I used to be a very analytical and data-driven person. After graduating from university, I spent days pondering whether I should pursue a technical or a non-technical career. Did I find a solution? No, I went with my gut feeling instead. I had no other choice but deep down I felt it might be the right thing.
Did you encounter a similar situation? Where you made a decision that just felt right, even though you couldn’t explain why? Or found yourself uneasy about a situation without a clear reason? These moments, often attributed to gut feelings, can feel like an internal compass guiding us through uncertainty.
In this post, we’ll explore different perspectives on gut feelings, from the scientific and biological to the spiritual and philosophical. Together, we’ll uncover why these feelings sometimes deserve the decision-making seat and when they don’t.
Scientific Explanations
The scientific perspective attributes gut feelings to mechanisms in our biology, neurology, and psychology.
The Gut-Brain Connection
Let’s start with something you’ve probably heard of: the gut as the “second brain.” This idea comes from the Enteric Nervous System (ENS), a network of about 100 million neurons spread throughout the digestive tract. The ENS is a rebel and can operate independently of the brain, managing many gut functions on its own. But it’s also closely connected to the brain via the vagus nerve, a communication superhighway.
The gut microbiome, a community of trillions of bacteria in your digestive system, also plays a role. These microbes produce neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, directly influencing mood and mental health. When something feels “off,” it might start in your gut.
Before a big presentation at work, you might feel those infamous “butterflies” in your stomach or even a slight nausea. That’s your ENS and vagus nerve responding to stress, preparing your body for the perceived challenge. Your gut is signalling your brain: This is important ! pay attention!
Subconscious Processing
Have you ever walked into a room and immediately felt uncomfortable, even though nothing seemed wrong? This might be your subconscious mind working overtime. It processes vast amounts of information, subtle body language, tone of voice and environmental cues far faster than your conscious mind.
This is why gut feelings often seem sudden or inexplicable. Your brain has already made a judgment based on these cues, but you’re only aware of the “output,” not the “processing.”
A firefighter might have a gut feeling that a building is about to collapse, even when everything seems stable. This isn’t magic, it’s years of experience stored in their subconscious, recognizing patterns like unusual heat or cracking sounds.
Psychological Influences
As you gain experience in a field, your brain builds shortcuts or heuristics for decision-making. These feel like intuition but are really the result of accumulated knowledge.
On the flip side, gut feelings can be distorted by biases, like:
- Confirmation Bias: Trusting your gut because it aligns with what you already believe.
- Availability Heuristic: Relying on recent or vivid examples to form a judgment.
Imagine a doctor who instinctively recognizes a rare condition after years of practice. That’s intuition at its best. But biases can distort this: A gut feeling to dismiss a patient’s symptoms might arise from overconfidence.
Evolutionary Survival Mechanisms
Gut feelings also have roots in evolution. Early humans needed to make quick decisions when fleeing from predators, finding safe food, or choosing allies. Those who hesitated often didn’t survive. And these instincts are still with us, even if the threats are quite different.
Walking down a poorly lit alley, you might suddenly feel uneasy. Your gut might be reacting to subtle cues—footsteps, shadows, or a sense of isolation—that your conscious mind hasn’t fully registered. While these instincts aren’t always accurate, they’re a powerful reminder of how our biology is wired for survival.
Spiritual and Philosophical Explanations
Beyond biology, many view gut feelings as a connection to something deeper; whether that’s inner wisdom, universal energy, or divine guidance.
Intuition as Inner Wisdom
Gut feelings are often seen as something or someone speaking to you. It may be the voice of your “higher self” or inner wisdom, processing information holistically rather than linearly.
Imagine deciding between two career paths. One feels practical, the other more aligned with your values. That gut feeling nudging you toward the latter might reflect a deeper understanding of what truly matters to you. And that was my story earlier.
Sensing Energies
Many spiritual traditions suggest we can sense the energy of people, places, or situations. This might explain why you “click” with some people instantly or feel uneasy around others without a clear reason.
Have you ever met someone and felt an immediate connection—or the opposite? While sceptics might attribute this to subconscious cues, spiritual perspectives see it as a heightened awareness of energetic frequencies produced by the environment.
Guidance from a Higher Power
In many belief systems, intuition is seen as the voice of the divine or the universe. These gut feelings are here to align you with your purpose or destiny.
If you feeling drawn to a specific opportunity or relationship, even when it seems unlikely, this might be interpreted as divine guidance steering you toward fulfilment.
Should we listen to our guts
Have you ever had a gut feeling that didn’t make sense at the time but turned out to be right? Or the opposite, a hunch you followed that led you astray? Gut feelings are tricky: they can be flashes of brilliance or pitfalls of bias. So how do we decide when to trust them?
For me, it starts with self-awareness. Gut feelings aren’t magic. They’re a messy mix. And not every “gut instinct” is worth following. Some are driven by fear or stress; others by real insight. The key is knowing when your gut is giving you wisdom—and when it’s just noise.
Let’s break it down into when gut feelings work, when they don’t, and how you can balance intuition with logic.
When to Trust Your Gut
- You Have Relevant Experience: Experts’ gut feelings are often rooted in years of subconscious learning. Psychologist Gary Klein’s Recognition-Primed Decision Model explains how professionals use intuition effectively in high-pressure scenarios. A doctor can recognise a rare condition intuitively after years of practice.
- You’re in an Emotional or Intuitive Domain: Intuition often shines in areas where logic alone cannot capture emotional or creative truths. Innovators like Steve Jobs credited intuition for driving creative breakthroughs.
- Not enough data: In his book Blink, Gladwell highlights situations where quick, instinctive judgments outperform overthinking. In time-sensitive or ambiguous scenarios, trusting your gut can lead to better outcomes.
When to Rely on Logic and Evidence
- If you feel like your Intuition is distorted by biases (favouring information that supports pre-existing beliefs) or the availability heuristic (relying on recent, vivid examples).
- For critical, irreversible decisions, gather as much evidence as possible.
- If You Lack Experience or expertise gut feelings are less reliable.
- When very hard evidence contradicts your gut
- If you’re Emotional or Stressed. Strong emotions like stress, fear, or excitement can skew gut feelings, leading to impulsive or irrational decisions. Behavioural economists and management experts like Peter Drucker argue for stepping back and evaluating decisions logically, especially under emotional stress.
Gut feelings are a fascinating blend of instinct, experience, and subconscious insight. They remind us of the deep connections between our minds, bodies, and even the unseen forces in our lives. Whether rooted in the neural complexity of the gut-brain axis or the intuitive wisdom of the soul, they hold a unique place in our decision-making.
But gut feelings are not infallible. They can be a compass, pointing us in the right direction, but they’re not the full map. Self-awareness is the key to interpreting them by understanding when they come from wisdom, when they stem from fear, and when they might simply be noise.
Trust your gut when it draws on your experience or aligns with your values. Pause and reflect when emotions run high or when the stakes demand careful thought. By blending intuition with logic, you can approach life’s choices with clarity and confidence.
At the end of the day, learning to listen to your gut is about learning to listen to yourself—and that’s a skill worth cultivating.
