Sometimes the reason we have so much trouble understanding how we feel is because we trust how we feel too much. Every emotion is valid because it is experienced, but not every emotion is true. Not every thought or feeling that passes is representative of reality, and not being able to tell the difference between gut instincts and intruding thoughts is what lands people in a lot of emotional chaos.

1. Intuitive thoughts are calm. Intruding thoughts are hectic and fear-inducing.

2. Intuitive thoughts are rational, they make a degree of sense. Intruding thoughts are irrational, and often stem from aggrandizing a situation, or jumping to the worst conclusion possible.

3. Intuitive thoughts help you in the present. They give you information that you need to make a better-informed decision. Intruding thoughts are often random, and have nothing to do with what’s going on in the moment.

4. Intuitive thoughts are “quiet,” intruding thoughts are “loud,” which makes one harder to hear than the other.

5. Intuitive thoughts are usually something that comes to you once, maybe twice, and they induce a feeling of understanding. Intruding thoughts tend to be persistent, and induce a feeling of panic.

6. Intuitive thoughts often sound loving, while invasive thoughts sound scared.

7. Intuitive thoughts usually come out of nowhere, invasive thoughts are usually triggered by an external stimuli.

8. Intuitive thoughts don’t need to be grappled with – you have them and then you let them go. Invasive thoughts begin a whole spiral of ideas and fears, making it feel impossible to stop thinking about.

9. Even when an intuitive thought doesn’t tell you something you like, it never makes you feel panicked about it. Even if you experience sadness or disappointment, you don’t feel overwhelmingly anxious. Panic is the emotion you experience when you don’t know what to do with a feeling. It is what happens when you have an invasive thought.

10. Intuitive thoughts open your mind to other possibilities, invasive thoughts close your heart and make you feel stuck, or condemned.

11. Intuitive thoughts come from the perspective of your best self. Invasive thoughts come from the perspective of your most fearful, small self.

12. Intuitive thoughts solve problems, invasive thoughts create them.

13. Intuitive thoughts help you help others, invasive thoughts tend to create a “me vs. them” mentality.

14. Intuitive thoughts help you understand what you’re thinking and feeling, invasive thoughts assume what other people are thinking and feeling.

15. Intuitive thoughts are rational, invasive thoughts are irrational.

16. Intuitive thoughts come from a deeper place within you, they give you a resounding feeling deep in your gut. Invasive thoughts keep you stuck in your head, and give you a panicked feeling.

17. Intuitive thoughts show you how to respond, invasive thoughts demand that you react.