Listen to your Gut Even If You Don’t Like It!

Have you ever had a gut feeling inside your stomach and knew something was not quite right? Yet, you decided to ignore it! Everyone has experienced this gut feeling and at one point or another we have failed to acknowledge and take action. Maybe we were afraid, doubtful, or simply thought it would go away. Whatever the situation is, pay attention and listen to your instinct.

The human brain is amazing how it can gather information and make decisions based on only instinct. The human brain argues with itself in order to come up with different conclusions of what it should do. The brain has two distinct systems: automatic and controlled process. The automatic process relies on mental shortcuts and makes decisions based on intuition; while the controlled process takes its times to process the information at a slower pace. If the controlled process thinks our intuition is wrong, then it will override the automatic judgment.

Research conducted by Professor Marius Usher from the Tel Aviv University’s School of Psychological Science revealed that if people use their gut instinct when making a decision based on two options, they made the better choice 90% of the time.

Dr. Leanne Ten Brinke from the University of California, Berkeley performed a study that showed that people are worse at spotting out liars when they have to think about it rather than relying on gut instinct. When we have to overthink our decisions, the value of it declines.

Most people would actually admit that their gut rarely has proven them wrong; yet we tend to ignore our instinct because we simply do not like the answer.

Once we stop ignoring our intuition/gut feeling and pay attention to the answer that is right in front of us we will maybe start living simpler and more successful lives.