Decision-making comes in when there is confusion, and confusion is born when the choice is not between good and bad but between what is good and what is better. There is no confusion when you have to pick between a log of wood and a sweet. But if the choice is between two sweets, you are confused.
There are two main reasons why decision-making becomes difficult. One is feverishness born out of desire or greed, and the other is fear. The mind gets stuck between these two, and clarity is lost. Logic alone cannot guide you because logic keeps changing; it is bound to your limited understanding. So, you need something deeper, something already present within you: intuition.
What is intuition? Ask any successful entrepreneur, and they will say, at some point, an idea simply clicked. They had a gut feeling, and they went along with it. You may have felt it too, that moment when the right thought appears at the right time. The culmination of an action in success is intuition. If it did not lead to success, it was not intuition.
The very first thought is often the intuitive one. It is not the thought that comes after a lot of analysis. Children access this naturally because they live in the present. Through the Intuition Process we teach them, this innate ability gets kindled. They begin to feel through the mental faculty and receive the right thought at the right time. The results are remarkable. Children concentrate better, develop sharp memory, and can recognize languages, numbers, and shapes they have never learned. Hundreds of blind children have done the process and now identify colors, read numbers and texts, all without using Braille. This shows that consciousness is far more powerful than what the intellect can grasp.
You get a small glimpse of this in the dream state. In a dream, you see and hear, but not through the physical senses. The Upanishads say that consciousness, the Shiva Tattva within you, can see without eyes, hear without ears, touch without hands, and move without legs. This gives a clue to the immense potential that lies within.
How does one become intuitive? Intuition cannot be forced. It blossoms in a calm, meditative mind. All innovation arises from relaxation. Newton was not solving equations when the apple fell. Archimedes was resting in a bathtub when the idea struck him. When the mind is in a rush, creativity does not flow, and intuition does not arise. You cannot hurriedly write a beautiful poem or deeply absorb knowledge. When we meditate, we slow down, we cool down, and in that calm, we perceive, understand, and express better.
The ancient seer lived in this intuitive awareness, a state where every cell was awake in the present moment and the mind was completely still. This is Samadhi. From such stillness emerged precise knowledge and insights that continue to guide humanity.
What blocks intuition? A mind cluttered with thoughts, distractions, and stress loses sensitivity. Stress makes the mind impulsive, and impulsive decisions bring regret. Even the best plans fail if the mind is restless. But if you take even a few minutes daily to quieten down, your awareness expands, and the right ideas arise at the right time.
A mind chasing desires cannot be intuitive, and even brilliant students can falter when they get into a feverish state. But when the mind becomes serene, brilliance shines through.
Take a few days annually to sit in silence. This simple act recharges your whole system. Your decisions become clearer, your smile becomes stronger, and your stability grows. The ease with which you handle situations reflects how much of your potential you are using. When you touch your full potential, nothing can shake you. And to touch this potential, you must return to your own source, the seat of intuition.
On World Meditation Day, December 21, join the world’s largest global meditation with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on his official YouTube channel, and gift yourself the most powerful rest there is.
