6 Reasons to Trust Your Intuition When Making Big Decisions

Description: This article reveals six reasons why you should listen to intuition when making important decisions. It indicates how intuitive signals help to quickly process the accumulated experience and find effective solutions, as well as provides scientific justification and recommendations for the development of this skill.



Introduction
Decision-making is an integral part of our daily lives. We decide where to study, what job to choose, whether to accept a new business offer or how to respond to a complex conflict. Since childhood, we are taught to rely on logic and common sense. But in the most unpredictable situations, intuition comes to the fore, that is, the inner “sixth sense”, which imperceptibly tells how to act. For some, it is just a “voice inside”, which sometimes saves from gross mistakes, for others – something mystical and mysterious. Meanwhile, modern research confirms that intuitive processes in the brain (rapid, unconscious processing of knowledge and experience) can be highly accurate and effective.

Here are six reasons why it is sometimes worth putting too much detail aside and allowing yourself to make decisions based on emotional and sensory cues. Intuition is not a fairy tale or magic, but a powerful resource of our consciousness, honed by evolution and overlooked through the prism of many years of experience. By listening to it, we increase our ability to react quickly and to perceive complex situations more subtlely. But, of course, blindly follow the “inner voice” is also not worth it, so we will show how to correctly combine rational and intuitive thinking.

Main part
1. Intuition as a result of accumulated experience
Many people believe that intuition is a “sudden insight” that comes from nowhere. However, neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists say that it is formed on the basis of huge database inside our brains. Every experience, every little thing that we have ever noticed, adds up to an unconscious layer. When we need to make a decision in a new but somewhat familiar setting, the brain instantly (without logical formulas) “remembers,” which is similar to how we reacted before a similar situation ended. The result is a sense of “intuitive understanding” that we already know the answer.

Thus, intuition is a “calculation” based on past experience, but performed by an algorithm hidden to us. And the richer your life baggage, the more accurate these “instant” guesses are. Therefore, mature professionals in their field (doctors, rescuers, entrepreneurs) often rely on intuition when there is no time for full analysis. And studies show that they are sometimes right more often than beginners who rely on books and detailed instructions. Malcolm Gladwell, “Blink”

2. Reduction of decision-making time
In a world where speed sometimes decides everything, reasoning It's not always appropriate. Imagine that you are driving and suddenly the situation changes on the road: the brain has time to feel the danger and chooses to maneuver before you think it step by step. Similarly, managers who have to continually address urgent work issues often rely on their “sense.” The advantage of intuition is the ability to make decisions instantly when there is no luxury of time for long reasoning.

Psychologists say that people who can listen to their inner voice are less prone to analysis paralysis. Of course, in a serious project involving large resources, facts and calculations must be taken into account. But don't forget how you feel. Sometimes emotional cues are the best beacon not to get stuck in an endless search for the “perfect” solution.



3. Preventing cognitive overload
When we have a huge amount of data in front of us, we risk falling into “overload” and lose the ability to make clear choices. Intuition allows you to “process” a huge number of factors in one fell swoop, without diving into each individually. Research shows that if a task is very complex — there are many criteria, many relationships — people who rely at least partly on intuition do better than those who try to calculate everything (because they may miss something).

This does not mean that logic and computation are not important. But if you feel that logical analysis is at a dead end, it may be time to trust your gut. The brain is capable of “parallel” processing of subconscious signals, summing up experiences, emotions, instincts and forming a “feeling of rightness” or “premonition of danger.” If you deny that potential, it’s easy to get stuck in endless reasoning.

4. Intuition as an indicator of compatibility and communication
Often, meeting people, we feel inexplicable comfort or, on the contrary, tension. Initially, it may seem that it is accidental. But many studies confirm that intuition They work like a “scanner”: body language, tone of voice, micro-emotions on the face – all this we notice without realizing. If we “undercover” the unfriendly vibrations, the brain sends a wake-up call: “Be careful with this person.” On the contrary, we feel attraction or trust.

In a romantic relationship or business partnership, so-called chemistry is often formed intuitively before we begin to think about the pros and cons. This does not negate the need to look into the facts, but if you feel an insistent inner “no” or “yes”, it is better to ignore it with caution. Sometimes the “cold” calculation does not see the pitfalls that the body “Uchel” through unconscious channels.



5. A Way to Reduce Stress and Anxiety
In trying to achieve the ideal, we sometimes put ourselves into stress: “What if I didn’t take into account all the variables?” When we give ourselves the right to say, “Enough is enough.” My intuition tells me it’s time to make a decision, we take some of the tension off. It's like signing an "agreement" with yourself: "I trust my unconscious experience, this internal processor." People who learn to rely on intuition periodically confirm that the level of anxiety from choice decreases if they realize that not everything lends itself to logical formalization, and the human brain is a much more flexible tool than a simple calculator.

Moreover, the verdict of intuition is often emotionally “comfortable” than decisions based on a hundred figures. After all, life is multifaceted and rationalism does not always guarantee the completeness of the picture, and intuition can alleviate excessive anxiety and give a feeling of "chosen to your liking."

6. Synergy with logic – a powerful combination
Last but not least, important reason. intuition This is due to the fact that it does not cancel the mind – on the contrary, in synergy they give a particularly strong effect. By collecting facts, you build a foundation. But the final “gluing” step often makes internal sensitivity. For example, the classic formula in business is: “First analyze the market, the numbers, the risks, and when everything is approximately clear, listen to how your self feels.” Sometimes, this will prevent errors that weren’t “read” in a dry Excel file, but felt like “something is wrong.”

Thus, this is not a call to “turn on the fortune teller” and ignore common sense. Intuition and logic are the two hands of man. To rely on only one hand is to limit your ability. Successful decisions tend to come from collaboration: you study facts without blocking your inner voice.

Conclusion
Intuition is neither mysticism nor magic, but the ability of our brains to quickly and unconsciously process many signals accumulated from past experiences, emotions, and observations. Six reasons to consider it when making important decisions are the ability to access multidimensional data, bypass information overload, respond to dangers to logical conclusions, build confidence and reduce stress.

Of course, no one calls for “disconnecting logic.” Data, analysis, statistics — all of these are important. But in moments when we are stuck in endless comparisons, or when it is urgent to choose a path, it is worth giving the word “inner compass”. It is not perfect, but it can lead in the right direction. To overstretch the logical mind, especially when there is a lack of time or incomplete information, is a path to paralysis of analysis. The combination of logic and intuition gives the most powerful result.

If you have experienced this power of foreboding, you probably already understand that it has saved you from mistakes or helped you seize a good opportunity. The only question is how to develop and polish this ability – to track your internal signals, not to suppress them, to combine with rational arguments. And then, in the most difficult situations, you will make decisions faster, more confident and with less regret later.

Glossary

• Intuition.A person’s ability to capture and process information without explicit logical analysis based on unconscious experiences and emotions.
• Paralysis from analysis (analysis paralysis)A condition in which, due to overthinking and trying to take into account all the details, a person cannot move to action.
• Cognitive loadingA strain on mental resources when trying to hold and process large amounts of information simultaneously.
• FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)Fear of missing out on something important or better that involves too many options or news.
• Emotional burnoutA condition in which, due to constant stress and inactivity of the emotional sphere, a person loses energy and motivation.
• Expert intuitionThe ability of a specialist to quickly make the right decisions based on extensive experience and unconscious patterns.
• Mindfulness (mindfulness)A practice and state in which a person is aware of their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations in the present moment without judgment or judgment.
• SynergyThe joint action of several factors, giving an effect greater than the sum of their individual results.