Researchers from the University of Leeds took a look at instinct and found that often, your first impulse is the right one.
Intuition isn’t just some bolt from the blue. It may actually be a lightning-fast brain response to a situation. In super quick bursts, your brain can compare past experiences with current situations to give you an idea of how to proceed. We don’t realize it’s happening, so the idea seems like instinct, inspiration, or intuition.
The brain does a lot of things without our conscious effort — useful things like breathing and other body processes. Intuition may just be another thing the brain does without a conscious command. The weird feeling we get in certain situations is the brain and body’s reaction to stimulus on a subconscious level.
But that means we can’t get instinctive reactions on demand, either. I don’t necessarily want to go through my whole life relying on that first gut reaction to things. They’re useful in some situations, but not in all.
Other studies have shown that intuition can be a useful tool for decision making. There are times when trusting your instinct is the way to go:
- When you feel threatened or unsafe. Our automatic reactions are there to help keep us safe — just like that old “fight or flight” feeling.
- When you don’t experience anxiety over a decision or course of action. Don’t try to force yourself to feel bad over something that feels right!
There are some times when you should question that little voice in the back of your head. Researchers from the University of Leeds suggest that your intuition may be impaired when you are tired, stressed, sleep deprived, or angry. That makes sense to me — stress and high emotion can interfere with conscious decision making, too. If you’re feeling balanced and your instincts are still giving you a warning, it might be a good idea to listen.