I want to remind y’all—the brain isn’t always right. Think about all the times someone misread you, assumed they had you figured out, and moved accordingly. They were convinced they saw you clearly, but all they really saw was the version of you they already believed in.
Now flip it. How many times have you done the same?
Our minds aren’t responding to the present moment. They’re reacting to impressions of the present, layered with past experiences, emotions, and biases we might not even be aware of. Feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir argued that most people don’t actually engage with the world as it is—they engage with it as it has been constructed for them. The brain isn’t neutral. It’s been shaped by personal memory, culture, and inherited beliefs about what things mean.
That’s why someone being quiet can feel like rejection. Why kindness can feel suspicious. Why a shift in energy can make your stomach drop before you even have proof something is wrong. Your mind is scanning for patterns, trying to keep you safe. But the question is: safe from what?
Luce Irigaray talks about how language—and by extension, thought—has been built within a masculine framework of logic, linearity, and certainty. But thinking like a woman means embracing ambiguity, questioning the stories we tell ourselves, allowing multiple truths to exist at once. Your first thought isn’t always the truth. Your first assumption isn’t always wisdom—it might just be fear dressed up as intuition.
To think like a woman is to pause. To wonder. To recognize that perception is a conversation, not a fact.
We can learn so much about ourselves by analyzing how we analyze others. If you assume people are uninterested in you, maybe you’ve spent too much time around those who never valued your presence. If you expect betrayal, maybe that’s because trust has cost you before. If you assume someone is angry, maybe it’s because you’ve had to tiptoe around anger in the past. Your brain is not evil for doing this. It’s just trying to protect you. But sometimes, protection becomes a prison.
So before you decide someone is distant, dishonest, or against you—pause. Ask yourself: Is this real, or is this just familiar?
Your brain is not always right. And that’s a good thing. Because it means you can choose a different way of thinking. A different way of seeing.
For a long time,I thought my intuition was a sacred thing and that if I felt something deep inside, it had to be right. But as life continues to play out, I’ve come to realize how often I was stuck in a web of past memories, holding onto assumptions that weren’t truly mine. My mind was always doing its thing, but was I really present? Or was I letting old stories play out, reacting to a version of reality that wasn’t in front of me?
I began to to pause and to notice that the gut feeling I’d always trusted wasn’t necessarily my deepest knowing. It was just a reaction, a reflex. The truth was, I had to unlearn the habit of assuming to make space for feeling. And with that, something shifted.
The more I sat with the discomfort, the more clarity I found. I didn’t need to force myself to know the answer instantly.
And that in itself became the lesson: sometimes, the wisdom comes in the waiting.
How I Started Shifting My Way of Thinking:
1. I let my assumptions breathe.
Instead of jumping to conclusions, I let them float in the air a little longer, just watching them pass by. “What if I’m wrong?” became a quiet mantra, shifting my perspective with gentle grace.
2. I learned to trust my body, not just my mind.
There’s something in the body that knows. I began to notice: real intuition felt light, while anxiety felt like a tight fist around my chest. I learned to listen.
3. I stopped seeking confirmation.
The old habit of searching for proof faded as I trusted the flow of time. The answers would show up when they were meant to, and that was enough.
With time, I’ve learned that intuition isn’t about certainty, it’s about allowing space for the unknown, trusting what feels true. Letting go of the need to always be right has been freeing in a way I didn’t expect. And in that, a deeper knowing has begun to emerge.
Some days, I feel like I see the world in frames, light hitting the sidewalk just right, the way someone’s eyes soften. Being a photographer, an artist, means constantly translating feeling into something tangible. It’s intimate. It’s exhausting. It’s everything. And yet, even as I capture the world around me, I have to remind myself that what I see isn’t always the full picture.
My brain tries to compose a narrative before I even have all the information. I’ve been misread before, assumed things that weren’t true, let my emotions fill in the gaps where facts were missing. And I know I’m not alone in that. We all do it. Our minds scan for patterns, try to protect us, try to make sense of things.
New York moves fast. The industry moves faster. If I let every rejection, every cold interaction, every unanswered email tell me a story about my worth, I’d stop creating. But I’ve learned to step back. To not take every moment at face value.
Sometimes I have to zoom out, adjust the exposure, let the truth come through in layers.
And in the same way, I’ve learned to approach my intuition differently. It’s not about believing every gut feeling is the truth, it’s about sitting with it, questioning it. I trust myself, but I also give myself time. Real clarity, comes when we stop rushing toward conclusions.
So, I keep going. I keep creating. I keep learning how to see. And I remind myself: intuition is a tool, not a cage. The more I allow things to unfold, the more truth I actually find.