Among the hosts of stereotypes that abound in today’s rejuvenated gender wars in our culture, is the idea that women have superior intuition, above and beyond men. Women have some sort of “magical spiritual insight” unavailable to men, since males are supposed to either be too dense, or insensitive to pick it up.
Whether that is true or not, we as men must deepen our skill at listening to our own intuition in these challenging days we live. Most of precious knowledge we will need to survive in these cataclysmic times will not come from “Google.” We draw it from the springs within our own heart—via intuition.
Are men less intuitive than women?
Most of those who profess this concept claim that there is some sort of evolutionary culling process that dictates that women are better at reading subtle body language ques than men. This, they claim, is some sort of adaptation to the subordinate roles given to women in many societies over time. Intuition became some sort of evolutionary coping mechanism. The theories state that men developed more “rational” brain wiring, and women more emotional intelligence and hence, intuition.
I recall reading a scientific study in a Newsweek article years ago about male children actually being more “emotional” at the age of 4, but by a few years later, this predilection for emotions had been socialized out of them. That is my personal belief, having raised four sons into men. I have seen them when they did not have the societal pressure to hide their emotions.
I tried (with great difficulty on my part) to model the freedom of not being bound to idiotic gender roles as boys and men. I purposefully tried to express and model the entire emotional range that all humans are wired with. Of course, boys do cry. They do get their feelings hurt. Males simply do not have the social permission to show it. Having worked with thousands of young men in over the years in Los Angeles (many of whom were in gangs) I learned that in some social environments expressing emotions can be a literal threat to their survival.
So why is it important for men to listen to their intuition?
Because society indoctrinates us to do so otherwise. We are trained that “cold logic” is superior. The rational mind is allegedly the safer and stronger route. We are trained that intuition is a fleeting emotional reaction that will blow us off course, and crash us into the rocks. We are taught that intuition is the realm of the so-called “weaker sex.”
The changing circumstances of this world call for all of our strengths as men to be brought to bear on the challenges we seek to survive. We, as men, need to lean on our instincts and intuition, just as much as reading the data available to us. One of the problems I see with our modern overreliance on “scientific facts” is that there is always a limited amount of facts available—and these so-called “facts” are ever changing. Intuition digs deeper than that.
Global warming is exercising radical changes upon our planet, many that have never occurred before. How can we adapt to these “facts” when we have no base line to gauge them? Mother Earth is an organism, not dead, cold matter. To predict what it will bring, and how to adapt to those changes is as much art as it is scientific analysis.
The changing political context of America (and the world) is the same type of disruptive context. True, we can learn from history, sociological analysis, and past and recent lessons. Yet, each day is a new ball game. This new Cold War we are in is a Cold War, but it is different (with more volatile players) than the one I grew up in decades’ past. The only sure answers emanate from the depths of one’s heart.
I believe that men’s intuition is just as strong as women’s. It is just different. To grow in our trust and understanding of our intrinsic wisdom, we need to feed and train the skill, just like we do any others. There are particular ways that men connect with their intuitions.
Here are three different tools we can use to grow our inherent male intuition:
1. Mind/Body Exercise
When we do Qigong, Tai Chi, Martial Arts, Yoga, and Meditation, we are tapping into the deep silence that we need to listen to much more, in order to hear the whisper of our inner voice of intuition. That breathe is the life line to inner silence. Inner silence is the amplifier of our heart to our conscious mind—via the subtle messages we call “intuition.” My intuition skills have increased manifold times in the 18 years I have been practicing Qigong daily. It balances the “Left Brain/Right Brain” patterns. It slows my heartrate and spirit down so I can hear better the wisdom my heart is speaking.
2. Time in Nature
For hundreds of thousands of years, long before the recent blip of time called “civilization,” humans have been involved in a social network called “Hunter-Gather” cultures. The faddish “Paleo-diet” is not so faddish. The resurgence of people being interested in learning survival skills like fire making, scouting, medicinal plant identification, etc. is deeply embedded in our D.N.A. Groups of men hunted together silently, following both the rational signs (tracks) and their intuition to seek game to hunt, so they and their loved ones could survive. It is a genetic womb that your ancestor’s collective “jillions” of life years were spent in. Nature is the incubator for the spirit and your intuition.
3. Time Alone
You can only sense intuition in the deep silence of aloneness. Not “being alone” —aloneness. We came into this world naked and alone. We depart from it the same way. Though we seek otherwise, and we as humans are socially wired, on an ontological level—we are always experiencing this life journey utterly alone. When we get away from others and get quiet, we realize that truth. That recognition gives an adrenaline shot to our nerves to send the signal of the intuition, and ultimately, to trust it. It is in our deepest moments of aloneness that we remember—there is no one or nothing here to help us but ourselves. We must ultimately, if we are to survive, trust ourselves. We must trust those signals our heart sends us. They are a lifeline.
As a man, begin to lean in on your powerful sense of intuition. Listen to its whisper. Acknowledging those signals will save you a lot of tears, a lot of wasted years, and help you to live your birth right of a life full of meaning, joy, and honor.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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My problem has always been that my intuition is sharpest and most accurate when it involves ‘foreboding’. I can sense when things are about to go sideways, and something bad, usually for myself, but often for others, is about to happen. Sometimes I can see it coming a mile away. This gives me the label of pessimist, regardless of how correct I am. Whenever I consistently point out something, and I end up being right, people just tell me that it’s my negative thinking that makes these things a self-fulfilling prophecy. I need to embrace the power of positive thinking.… Read more »
That is interesting, Anthony. I think a lot of men share your experience in perceiving negative insights. The “power of positive thinking” may suggest that our minds are so powerful, that these warnings we sense—if followed by belief, may actually manifest those situations. I don’t know if that is true or not. But I do think the skills of hearing our intuition (which many, if not most of the times negative) can be cultivated. I think intuition is a survival mechanism going way back in our DNA. Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink” addresses that. Thank you for sharing your experience. Heavy… Read more »