Improve Your Life
People do experience a feel of knowing things prior to knowing them actually, even if they cannot explain how. A little voice in your head, a quirky urge, the funny tingle- these are the gut feelings conveying some message to you.
It’s our perennial dilemma whether to go by the gut or take a rational approach. Well, it all boils down to the question of left brain vs. right brain when it comes to taking a step to go ahead in life.
“You've got a song you're singing from your gut, you want that audience to feel it in their gut. And you've got to make them think that you're one of them sitting out there with them too. They've got to be able to relate to what you're doing.” - Johnny Cash
People do experience a feel of knowing things prior to knowing them actually, even if they cannot explain how. A little voice in your head, a quirky urge, the funny tingle- these are the gut feelings conveying some message to you.
It’s our perennial dilemma whether to go by the gut or take a rational approach. Well, it all boils down to the question of left brain vs. right brain when it comes to taking a step to go ahead in life.
1. Left Brain vs Right Brain
Left brain is rational, intellectual and analytical. Right brain is sensitive, thoughtful, intuitive and creative inclined. When a person is thinking intellectually, he is reasoning from rational mindset. But, when he thinks intuitively, he is thinking based on deep knowing & wisdom.
The great leaders, be it Obama or Oprah or Steve Jobs, have usually advocated the intuition or gut feeling because when you sense something wrong or right from within, you are actually right.
2. Intuition is All-Knowing Tool
Yes, intuition is like the all-knowing tool that constantly nudges you with the tiny voices in your head or funny tingles while you are about to take a decision. The right brain seems to be always reading the surroundings and absorbing everything around you.
The left brain stays generally engaged and hence fail to notice the little small details around you that are taken up by the right brain. Thus, the right brain is more knowledgeable, wiser and hence your gut feeling or intuition is generally right.
3. The Dopamine Jitters
It’s the dopamine neurons that enable one to feel or sense the approaching events. If something around is slightly irregular, the brain spurts dopamine & you sense that “weird” feel. These signals do carry substantial information or message and hence it’s wiser to listen to them.
4. Most Crucial Gut Feelings
Thin slices in someone’s behavior
When it comes to taking decisions, it’s important to be careful about the character & integrity of the people involved in your decision. You should know that people end up leaving hints about themselves unconsciously through thin slices of their behavior that help your intuition to sum up their actual persona for you.
It’s more of a socio-historical phenomenon where your right brain decides on the new person you meet, based on old biological wisdom. So, if your new employee appears perfectly proper and honest from outside yet your intuition detects a missing link from somewhere, something might be seriously wrong with him- so, don’t trust him straightaway.
Signals saying “yes, this is it”
When the intuition or gut signals that you have found someone or something truly ideal for you, it’s smarter to follow your gut. It’s because the signal here arises from your spontaneous liking towards the person or the thing and nothing is forceful here. You cannot be happy when you force something on you, even if it looks brilliant on paper.Your happiness primarily lies in people or things with whom you can connect on the heart level and when such things actually happen, your intuition informs you instantly.
