We all experience things differently.
For some of us, it comes as an intuition. For others, as a sensation in the body, an emotion, a thought. And sometimes, as a mixture of all of these.
When we talk about intuition, we often describe it in very broad terms. As something that speaks to us beyond what we can consciously understand or make tangible. A very strong inner feeling.
But however strong that feeling may be, it does not necessarily tell us which direction to take.
We can feel very clearly that a situation no longer feels right for us, without knowing what should come next.
This, I believe, is where discernment begins.
When What We Feel Meets the World
What we feel is internal. Discernment begins when that feeling comes into contact with the world.
It may happen through a conversation with someone, something we read, an encounter, an experience, something we notice or that catches our attention.
The point is not to look outside ourselves for the answer to what we feel inside.
It is rather to see what happens to that feeling when it encounters the world.
Is my intuition still there? Does what I discover strengthen it? Does it shift something? Does another possibility emerge?
Questioning what we feel does not mean systematically doubting it.
It means giving it the opportunity to encounter new information.
How to Listen to Others Without Losing Your Own Direction
When we are going through a period of transition, we may be tempted to find someone who can tell us what to do. We ask for advice. We look around us for something that might help us understand.
But listening to what others have to say does not mean letting them decide for us.
Perhaps this is where the real difficulty lies: engaging with the world without letting the world choose our direction.
A conversation may bring to light something we had not seen. Something we read may put words to a feeling that was still unclear. An experience may confirm an intuition or, on the contrary, show us that what we thought we wanted does not actually feel quite right for us.
The world does not necessarily give us the answer.
But it gives us new information.
And then we can return to what we feel.
Is it still there? Does it feel different? What has shifted?
How Clarity Emerges During a Life Transition
It is through this back-and-forth that something can begin to become clearer.
A direction does not necessarily appear as an obvious answer. It can take shape gradually, as we encounter reality and observe what it stirs in us.
Something keeps returning, persists, becomes clearer. Or, on the contrary, begins to change.
A transition sometimes begins long before we know what we want to change. First, we simply feel that something no longer fits.
But feeling that tension does not yet give us a direction.
Between the two lies this space of discernment.
A space where what we feel encounters what the world brings into view.
And little by little, a direction can begin to emerge.
With it comes another question: what will allow us to act?
What Is Beginning to Emerge for You?
Perhaps you, too, are in that space where you know that something needs to shift, without yet knowing exactly where you are going.
So rather than trying to find the answer straight away, you might simply observe: in what you are encountering right now, what is confirming, shifting, or transforming what you already felt?
If this question resonates with what you are going through, tell me in the comments what you are noticing. Your experience may also open up new ways of looking at this in-between space.
If you would like to read the french version - Ressentir sans encore savoir