Instinct is a strong word, poorly defined. Personally, it manifests as a strong sense of one set of choices being right. It’s also usually accompanied by a racing heart, sweaty palms and my brain groaning against what it thinks is a ’stupid’ decision. There is an overwhelming sense of something feeling like the right thing to do, but no logical rasons to back it up.
Scientists say that intution actually functions as a survival mechanism, and scientists have even found the part of the brain involved, and even perhaps the specific cells.
“Intuition is fast, based on pattern matching,” explains John Allman,
Ph.D., head of a laboratory at the California Institute of Technology
that focuses on brain evolution. “Our brains are constantly comparing
current experience with the past, trying to find a fit so that we can
make a quick decision. When we find a match, often in a fraction of a
second, our intuition boils down a lot of experience into a simple,
visceral metric: I feel good about this or not,“
Hmmm. So that means some part of my brain does actually process the information to come to a satisfactory decision; but too quick for the rest of my brain to register it logically. So it has nothing to do with the heart or the gut. Interesting.
The article also lists some of the “lies that intuition tells you“.
People love to tell stories about their inner wisdom, but most are
pretty quiet about all the times they’ve been bamboozled by intuition.
Everyday, millions of us buy lousy stocks, hire careless baby sitters,
and marry Mr. Wrong — all because our gut told us it “felt right.”
Bottomline ?
… if you’re deciding if you should marry or whether to take that job
in Boston, use your gut. Buying real estate or deciding whether to go
through with that knee surgery? Check your intuition at the door, and
listen to the numbers.
Technorati Tags: intuition, gut feeling, instinct
