Always trust your intuition. Your intuition is always correct. Your intuition will never fail you. Your heart always knows the truth. A woman’s intuition is never wrong.

These are the catchphrases we hear everywhere, from tarot study groups to psychic development classes to ladies’ luncheons.

There is a reason we hear, and say, these things so often. The intuition is a powerful tool for knowing truth. I think we speak more often of “women’s intuition” than of the power of men to discern truth. Yet, I don’t believe intuition is gender-based. I believe we all have the ability to hear the truth that resides within us, and the truth that whispers to guide us.

Most of us have personal stories about times we regret not listening to that little voice. We also have stories about the times we are glad we listened to that voice, against all reason.

You know the voice of which I speak. It’s the voice that told you not to believe your boyfriend’s lies. It’s the voice that told you to check on your friend, only to discover that you arrived in the nick of time to save the day.

Why do I advocate questioning your intuition?

The reason is simple.

That little voice of intuition is hard to distinguish from other internal chatter. It is easy to mistake the voice of desire for the voice of intuition. It is just as easy to mistake the voice of fear for the voice of your inner truth.

Intuition is a powerful tool. It turns a mediocre tarot reading into a profound spiritual experience. It guides us as we make life-changes choices.

Yet, how many times have we made damaging decisions in life because we truly believed we had some spiritual insight guiding us?

If you intuitively feel you should take a different route home from work, you might as well do it. You may discover you avoided a traffic jam.

If your intuition tells you to call your friend, by all means, do. You may discover your timing is on point, and your friend needed to hear from you.

Those are small decisions, and not likely to impact your life if you were wrong.

When should you question your intuition?

You should question your intuition when you feel it is guiding a major decision, especially a decision regarding a relationship.

You should question your intuition when your intuition confirms a fear, a desire, or your particular point of view.

How should you question your intuition?

Take a step back. Try to release the fear, the desire, or the point of view. Remember that anything that is true can stand up to questioning.

Make sure that you aren’t confusing intuition with anxiety. Make sure that you aren’t using intuition to justify an unhealthy desire. Make sure you aren’t using intuition to support a point of view.

Very often, we won’t know whether our intuition was correct until a great deal of time has passed. If the feeling you identify as intuition is causing you to do something that isn’t good for you, consider that it might not be intuition you are experiencing.

The more we question truth, the more solid our truth that remains will be.