Channel your intuition

Our subconscious never sleeps. Both in everyday situations, and when faced with critical decisions, we are continuously bombarded with impressions, emotions, and suggestions which often appear to be surprisingly relevant. How many times have we told ourselves in retrospect, “I just had this feeling…” when a situation takes an unpredictable turn, but exactly in the way we expected?

Recent research shows that intuitionis a synopsis of our experiences and, as such, can provide precious guidance. These studies also show that all of our decisions, even those which we believe to be fully rational, are partly based on our intuitions.

However, our selected publications emphasize that this diligent internal adviser is not infallible, but subject to many biases of which we are seldom aware, but which may lead us to make bad decisions. The authors encourage us to understand these biases in order to limit their influence. To do this, they strongly suggest following a few simple
principles:

-Pay attention to the environment in which you make decisions. Our physical and psychological context has a decisive—yet often underestimated— influence on what our intuition whispers to us.

- Put things into perspective. Our intuition is happy rapidly answering the most obvious question, without attempting to determine whether that question is the most relevant or has been framed in the most suitable manner.

- Beware of the tendency to be overly pessimistic about the future. Our intuition tends to overestimate the challenges that lie ahead and underestimate our ability to adapt to change.