Intuition

In this era of abundant information, deep thinking skills are not just a luxury but a necessity. Many of us find ourselves constantly engaged with our phones, browsing through social media, news sites, magazine articles, podcasts, and text messages. How often do we pause to reflect on the information we are absorbing and sharing?

Many websites have a high click-through rate. Unless the content is compelling, we rarely stay for more than several seconds.

We need to give our brains more time for deep thinking and less time for intuition. Sharing a social media post within seconds of viewing it is driven by a feeling rather than an analytical decision.

Before we get carried away, intuition is a valid form of decision-making. Much of our child-rearing practice is done through emotion.

The emotional centre, the amygdala, in the human brain is tiny–around the size of a walnut. Our prefrontal cortex, where planning, reasoning, and thinking occur, takes a back seat when the amygdala is on centre stage.

If we’re only spending, at best, 10 seconds on a social media post, the amygdala will decide what to do next. Nothing will go through the control centre–the prefrontal cortex. Emotional thinking is fine but very limited. Immediate emotions tend not to last long. We all know how quickly our children can cycle through them.