I have a jar full of “red flags.” I will take them out one by one and dip them into rose colored paint and create pretty pictures. Believing in people’s potential and situation turn-arounds keeps me happily painting.

What exactly are “red flags?” Our energy reacting to someone else’s energy = intuition. If that reaction is negative if can be considered a warning= a red flag.

The Oxford Dictionary defines intuition as: “the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.” Ed Myllet says that intuition is God speaking to you and prayer is you speaking to God. Gut-feeling, radar, sixth sense, or a knowing; whatever you call it we all have it. Intuition is not to be confused with your conscience, the Holy Spirit, or your inner voice.

Women believe themselves to be much more intuitive than men. (ever hear the term “men’s intuition?” yea, me either).

Do you ignore “red flags” (warning signals) about people or situations? Do you continually strive to see the potential, making you either not pay attention to the warning bells, or hear them and believe them to not be as bad as they are? Do you see the red flag and put it in your back pocket to look at later? Or do you wave that sucker vigorously for all to see and know that danger lurks?

What happens if you continually ignore your intuition and don’t heed the red flags? Perhaps your intuitiveness will become less trust-worthy if you ignore it on a regular basis. If you consistently notice it and yet ignore what it is telling you, your brain is taking over and telling your gut to settle down and quit being so sensitive. You are telling yourself that you can’t be believed and first impressions are not worth trusting.

I have a special needs adult son. I like to say that he is a great judge of character. He lacks social skills and thankfully also lacks judgement and biases. What he senses is not run through any filters it is pure and honest. He is generally quiet when he meets someone new or enters an unknown situation. But he livens up right away if he is comfortable. If he remains quiet and wants out of the situation or away from a new person then I know to trust that he is sensing something negative. What he goes through life displaying is intuition. He doesn’t know how to verbalize reg flag warnings but his body language and expressions are signals. The way he remembers his first impressions lets me know that he trusts them on the most basic level. He is a great example of how to heed warnings and follow his intuition.

What is interesting is that I will immediately not push the issue and I will remove him and us from whatever situation or people he doesn’t trust. I will protest him from what his intuition senses as danger and yet I won’t protect myself in the same way. I would never allow him to be scared or worried about a feeling he was having about someone or something and yet I put those red flags aside all the time for myself. Why don’t I protect myself in the same ways? Why do I collect my red flags as if they make a pretty bouquet instead of cutting them apart and leaving them in the dust like the poison weeds that they are?

As a nurse I see red flags every shift. If I sense something is not right for a patient I will change the scenario or try to fix what is out of order. If I sense that something is dangerous for myself I will work around it, ignore it, or excuse it away. My warning bells are the same for what I sense for others in harms way as they are for myself and yet I will try to quiet the voice if my intuition is trying to protect me.

Unfortunately I have learned that short-staffing, lack of training, sicker and more violent patients is the norm and sensing danger or something “off” at work is just the way it is anymore. In a world where medical errors can get you jailed and violence against health care workers is considered to be expected not prosecuted, one would think I would pay extra close attention to my warning bells toll but there just isn’t time.

I do believe that this is something the younger and newer nurses do better than the the nurses that have been around for awhile. “Older” nurses are used to making do and not making a fuss and excusing bad behavior. “Old School” nursing is based on it’s all about the patients and not about me. Where these young nurses won’t take any shit, we could learn a thing or two.

The moral of the story is that paying attention to my intuition is important; but even more important, is to act accordingly to the message I am receiving from it. Protecting myself, my nursing license, my mental health, my heart, is worth it. If situations or people would cause me to change something for my son or my patients, then I should be able to do it for myself too. Collecting red flags to later take them out and look at them is unwise.

What is good for this nurse’s soul is to trust my gut. What are your red flags and how good are you at seeing them and heeding their warnings?