Intuition as Activism
Why trusting your gut isn’t just personal - it's political
Over the last few weeks, we’ve explored how to tap into our intuition - that gut knowing, inner wisdom - at home and at work. This week, we expand that sense of knowing outward, into the world, by exploring how intuition connects to cultural change. Because trusting your intuition isn't just personal growth, it has the potential to be totally paradigm-shifting. It challenges systems that don’t “feel” right, and it reconnects us to a deeper collective wisdom that’s been buried by heteropatriarchal, imperialism, supremacist, capitalist society. When we trust our intuition, we’re not just making better decisions for ourselves, we’re disrupting the hierarchy of domination. Intuitive leadership is revolutionary.
Before we dive into that, I want to bring it back to our working definition of a rebel leader. Rebel leaders aren’t always the ones marching in the streets or giving speeches in school board meetings. They can be the quiet challengers, the people whose worldview has shifted in the last few years and they’re no longer willing to look away. And instead of tolerating it, they’re beginning to speak up. Maybe they’re raising a hand in a meeting to say, “Hey, this policy doesn’t sit right.” Maybe they’re teaching their kids how to be more empathetic. Maybe they’re just starting to shift how they show up—at work, at home, in their neighborhoods.
You might not call yourself a rebel, or a leader, but if you’re out there challenging the status quo with empathy and conviction for a better world, you’re already doing the work.
And here’s how it all ties together: rebel leaders are often the ones who use their intuition to feel the misalignment first. They don’t need a research study or a spreadsheet to tell them something is unjust or harmful to society, they feel it in their bones. And they don’t get stuck in perfectionism when it’s time to take a stand for something. They act before all the pieces are in place, because sometimes, that’s what leadership requires.
Collective Intuition: Ancestral Wisdom and Cultural Survival
Let’s talk about collective intuition or a moment. Many communities - especially Indigenous, Black, and diasporic cultures - have never disconnected from collective knowing. In these cultures, intuition isn’t framed as individual insight, it's part of shared memory and ancestral survival. Communities historically under attack by colonizers and enslavers used collective, intuitive wisdom as a way to continue their spiritual practices and protect each other. This ancestral knowledge passed on through generations has given these cultures elders, mothers, aunties, community caretakers, and healers who “just know” when something’s about to shift.
If you’re curious to learn more about this kind of culture intuition, here are some of the books that have shaped my own understanding:
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Jambalaya by Luisah Teish
Patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism have trained us to distrust that ancestral knowing in favor of data and to put our trust in systems over ourselves. So when we begin to relearn how to trust our gut, especially in community, it becomes revolutionary.
Intuition as Integrity and Resistance
Intuition can become a tool for activism, especially when the “data” gaslight us. When your body says something’s wrong, even if no one else is naming it yet, that is valuable lived experience and truth.
We see this in women’s health: an abysmal lack of education and research, inadequate care (especially for marginalized communities), and centuries of dismissal. Women have been told their pain is in their heads, or their “wandering uterus,” or their hormones, or even normal. When you first relearn how to trust your intuition, and then you speak up for yourself when something feels off, you are pushing back on a system that has long devalued women’s voices. Honoring your own body and protecting your peace in a world that often doesn’t validate our needs is the rebel leader’s version of intuition.
Practices for Collective Intuition
Here are a few ideas for tapping into a community-based intuition:
Join or create a “gut trust” circle: Find a group of friends or allies you trust, people who can help you name what you’re sensing and check you if their gut says something different. A hunch shared in trusted company is often clarified.
Practice embodied organizing:If you’re already in activist or community work, encourage regular body check-ins: How are we feeling? Are we nourished? Are we pushing past our limits? Our movements are more powerful when they’re sustainable.
Touch grass (as the kids say): Reconnecting with nature reconnects you to yourself. Step away from screens, go outside, walk with someone, feel the sunshine on your face. Let the noise settle so you can hear your own knowing more clearly.
Closing: Collective Intuition Is How We Stay Safe
Intuition in community is how we stay safe, especially for anyone navigating the world in a marginalized body. It’s also how we challenge systems that don’t feel right. You can trust what you feel when you look around at the world, you don’t have to wait for proof or permission.
And when you lean on your community, when you share that knowing, and move together in alignment, you’re helping create a better, safer world.
This concludes my series on intuition! If you missed any, go back and catch the last few posts - each one explores a different facet of what it means to trust ourselves at home, at work, and in the wider world. As always, I’d love to hear from you…what would you like me to cover next in this newsletter? What’s stirring for you lately? Where are you being asked to lead in a way that feels new, uncomfortable, or true? Drop a comment or send me a message if something’s on your mind!