By Jessica Lanthier
I am a woman. And as a member of the XX chromosome, I am at liberty to state that there are many things I don’t particularly like about it. Our incessant need to purchase pricey cosmetics, achy feet after a night out in our favourite but lethal stilettos, and, of course, who can forget the monthly reminder of our womanhood?
It’s easy to see that being a woman is sometimes a drag. However, there is one natural trait that we carry with us like a convenient cross-body Coach purse. The female sixth sense: our intuition.
Many psychologists say a woman’s intuition is a myth and is nothing more than our advanced ability to read body language and non-verbal cues from those around us. I agree in part, but I also think it goes beyond that in a deeper way. I think all women hold some degree of this power and it strengthens as we mature.
The first encounter I had with my intuition occurred when I was a young teen. I was facing a devastating breakup with a boy that I had been dating for two weeks. When he didn’t call me one night, I knew something was off. Sure enough, he was dating a girl from another school.
Although it’s juvenile, that incident set off my intuition like a wild fire.
When something in my personal life is about to change, a high frequency vibration usually goes off in the pit of my stomach. It is a feeling similar to the one you get when you can sense a thunderstorm brewing even before the darkness starts to show in the sky.
One of the hardest parts about the female intuition is learning to trust it. More often than not, when the familiar feeling starts to set in, it’s about something that will be difficult to face. It’s easier to be optimistic and convince yourself that you’re just being paranoid. But I’ve learned that when you’re facing something, whether it is in matters of the heart, making a big life decision or actual danger, it’s best to trust yourself.
Another perk of the female intuition is that when a woman becomes a mother, the instinct becomes even more fierce and precise. My mom has always been eerily in-the-know when it came to my behaviour as an adolescent. She swears that after giving birth, the intuition develops into an almost psychic ability to help you protect your children. I couldn’t help but wonder if we were the only ones who believe in this, so I asked my best friends’ mothers. I learned that they, too, have experienced this phenomenon.
The late Benjamin Spock, an American pediatrician and author, said “Trust yourself; you know more than you think you do.”
He didn’t say this about women and our intuitions, but it fits nonetheless.
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