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A Therapist Explains Exactly What It Feels Like to Listen to Your Gut

When it comes to analyzing our complex world, experts warn your gut is a risky guide, but when it comes to personal decisions like where to move, whom to marry, or which job to take, science proves nothing beats intuition. Literally.

When a Stanford psychologist conducted a head-to-head test between more rational decision-making strategies and going with your gut, there was no contest. Intuition led to the best choice 68 percent of the time, compared to a 26 percent success rate for more head-focused strategies.

That’s a blow out.

But while this research makes clear you should take your intuition seriously, it doesn’t address another important question: how do you do that? When you’re facing a difficult choice and your mind is churning with anxieties, feelings, and thoughts, how do you sift through this soup of sensations to figure out what your gut is trying to tell you?

Expansive or contractive?

I’ve heard various tricks and frameworks for honing your intuition before, but I recently came across the simplest and most convincing advice along these lines on the blog Cup of Jo. It comes from a therapist friend of post author Caroline Donofrio and it basically boils down to one simple question: Does it feel…