The interplay between impulse and intuition

How often do you or others you know make a decision or take action based on a hunch or a gut feeling? In those moments it's as if the answer seems to present itself to us, whole and complete, with little conscious effort. The psychologist Carl Jung would call this intuition. 

However, intuition doesn’t always feel whole and complete as we’re often dealing with other internal signals. Director Steven Spielberg once said that intuition is the hardest thing to listen to because it always whispers - it never shouts - and so you have to be ready to hear the whisper. Recently I’ve been experiencing an ‘intuition muddle’ - having felt inspired to commit to certain actions in my life I noticed resistance to change, counter-arguments developing, and feelings of doubt. Which one was the voice of my intuition?

A framework that helped me to discern this was The Four I’s from Guru Singh - he describes four elements that influence our actions and reactions, they are instinct, impulse, intelligence, and intuition. 

The definitions 

Instinct 

Instincts are an innate, fixed pattern of behaviour that is biologically hardwired and often occurs in response to specific stimuli. Instincts are stored in our bodies chemistry and are typically automatic and unlearned.

Impulse

Impulses are characterised by a sudden, strong, and unreflective urge to act. They often arise spontaneously and can be emotional, physical, or mental in nature. Impulses tend to reflect our past experiences and emotional needs. 

Intelligence 

Intelligence is an ability to acquire, understand, and apply knowledge and skills. It involves reasoning, learning, adaptability, creativity, and emotional intelligence. 

Intuition

Intuition is the ability to understand or know something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning or analysis. It arises without deliberate thought or evidence based reasoning. It is influenced by experiences, knowledge, and unconscious processing.

The interplay between the I’s

While we all have access to these four I’s, we’ll likely have a predisposition or preference towards one or two, and certain situations will require different biases. For example if you’re running a marathon you’ll likely want to lean on the instincts of your body, but if you’re researching a topic for work you may hone in on your intelligence. 

Guru Singh believes that intuition results from an interplay between our instincts, impulses, and intelligence. When we can open up our field of awareness to the other three channels it develops and refines our intuitive processing. The goal is that we’re able to access all four channels more consciously and build a greater awareness of what is driving our behaviour. 

Which of the four I’s do you tend to rely on day to day and why do you think that is? 

The current paradigm 

If like me, you know you struggle to find harmony between these four I’s or even access some of them, you’re not alone. Culture today leverages our impulsive reactions, from online shopping to social media, and as a result we’re encouraged to seek out instant gratification causing us to act with urgency. While impulsivity isn’t inherently bad, when it becomes the dominant mode it causes us to reduce the field of our awareness, make knee-jerk reactions, which in turn can create unwanted consequences and cause us to become even more impulsive. 

Rather than acting on impulse we can learn to pause and subtract information from it - what is it trying to tell us? By holding this space we can give ourselves time to open up the other "I" channels, and include them in our decision making. This can help us take action from a more expansive and integrated consciousness. This won’t happen overnight and requires deliberate work on our part. 

Tools to train the ‘Four I’s’

The 72 Hour Rule

This can be applied to anything where you sense a degree of urgency to act - be it a response to a strongly worded email you’ve received or a purchase you’re dying to make. Wait 72 hours - this is the amount of time it takes for our perspective to change. If you revisit the situation and you feel differently, then your initial reaction was likely impulsive. If you still feel the same way, you can be more confident that it was your intuition. 

Decision Journaling

Set yourself a period of time and monitor all the micro and macro decisions you make and how you make them. Note what influenced your decision, which of the four I’s you engaged, and what the outcome was. Remember, we won’t get every decision ‘right’, so be forgiving of yourself, it will help build trust with your I’s.

A Truthful Mirror

It can help to have someone reflect back to us the truth of the decisions we’re trying to make, this could be a partner, friend, therapist, or coach. We’re often an unreliable narrator of our own lives and can misinterpret instinct or impulse for intuition. Having a witness to challenge us with compassion can help us find our deeper truth. 

How might you commit to training the four I’s?