“I just have a feeling.”
Sometimes that sentence describes intuition. Sometimes it describes fear. The difficulty is that both can arrive quickly and feel convincing before we have time to examine them.
Start with the difference between a signal and a story
A feeling may be real without the explanation attached to it being correct.
You may feel tension before meeting someone. That tension is real. But “something bad is definitely going to happen” is an interpretation.
Separating the sensation from the story gives you room to evaluate both.
Anxiety often expands the narrative
An anxious thought frequently produces chains of possibilities: what if this happens, then that happens, then everything goes wrong?
What people call intuition is often described as quieter and more specific. That is not a perfect rule, but it can be a useful observation.
Check your history, not only the current feeling
Ask how often similar feelings have accurately predicted something and how often they did not. We naturally remember striking correct guesses more easily than ordinary false alarms.
Keeping track of both can improve your judgment over time.
Look for evidence without forcing it
Once you expect danger, rejection, or betrayal, attention can start collecting details that support the expectation. Neutral behavior can begin to look suspicious.
That does not mean every concern is wrong. It means the evidence deserves to be examined before the conclusion becomes reality in your mind.
A useful question
Instead of asking, “Is this intuition or anxiety?” immediately, try: “What do I actually know, what am I feeling, and what story have I added?”
This distinction appears throughout The Shape of What You Notice: facts, feelings, and interpretations can arrive so quickly together that they feel like one thing. Learning to separate them can change how you respond.