Grugger’s Way

Intuition and Aging - Does Intuition Improve as we Age?

Most of my life I have been a “logical” person.  Most of my decisions have been arrived at “logically.”  I’ve never lived by “gut feeling” although I can remember my Father using the term when I was just a teenager. 

To make decisions based on a “gut feeling” always seemed to me to be just emotions; no more, no less.  I noticed throughout my first thirty years of life or so that women called this “intuition” and men called it “gut feeling.”  I was pretty certain that women actually made decisions this way while men more or less gave lip service to “gut feeling” while thinking through the situation and arriving at a “logical” decision.  

Enter:  Marriage.  Okay, so now my life lessons really began.  I found a women who used reason and logic to make decisions, whereas, she informed me, my own decisions always seemed to be emotion-based.  That was a couple of marriages ago (and several relationships).

I did notice in my adulthood years, as time went by, that a large percentage of women were just as likely to use logic as emotion in arriving at decisions.  Likewise for men.  So, what have I concluded about the differences in decision-making between men and women?

(Please understand, first and foremost, that this is only my opinion and only based on observations, not science or research.)

I think any woman is likely to ponder upon her decision, weigh the facts, use logic and life experience to come up with a couple of preferred, alternate courses of action, and then, when finally forced to choose between possible actions, she will use her “intuition” as the final measure.

I think men are pretty much just the opposite.  A man will go with his first instinct, his “gut feeling” (intuition) right away, but if given time and and he determines the choices of alternative courses of action, a man will use his experience and logical reasons for deciding which course to follow.   

This difference could be based in genetics, although I don’t know much about that; or it could just be part of human evolution, in that early man was the hunter/protector/warrior and was often forced to make instant decisions for survival.  I don’t know.  You can think about it.

Another thing I wonder about is whether “intuition” is some “inner knowing” that we possess because we are spiritual beings, or if intuition is simply a value judgment based on internalized life experience.

If intuition is a value judgment based on internalized, assimilated knowledge and experience, then intuition should improve in reliability over time.  So that begs the question:  Does intuition improve as we age?

Again, all I can go on are personal experiences (that means my own intuitive abilities), and what I have observed of others’ intuitive abilities.  I will say this:  I am much more likely to trust the intuitive, or “gut feeling” of an older person rather than that of a twenty-something, or a teen-ager.  What about you?  Think about it.  If your next door neighbor, say, that you have known for a few years, perhaps a 60-something year-old, tells you his “gut-feeling” says you ought not to get involved in some caper or other, and your 16-year-old niece says, “Oh, go for it, Uncle Doug! It’ll be cool!,” whose advice are you most likely to take to heart?  (Let’s assume you are 50 or 60 years years old yourself.  Ah Ha!  Err on the side of caution, or “no guts, no glory”?   I’ll leave that up to you. 

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