I think we all understand gut feelings, those moments in life where we somehow sense that something is going on. It’s that relentless niggle in the pit of our stomach, that little voice that murmurs whether something feels right or wrong. It has an amazing ability to predict how we’ll feel about a decision over the long term. If you’ve ever had the experience of house or apartment hunting then you’ll know what I mean. Do you remember that feeling that came over you when you ‘just knew’ that you had found the right place to make your home or likewise in a relationship when you met ‘the one’?
Are my gut feelings true?
I wanted to discover if the feelings of intuition I have sometimes, can be proved as a real physiological response. I do know that almost every time I haven’t followed my gut feelings – I’ve regretted it, but where does this intuition come from? This week I read some research from Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, on this. They did a study which focused on women and the way we seem to sense things.
You see, in ancient times we were left as the guardians of our campsites while the men were out hunting. As mothers, we were given the job of protecting our vulnerable children. Scientists say that this developed in us an instinctive ability to recognise when danger was afoot. Way back then we used senses like hearing and smell to make life-saving decisions on whether to ‘fight or flight’ from the fireside.
This ancient feminine instinct forms part (but not all) of our modern day sense of intuition. Our gut feelings are also based from our life experience. All of the information we have gathered over time works together in our brains to analyse a situation instantly, giving us a sense of knowledge that seems to come from nowhere. This automatic response also happens to men but it’s intensified in women. We have exceptional skills in reading others and sensing danger. As the physically weaker gender our brains actually evolved and changed in a different way to men. We have a larger section of the brain dedicated to the organizing and analysing of people and environmental situations, to judge them safe.
Listening with the head and the heart
Reading the research behind intuition made me wonder about a topic that has been popular meal time fodder at our Bali retreat on if as women, we should be using our gut feelings as often as we use our sense of logic when we make decisions. Am we better to listen with both our head and heart, or should we trust one of these over the other? With every decision we make, every judgment we form, there is a battle happening in our mind between intuition and logic.
More often than not without us even realising it, its actually our speedy intuitive mind that’s in the drivers seat. It takes charge of all the thousands of decisions we make each day. The problem though occurs when we allow this intuition to make decisions that we really should pass over to our slow, logical system. This is where we can take the wrong path.
In the opinion of social scientists, different situations call for different types of analysis. You may be surprised at the results below.
Times to go with logic
- When you think someone is being dishonest.
This is a funny one – after all, why do we have polygraphs – but it has actually been proven that you can’t easily detect when someone is lying to you. You may have a gut feeling about it but don’t act until your feelings are confirmed by evidence.
2. Interviewing for a new job
If you’re in the process of deciding where to work and you have a good gut feeling about a company – but their working environment doesn’t meet your needs in some other way – it’s best to decide using logic and not choose the company. In the interview process, you’re only dealing with one person so your gut feelings about them shouldn’t be confused with the realities of the job.
3. Investing Money
Fight the urge to follow a feeling. I’m sure you know or have heard of investors who were overconfident and fell. Even if they have had the Midas touch in the past, by avoiding hasty decisions, and revisiting sound logic is a much more safer road than following a spontaneous gut feeling.
Times to Trust Your Gut
1.Playing to Win
Whether it’s on the tennis court, at the bowling green or around a chess table, the choice that feels right is usually the correct one. Resist the urge to overanalyze each move. Odds are, it won’t improve your performance as proven in many case studies and by realising that intuition is basically your brain on auto pilot, by following that will help more than obeying your brain!
2. Parenting
If you sense that something is medically wrong with your children or family then don’t hesitate to get a second opinion. We are experts at listening to signals from our own bodies and from children we’ve raised.
3. Buying a house
Studies have actually proved that homeowners who consider their intuition as well as the financial and other factors when choosing a home will end up feeling happier in their new abodes.
Trusting what you know
So there we have it! The results of my little research project. It seems intuition is not 100% trustworthy, but it certainly should be a factor in our decision-making processes. I have to admit, the older I get, the more I trust my gut and the more I’ve learned to listen to it. I believe intuition is a powerful feminine force and I encourage you all to tap into it as a source of guidance in life.