Listen to Your Intuition — It Can Help You Navigate the Future | Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir | TED

103,542 views ・ 2024-11-13

TED


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You all know that feeling,
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that sense of overwhelm when confronted with an urgent task,
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thinking if I only try better, work harder
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and you put yourself aside time and time again
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because there are bigger things to think about.
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When I started working for the United Nations
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just after the war in Kosovo,
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it felt like walking into an open wound,
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and I was determined to give it all I had,
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knowing that the people who had suffered war were my priority,
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while my own well-being was not.
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In early 2002,
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when I was traveling for work from Kosovo to Kazakhstan,
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I felt this terrible pain and I started to bleed.
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I didn't think much of it.
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I just took painkillers and continued with work.
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It was only years later that I realized I'd had a miscarriage,
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and instead of this being a wake-up call, I just kept plowing on,
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deepening my disconnection with my body and my emotions.
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Soon after, I was in the unique position
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of having a guaranteed job at the UN for life,
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which had been a dream of mine.
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But at the UN in Geneva, the heavy bureaucracy
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and hierarchy felt all-consuming.
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My sense of purpose got weaker,
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and I felt increasingly out of touch with the living world.
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So I left my job at the UN,
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thinking we are serving system instead of serving people and the planet.
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And I thought something needed to change inside me.
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And I also felt our systems were out of sync.
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And maybe this feels familiar to some of you.
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Those of us who work in climate and sustainability
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work on transforming or changing systems.
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But systems don't change themselves, right?
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It's people like you and me that together change systems.
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But I don't think we can help big systems change
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in the long run
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unless we connect within
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and the change starts from within us.
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And lucky for us,
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there is this beautiful Icelandic concept that can help us do that.
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My soul searching brought me to intuition,
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which in Icelandic is called “innsaei.”
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And in the company of some amazing colleagues,
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I've been able to practice,
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research and interview scientists, spiritual leaders
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and artists from around the world.
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And I've discovered that we all have intuition,
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and it's up to us to tune in to it,
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which can be quite a challenge in today's world.
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Intuition is fundamental to our intelligence,
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and I don't think we give it the attention that it deserves.
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Unconsciously, we process a massive amount of information,
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sensory data that our body picks up, including the brain.
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While this is unconscious, it still shapes our actions.
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Our very focused conscious mind can grasp only a tiny fraction
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of all this data processing.
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Intuition helps us tap into this information.
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It helps us "read the room," come up with insights,
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and tune in to other people and the world around us.
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Sometimes we dismiss intuition as an irrational impulse
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that we shouldn't rely on,
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or a woo-woo concept that hasn’t been backed by science.
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But research shows the catalyzing role intuition has for creativity, compassion,
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mental agility and the human genius.
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We actually need good intuition to reason well,
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and without intuition,
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there wouldn't be much innovation.
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A research on a group of Nobel laureates
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showed the key role intuition played in their discoveries,
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and as they shifted between analysis and intuition,
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it led them to their big leaps.
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My search for answers brought me back to my roots
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and helped me see with fresh eyes
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the Icelandic word for intuition, "innsaei."
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Innsaei helps us reframe intuition
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because it brings together the scientific and the spiritual,
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the solid and the poetic.
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Innsaei means the sea within,
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and refers to the ever-flowing unconscious mind.
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The sea within cannot be put into boxes because then it ceases to flow.
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Stress, work and financial pressures can block our access to innsaei.
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And while we can't get rid of these pressures,
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we can learn how to clear the way to innsaei when we need it.
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Meditation and mindfulness practices can help us do that
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as they regulate our nervous system,
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and we gain clarity in mind.
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Intuition picks up information with all our body,
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so next time you feel something's off,
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you get chills down your spine or a gut reaction, ask yourself,
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what is my unconscious trying to tell me?
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Innsaei also means to see within,
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to be self-aware,
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and one of the most powerful ways to see within
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is to pay attention to how you pay attention
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and document it.
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Attention journaling helps you witness
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how innsaei plays a role in your life and how best to harness it.
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And lastly, innsaei means to see from the inside out
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and has to do with how we navigate the ocean of life from within
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with a strong inner compass.
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Aligning with innsaei is the work only you can do.
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And allowing innsaei to flow
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sometimes involves finding the balance between being and doing.
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And for many of us, it actually takes discipline to simply be
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and allow the world to come to us.
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One of the most powerful ways I've seen innsaei
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have an impact in the world
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is through the work of my dear friend,
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the ocean explorer Enric Sala.
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When we first met, he was introduced to me
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as the man who had left academia
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in order to spend most of his time in the ocean to help save it.
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I was intrigued,
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and I have since then interviewed him
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both for our film and my film and my book
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about the role innsaei has played in his pioneering work.
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Enric's childhood dream was to become a marine biologist
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and after having spent seven years as a university professor,
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Enric felt as if he was writing the obituary of the ocean
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instead of providing a cure.
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So he left his job,
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and he went on to found the National Geographic Pristine Seas Project,
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where he is able to immerse himself in the ocean
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and explore its ecosystems
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in a team of scientists and filmmakers.
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Spending time in the ocean has helped Enric enormously develop his intuition
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about what's wrong with the ocean and how to bring it back.
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Since 2008,
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Pristine Seas has been able to establish 27
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of the largest marine protected areas in the world,
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covering an area more than twice the size of India.
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Enric's story supports research that shows that intuition gets deeper
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and better with experience, knowledge and expertise.
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Also, how we immerse ourselves in the world,
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consciously or unconsciously,
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shapes how we show up and how we navigate it.
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The world we live in is very much like the ocean.
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It's constantly changing and we need to decide which direction to go.
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We are now midway into the decisive decade for climate change.
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We’re taking stock, renewing our understanding and agency.
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As we wayfind and change systems,
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we also need to renew our focus and vision.
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And I think innsaei can help us in three ways.
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First, like Enric's story shows,
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it helps to see the big picture and how everything is interconnected.
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And secondly, innsaei grounds us in the present,
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enables us to be more in charge of our own attention
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and therefore better prepared for the unexpected.
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And lastly, as we immerse ourselves in a given task
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and we connect dots beyond man-made silos,
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our creativity, focus and performance improve.
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As we navigate towards new horizons,
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we need our vivid imaginations to set sails towards the possible.
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Grounded in innsaei's innate understanding
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of planetary and human interconnectedness,
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imagination can guide us towards the futures that we dream of.
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It helps us see in our minds what we intuit to be possible.
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Because if we can't imagine better futures,
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how on earth are we going to get there?
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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