At what age did you start to trust your intuition and yourself? | INFJ Forum

At what age did you start to trust your intuition and yourself?

Artemisia

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May 20, 2014
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When did you start trusting yourself more as opposed to listening to or seeking the opinions of others? Was it a sudden realization or did it take a major life event to realize that you should believe in your intuition rather than seek advice from others?
 
I began to trust my intuition at around 21 or 22, when my sister told me that I am perceptive. I thought I was totally clueless and had no idea about human motivations up until the point where she said that, and it clicked that I wasn't naturally isolated from others, I was just not using my most natural inclinations because I didn't trust them.
 
I think I just started.
 
In some areas, a few years ago. In others, not quite.
But I didn't trust/seek the advice of others either and when I wasn't listening to my intuition I was without proper guidance and suffered for it.
 
As long as I can remember
 
Honestly around 30. Which coincidentally is the same time I became vocal about politics and religion.
 
I honestly don't remember. I've always listened to advice that makes sense to me and dismissed advice that doesn't. So I guess that means both never and always, as non-committal as that answer is. I see myself more as my own filter for knowledge than the all encompassing intuitive force from which ideas emerge.
 
What a great question! Here is my story of the moment I realized my intuition is not to ignored bc it is alomost 100% correct.

When I was 19 I went to art school for 4 years. I lived with friends and everything was great. After graduation we went our separate ways and I had to start finding strangers as roomates. For the first roomate i remember joking w a friend that I got such a bad feeling from a 3 sentence response over email of another girl who needed a roomate. I just laughed at myself bc how can one get such a bad feeling fm just a little email. It turned out the girl was a nightmare to live with.

Then the same thing happened again with the next roomate!! I couldn't beleive it! They were the both the most horrible people ive ever met!!

That's the moment I decided NEVER to question my intuition when it came to making such important decisions. After that I started finding wonderful roomates!
 
When did you start trusting yourself more as opposed to listening to or seeking the opinions of others? Was it a sudden realization or did it take a major life event to realize that you should believe in your intuition rather than seek advice from others?

I can't give myself all the credit as there are unexplained elements to what I perceive to be my intuition - but I am not really able to do otherwise but trust this aspect above all else. I am wired like that. Sometimes others are involved in the filtering aspect of this process and I will easily concede to their intuition if there is a good enough match. Without a match, I'm not interested.

From choosing what to wear, eat or whatever, I'll usually have a strong knowing which follow some synchronicity or another, even for others too. I think this has been strengthened also from my experience as a mother.

There have not been many times where others have been able to offer opinions or perspectives I consider relevant in adulthood but I have held onto and tried hard to emulate advice given to me at vulnerable points in my growth. Overall I can feel uncomfortable, drained and unbalanced if I have to follow someone else, worse still if it is a group! I am not too interested in opinions either unless they come from a pure place. So I avoid such scenarios, greatly...
 
I always trusted it but I fought with it as I knew that following my intuition could, at times, lead me into trouble.
 
I think I've always trusted it, but I never wanted to. I was always afraid of trusting it because my entire family are Sensing people, not Intuitive. It was really frustrating because I live under a household that values details, here and now, where my intuition was constantly being questioned and at most of the times ridiculed. So, I did trust it, but I was afraid to.
 
I remember arguing with my mom about a person in our neighborhood and his character at age 3. She was saying that he was a nice person and would never lie or hurt anyone. I stopped arguing because she was getting angry with me but he was arrested later that month on, if I remember correctly, theft and drug charges.
So, age 3 for me.
 
I've always trusted it for as long as I can remember (since my 4th birthday).

It's pretty instant/instinctual for me. I had a family full of Ss, but in general terms, I didn't care that I was different. However, my self-confidence has only grown significantly in the past 2 years.

I can't really claim that I've always trusted it implicitly, since I have pretty severe ADHD and make stupid mistakes pretty frequently. My instincts for people, though.... are impeccable except for the 1/300 mistake.
 
My intuition is a jack ass whose only goal in life is to mess with my head. He can go screw himself.
 
More so int he last two years. it is coinciding with me being awake from the matrix as well as experiencing my first saturn return. Seeing the lives of everyone around me and being able to predict the outcomes of their lives and being disheartened by the outcomes. Intuition is leading me towards something different that i can't quite put my finger on. Yet at the same time showing me the flip side of life within the system. The more i desire to leave it the more my intuition helps me.
 
its not always correct, its just a guide. following it is not a necessity or an imperative, it is a choice. it needs to be tempered with Ti or otherwise you are screwed.
 
When I was 14 I saw a documentary on Derrida, which I thought made me an expert on anything and everything (lol). Nevertheless, I was able to get a basic grasp around the concept of "deconstructionism" and began doing some basic analysis of my thoughts. Eventually I realized I had a strong, unexplainable sense of intuition, which troubled me because I thought I was just so predisposed to various social stereotypes that I was always judging people, situations, etc, regardless of the fact that I was usually correct.
 
Its always been there for me and I've always ignored it... I still struggle with trusting it. Though, I am a lot better today about trusting it then I was years ago.

The major realization for me was to become more assertive with myself. I wanted to believe in what everyone else was saying yet I would dismiss my own feelings. It didn't help that being overly passive led me to the wrong kind of people. Thankfully, those people are long gone and I've learned my lesson.
 
its not always correct, its just a guide. following it is not a necessity or an imperative, it is a choice. it needs to be tempered with Ti or otherwise you are screwed.

Strongly agree. I don't think it's a "right all the time" kind of deal. I did learn to trust myself more starting about 3 years ago. I think it started when I realized that I had to start thinking more carefully about and doing things in ways which took who I was into account, methods which worked for me and not those prescribed for everyone as immutable laws which state how everyone should effectively operate. It's more about knowing yourself better and making choices which consider who you are rather than fitting yourself into a box. I won't claim any kind of "intuition" but I think anyone can learn to be more perceptive by developing better observational skills and with life experience.
 
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