I was chatting to a friend last weekend who, like me, has the trait of High Sensitivity. She is a bundle of joy, warmth and empathy and is clearly very emotionally sensitive so I said to her “you must pick up vibes from people that tell you they’re not very nice” to which she replied “no, never!” and it shocked me.

All my life I’ve been highly intuitive. It’s normal for me and it took decades for me to discover that not everyone intuits the world in the way I do. But I genuinely thought my intuition was part of my Sensory Processing Sensitivity and hearing my friend say she doesn’t have it demonstrates that’s not the case. It’s said that everyone has intuition, although I don’t know if that’s actually true – I certainly don’t know many people who recount similar experiences to me.

So what is intuition? I can only speak of my own understanding, but what it isn’t is mind reading or being psychic. It’s not instinct, which is a different sense altogether. Instead it’s your spidey senses. It’s gut feelings. It’s picking up ‘vibes’ (ie energy). It’s having someone pop into your head unexpectedly just before you receive a phone call or text from them out of the blue. It’s feeling anxious for no reason, then later discovering someone you love has had an accident or is in trouble. It’s a ‘knowing’ that isn’t based on knowledge you already have or have access to.

I’ve always suppressed my intuition (sometimes called the ‘third eye’). It’s easier to tell myself that the gut feeling I have that the new person I’ve met isn’t ‘nice’ is just my imagination. That I shouldn’t be so suspicious or judgemental and what if I’m wrong? It’s getting in the car despite an inexplicable feeling of very strong anxiety on the day I had my car crash. It’s knowing I had a brain tumour 5 years before I was diagnosed, which is why I wasn’t surprised when I was given the news (though it naturally still had a massive emotional impact). It’s knowing that my Mum would choose the few hours I wasn’t with her in the 3 days leading up to her passing to die, because she’d find it too difficult to leave if I were with her.

Psychologists will argue that intuition is about pattern recognition based on past experiences, or reading people’s micro expressions, or other unconscious data. But that doesn’t explain how I knew I had a brain tumour, or why I knew I shouldn’t get into my car the day I had my accident. It doesn’t explain the anxiety I had in the pit of my stomach when driving to a Spirituality class I was looking forward to attending, then the violent physical reaction I had when I shook the hand of the man running the class and my absolute knowledge that he was a dark entity. There is something else at play.

I only discovered that these ‘vibes’, feelings and thoughts I had about people and events weren’t usual when I was in my 50s and it’s only in recent years that I’ve leaned into them and started to trust them. I realise now that intuition is spiritual guidance and protection.

So why am I not warned about every bad thing which could happen or every unkind person I might meet? Maybe these events or people are Soul contracted and vital to the lessons I need to learn while in this incarnation? Maybe I am warned and choose to ignore my intuition because other feelings and desires are stronger? Maybe knowing beforehand wouldn’t change the outcome, in which case it’s pointless? Maybe knowing and choosing a different option would lead to something, or someone, even worse? I don’t know is my honest answer.

Over the past few years as I’ve honoured my connection to energy and spirituality and am finally living a deeply authentic life my intuition has strengthened. Or maybe I’m trusting and listening to it in ways I haven’t before. Sometimes I act on the messages and feelings I receive and sometimes I chose not to – either is OK. But I no longer ignore or rationalise away this gently guiding light and instead give thanks for its presence.