Why do we insist on believing our minds? They steer us wrong again and again. And yet we continue to believe them.
They predict the future. We believe them.
They make up stories about what other people think of us. We believe them.
They enumerate our faults and tell us we’re not good enough. We believe them.
Even when we start a spiritual practice and begin to get some distance from those pesky little suckers, we continue to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I recently had a beautiful illustration of the logically illogical capacity of the mind.
I’m not always great at backing up my computer. Melissa and I use a file sharing system that does an automatic backup to the cloud, so I know that, for the most part, my stuff is protected.
Yeah, it’s that for the most part that got me into trouble.
In the process of transferring data from one computer to another, some of my files got deleted. Luckily, it wasn’t that big of a deal and I was able to salvage what I’d lost.
Nevertheless, I realized that I needed to have a second backup to my main computer to prevent similar mishaps in the future.
As it turned out, I already had an external hard drive. I just hadn’t been using it. So, I plugged it into my computer and started the process of backing up all my data onto the hard drive.
Once the backup began, a nifty little graphic popped up on my computer to show me how everything was progressing.
I’m a nerd! I love data! So I was fascinated by this infographic.
The infographic had a chart that showed how fast the data was transferring, how many files were being transferred, and the total percentage of files completed.
Below the chart, there was a prediction of how long the whole process would take.
When I first looked, it said it would take 55 minutes.
The next time I checked, it said 13 hours.
The next time? Over 2 days.
The next time? 5 hours.
Whaaaaat???
If I had needed to make plans based on this information, I would have been a mess. I would have felt jerked around and manipulated.
And yet I was getting perfectly logical information.
Each time, the program was predicting how long the process would take given the processing speed in that particular moment.
In other words, it was predicting the future based on current circumstances.
Sound familiar?
That’s just what the mind does!
Your toe is hurting right now? It’s probably going to hurt forever. And you probably have cancer of the toe.
You got in a fight with your best friend? The friendship is probably over and no one will ever love you again.
There’s a world-wide pandemic? You’re never going to be able to leave your house, everyone you love is going to die, and everything will suck forever.
These are logical deductions: If things keep on this direction, then complete and utter chaos is sure to ensue.
And yet.
The mind is a logically illogical creature.
Logic can only take us so far. And logical deductions based on only a small sliver of current information can take us to a very specific kind of place. A place which often looks a lot like an illogical hellscape.
The best antidote for this logically illogical creature that insists on giving us 24/7 catastrophic updates?
Intuition.
Intuition is the exact opposite of the mind.
It’s illogically logical.
Intuition gives us information that often makes no sense at the time we receive it, information which then ends up being absolutely true and accurate.
Intuition also tells us exactly what we need to know, when we need to know it. Even though we may have no clue what it means when we’re first being given the info.
Our minds try to convince us they’re soooooo logical, when they’re anything but.
Intuition, on the other hand, appears to be illogical, when it’s anything but.
It’s not that our minds are never right. But they’re often not right.
Intuition, on the other hand? Alllllllllways on point.
Intuition is outside of space and time. It’s our personalized connection to Divine Wisdom. Intuition isn’t looking at a small sliver of data and making logically illogical conclusions. It’s hacking that process entirely.
That’s why the more time I spend in spiritual practice, the less I believe my mind. And the more I rely on my intuition to guide my way.
Do I still get highjacked by my mind’s illogical predictions? For sure! On a daily! But the more time I spend building my connection with my intuition, the more I’m able to step away from my mind’s nonsense.
I’ll take my intuition’s illogical logic over the mind’s logical @#%$ any day!
What’s your experience with your mind vs. your intuition? Share your comments below!
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I agree with you completely that intuition provides us all with “better” information than our logical minds. The challenge is to “hear” the intuition and to disregard the logical mind. For me, it’s extremely important to meditate every morning because that’s when I “hear” my intuition. I had a recent experience, in fact, on a day in which everything “wrong” seemed to be happening to me and I found myself getting angry and upset. When I stopped a moment to think about what was different about my day, I realized that I skipped my morning meditation because I had slept later than usual and wanted to keep the same daily schedule. I know better now. That is, I know it’s better to change my schedule to make time to meditate.
Hi Janice, Yes, it can definitely be challenging to learn to hear our intuition and ignore the “logical” mind. I have the same experience with meditation; it allows space for my intuition to be heard. Thank you for that story about your schedule – what a great reminder! XOZ
I like how you present this idea in a logical way, and not only does it make logical sense, but my intuition also tells me it’s right. The beauty of this is that both my mind and my gut are tellIng me the same thing for once! That happens every so often, and when it does, it’s a thing of beauty. Thanks, Z!
Hi Marilyn, Ooooooooooh. I love that – Logical AND your intuition likes it too. That’s a good combo. Thank you for your comment! Lots of Love, Z
Thanks Z great awareness in these curious times. I’m not sure if the comment spot has enough room for me to write the millions of times my intuition has been Queen of the moment,minute,hour,day. Peace and Love, Gaelen
Hi Gaelen, I love that. There’s always room for your intuition’s millions in the comment box! 🙂 Queen, indeed. XOZ
At first it was hard because I couldn’t discern between intuition and the voices in my head. Once I learned to feel the difference in my body, well, it makes all the difference, doesn’t it. I loved the story about Vaselisa in Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (one of my favorite Self Development books). Vaselisa is a little doll in her pocket who represents the intuition. When she’s trying to get her attention she jumps up and down in the pocket. It was a great visual. Now when I don’t listen to my intuition or feel her jumping up and down to get my attention and things don’t go quite right… I say out loud (maybe to Vaselisa!!) I know, I know… you were trying to tell me and I wasn’t listening!!! She laughs and so do I.
In Joy… Marina
Hi Marina, Yes, learning to discern between intuition and the voices in our heads can definitely take a while. I love the story about Vaselisa! What a great visual. Thank you so much for sharing that. BIG Love, Z
Great job of explaining things. Logic and intuition at times run the same pathways and Thank God for that.
Hi Georgiann, Thank you! Great point – I like when logic and intution are in sync. Yes! BIG Love to you! XOZ