Intuition can feel like a fuzzy, mysterious thing — like a whisper you’re not sure you heard or a gentle nudge you can’t quite explain. Many people call it the sixth sense. Others think it doesn’t exist because you can’t see it, touch it, or prove it in a lab.
But intuition is very real. It’s the quiet inner compass that helps us make decisions when logic can’t keep up. It’s the gut feeling that says “yes, this feels right” or “no, something is off,” even when we can’t point to any facts.
Developing intuition is one of the most valuable skills we can strengthen — as parents, as partners, and as individuals trying to navigate life with clarity and confidence.
Intuition is the mind’s way of showing us what the heart already knows.
Ronit Baras
What Intuition Really Is (and What It Isn’t)
Intuition is the ability to sense the right direction without going through a long list of pros and cons. It’s fast, instinctive, quiet, and deeply connected to the subconscious mind — the part of us that works behind the scenes, collecting patterns, memories, and emotional cues and supposed to keep us… safe!
Most people misunderstand intuition because it isn’t logical. It happens in a split second, and it isn’t always accurate. But research in medicine, business, emergency response, and investing shows that some of the most successful people rely more on intuition than analysis.
Intuition is an important part of the decision-making process. Without it, we tend to follow rules, regulations, and procedures. Without it, we develop compliance, we fit into other people’s standards and that does not go hand in hand with our minds desire to protect and save itself from harm.
Logic helps us follow procedures, fit into standards.
Intuition helps us make the decisions logic can’t reach — especially when life gets messy, emotional, or unpredictable.
Intuition Is a Form of Trust
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift
Albert Einstein
Intuition begins with trust — trust in your body, your emotions, your signals, and your internal wisdom.
But here’s the problem: Most people never learn to recognise their body’s signals. We teach children how to solve equations, memorise facts, and behave politely, but we rarely teach them how to listen inward.
Parents (with love!) often rush to remove discomfort from their children — wiping away tears, distracting them, fixing things. But in doing that, kids never learn the language of their own feelings. They never get to practise sitting in discomfort and hearing what their body is trying to say.
And without recognising feelings, intuition can’t grow.
My First Big Encounter with Intuition
I’m a typical example of someone who didn’t live by intuition. In fact, I didn’t know what it was most of my childhood. No one told me, “trust your gut feeling” and if someone would have said that I wouldn’t know what to do.
At the age of 15. I faced with a big decision to make. I was kicked out of school (fair enough I was a troublemaker and failed academically big time) Though I expected it and was looking forward to leaving school at the end of 10th grade (Thank God! Was the sense of the relief) something inside of me, twisted with “No, No, No, something is wrong here”.
I cried for three weeks. I didn’t even know why. I wanted to leave school. I even told my parents throughout the years that since 10th grade is the end of the mandatory requirement, I’m out at the end of 10th grade.
It wasn’t a voice, it was an image, a feeling that made me go to the guidance officer and tell her that I’m staying for 11th grade. She told me, “no way” and I insisted. At one stage she stopped and said, “We gave you so many chances over the years, what is different now?” and I looked at her, not knowing what got into me and said “I don’t know, I just know I’ll make it this time”.
Never in my life I spoke like this, and I didn’t even know how those words came out of my mouth. (they didn’t kick me out, I passed all my exams, went to 11th grade, was a school captain and got a scholarship for excellence).
From that moment, which was weird and unexplained, I started paying attention to that feeling of conviction. It is a sense of peace. Like all the stars align and showed me the way. From that moment on, my life changed, and success followed another success.
Over the years, if I go to the biggest events in my life, I used this feeling to guide me to do things that people around said they were not logical and didn’t make sense. Equipped with this intuition, my decision-making process was faster and more and more accurate and all the naysayers and doubters, could not deviate me from trusting those signals
Many years ago, I wanted to open an early childhood centre in a town that children that age, could go to a public place, for free. The carers had no degrees or professional, they were simply babysitters, making sure the kids won’t kill themselves, while parents went to work.
My program was so unique that I was convinced I’ll have a business model though many people around said it was a bad business choice (it was my first business). equipped with this intuition, my husband’s support, my dad’s support, and my sister as a business partner I have created a very successful business where people paid full fee, instead of getting a public service for free.
The second I felt that feeling, we became friends. It guided me, protected me, and shaped every success that followed.
Ronit Baras
Using intuition takes practice in decision making. It is more obvious when we make a decision that does not follow the “mainstream” logic.
The second I felt that feeling, we became friends. It guided me, protected me and shaped every success that followed.
We need to use intuition or simply lose it.
The Science Behind Developing Intuition
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Blink, explained that our mind makes some of its best decisions in the blink of an eye — before conscious thought even kicks in.
There can be as much value in the blink of an eye as in months of rational analysis.
Malcolm Gladwell
Intuition is not magic. It is evolution.
Intuitions have evolved in the subconscious mind from a load of experiences that had some pattern and meant to reduce the cognitive overload and reach a fast decision to ensure our survival.
We use heuristics to make a quick judgment and find something that is good enough, before it is too late.
Intuition about people is simply an attention we give to match or mismatch our brain waves. When two people think alike, their brain produces a similar brain wave. When we pay attention to those body signals, we simply call it intuition.
This is why intuition can be incredibly helpful in relationships, parenting, business, and even health — if we know how to recognise it.
Intuition vs Instinct — They Are Not the Same
Instinct and intuition are often used interchangeably, but they come from very different places within us. Instinct is biological — it’s the built-in programming we’re born with. It’s fast, automatic, and designed to keep us safe. Instinct reacts to danger, discomfort, or threat. For example, pulling your hand away from something hot or feeling a rush of adrenaline when something startles you. Instinct is survival-driven, rooted in our nervous system, and it doesn’t ask questions — it just responds.
Intuition, on the other hand, is quieter and more subtle. It isn’t about survival; it’s about guidance. Intuition comes from experience, perception, pattern recognition, and a deeper sense of inner knowing. Intuition grows over time — the more we learn, observe, reflect, and connect with ourselves, the stronger it becomes.
Where instinct is reactive, intuition is reflective. Instinct keeps us alive. Intuition helps us live well — making choices that align with our values, wellbeing, and long-term happiness. When we learn to recognise the difference, we can respond instead of reacting, and trust ourselves on a deeper, more empowered level.
Simply put:
- Instinct is primal. It’s fight, flight, freeze.
- Intuition is intelligent. It’s wisdom, clarity, and subtle knowing.
Instinct reacts.
Intuition guides.
Understanding this difference helps us recognise which internal voice we’re actually listening to.
What Blocks Developing Intuition
If you want to develop intuition yourself or raise intuitive children you need to understand what hinders developing intuition.
Dependency is a huge obstacle to developing intuition.
When we depend on someone else, we put our trust on something that is external to us. This only increases our helplessness and increase the feeling we are out of control. Dependency means we are at the mercy of another person, which our mind, does not like at all. No one can serve our needs better than our own subconscious.
Doubt is another obstacle to developing intuition.
When we postpone making a decision in a hopeless attempt to guarantee the future will unfold the exact way we want, we guarantee we will never be happy with the outcome.
People who can’t make a decision or try to bring too many options to choose from, strengthen the doubt even more. Not choosing, is also a choice. It is better to make a choice that it is not perfect than not to choose at all, because not choosing makes us feel helpless.
Overthinking is also an obstacle to developing intuition.
Over thinking is an act of insecurity and an attempt to ease fear. While intuition is the use of all our faculties, overthinking is an attempt to control reality with thoughts.
Overthinkers is a “nice” name we give people who are obsessed about a thought, an idea, an event, an experience…obsess means we are going over options on scenarios in our brain and reach dead end, again and again and again. It literally means we can’t access our intuition because we are stuck in a loop.
Anxiety also prevents us from accessing our intuition.
Anxiety is a fear from a potential harmful future. A fear from a negative outcome. It is all in our head. Similar to overthinking, it gets us into a loop and sends us to the primitive brain where we can only do fight flight freeze.
Stimulation overload uses a lot of brain capacity.
Our mind is bombarded with stimulus that the second it reaches an overload; we collapse and use our default primitive brain function. This does not allow us to pay attention to all our other senses and recognise what they are “telling us” to do or not to do.
Trying to do too many things at once is another form of overload
It prevents us from developing intuition. Humans can’t do several things at once. We can’t pay attention to several things at the same time. We can only task switch. Task switching takes a lot of CPU and leaves us no energy and resources to pay attention to our body signals.
Seeking approval or attention
I call it the “disease to please” or trying to get attention at all costs are big blockers of intuition. Much like dependency, when we seek approval or attention we are at the mercy of others.
It is important to remember that we all need attention. It is essential for our survival. It is so essential that people to get it, will sacrifice their values, their money, their relationship to get it.
Troublemakers, hypochondriacs are a wonderful example of seeking attention at all costs. While intuition is a “hunch” that supposed to bring me to a better position in life, attention seeking at all costs, or without considering the cost, will sacrifice everything and probably result in a less favourable outcome.
Physical obstacles like : Lack of sleep, poor eating habits, medications, and the use of drugs, are huge obstacles since they constantly send body signals of distress.
The best way to think of intuition is to think of it as a muscle. Use it or lose it and we can only increase its muscle weight if we add more and more weight to what we carry. Obstacles, problem solving, challenges are good opportunities to practice intuition.
Does it mean we get it right all the time?
No!
if we pay attention to our body and make sure it is healthy. if we pay attention to our emotional state and make sure we are calm and stable. Whatever feeling that comes as a result, is most likely the choice that is better for us.
30 practical tools to developing intuition
Though some people are more intuitive than others, intuition can be developed. I’m a wonderful example of it. Many intuitive people like me, will tell you that we all have it. It is just hidden behind fears and conditioning.
Here are some ways to improve intuition.
- Do body scans to learn your physical state in different settings.
- Spend a day focusing on one sense. A day where you pay attention to a specific colour(eyes) a day where you pay attention to what is smooth (touch, texture)…
- Turn off one sense. Imagine you can’t see. Sit in the dark, shower in the dark, eat in the dark. Spend a day without speaking at all. Go to silent retreats… When we turn off one sense, we are tuned to other senses.
- Meditate. Quiet is a good way to eliminate distractions.
- Use Mindful breathing. Much like meditation it helps you be present and calm the mind and allow you to pay attention to your body signals.
- Pay attention to sudden changes of feeling. Sudden twist in the stomach, sudden headache, sudden blurred vision.
- Write down your dreams straight after you wake up. Dreams are subconscious responses to our everyday life. They can teach us a lot about ourselves.
- Change your routine and get out of the daily rut. Go on vacation, do things differently.
- Dedicate time to being on your own. When you are by yourself, you’re more able to pay attention to yourself without other’s energy interference.
- Be creative. Creative activities quiet the mind and allow us to hear thoughts that are generated in the subconscious mind.
- Develop Gut-feeling awareness – Practice saying, “How does this feel in my body?”
- When having to make a decision, visualize several scenarios and check which one feels lighter or heavier.
- Much like creativity, movement makes us more intuitive.
- Ask your mind a question about a decision you need to make. Write it on a piece of paper under your pillow and let your body sleep on it.
- Spend time with intuitive people who are not ashamed or apologise for using their intuition to make decisions. First, you can learn from them how they do it? how does it feel? And you’re more likely feel better about doing it yourself, without letting your “thinking” mind, telling you that you are crazy.
- Play guessing games about people, before learning about them.
- If you like using different oracle cards with pictures, try guessing what it means by looking at the picture, before looking at the written meaning.
- Spend time in nature as it calms the mind and help us connect with our higher self.
- Do technology fasts. Stay away from technology for a period of time. Technology creates dependency on external information. It is the opposite of developing intuition, which is internal.
- Practice making decisions fast. If you are debating too long, you create a hole in the “right choice” so nothing will be right. Start with small things, what to wear, what to eat, what to make for dinner, when to start, when to stop… remember, it is a muscle. Use it or lose it.
- Do not consume foods that clutter your judgment. Alcohol, sugar, coffee and even regular tea, drugs and medication disturb this function.
- Be in the moment and avoid multitasking. When you eat, eat! When you sleep, sleep! When you play with the kids, play with the kids! With full attention. Be! Don’t think of what else you need to do. If you are not focused, you are wobbling. Wobbling is not safe, and the body will focus on securing your position, intuition when you’re not safe, is luxury.
- Test your guesses. Guess things about the next week, put them on a piece of paper and check them at the end of the weak. Remember, they don’t have to be accurate, they have to be practiced.
- Ask your future self – “What would the wiser version of me choose in that situation?”
- Become a good listener. We have two ears and one mouth. Keep the conversation in that ratio. Why? Because when we speak, we can’t listen to what our body is saying.
- Make sure you sleep enough. Sleep deprivation sends us to the primitive brain and intuition in such state is luxury that mind cannot afford.
- Go to past events and examine your “gut feelings” before the event. Sometimes, only in retrospective we can realize the messages.
- Use journaling as a way to figure out what is underneath your actions. Free flow journaling is when you write whatever is in your head or as a result of a stimulus. The main rule is don’t stop, don’t judge, don’t edit – hence the free.
- Pay attention to your mind chatter so you won’t confuse it with messages from your body. Chatter feels more chaotic and fearful. Intuition is a sense of confidence in the message “ not to do something”. Don’t confuse it with fear. Remember, “thinking” is not “blinking”.
- Use your values as a compass. Values are what important to you. The mind, with slight pressure, will sacrifice your values, your intuition won’t. If you are clear about what is important to you (high value) and tell yourself in a form of writing, speaking what it is, your intuition will follow.
- Read books about intuition or biographies of successful people. Almost all the biographies I have read, included breakthroughs based on gut feelings.
Intuition is like a muscle — neglect it, and it weakens. Use it, and it becomes your superpower.
Ronit Baras
Bringing It All Together
Your intuition is the quiet voice of the life you are meant to live. Learn to hear it, and it will never lead you astray.
Ronit Baras
Developing intuition is not a talent some people magically have. It’s a skill — like playing piano, learning to swim, or building muscles at the gym. It grows through practice, quiet moments, curiosity, and a willingness to listen inward.
When we nurture our intuition, life becomes easier. Decisions become quicker. Confidence becomes stronger. Parenting becomes calmer. And we start living not from fear, but from alignment.
If you want support developing your intuition — for yourself, your family, or your children — you’re welcome to explore our coaching programs at Be Happy in Life.
We offer individual, couples, family, children, and school coaching, all designed to help people connect to themselves and live with clarity, strength, and purpose.
Wishing you Happy and successful journey towards being the best version of yourself.
Hugs,
Ronit
