Most of us like to think that we depend on our “guts” or intuition. We feel relatively more comfortable when our intuition is guiding us. Unless you’re Sheldon from Big Bang Theory or Brennen from Bones or a personality similar to them. It is common for most people to go for what feels right.

But is it really intuition or a mini careful analysis that your brain does so fast as a fight or flight to an unknown situation?

Think about it, there are subtle signals that the brain picks up on while you are in a situation alien to you. I think when you are in an unknown situation it is just like fight or flight. You don’t know what to do, how to do it, or even to do it altogether. In situations like these a hormone is released known as the epinephrine aka adrenaline. This rush makes our heart beat faster and our brain works very fast. This is so that you can ‘feel it in your gut’ what to do.

We all have a mini Sheldon or Brennen inside us speaking to us in our time of need. We just tend to think of it as intuition.

Intuition is basically defined as “the ability to make quick decisions when time is short, based on previous experience”

And Analytical thinking is “making decisions in a thorough, systematic manner based on analysing the variables and past experience”

See, I am not saying they are the same, it might seem like it. But what I am saying is that intuition is often analytical thinking, just very very quick. Intuitions can often be wrong as not all variables of the situation are looked upon. But when in a fight or flight situation, intuition is a gift for those to work by it.

I myself tend to work on intuition, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Then the brain keeps that data and refers to it need be in the future, given a similar situation arises. It analysis all the situations you’ve been in similar to the one in hand, retrieves the previous experiences– analysis them and choose the best reaction to it.

My brain is smirking at me.

Jahnvi