anxiety ≠ intuition

Anxiety is not the same as intuition.

Intuition is not the same as anxiety.

Although they closely resemble one another, here is the difference: anxiety is a cognitive distortion, whereas intuition is a feeling in my body.

Whoever coined the phrase "trust your gut" understood a key element of intuition: you literally feel it in your gut, provided that you are tuned into it, of course. It's not just a figure of speech. The third eye has a way of communicating with the digestive system. Unfortunately, so does anxiety. Anxiety can manifest as a feeling in my body—typically nausea—which is where distinguishing the two can become tricky. It's as if anxiety and intuition are at war over who gets the best of my attention. 

I've noticed, though, that when it's anxiety, it's accompanied by a thought. When it's solely intuition, I may have no idea why my body is telling me to do or not do something specific. My intuition has never been wrong, and I realized that the reason it's trustworthy is because it doesn't cross the mind. My mind is where all hell breaks loose. That's where anxiety is created, even when it's a false alarm. My anxiety is telling me a million times a day to do this... not do that... 

If I feel a way and have no idea why I'm feeling that way, I know it's a real signal. The beauty of intuition is that it's untouched by the part of the brain that makes up stories. The downside to being such a creative spirit is that my mind can create narratives that aren't true—these feed into my anxiety. With intuition, it's different. It sees something my brain cannot because my brain's vision is completely blinded by the enclosure of my skull. The third eye is exposed; it sees what the brain cannot. I may not know why my body is warning me of danger, but I've begun to accept that I don't have to know why I'm being steered away from something to trust that whatever steering me away from trouble knows something I don't. 

Her name is Soteria. My intuition is named after the Greek goddess of safety and salvation, deliverance, and preservation from harm. Soteria can be quite satirical toward my mind for seeing something it cannot, but she means well. She just wants to claim her rightful place in the world. And the world is a dangerous place, so things would get a little too dark and serious without her humor. It's always when I listen to her, abide by what she tells me, and then find out she was right that she gloats to my mind. But honestly, she earned it. She outperforms my brain every time.