Trust Your Intuition: A Woman’s Greatest Ally for Personal Safety
Your intuition is an incredible ally when it comes to your safety, a gift that’s always with you. But in a world that prioritises logic and reason over gut feelings, countless women have been taught to silence this inner voice. Tragically, this conditioning has left many vulnerable, sometimes with devastating consequences. How many times have you had that quiet little voice inside telling you to change your plan or question someone’s motives? That voice, that intuition, is no mystical entity; it’s your innate survival system, honed for your safety. I feel the best way for me to start this important article is by exploring first what intuition is. The word intuition comes from the Latin verb intueri translated as consider or from the late middle English word intuit, which means to contemplate. Two great resources to help us further understand what intuition is are the distinguished online publication Psychology Today, as well as Dr. Lois Isenman, Resident Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Centre of Brandeis University. Psychology Today identifies intuition as: “…a form of knowledge that appears in consciousness without obvious deliberation. It is not magical but rather a faculty in which hunches are generated by the unconscious mind rapidly sifting through experience and cumulative knowledge. Often referred to as gut feelings, intuition tends to arise holistically and quickly, without awareness of the underlying mental processing of information. Scientists have repeatedly demonstrated how information can register on the brain without conscious awareness and positively influence decision making and other behaviour.” Dr. Lois Isenman, Resident Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Centre of Brandeis University mentions three distinctive levels of intuition in her book “Intuition: A Journey in and Out of Science”: “At one level, the content level, intuition refers to insights that pop into the mind without effort and reorient understanding in important, novel, and sometimes radical ways. At another level, the processing level, it refers to a specific way of integrating information that occurs below awareness and supports direct knowing or knowing without conscious thinking. At yet another level, the evaluative level, it refers to an unconscious mode of evaluation that allows us to judge whether our own or others’ ideas are true.” Neuroscientist and Psychologist Joel Pearson of the University of New South Wales, who has studied this subject for 25 years, also found a way of explain it extremely well: “It’s processing all the things in the environment: the time of day, how well it’s lit, how well it’s not lit, the pace someone’s walking, the shadows, the tone—and a hundred other things. It’s making a prediction based on prior learning, situations you’ve been in, movies you’ve watched, and everything you’ve experienced in life.” Belief in yourself and trust your intuition This article is committed to helping you believe in yourself and defend both yourself and those around you through the use of your intuition, sometimes even by countering social pressures and societal norms. Intuition may have a supernatural quality to it, but it is most certainly not some random delusion, it is in fact a cognitive process. You cannot possibly pay attention to all the information that you are processing, so your subconscious does that work for you. Your intuition is based on your subconscious observations, individual experiences you might have had in your life or on the processing of relevant information in your subconsciousness. Intuition helps you to subconsciously consider and contemplate information without you being aware of the underlying mental processing of the information, and you are doing that at an incomprehensive level of speed. Intuition is so much faster than the step-by-step thinking that we rely on. It is knowing without knowing why. Your intuition will usually discard the irrelevant and value the meaningful. Your intuition will also recognise warning signals you may not consciously recognise, helping you identify potential threats or dangerous situations before they escalate. However, please note that your personal safety can be directly compromised if you choose to dismiss your intuition. You offer no greater cooperation to a potential attacker than by subconsciously acknowledging certain information, feeling uneasy because of your intuition, but then deciding not to take any action to change the situation. Allow me to give you an example: A female lone worker, employed by an insurance company is entering a block of apartments. On her agenda today is a visit to a family on the seventh floor, to discuss the details of a new insurance policy with a young husband and father of two. The woman who is usually not easily afraid is waiting for an elevator, and when the door opens, she sees a man inside. Something tells her that something is not right, something just does not feel right. She has got that feeling in her gut. It may be the late hour, his size, his facial expression, him avoiding eye contact or the way he looks at her, the rate of attacks in the neighbourhood, an article she has recently read, or the type of training she has recently undergone in her company – it does not matter at all why. The critical point is, she is now starting to feel a little anxious. How does she respond to her intuition, that exceptionally helpful tool nature has given her? She suppresses it, telling herself: “I’m not going to live like this, I’m not going to insult this guy by letting the door close in his face, I’m not going to make a drama out of this, and I’m not going to be silly.” Which is sillier: listening to and trusting your intuition, prioritising your safety, and waiting for the next elevator, or getting into a soundproofed steel box with a stranger who made you feel anxious or uneasy just 10 seconds ago? Why do so many women ignore their intuition? Despite its power, intuition is often suppressed in women due to social conditioning that prioritises politeness and compliance, even at personal risk. Common reasons include: Dismissal by Others: Women are often