Feeling vs. Sensing: How to differentiate intuition from emotion in spiritual practice
At some point in the spiritual journey, there may come a time when differentiating between our own feelings and feelings from beyond are questioned. By feelings from beyond, I’m referring to messages and signals from beyond our mind and logic. People often come to this juncture when they want to hear from their guides or higher self. I like to differentiate the two by using the terms feeling and sensing, and by the end of this post, you’ll hopefully be able to distinguish between intuition and emotion.
What Are Feelings?
Feelings (the non-physical kind) are what we feel as a response to our thoughts and beliefs, and can come from either our mind or heart. Most negative feelings, such as fear, anxiety, despair, helplessness, etc., come from our mind and the thoughts we think. Even in a life or death situation, the thought of death or pain can ignite fear. Positive feelings, such as pure joy, genuine laughter, contentment, love (not to be confused with infatuation or lust), etc. come from our hearts.
What Is Sensing?
What I call sensing is where intuition and communication to those beyond this 3D physical dimension occurs. Sensing occurs best when your own thoughts are on pause and your mind is used to merely interpret what you pick up and feel, but the feeling part isn’t an emotion (unless you are feeling what the other is feeling). Sensing energy and vibrational frequency can provide so much information. While people can lie and hide emotions, energy never lies.
Difference Between Feelings and Intuition
If it’s difficult to grasp, here is an easy breakdown on the differences between feeling and sensing.
Feelings:
Think emotions: sad, happy, mad, excited, desperate, bored, etc.
Are often loud and occupy your mind and mood (e.g. anxiety).
Can change quickly based on numerous factors (e.g. circumstances, hormones, exercise, etc.).
Are often associated with how well things are going (things we want) or how bad life is.
Occurs when our minds are preoccupied with either the past or the future.
Sensing:
Is subtle and quiet and can easily be drowned out by emotions, if you let it.
Has no emotions attached.
Does not change unless the source changes (e.g. you get bad vibes from someone until said person grows for the better).
Comes when the mind is in a suspended state or in a receptive mode (e.g. meditative state or “in the zone”).
Occurs when we are present.
Difference Between Your Own Thoughts and Intuition
The question that often comes up is: how can you tell that something you think is from your own thinking or from beyond? The easiest way to tell is tracing it back to the source. If a thought or decision is backed by evidence or reason(s) then it’s from your own thinking. For example, a person has two job offers and decides to go with the second because of benefits and a shorter commute time. There’s not always reasoning when it comes to spiritual intuition because it doesn’t come from the mind but from somewhere beyond. In the same example of a person having two job offers, the person could go with the first simply because ‘they have a good feeling about it’. That’s spiritual intuition.
Other common examples of spiritual intuition coming into play is when someone gets good or bad vibes from someone they don’t know or just met, when you sense someone is watching you when you physically can’t see them, or even if you blindfold yourself and have a family member stand behind you, many people can sense who it is without seeing or hearing them. This sensing is the same sensing you utilize when trying to communicate with your guides or receive guidance from your higher self.
Now just because sensing helps receive guidance from beyond, it doesn’t mean you have to throw away all logic and reasoning. Our minds are tools to be used. The sweet spot is finding the balance between the head and heart, and having the ability to differentiate between emotions and intuition.
If you’re having difficulty differentiating between your thoughts, feelings, and intuition, and need guidance, book a reading with me to explore how you can improve your own intuition, directly from your guides.