There are two ways to look at any given situation or task: sensing vs intuition. You may have thought they were the same thing, but they’re not. The one you tend to rely on frames how you navigate life.

Have you ever taken the Myers Briggs personality test? If you have, you’ve noticed how accurate the characteristic results are to your recognizable personality traits. It’s so accurate it’s amazing. Within this test lies two basic psychological preferences called sensing vs intuition. This governs a basic operation you use from day to day to navigate and solve problems. It also affects creativity and moods.

Sensing vs Intuition

You might say that sensing vs intuition is closely related to the idea that we predominantly use either the left or right side of the brain. Let’s be realistic, everyone uses both sides, it’s just that we favor one side over the other. So maybe when you meet new people, you can decipher which side of the brain they use the most. In the meantime, here are a few facts to help you understand sensing vs intuition.

Sensing

Sensing doesn’t work with the imagination, quite the contrary. This preference focuses on what can be detected through the five senses. If you can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch something, then it is a fact. But it’s a little more than that too. Here are the Myers-Briggs personalities profiles for sensing.

Facts

Sensing is about facts. If it’s proven to be true, or if it sits right in front of you in plain view, then it’s real. Mathematics and science deal with facts and they are understood through senses working with the brain. Sensing is concrete and doesn’t rely on faith to work.

Details

Those who operate using sensing pay close attention to details. This is because details are small indicators of fact. They pay attention to inconsistencies which lie within the details as well.

Aware

Those with a photographic memory take a snapshot in their mind for later. With this, they can recount information that can be important to them or others. Also, sensing allows you to pay close attention to your surroundings.

Pragmatic

Sensing types don’t have time for elaboration. When they want to know something, they want the “bottom line”. Getting to the facts means moving on to other responsibilities.

Resist possibilities

One of the largest downsides to sensing instead of using intuition is the fact that possibilities are ignored. Possibilities incompass lofty dreams and goals that seem unrealistic. Facts and experience, sensing abilities, sometimes block the success of hard to attain dreams, just because they seem improbable.

Intuition

The impressions made upon your life guide your intuition when you operate in this manner. In fact, you place your intuition at a higher level than your senses. You understand, that no matter how the facts appear, your senses can fail you. Symbolism and theory often help you understand and process things that happen to or around you. Below you will find the traits of the personality types from Myers-Briggs that rely on the intuitive thinking.

Open-minded

Those who use their intuition on a regular basis are much more open-minded about new things. Change is not as frightening to them. With this open mind, they see the possibilities of a large array of situations. They play with ideas and give these ideas strength to come to fruition, dedicated to creative actions.

Focus on the future

Intuitives have high hopes for the future, and they base their actions in preparations for days ahead. They don’t really dwell on the past because there are more possibilities in the future.

Deep

Deep thoughts are the norm for intuitive people. They just don’t care about dealing with small talk like sport’s scores and the weather. Often they deal in things below the surface, striving to understand existence and the meaning of life.

Inventive

People with intuitive personality create scenarios and rely heavily on theories about any given problem or situation. Their creativity solves many problems that sensing individuals solve with equations and facts. Faith helps to solidify ideas so that the intuitive can continue to create.

Complicated

Sometimes the intuitive can be complicated. They don’t focus on the answer as much as how the answer was derived and the thought process behind that answer. Instead of concrete details, the intricacies of emotions and motivations feed the intuition. Sometimes their complications can be quite hard to deal with, especially since they have trouble getting to the point.

Have you taken a personality test lately?

If you haven’t taken a personality test, I recommend it. A test, clearly related to sensing vs intuition, can help you understand your characteristics, moods and personal preferences for different facets of life. Remember, don’t force any answers. Being truthful will help you realize your true predisposition.

Are you a sense driven person or an intuitive? I hope you have fun discovering the answer.

References:

  1. http://www.myersbriggs.org
  2. https://www.16personalities.com

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This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Zara Brown

    nice post it is

    1. Sherrie

      Thank you for reading, Zara

  2. Jan Jones

    An INFJ, I had to laugh at the accuracy of this –

    “(Intuitive)…..can be quite hard to deal with, especially since they have trouble getting to the point”.

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