Intuition vs Instinct: How They Both Make You Surprisingly Successful and Awesome

Ever wonder if you should trust your gut feeling, or should you listen to your brain? Witches often follow their intuition- but what does this really mean?

These two terms may be easily confused not only because they sound similar, but because they are sometimes misused interchangeably.

However, intuition and instinct differ in many ways. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into intuition vs. instinct to help clarify what the true differences are between them.

Intuition vs Instinct

All about Intuition   

Intuition basically means feelings that come about and beliefs that something is true, even when you have no data or evidence to back up that feeling.

Intuition is all about your inner feeling and gut feeling, despite  having no proof. This form of knowledge can appear in consciousness without deliberation, meaning it can happen without you even trying! 

Intuition can arise as an evaluation or judgement or something.

How does intuition help in decision making?

Perhaps you just “have a feeling” but have no idea how you came to this judgement.

Perhaps you feel strongly that it is right, but when you go to explain it to someone else you simply do not have evidence to support your claim. That’s intuition!

Some examples of intuition may include: having a gut feeling that something will happen, getting either good or bad vibes from a  person, or different forms of body language.

Reading other people’s body language is all about intuition. 

You may wonder whether or not you should trust your intuition, as it is not backed by any real proof.

This is up for debate, as many studies have closely examined the idea of making choices based solely on intuition. The reality is that all humans have intuition, which by some people has been referred to as the “sixth sense”.

Intuition is all around us each and every day.

Intuition is responsible for day to day problem solving, decision making, and so much more.

What is better: intellect or intuition?

Intuition often relies on personal experiences, therefore, experts sometimes have strong intuitions about things in their line of work that they cannot explain to other professionals.

All about Instinct

Instincts are natural.

They are innate, meaning that they are with us since birth. Instincts are behavioral tendencies that we have in order to survive.

Some examples of instinctive behaviors include vomiting,  breathing, fight or flight reflexes, hunger, and thirst. You can see from these examples that they are innate, meaning they are out of our individual control.

These instincts happen naturally and require no active thinking on your part. Instincts simply “just happen” on their own. 

Instinct is not like a habit or a skill you learn.

It comes from a latin word, which is defined as knowledge from within. This is a great way to help you remember the difference between intuition vs. instinct. 

Why does Intuition vs. Instinct matter? 

Now that you understand the difference between intuition and instinct, you might be wondering… why does this all matter?

Of course, both are equally important as each plays a unique role in specific situations. Instincts were initially designed to help promote survival and ensure reproductive success. This is because humans relied on their instincts to survive.

How is intuition different from instinct?

Without instincts, many would not have been able to survive. Once humans began to interact and form groups, people needed to be aware of the instincts of other people around them.

This is where intuition came into play, as it played its role in our human evolution to allow us to socially interact.

An important aspect of learning to become a witch is not only knowing how to differentiate between these two but knowing which to trust.

Believe it or not, although these two concepts differ, they can also work together to be very effective. One example of this would be if your intuition helps you process information and observations around you.

Perhaps something is alarming or emergent.

This usage of your intuition will help you identify where you need to trust your instincts.