Every day you receive guidance from your intuition - that quiet inner knowing that points you toward your highest path. But fear also speaks, often loudly, trying to keep you safe by keeping you small. Learning to distinguish between these two voices is one of the most valuable skills you can develop on your spiritual journey.
Both intuition and fear can feel visceral and urgent. Both can come as sudden knowing or strong physical sensations. So how do you tell them apart? How do you know whether to trust that inner voice or question it?
The Nature of Intuition
Intuition is the voice of your soul, your higher self, your connection to divine wisdom. It's not logical - it often contradicts what your rational mind thinks you "should" do. But it's always aligned with your highest good and deepest truth.
Intuitive guidance feels: - Calm and neutral, even when delivering urgent information - Expansive in your body - a sense of opening, of space - Clear and simple - often just a quiet knowing without elaborate explanation - Consistent - it doesn't waver or contradict itself - Compassionate - toward yourself and others - Aligned with love - even when it's saying "no" to something
Intuition often arrives in the quiet moments - during meditation, in the shower, while walking in nature. It's the answer that suddenly appears when you stop forcing it. It's the knowing that comes through you, not from your thinking mind.
The Nature of Fear
Fear is your ego's attempt to keep you safe from perceived danger. Its intentions are good, but its methods are often counterproductive. Fear keeps you in your comfort zone, even when your soul is calling you to grow.
Fear-based guidance feels: - Urgent and anxious - creating a sense of pressure and panic - Constrictive in your body - tightness, closing, tension - Complicated - spinning elaborate scenarios and justifications - Inconsistent - changing based on your mood or circumstances - Judgmental - toward yourself or others - Rooted in lack - focusing on what might go wrong
Fear loves to masquerade as intuition, saying things like "I just have a feeling this won't work out" or "Something tells me this is dangerous." But that "feeling" comes with anxiety, whereas true intuition comes with peace.
Physical Clues to Distinguish Them
Your body is an incredible guidance system. Learn to recognize how intuition and fear feel physically:
Intuition often creates: - Lightness in the chest or heart area - A sense of expansion or opening - Calm, steady breathing - Relaxation in the shoulders and jaw - A quiet "yes" or "no" in your gut - Tingles or warmth - A sense of alignment throughout your body
Fear often creates: - Tightness or anxiety in the chest - Shallow, rapid breathing - Tension in the shoulders, jaw, or stomach - A churning or unsettled feeling in the gut - Heaviness or constriction - A sense of bracing against something
The Timeline Test
Intuition is about the present moment and future possibilities. Fear is usually rooted in past experiences.
Ask yourself: "Is this feeling based on what happened before, or is it a genuine knowing about now?" If you're afraid to take a risk because the last time you tried something similar it didn't work out, that's fear speaking. If you have a clear sense that this particular situation isn't right for you, regardless of past experience, that's likely intuition.
The Outcomes Test
Fear focuses on avoiding negative outcomes: "If I do this, something bad might happen."
Intuition focuses on moving toward alignment: "This feels right" or "This doesn't feel like my path."
Fear asks: "What if it goes wrong?" Intuition says: "This is aligned" or "This isn't for me."
The Peace Test
This is the ultimate discernment tool: after the initial feeling passes, what remains?
When you follow intuition, even if you're nervous about the action itself, there's an underlying peace. A sense of rightness. A knowing that this is your path, regardless of how it unfolds.
When you're operating from fear, there's no underlying peace - just more anxiety, more what-ifs, more need for certainty and guarantees.
Practical Exercises for Strengthening Intuition
The Morning Check-In: Before you reach for your phone, take five minutes to sit quietly and ask: "What does my intuition want me to know today?" Listen without expecting specific answers. Notice what arises.
The Body Scan: When facing a decision, think about one option while scanning your body for sensations. Notice how your body responds. Then think about the other option and notice again. Your body will often show you the truth before your mind accepts it.
The 24-Hour Rule: When fear arises around a decision, agree with yourself that you'll sit with it for 24 hours before acting. Often, fear will dissipate and clarity will emerge. Intuition remains steady even when you wait.
The Journaling Practice: Write a conversation between your intuition and your fear. Let them each speak. You'll begin to recognize their distinct voices and patterns.
Trusting Your Inner Compass
The more you practice distinguishing between intuition and fear, the clearer the difference becomes. You start to recognize the feeling of true guidance versus the feeling of protective anxiety.
And here's what's beautiful: even when you get it "wrong" - even when you follow what you think is intuition and it turns out to be fear, or ignore what you think is fear and miss intuitive guidance - you learn. Your inner compass calibrates with each experience.
The path of spiritual growth isn't about being perfect. It's about learning to trust yourself more deeply, listen more carefully, and respond more authentically.
Your intuition is always speaking. The question is: are you listening?
A Practice for Right Now
Close your eyes and take three deep breaths. Place your hand on your heart and ask a simple question you need guidance on. Don't force an answer. Just ask and wait with open, curious attention.
Notice what arises. Does it feel expansive or constrictive? Peaceful or anxious? Clear or complicated?
Thank whatever came through, even if it wasn't what you wanted to hear. Trust that your inner wisdom is guiding you perfectly, even when the path isn't clear yet.
May you learn to recognize the voice of your soul, trust its guidance completely, and walk your path with confidence and grace.
āØ With Infinite Love from the Crystal Sphere āØ