Is it anxiety or intuition?

​In the quiet of my home office, I was looking out the window at the backyard garden instead of my computer, resting my eyes.

Then the words were as loud and clear in my head as if I had headphones on:

“Go skydiving.”

I felt like an alien had injected the idea into my brain.

The only thing I knew about jumping out of planes was that Army guys did it because they had to.

I was terrified of heights and hated flying.

I expected it to fade. But I fought it for a year before I resigned myself to doing the one thing I knew would make it stop.

I went.

Then I went again a week later. I got my license and made 1300+ jumps before we moved away from the dropzone.

Skydiving is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life and it blew my ideas about myself wide open. It’s how I met my partner; he taught me how to jump out of planes.

Sit-flying like a boss at 12,000 feet

My intuition changed my whole life. Your intuition can change your life, too, but you have to tune into it.

Intuition can show up as a thought that comes out of nowhere, like an idea downloading directly into your brain. It can also feel like a flash of insight or a sudden solution to something you’re struggling with.

Head intuition like this only comes when your mind is quiet. Intuition and mental focus use different parts of your brain, so they can’t happen at the same time.

Is it intuition or anxiety?

You can also have sudden ideas when you’re anxious, making it hard to know whether they come from intuition or anxiety.

The difference is how they feel.

Anxious ideas feel frantic and speedy and you often leap from one to the next.

Intuitive ideas feel sturdy, consistent, and certain, even if they scare you.

Knowing how anxiety and intuition feel in your body makes you sure about what you're experiencing.

Try this:

The next time you feel anxious, don’t try to make it go away. Instead, feel into it. What are the sensations in your head? Your chest? Your belly and feet?

When you have a sudden or surprising thought, compare how it feels to what you learned about anxiety.

Your truth includes your intuition. Tune into it.