We’ve all been there: that feeling in your gut. It could be about a person, a situation, or a decision that you simply know needs to be made. That queasy feeling, or sudden sense of clarity, seems to come out of nowhere but often can be joltingly correct. Some of the biggest life choices are determined by our gut feelings, but do you ever wonder why this happens? Why do we make decisions based on what we can’t quite explain, and often those decisions feel right?
To answer that, we have to delve into the science of intuition: a look at the biological, neurological, and psychological underpinnings of why one should never ignore his or her gut feelings. From the gut-brain connection to how experience influences intuitive responses, this article will show how and why your intuition can sometimes guide you more reliably than conscious reasoning does.
The Gut-Brain Connection: Your Second Brain
But one of the most interesting features of intuition, to me at least, is its apparent physical abode-the gut. The “gut feeling” is just not a metaphor; it certainly has biological basis. Your gut has an extensive network of neurons commonly referred to as the “second brain.” The ENS is embedded in the lining of your gastrointestinal system and comprises an estimated 100 million neurons-more than the spinal cord. These neurons control digestion, but they have a powerful consequence on the psychic processing of emotions, the making of decisions, and even social behaviors involving contact with other people.
In fact, it has been shown that more signals are sent to the brain by the gut than the number of signals from the brain it receives. This is made possible through the vagus nerve; a vital part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which forms part of the involuntary body control. That gut feeling may be a result of your ENS detecting signals of the general state of your body and sending that information to the brain, which then provokes an emotional and/or cognitive response that feels intuitive.
That is why people commonly get that “butterflies-in-the-stomach” sensation whenever a choice must be made. Usually, physical sensations relate to either an emotional or a psychological reaction-one which tells the brain something is happening it should be paying attention to. More basically said, the gut has a lot more active involvement with making a decision than was heretofore believed.
The Role of Emotions in Intuition
The other important player involved here is the emotional brain-that is, the limbic system governing the feelings, memory, and behaviors-which acts in concert with the ENS. As long as a situation of judgment-choices as to which job offer to take, whom one wants to confide in, or which opportunity merits an investment-deserves to have been made in the first place, for that matter-end. This emotional response can be so fast and automatic that we often realize it has taken place long afterwards.
This rapid emotional reaction forms the basis of intuitive thinking. For example, this gut feeling of a person or situation may be the unconscious utilization by the brain of our past experiences or behavior patterns to indicate there is potential harm. It provides that “gut feeling” in us that one thing is just not right, and we do not know precisely why. It does not depend on logical reasoning; instead, it draws its conclusions from the facts acquired and then filed in the brain. According to researches in neurobiology, the site of emotional memory is storing and retrieving it very fast, influencing thereby our intuitive judgments. Our brains are constantly processing the environment and matching new information against prior experience. When new information fits with something that we have already experienced, then we might make an intuitive judgment based on prior experience. That’s one of the reasons why your gut is many times related to prior experiences if you aren’t necessarily conscious about it.
The Psychological Basis for Intuition
Though the biological foundation of intuition is in the brain and gut, psychology still very strongly influences how intuitive feelings are dealt with. According to psychologists, intuition is deep-rooted in unconscious processing. Fundamentally, your brain assimilates huge amounts of information which often your conscious mind does not even realize. This constitutes what is loosely referred to as the “unconscious processing” theory of intuition.
The unconscious mind operates much faster in encoding information than conscious ones. Sometimes, when one makes an instinctive decision, the brain may respond to patterns previously cataloged but that one is consciously unaware of. Such pattern recognition enables one to make snap decisions that more often than not feel instinctive yet are actually just the result of rapid back-end cognitive processing. Intuition is basically the result of your brain running algorithms on your prior experiences, as well as subtle cues around you, more often than not outperforming conscious, deliberate thinking.
Cognitive scientists also advance the view that intuitive decision making is superior to deliberate, analytic decision-making under certain conditions. This has a particular basis in complex and ambiguous situations wherein the provided information turns out to be scanty or difficult to handle. In such situations, intuition saves us from “analysis paralysis,” or the inability to choose when faced with too many variables. Intuition enables us to reach faster decisions by accessing our mental storage of knowledge and experience from the past without burdening the system with too much detail.
Expertise and the Development of Intuition
It so happens that intuition, trusting your gut, is acquired and not innate; with time, through experience. As a matter of fact, every master in any given craft-surgeons, sportsmen, musicians-very often depends on intuition to decide on his course of action. That’s intuition sharpened after years of experience and a load of knowledge.
For instance, an experienced chess player intuitively may know the right move, not because he is weighing in his mind every possible outcome but because through the years he has internalized patterns of past games and strategies. The unconscious mind recognizes that a certain move will most likely be successful because it has processed thousands of similar scenarios.
This is where expertise comes in. The more experience in something, the sharper the intuition. This comes because of a pattern that the brain can catch, probably one which most people don’t catch. It thus helps in quicker and surer decisions when data is scanty. In fact, the research suggests that expert decision makers rely more on their intuition than novices do because the brains of experts are better at tapping into the huge database of knowledge that supplies the subconscious basis for gut feelings.
The Neural Mechanisms of Intuition
Neurologically, however, how the brain makes a decision remains multifaceted and complex processes that are still not well documented. However, it seems from these that the neural networks behind conscious reasoning and unconscious intuition are identical, bar the speed with which a decision is made. Whereas conscious thought and deliberate decision-making have their roots in the prefrontal cortex, its interaction with the amygdala, insula, and anterior cingulate cortex altogether makes one find his or her gut-based intuition.
The amygdala, especially, is involved in processing emotional responses and enables fast threat vs. opportunity appraisals. These gut feelings might occur when the amygdala fires in response to an emotional feeling regarding an event. The insula is a deep part of the brain that enables the processing of bodily sensations, including the gut feelings. Combined, these parts of the brain work together to generate intuitive feelings through the quick emotional and physiological reaction one has to a situation that requires an immediate decision.
The Virtues of Following Gut Instinct
There is, however, some undeniable virtue in trusting gut feelings, particularly considering the world of reason and evidence that one may find oneself regularly surrounded by. Intuition is not perfect, but maybe it’s that which can provide powerful insights in those very situations where hard, cold rationality just won’t work. In tuning in to your gut, you open yourself to deeper and more holistic understandings of the world around you, drawing from both your emotional and rational intelligence.
Sometimes, following your gut feeling is going to bring in better results than the analytical thought alone. This is particularly true for situations with uncertainty, emotional intricacy, or incomplete information. Whether it’s choosing the right partner, making career decisions, or navigating unfamiliar social situations, your intuition can serve as a guide to help you take action when you feel uncertain, offering a counterbalance to overthinking or second-guessing.
As the learning proceeds unabated, it will become clear that we actually will know quite a deal about the intricacies that come along in intuition. Intuition is neither an unrealistic assumption nor anything beyond reasonable clarification; it’s just a brain milling over a heck of a lot of information-mostly latent in our brains. The next time it happens to you, don’t ignore that gut feeling. That is how your body and brain may work together to guide you right.