Your Intuition is Always Right

The limbic brain speaks in its own way

The Oxford Dictionary's definition of the term Intuition could well summarize the content of this article: "The ability to understand things instantly, without the need for reasoning".

Our brain is a great processor of information and all the time is receiving data from the environment through the senses, mainly through smell, eyes, ears and skin. All this information needs to be filtered, labeled and organized in different areas that your brain uses as storage drawers in order to access this information when you are rationalizing, learning, creating, remembering, etc.

Just as we open our cupboard looking for eggs, flour, sugar, fruit, milk, etc., to combine them and prepare delicious pancakes, when understanding, reflecting, creating and defining a new concept such as "abundance" or "truth" we open the cupboard of data stored in our brain and combine ingredients such as emotions, phobias, colors, smells, successes, failures, sounds, etc.

Your executive functions (what we think, decide, question, etc.) is only the end of a very complex chain of neurological events that have made it possible for you to understand whatever you read or make an objective decision in any context.

So, long before you rationalize and make an idea conscious, your brain has already processed a large amount of information instantaneously and unconsciously, mainly in your limbic brain. Long before you think, you have already intuited.

I feel, then I think

The Triune Brain theory, proposed by Paul MacLean, allows us to focus on different types of brain activation and although many neuroscientists debate this model, it is very useful to create a graphical representation of our brain and better understand how it works.

Starting with the reptilian brain in charge of basic functions such as producing sweat, maintaining balance, releasing adrenaline, etc., essential for fleeing or attacking in the face of danger; followed by the limbic brain, associated with the activation, identification and processing of our emotions; and ending with the neocortex (especially the frontal cortex), where the executive functions that allow us to relate to others such as language, decision making, empathy, etc., take place.

Now imagine this situation. You are walking late at night and without realizing it you reach a point where you have to walk down a dark and silent street. You were thinking about your next Monday presentation and suddenly "something" put you in alert mode, in attention mode. Possibly you feel "something" in your abdomen, your hands get sweaty or you tense some part of your body and you wonder if there is something to worry about. You try to analyze the situation and tell yourself "it is a safe zone" or any other phrase that makes you feel better, however, your intuition has already spoken and it is up to you to listen to it or not.

When analyzing the same scene seen from the outside, all the information from the environment that entered your brain activates the reptilian and limbic areas, which detected danger signals and as among its functions, language (language, idiosyncrasy, etc) is not its forte, your limbic tries desperately to send you signals in the best way it knows how: through emotions and sensations in your body. That's your intuition talking, telling you to take action soon because there's no time for your neocortex to analyze, interpret and make a rational decision about whether it's a good idea to keep walking or run the other way.

Now imagine this other situation. You walk into the boardroom. You, with the help of your team, have prepared an impeccable presentation to show progress on X topic to your boss. You know him, you know what he likes, and you have a pretty good idea of what kind of ideas he likes and dislikes. You have your presentation memorized and everything is flowing as expected. However, something in your boss's non-verbal language triggered your intuition and you feel "something" telling you to jump in with that "crazy" idea that occurred to you on the way to the meeting. You take advantage of some interventions from your team or a coffee break to think twice, thrice... and rationally look for reasons to stick with the plan and leave that disruptive idea for another opportunity. Your intuition not only screams to warn you about dangers, it also does it to make you "feel" the opportunities.

Your intuition is always right because it's its job to keep your emotional radar active to make it easier for you to act in your environment. It has probably happened to you that no matter how many reasons you give yourself, you usually end up giving the reason to that "something" you felt and say to yourself "I knew it".

Intuition is not emotion

Now, intuition is not emotion. Emotions are components (ingredients) that facilitate learning and transit through our life and by depending on our personality tendency can send biased signals about how to act in a situation. For example, going back to the scene of the dark street, your intuition may scream "stay away" while your emotional state of anger associated with a strong, dominant personality tendency may scream "let's go to war!

Your intuition is usually felt in the body, in some area of your body that usually speaks to you when you overthink things. For some, as in my case, intuition expresses itself in a feeling of color and warmth in the face of one decision or another and generally, listening to it feels good. I'm a synaesthetic person and I associate everything with colors. Everything. When faced with a decision that I am unable to make quickly in a rational manner, one of the options usually takes on a blue color and a cold feeling while the other becomes warm and yellow-orange. After much trial and error, I learned to choose the warm option and to date, it is usually a better decision.

Next time your intuition speaks, trust it. It's probably absolutely right.

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