5 Ways to Distinguish Intuition from Anxiety

In today’s overly stimulated and fast-paced world, the tricky son-of-a-B that is intuition largely evades many of us – and for good reason. As if social media, technology, and wisdom-numbing vices like booze weren’t enough, many of us also live within cultures that champion the mental and shun the emotional, further widening the gap between what we know and what we know. Beyond that, intuition is quiet – very quiet – meaning it has to compete with a LOT to be heard, including all the sensory data coming in hot from your ego like thoughts, feelings, fears, generalized anxiety (my personal Achilles heel), and the like.

Anxiety is one feeling that’s particularly adept at muddying the waters of clarity. The pangs of uneasiness it conjures up often masquerade as “gut feelings”, causing so many of us to heed imaginary warnings and make turn after turn in the wrong direction. Anxiety also affects some 40 million adults in the US alone (where my ppl at!?), making it one of the most widespread and pertinent disorders today. With numbers like these I know I can’t be the only one who’s ever struggled to distinguish worry from wisdom, which brings me to why I wanted to write this blog in the first place.

After years of trial, error, and incorrectly heeding guidance that wasn’t actually there, I’ve finally managed to get a fairly decent grip on how to discern true inner knowing from the kind of ‘knowing’ born out of unwarranted fear and overthinking. I can’t always replicate these results at will and sometimes I still get it wrong, but the more I attempt to tune into my intuition, the more aware I’ve become of its specific nuances that distinguish it from anxiety.

1. Anxiety is loud and talkative, intuition is quiet

Being rooted in fear means anxiety usually comes fully equipped with fog horns and sirens, making its presence easy to detect. It will be upfront and chatty as hell, hijacking your mind and leaving you unable to focus on anything but the merry-go-round of overthinking and internal chatter.

Alternatively, intuition is quiet – like, irritatingly so – and usually only leaves you with a vague sense that you even heard it at all. Rather than in your face and talking a blue streak, intuition feels like it’s almost operating in the background in quick, hardly detectable spurts. Remember the quiet kid in school who always knew the right answers but could never get a word in edgewise over the louder and unwarrantedly confident assholes going off about what they knew to be correct? Perfect analogy for intuition versus anxiety.

2. Anxiety is fear-based, intuition is detached and neutral

When we’re dealing with anxiety, it’s typically reactionary and coming from a place of fear. “if I get on that plane, I’ll die in a plane crash” “I should say yes to a second date with this person because if I don’t, I’ll wind up alone” – these are just two examples of what anxiety usually sounds like, coercing us to do A in an effort to avoid outcome B.

Intuition on the other hand carries more Switzerland vibes (meaning it’s neutral for those non-European history buffs) and isn’t necessarily felt as ‘reaction’ to something. It usually comes to you seemingly out of the ether, and it doesn’t feel particularly scary or happy, but rather detached. So, when trying to figure out whether a feeling is coming from your higher self or your paranoia, a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself if it’s rooted in fear of a perceived threat. If you determine that it is, then you can be fairly confident it’s your anxiety at work.

3. Anxiety feels heavy, intuition feels light

Both anxiety and intuition can come with an array of physical symptoms, some of which match each other like a chill down the spine or butterflies in the stomach. A notable difference between them, however, is the overall felt sense they create in the body. Anxiety is often felt as a persistent sense of heaviness and contraction throughout the body, making you want to shrink back and tighten. Your heart pounds, your head hurts, you can’t stop sweating, and you’re in a perpetual state of fight or flight.

In contrast, intuition creates sensations that can typically be described as light, airy, and expansive. Even if the information you’re receiving from your higher self makes you uncomfortable, you still won’t feel weighed down in the same way you would if anxiety were at the helm, nor will you experience any anxiety-specific symptoms mentioned above. Quick, light, detached, and curious, with little to no negative physical symptoms – those are the defining qualities of intuition.

4. Anxiety is fixated on a future outcome, intuition is present and unbiased

Another way to discern an intuitive hit from anxiety is by looking at its origin. If the ‘hit’ you’re grappling with came from a place of fear, need, or desire to create a specific outcome in the future, anxiety is likely the culprit.

On the flipside, if said ‘hit’ feels very impartial and grounded in the present moment, you can be certain you’re hearing your intuition. Determining whether there’s an agenda behind the feeling in question or even the smallest desire to ‘force fate’ in any particular direction, is often a very reliable way to differentiate the biased sound of anxiety from the detached voice of your higher self.  

5. Anxiety is emotional, intuition is not

One of the most notable differences existing between anxiety and intuition is the overall level of emotion they bring about. Anxiety comes in hot with fears, needs, and desires that need soothing pronto. It’s emotional AF and oftentimes highly irrational, with the staying power to rage inside your mind until you either heed it or drown it out.

Intuition on the other hand is surprisingly unemotional, calm, and clear – which is largely why it’s so easy to miss. When you’re accustomed to being in the chaotic throes anxiety, the calm, cool and collected voice of intuition often sounds very foreign. We mistakenly deem it as unimportant by comparison, and focus instead on the stronger, more distracting feelings that come with being in the grip of anxiety.

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The seas of intuition are ones I’m still trying to navigate myself and the learning curve can sometimes seem more like a learning mountain. For anyone who also struggles with anxiety though, learning to differentiate that from all others is a massive step forward in cultivating greater intuitive awareness overall. Listen to the different voices in your mind from a place of curiosity and practice evaluating them based on the points above. Are they loud or soft? Fearful or neutral? Heavy or light? Future-focused or grounded in presence? Emotional or detached?

With some consistent practice you’ll inevitably learn to discern your intuition from your anxiety in a way that feels automatic, and it’ll only get easier from there.

Go get ‘em you fully capable, intuitively aware, badass lil B. I believe in you.

All my love.