I've found more and more recently that it becomes easy for me to use my intuition to justify paranoia, the difference being that one is a justifiable sense and the other is just down to
a fear or doubt of something. This, however, is a very difficult distinction to make, considering intuition is so unknown and even emotions can be difficult to define in any solid way at times.
What I wanted to ask was - how do you help distinguish between your senses and paranoia, and how do you judge when to take action (and to what extent) based upon that distinction?
From my experience I have found there are a couple different levels of intuition, and a few different ways to develop your ability to discern what is intuition and what isn't.
If you already practice meditation, I recommend using some of that time to listen to your body, and work on being consciously aware of your emotions and especially how your body reacts to them. For example I have a tendency to carry stress between my shoulders, when that area goes tight on me it is a signal that makes me aware of it. When I am angry I tend to tighten my jaw. When I am on the defensive or nervous my lower back and hips tighten.
For you it might be similar, there are common ways the body reacts to things, but there is always some sort of variation so just listen quietly and see if you can learn your body's own language. This actually has a few benefits.
First, being consciously aware of your emotions is one step closer to understanding what triggers them in you, and allows you to recognize when they might be affecting your thinking. This goes a long ways in giving you control and centered-ness even in times of stress because you can acknowledge what you are feeling and give it a voice before it has to turn up the volume and become overwhelming. Recognizing an emotion and hearing what it has to tell you goes a very long way in taking the power out of it, letting you keep your center.
Second, listening to your body's signals can be a connection to a more physical level of intuition. Your five senses operate at a much stronger level than most people are aware, and are honed towards subtle little things that you don't normally consciously realize. The easiest example is body language when interacting with people. Tiny little things like the twitch of an eyebrow, or widening of the eyes, hand position and gestures, how the other person is balanced on their feet, the way they are breathing, the tone and inflection of a person's voice. Even the sort of energy coming from people and your environment have an effect. Your body is aware of all of it and reacts on a subconscious level and this makes it a vital part of the immediate, physical, solar plexus(ie; 'gut feeling') sort of level of intuition.
When it comes to spiritual/soul intuition, the sort of information that can be a guiding instinct on how to act in a situation, or that can be a source of insight or information on a more intangible, 'third eye', guidance from a higher place, this is where emotion tens to be more absent. Receiving this sort of intuition is like understanding a fact.
There is no emotion to it, it's just simple information- Like walking through a forest and noticing a tree has a woodpecker hole in it. You don't need to feel wonder or fear or sadness to recognize it is there. You just look at it and go "Oh look. That tree has a hole."
As far as being able to differentiate between intuition and something like paranoia, I'm not sure of any solid, time tested methods. But usually intuition (for me, at least) is directly related to the present moment or situation. IE; What is happening 'Now'. What I should do 'Now'. Usually fears and paranoia are centered on either consequences of the past, or fears about the possible future. IE; what 'will' happen.
Either way what I have learned is if it isn't centered in the present, and/or it is emotionally charged through fear, unrest, anger, or other negative emotions, then it might not necessarily be intuition.
