Don’t Confuse Fear with Intuition

Intuition and fear can both come with feelings. They can be both felt in the same place – our gut. One can guide us, while one can lead us astray. This is why it’s important to know the difference.

Recently I had what I regard as one of the scariest experiences of my life in the form of a partially detached retina.

I required two different procedures in my left eye to be carried out in one operation.

Detached retinas occur and are rare; only about one in 10,000 people have one each year according to Royal National Institute of Blind People, but it happened to me and as a result, I was filled with fear, which led to anxiety and panic attacks.

I looked to loved ones for reassurance. I buried myself in the world of self-help and spiritual healing and returned to meditation to seek refuge in my life which I felt suddenly became chaos.

It all sounds very dramatic, but I have a history of eye conditions (I’ve had cataracts in both eyes).

Having had cataracts I developed early-stage PVD (Posterior Vitreous Detachment), which led to my eye jelly at the back of the left eye pulling away at my retina.

This led to a series of visual attacks, including shadows, an ongoing flickering of light, and deterioration of visual acuity, leading to an overall blurriness and seeing various shapes and lines across my vision.

Until you’re diagnosed, you keep on playing that game with yourself – maybe it will pass, maybe it’s a migraine, maybe it’s all in my mind, and so on. The fear blocks you from taking action, while all the time your intuition is screaming at you to go see a specialist.

Long story, short, I saw several specialists. The diagnosis was a partially detached retina. All went well and I’m currently still in recovery. However, the feedback on my last visit for a check-up was very positive.

A Common Fear

A study published online on Aug. 4 2016 in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology using 2,000 participants found that the fear of going blind was the number one fear of those subjected to the study.

I’d imagine the study was biased because Ophthalmology is a branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. It’s really no surprise that their findings would validate their research and funding. Much like it’s no surprise that the dairy industry produces studies that show dairy is good for human health, meanwhile, independent studies show the opposite. Be critical, always check the source!

Now, these studies vary greatly and there is no doubt this would not be the result every time, but the fact is, we don’t need a study to tell us that going blind is something people would fear. It’s kind of a given.

The fear of going blind for those of you that don’t know it is ommetaphobia and is heavily linked with anxiety.

Reality Check

It’s incredible how we are able to attach so much emotion to our fears to the extent that we start attributing them to some sort of sick, twisted destiny, that’s totally detached from reality.

These fearful thoughts take root in our mind, we feel them with every cell and fiber of our body and it becomes a mental addiction that ends up controlling our behavior.

While your eyes may be perfectly fine, your self-proclaimed condition may turn from a physiological one to a psychological one.

This will cause you more fear, and more anxiety and as a result, your entire nervous system is under stress.

You then associate the neurological stress with that which you fear most and something breaks down. As if it is a self fullflling prophecy.

The Power to Create Your Reality

Knowing you have this power, to get yourself into such a frenzy that physical damage starts to happen is terrifying, because you become your worst enemy.

It’s like you’ve realised you have the super power of creating your own reality and you begin using that super power for evil against yourself. It’s like the plot of a horror movie, where the victim is also the killer.

You Want the Truth?

The truth is the fear in it’s beginning started off as an illusion.

You attached yourself to a thought you didn’t like, became obsessed with it, nurtured ill feelings along with it and things snowballed into a fully grown phobia.

The most important thing I said in the last sentence is that the fear started off as an illusion. It was never real to begin with. What is never real, cannot become real, no matter how much you associate it with reality.

However because the fear is attached to real feelings, you create an effect of stress and become susceptible to that which you fear. You become susceptible to the fulfilling the illusion.

The Confusion

The fulfilling of this illusion is then confused with some sort of misguided intuition about how things are going to work out for you, but the truth is, the fear is not real and by itself it cannot effect you.

Intuition on the other hand is a deepened sense of acknowledgment.

It’s knowing something with your entire body. It’s a sense that leads you to explore, to grow and to enhance your decision making.

Intuition leads you to being more connected with the universal mind – The mysterious way things seem to be connected in a field of synchronicity.

Intuition may appear random sometimes, but it has an uncanny way of showing us everything is connected and there is a sense about us, we can’t really comprehend but it’s there and it’s real. It guides us. For those willing to listen to it, it can be nurtured and used to our benefit.

Intuition is a thought we feel. However it is there to guide us and connect us.

Fear on the other hand is a thought we attach to a feeling and fool ourselves into thinking it’s real. It separates us from being connected and isolates us, sometimes to a state of desperation.

What to do?

Don’t confuse fear with intuition. When the fear enters your mind, however it may be triggered, simply remind yourself that it is an illusion, it will pass.

Tell yourself that you will not be led by it, for to be led by it, is to be led by something that is not real and only serves to separate you from that which you know to be true to you.

Fear Can be Uselful

Now I’m not saying we should live without fear.

Fear certainly has it’s purpose. Certain things and forces in this world must be respected in order to ensure our longevity. You should fear for instance driving on the wrong side of the road because if you don’t, you might do it and kill yourself in the process.

The fear itself is not the problem. It’s the thought pattern of fear and the attachment of fear to emotion, which escallates stress levels which then may lead to the problem.

It’s when the fear takes over, that is when you have made the mistake of confusing intuition with fear.

You have confused something that connects you, with something that separates you.

Don’t confuse the feeling of fear with intuition, know that fear is an illusion and it too shall pass, all you have to do is let it.

Easier said than done of course, but with practice you will learn to tame the illusion that is fear, only allowing it in for your benefit so you don’t drive up the wrong side of the road.