Trust your Intuition

It’s the moment you know you should not purchase that last pair of boots after a full day of shopping. It’s the moment you do not eat one last cookie at the end of the day. It’s the moment you tell a friend you love her dress, in order to spare her feelings.

This is your intuition talking. Being aware and truly listening to it can help guide your life.

According to social psychologist Dr. Gerd Gigerenzer, a gut instinct is a judgment that is fast. It comes quickly into a person’s consciousness. The person doesn’t know why they have this feeling. Yet, this is strong enough to make an individual act on it.

Dr. Gigerenzer is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and is known in social science circles for his breakthrough studies on the nature of intuitive thinking. He was able to show how aspects of intuition work and how ordinary people successfully use it in modern life.

Malcolm Gladwell is another psychologist who studied how our brains work and how we make decisions. He explored how we think without thinking and about choices we make in an instant. He also looked at why the best decisions are often the most impossible to explain.

Both Gigerenzer and Gladwell have written books on the topic. Dr. Gigerenzer’s book is titled, “Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious,” and Mr. Gladwell’s book is titled, “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.”

Think of paying attention to your intuition as a gift you can give yourself.

The more you listen to intuition, the better it will guide you throughout your life.