelligence without intuition?  Letting only our intelligence guide us, trudging through life by thought alone, and doing the “right thing” will set us up for a life without deep fulfillment. Perhaps we or someone we know have had some type of mid-life crisis where we became completely unsatisfied.  We thought we were always making the right choices and doing the right thing until one day it all falls apart in some way.  This can also express itself in money problems, relationship problems, or health problems.  Simply using our brains without connection to our heart’s desires can lead to mental breakdown.

If we are only guided by our intelligence, we get stuck in our ways at an intellectual level by not connecting the knowledge in our brains to the deep inner knowing of our hearts.  Think of a time you thought you were doing what was right according to your knowledge.  As a formally married woman, using my brain well led me into a marriage that seemed perfect by intelligence alone.   While finding a good companion with common interests was enough to satisfy my mind at the time, ignoring the intuition that my heart wasn’t expanding led to the ultimate breakdown of the relationship in the end.

More examples of being led by doing the “right thing” in our daily habits, could be of those driven by the multitude of knowledge available for achieving extreme health.  There are so many new health trends and so much information available these days about what is the “right thing” for our health.  HIIT workouts, nutritional powders, ketogenic diets, infrared saunas, veganism, etc!   Many people attain and understand this varying health information on an intellectual level and follow strictly without connection to how it’s really making them feel.

As we learn new information and take different steps, exploring new habits to achieve greater health, it’s important we also listen to our intuition.  For example, while a HIIT workout might be nourishing for one person because of their sturdy build and sedentary lifestyle, it could be depleting and cause injury to another if they are already burning the candle at both ends mentally and physically.  Perhaps Yoga would better serve the latter of the two.  When we find ourselves only using our brains to guide us by doing the “right thing”, this is another great opportunity to stop and listen for the intuition supported by using our brains.  Is the knowledge we are using to guide us truly fulfilling us by connection to our heart’s deep desires?

Our intuition supports our intelligence and vice versa.  We have constant opportunities throughout the day to align the two, simply through our daily habits.   From the moment you wake up, all the way until you go to bed, start to take inventory of whether your heart or head is leading you to your automated actions.  How do your habits evolve once you start taking inventory to align intuition with intelligence?

When we learn to align our intuition with our intelligence, that is where the magic happens!  It’s where the heart connects with the head!  On a physical level, we see the middle of this connection at our throat.  At an energetic level, it is the throat chakra (vishuddhi), the purification center of how we express ourselves to the world.  When we are living through the connected head and heart, or aligned intuition and intelligence, we are living and speaking our divine truth in the world.  And as we learn to live and speak our divine truth, we will find deeper nourishment and fulfillment in our lives and the lives we touch.