Fear tends to make you look down on yourself or misinterpret danger, but fear is false and useless. At the same time, the inability to distinguish between unrealistic fears and intuition will form a strong belief that you will experience something bad in the future. This causes you to make choices and decisions that hold you back instead of making your life grow. A balanced life leads you to happiness if you are able to distinguish between fear and intuition.
Step
Part 1 of 2: Identifying Fear
Step 1. Know the signs of real fear
There is a real fear, for example, when you face a dog attack or when you are confronted by an oncoming car or if you are practicing parachuting from an airplane for the first time. In this case, defending yourself or being careful because you are afraid of what will happen is healthy and reasonable behavior because these actions are considered as self-protection from something scary for real reasons.
Step 2. Distinguish between real and fabricated fears
Recognize that false and harmful fear occurs when you imagine that you are about to experience a fear-inducing event, even if this fear is irrational or unlikely. This happens because you allow anxiety, worry, and the habit of exaggerating problems to take over your ability to think clearly and ignore tangible evidence.
Note that this article is not discussing real fears, but focuses on imaginative fear, which is the habit of imagining that something very bad is going to happen unexpectedly
Step 3. Try to find out what scares you
Write down what triggers your fear so you can recognize it as fear, not intuition. Take time to jot down the things that scare you in your daily life, for example:
- Fear of losing your job
- Fear of losing loved ones
- Fear of getting injured or afraid to think about the safety of the children
- Fear of growing old or afraid of the future
- Write down all the fears you feel. There is a rational fear, for example the fear of losing your job after hearing your boss announce that there will be a reduction in staff next week. However, there are also irrational fears, such as the fear of imagining the bridge you are about to cross suddenly collapses just because you have just heard the news of a bridge collapse elsewhere.
Step 4. Be skeptical of unfounded fears
Fear can develop into a phobia, for example: fear of heights, fear of insects, fear of meeting strangers, etc. Phobias occur because your thoughts are controlled by past experiences, not intuition. While a phobia arises from wanting to protect yourself, this kind of protection tends to be too much so that you can't develop yourself, have freedom, and achieve happiness.
Step 5. Remove stress from your daily life
Stress and anxiety make you unable to feel calm. This condition makes it difficult for you to find yourself or reveal who you really are. This is when fear dominates and takes control because you are trying to protect yourself from feeling defeated, exhausted, and taken advantage of. Take time to relax so that you can forget your fears, listen to your intuition properly, and find your true self that won't surface if you don't take time to relax and calm your mind.
Part 2 of 2: Distinguishing Fear and Intuition
Step 1. Reflect on what you know about intuition
Although it's not easy, you can understand intuition yourself as a guide from the heart, "enlightenment", or inner voice. In contrast to fear, intuition has a positive connotation because it allows us to take advantage of experiences that are hidden in the subconscious.
The terms “gut,” “instinct,” “instinct,” and “feeling” are often used to describe the way intuition influences our actions and decisions. However, we need to realize that intuition is more than responding based on instinct alone, but using instincts that are supported by cognitive considerations. Your definition of intuition cannot be said to be right or wrong. You just need to take the time to write down what it means to you
Step 2. Know what the consequences will be if you mistake fear for intuition
Fear is a negative emotion that expresses itself through physical reactions (example: “fight or flight” response, sweating, heart palpitations, etc.) Intuition is a positive feeling or guide that will improve the situation if listened to. Fear is an emotion that makes you want to avoid, hide, and refuse to face negative consequences, whereas intuition warns of potential danger while providing strength, resilience, and enabling us to prepare actions and attitudes to deal with and cope with negative events.
- When you mistake fear for intuition, you're telling yourself clearly that something bad is going to happen, but you can't do anything useful to deal with it other than worry, fret, or pray. As a result, you neglect your intuition and your ability to overcome fear. This is how we ignore intuition or turn positive effects into negative effects.
- Be aware of other problems that arise from mistaking fear for intuition. Instead of enjoying life in the present, fear makes you go through life imagining the worst things that might happen in the future. You can't find intuition if you don't focus on the present.
Step 3. Listen to your gut feeling
Forebodings of what will happen tend to be neutral if they arise from intuition. Forebodings cannot be forced and their good or bad consequences are not influenced by your thoughts. People who are cynical about themselves only hinder their ability to have hunches and so they are less likely to experience them. A hunch differs from fear in that hunches arise not because of a conscious or unconscious subjective preference.
Step 4. Distinguish between irrational fear and intuition
This article has provided instructions on how to distinguish between fear and intuition. For example, are you always focused on the present or worried about the future? Are you in the habit of exaggerating problems or doing ruminations about life? Know the difference between intuition and irrational fear through the following explanations:
- Reliable intuition provides information with a neutral emotional tone.
- Reliable intuition comes in the form of a "fun" conscience.
- Dependable intuition enables you to be compassionate and give positive affirmations to yourself and others.
- Reliable intuition gives a clear impression before it is felt
- Reliable intuition feels like something that has no effect, like watching a movie at the cinema
- Irrational fear provides information that is full of emotional messages
- Irrational fear appears in the form of an "unpleasant" conscience
- Irrational fears give rise to feelings of being hurt, belittled, or delusional about oneself, others, or both
- Irrational fear makes you unable to control yourself or be wise
- Irrational fears reflect past experiences that have left unhealed wounds or traumas
Step 5. Take the right steps
Try to identify protective fears and change irrational fears by cultivating courage. At times, you may already recognize the real potential danger, but usually, irrational fears provide misinformation. Therefore, make it a habit to question the fear that is triggered by low self-esteem because we all deserve special things.
For example, it's okay to question your fear because love has hurt you so much. Even though a broken heart can open up again, you have to make the decision to open up and not overprotect yourself. True intuition never disappoints you or creates self-defeating attitudes and behaviors. This is one of the most obvious clues of intuition
Tips
- If you have the ability to empathize emotionally, are highly sensitive, or always put the interests of others first, it can be very difficult to distinguish between real fears, irrational fears, and helpful intuition. You tend to try to overcome other people's fears and think or assume that their fears are your own.
- Help others understand the difference between protective fear, irrational fear, and intuition. People who are trapped in irrational fears usually find it difficult to free themselves from this problem. You can help them, especially if you've been through a similar problem and are able to understand the trigger.
- Don't immediately trust information or emotions that arise because of issues you think are important or trigger your emotions. For example, as a mother, child welfare is the most powerful emotional trigger, whereas as a business owner, employee honesty is the most powerful emotional trigger. In this case, be skeptical of information that triggers fear and think critically to identify fears, emotions, and intuitions. Don't let irrational fear control you. Take a step-by-step scientific approach and don't act impulsively.
