Gut feelings

I know it is true that when you have a gut feeling about something, it is right about 99 percent of the time. I've just wondered how you know if your gut feeling is wrong. I never really thought of it since my gut feelings are right most of the time, but how do you exactly know when it isn't? Is it basically taking chances? Just curious. Not so much anymore, but in the past, I've ignored gut feelings that something wasn't right. Usually had to do with someone using me, treating me poorly, or even a situation that would turn out bad.

In my efforts to not seem paranoid or jump to conclusions, I ignored some of them. And of course, whatever I feared would happen, happened. And even do this day, I wish I hadn't ignored my gut feeling since I am sure, with entire certainty, that some negative experiences could have been avoided. To this day, I wish I could have been smarter about it. I take blame for that. So, how do you exactly know if your gut is wrong? I know it can be at times but it is very rare. Anyone have any ideas? Just wondered. Usually they are right 99 percent of the time but I do know they can be wrong at times.

Okay, so I am really cautious about gut feelings because many times my gut feelings are intrinsically connected with my anxiety or depression. For example, I'll feel *sure* that something is wrong, I'll get all tangled in my 'gut feeling' of something being wrong, then some hours later I'll realize that I was in an anxious state and, in reality, nothing is wrong at all.

So I like to go on experience more than on gut feeling.

In the studies of mind, gut feelings or intuitions or heuristics are usually not accurate, unlike your (unfounded) claim. There is something in the psychology of the mind called hindsight bias effect, which is that people, after something happens, think they knew what would happen before it happened. Maybe that's why you think your gut feeling is 99% right

Whatever you read that suggests this is grossly incorrect. As another poster pointed out our gut feelings are actually likely to be incorrect.

Believing in gut instincts is part of the faulty thinking referred to as Emotional Reasoning (This is part of the 10 Negative Thinking styles promulgated by and dealt with in Cognative behaviour therapies). The behavioural results are that we will look for facts that will encourage us rather than discourage is from thinking of and searching for the truth of a matter.

i believe this whole quandry results from an over-stimulated sense of Perfectionism. Being fully conscious in the moment: not burdened by past experiences, hopes for future outcomes, and deluded by projected ideas of what is actually happening; one can make much better assessments of the situation. but even this will not guarantee flawless judgement, nor freedom from error.

Error: my friend and teacher.

Gut Feelings should not be questioned. Trust your feelings and yourself. No one is perfect, so just follow them.

I agree.

Could you give us examples of when your gut feeling was right and when it wasn't right? It's different to use your gut feeling in social situations, than say evaluating the economy.

I agree that what seems to be a gut feeling may be based on faulty information. But, in general I do trust my gut feelings. If it saves you emotionally, physically, or mentally then it was a good call. I think you learn as you go what feelings to trust and not.

Gut feelings, intuition, I have learned the hard way to ALWAYS listen to that little voice inside of me & NOT ignore or brush it aside. I have had 2 serious times when I ignored it I have regretted it the rest of my life.

First time was before my wedding. I had known the guy I was getting married to since the previous September (beginning of fall semester). We seemed to get along well though I wasnt impressed with his attitude toward school work & asked why he was getting bad grades in easy classes when he told me he didnt waste histime in classes where he felt he was smarter than the professor. After he graduated with a really bad GPA though he bragged the whole time I knew him about what a high IQ he had, he went on an interview with the computer department of the bank he was working for through college. He didnt bother with any other on-campus interviews because he was sure the bsnk OWED him a position because of the goid work he did on the job. They sent him a rejection letter & he was mad because he claimed his GPA didnt prove anything about his ability. My gut feeling told me that it had nothing to do with abiluty but with attitude & at that point I realized that attitude wasnt something I wanted to live with all my life. Told my mom I didnt want to go through with the wedding & she came back with reasons to go through with the wedding like he was such a NICE guy & that he eould grow up & become responsible when he really had to & (lol) the wedding invitstions had alreafy gone out. I reasoned away my gut feel rationaluzing thst he couldnt be like my dad because my dad didnt have an education & the lack of education verses hsving a college degree would make the difference. WRONG!!!! Should have listened to myself because that attitude was what constsntly caused fights in our marriage besides many other behavioral & inability to communicate or connect issues that came up. IF ONLY I HAD LISTENED TO MY GUT!!!!

Second huge one came years later after I finally left him. I was throwing things into my truck & needed to make the 2100 mile drive back to Calif from my new farm for a md appointment as I hadnt founda new pain specislist yet. It was after Thanksgiving & was going to be back for Christmas. I was supposed to practice my flute & play at the church christmas service. My flute wasnt just any flute...it was my sterling silver professional one I had from my college music major days. I had put it in the bottom of my catch all bag & it couldnt be seen under everything. This gut feel voice said take it out of the bag & hide it under rear seat in my quad cab truck. I logiced myself out of doing thst. I was in a hurry to leave....already 2 days later leaving than I wanted...it was at the bottom ofthe bag on the floor & the windows were tinted. No one could see it & I always lock my truck anyway....no way was taking the time to do that going to matter anyway....so I finished loading for thebtrip & left. Nights later got into Albuquerque late after midnight after running out of gas before getting there. Checked into the first motel I came to. Next morning I found my truck window broken & that bag with my flute in it & mostly just receipts of all the work I had been doing on my farm was the ONLY thing stolen out of my truck....learned in short time my ID was stolen off the Dr/cr card I checked in with & credit information found in the bag was attempted to be used. Again...IF ONLY I HAD LISTENED to that gut feel.

My gut feels dont hit that often but you can be sure... NOW I pay attention.

But these two incidents weren't avoided because you didn't know they would happen. Now after they had happened, you think you were right. These were random events, and you couldn't assess them accurately. You can observe this pattern for future events. You cannot tell for sure what would happen before it happened. Everything is probabilistic before it happens.

But if yiu listen to the gut feelings they wouldnt have happened. My teuck still would have been broken into but my flute wouldnt have been stolen as they didnt steal my computer or GPS unit just the bag they saw receipts in. The loss of my flute would have not happened if I had listened to my gut feeling & I wouldnt have gotten into a bad marriage if I had trusted my gut feeling.

If you are swimming in shark infested waters and your gut immediately tells you to get out of the water then do so.

The point is...gut feelings are often a matrix of many facts gathered over a lifetime. In a split second we feel we are acting spontaneously but logic is informing decisions as well.

Sometimes we try to override gut feelings with wishful thinking and then we get into trouble.

For example, we want to trust the world when our gut feeling tells us the world can be dangerous. (It's maybe sad to have to carry pepper spray but I do and advise all women to do so. I have had to use it and it works.)

We learn from our mistakes and sometimes they cost us dearly in terms of material goods or even our emotional and physical safety. But we integrate loss and survive. I think if I trusted my gut feelings I would make less mistakes and encounter more "happy coincidences." (Law of Attraction)

OK, now for your husband, there were some red flags that you might have ignored, but for the flute, it was a mere random incident. It's a pattern in people to say "I knew it" after something happens, while in fact there would be only a probability for that to happen before it happens. This is one of the mind biases or systematic errors which we don't realize.

I see very expensive bikes parked outside coffee shops without locks. Perhaps the owner is only taking five minutes to get a cup of coffee. Five minutes? All someone has to do is hop on and ride away. Two seconds. Some gut instinct is needed...unless people are so rich they can afford to give away their $8,000 bike to a stranger...

Marriage is a tough one. My ex convinced me one never knows about marriage and one kind of has to jump with a leap of faith. I kind of agreed and still do. I think people in happy marriages just got lucky. I had a twenty year marriage and was really happy the first ten years so I guess I got 50% lucky.

But the flute...that is really sad. I have heard this story before and each time you tell it I am really sad that you lost your flute. Too much was going on for you at the time. And you did lock the truck. Some people don't bother to lock up. Yeah, it is a sad story you lost such a precious thing as that beautiful flute...