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There is power in the split-second instinctive intelligence of your ‘gut feel’, which can sometimes mean the difference between safety and disaster. To improve your intuition in a particular area, it helps to become an expert in that field. You should also pay careful attention to your feelings and be able to relax in order to trust your instinct. Intuition isn’t inferior to reason or logic by any means. To best utilise it however, intuition should be balanced with logic.

Intuition ‑ beyond ‘thinking’

Claxton points out in his book Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind that the mind operates at three basic speeds. These include slow and contemplative thought, deliberate and purposeful thought and finally, intuitive thought. Intuitive thought is a form of intelligence which is ‘quicker’ than thought. It is immediate and unconscious and comes into its own when there is no time to ‘think’.

Higher order thinking occurs in the cortex but immediate reactions or snap judgements bypass this section of the brain. That’s because we have neural pathways running directly from our ears and eyes to the brain’s emotional control centre.

This so called ‘shortcut’ is what gives us a gut reaction: when you know something before thinking about it in any rational way. Think about those couples who ‘just knew’ they were meant for each upon first meeting or when a publisher ‘just knows’ that a book is going to be a hit.

Balancing intuition and logic

It’s best to trust your intuition when you are faced with uncertain situations that are difficult to predict or when you have limited information or experience. This doesn’t apply to every uncertain situation, of course. It’s not going to help you win the lotto.

Using your intuition together with your logic is recommended above leaving everything to your gut feel. ‘Respect your intuitive feelings in order to home in on a narrow range of choices quickly, then turn to logic, knowledge and reasoning to hep you decide between those,’ suggests Page.

He also advises to resist the temptation to listen to your intuition without arguing with it as it can be dangerous to give yourself over entirely to your gut feelings.

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