Shirzad Chamine, author of Positive Intelligence (“PQ”) believes judgement is a place of saboteur/gremlin (or whatever you want to call it). He connects intuition with our inner sage region of our brains.
When it comes to intuitions about other people, intuition is an inner sense of something, which may or may not be relevant for the person we’re relating with, be it a friend, a coworker, a direct report or boss or client – in my case, a coaching client. It may actually relate to something about ourselves. This is why it needs to be offered in the spirit of curiosity and with permission, worded as owned by me and not meant to be put onto you. “There’s something coming to me and I’m wondering if it has any meaning for you in relation to [xyz] – would you like me to share it?”
Judgement is completely different. It attaches a value or opinion (positive or negative) to something; a perceived knowing. Judgement and intuition may show up together, so we benefit from having awareness of the difference so as not to confuse them to potentially harmful effect. Apparently judgement and intuition don’t come from the same inner process – they come from different areas of our brains.
The frontal lobe (including prefrontal cortex) is responsible for judgement, where we are consciously analyzing and evaluating. This part of the brain is the centre for personality (social behaviour, emotions), producing language and voluntary movements, and high-level thinking (executive brain functions) which include judgement, planning and problem solving.
The difference is quite marked. Intuition is when you feel somehow about something and don’t know quite why. It comes from our brain’s right hemisphere, our hippocampus and from the neurons throughout our body, particularly our digestive system (our gut sense).
Judgement is about me having an opinion to which I am attached, and holding you up against my own opinion.
Intuition is the business of throwing something ‘out there’; observing or questioning something with genuine curiosity, purely in service to you, but which I am not attached to.
The artistry is in deepening our self mastery to know when we are in judgement and how instead to tap more into our inner sage and nurture our ability to listen to and offer our intuition.
Invitation to practice: When faced with a time-sensitive decision and limited data, instead of rushing to solution (or judgement), pause and quiet your mind, then think about the decision as a question. As you reflect on the question, ask and write down the answers as you tap into: What is my brain saying? How is my heart feeling? What am I noticing in my body? What is my gut telling me? And, perhaps, what is coming to me about this in the depths of my soul? This can tune into your intuition and help illuminate the answer. It is very important to do this in that quiet space, where you can truly take focused time and listen. An alternative, is to make the decision, and then to tap into your intuition as an extra level of validation using this same exercise.
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