«
»

Is that little voice prejudice or intuition?

This morning I was online in a group that I belong to and came across the name / profile of someone I had once met.  I followed a couple of links and found out they were involved in some areas I had been unaware of.  Now these are areas that interest me and my normal reaction would have been positive, and made me more warmly disposed toward this person.  I was aware though, that in this case, it just made me feel uncomfortable.

I found myself wondering if this was the voice of intuition, warning me off, or just prejudice getting in the way of me offering them a second chance.  After all, none of us always makes a good first impression;  shy people can come over as brash if they over-compensate, apparently self-centred people can have hearts of gold. 

I believe both in intuition and its power to help and guide, and also in the value of an open mind and heart.  How do you know which voice is speaking to you?

“The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice”    Mark Twain

“Everyone is a prisoner of his own experience. No one can eliminate prejudices–just recognize them.”  Edward R Murrow

“Intuition isn’t the enemy, but the ally, of reason.”  John Kord Lagemann

Tags: , ,

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 8th, 2008 at 09:28 and is filed under Personal Change, Values & Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Is that little voice prejudice or intuition?”

  1. Paul Hayward says:
    9 June , 2008 at 14:56

    For me prejudice always carries implied injury, detriment or contempt. Intuition is more even-handed. So, any instant, unconsidered opinion which is unfavourable to an individual or an idea always benefits from a second look – when there’s time.

    If, on examination, there are good grounds for an adverse reaction then I follow it. If there are no discernable grounds, but I still feel uneasy, I either opt to look for more information, or trust my own feelings.

    When there is no time, then I trust my intuition. It has its roots in instinct which has kept man alive on numerous occasions when neither reason, nor analysis, had anything useful to say.

  2. richardderwentcooke says:
    9 June , 2008 at 18:16

    Paul,
    I agree that prejudice tends to carry that kind of implication / meaning, but I was also thinking of it in terms of a more literal meaning, to pre-judge someone or something.

    On balance I agree with you and tend to, if in doubt, listen to and act on my intuition. Interestingly, it appears the more that you do this, the better it works.

    Thanks for your contribution

Leave a Reply

This blog is kept spam free by WP-SpamFree.