{"id":611710,"date":"2026-04-28T18:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/611710\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T18:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:31:19","slug":"should-you-trust-your-gut-feeling-or-is-it-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/611710\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Trust Your Gut Feeling\u2014Or Is It Anxiety?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trust your gut. Listen to your inner voice<\/a>. Follow your instincts. If you\u2019ve ever faced a big, difficult-to-make decision<\/a>, you\u2019ve probably heard comments like these. The advice to tap into your intuition<\/a> or gut response is often intended to \u201chelp guide decision-making, so people can sort of use their own internal cues,\u201d says Kristen Lindquist, a professor in the department of psychology at The Ohio State University.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t scientific consensus on what intuition is, exactly, or even how reliable it is. But many people believe their inner voice is worth paying attention to: A 2026 survey<\/a> conducted by Talker Research found that 71% of adults report listening to their intuition at least some of the time.<\/p>\n

However, anxious or intrusive thoughts<\/a> can also show up as inner voices, making it hard to decipher whether you\u2019re experiencing anxiety or clear awareness. \u201cIt\u2019s very common for people to mistake them,\u201d says Dr. Judson Brewer, director of research and innovation at Brown University\u2019s Mindfulness Center. For example, a person who is feeling anxious about an upcoming flight<\/a> might confuse their stress and worry for intuition warning them not to get on the plane. Someone debating a job offer might doubt whether they\u2019re making a decision based on what \u201cfeels right\u201d or fear.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common yet underexamined question, says Debra Kissen, a clinical psychologist in Illinois and founder of Light On Anxiety Treatment Centers. \u201cWhen do we listen to our wisdom\u2014the more mystical parts of ourselves that know things? And when is it an intrusive thought, and the harm of just giving it too much power starts taking away from your life?\u201d<\/p>\n

How psychologists define intuition<\/p>\n

Though many people believe in the power of intuition, it isn\u2019t a concept that\u2019s been clearly defined or backed by research. \u201cIt’s hard to study intuition from a scientific standpoint,\u201d says Brewer, \u201cbut it doesn’t mean that it’s not a real thing. I think most people have had pretty clear bouts of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a concept in lay psychology of a gut response or inner voice, Lindquist explains, which is \u201cwhether or not people use something like a feeling to guide their behavior.\u201d For some people, being able to hear this inner voice \u201ccan be really helpful in the noise of so many different opinions,\u201d says Debra Kissen, a clinical psychologist in Illinois and founder of the Light On Anxiety Treatment Centers.<\/p>\n

Read More: A Few Minutes of Coloring Can Erase Your Stress<\/a><\/p>\n

But while tapping into an inner voice may help some people make decisions, intuition isn\u2019t infallible. Trusting your gut \u201cis based on sort of emotional thinking rather than rational thinking, and intuition is subject to a lot of errors,\u201d says David Barlow, founder of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University.<\/p>\n

There have been a number<\/a> of studies<\/a> showing that people can exhibit racial biases when prompted to make decisions based on quick gut-feel. \u201cThat\u2019s an example of how one of these gut responses can really go awry,\u201d says Lindquist.<\/p>\n

Anxiety vs. intuition: How to tell them apart<\/p>\n

No matter how much stock you place in intuition, making decisions when you\u2019re feeling anxious usually isn\u2019t productive, experts say. \u201cAn anxious moment is a very hard time to try to find what your wise mind might be thinking,\u201d says Kissen. To determine whether a thought or feeling is coming from a place of anxiety, ask yourself these questions:<\/p>\n

How do I feel?\u00a0<\/p>\n

A tight chest, fast-beating heart, sweaty palms, and muscle tension are more likely to accompany anxious thoughts, says Judith Beck, a clinical professor of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and president of the Beck Institute. \u201cWhen we were cavemen, it was very helpful for us to have anxious thoughts if we heard a rustle in the bush, because if we thought, \u2018What if that\u2019s a tiger?\u2019 then our body is going to be primed for action.\u201d In the present day, \u201cour brain doesn’t necessarily differentiate between false alarms and true alarms,\u201d she explains, and the body may still tense up even though real danger isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

Does the thought make you feel open or closed?<\/p>\n

In his lab, Brewer has been studying different categories of experiences people can have with emotional states that make them feel either open and expanded, or closed and contracted. Emotions like frustration usually make people feel contracted; kindness or curiosity make them feel open. \u201cWe\u2019ve done studies with hundreds of people now where anxiety is always reported as closed and contracted,\u201d he says, \u201cand when somebody is really in tune with themselves and with the world,\u201d which might be the case with intuition or an inner wisdom, \u201cthen their experience is reported as more open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read More: 8 Signs You\u2019re the Problem in Your Arguments<\/a><\/p>\n

Is the thought urgent?<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I\u2019ll tell my patients that we can know we\u2019re more in anxiety territory vs. more of a pondering when there\u2019s an urgency,\u201d says Kissen. This might be especially true when someone is experiencing a compulsion, she adds, which often signals to the brain that you must do something immediately or risk a negative outcome. (Thinking, for instance: If I don\u2019t call my mom right now, something bad will happen.)<\/p>\n

Is the thought negative?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnxiety thoughts are always negative predictions,\u201d says Beck. (What if I fail? What if no one comes to my party?) But if you\u2019re experiencing a calm inner voice, the thought could be either negative or positive, she says, and might speak to you differently. \u201cOne of the biggest differences between intuition and anxiety is if you have an intuition, you’re more likely to say to yourself, I have a feeling that\u2026\u201d (For example: I have a feeling they\u2019re planning a party for me.)<\/p>\n

How to calm anxious or intrusive thoughts<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re experiencing persistent, overwhelming anxiety, working with a specialist in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can be highly effective, according to the American Psychological Association. This form of psychotherapy helps people better understand anxious thoughts and learn ways to manage them more effectively. Additionally, experts recommend these strategies to calm anxious thoughts in the moment:<\/p>\n

Take a pause<\/p>\n

Anxious or intrusive thoughts often demand action, but real wisdom \u201cshould guide us in a way that feels healthy, not just rapid,\u201d says Kissen. In other words, sit with the feeling without acting right away, even if that feels uncomfortable. \u201cSlow it down to notice [the thought], and then we can decide [what to do],\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read More: The 3 Words You Should Never Say to Someone Going Through a Hard Time<\/a><\/p>\n

Release the tension\u00a0<\/p>\n

Controlled, deep diaphragmatic breathing exercises<\/a> have been found to help calm the fight-or-flight response, including spiking cortisol levels, that can make you feel tense when you\u2019re experiencing anxiety. Beck also recommends a technique called progressive muscle relaxation, \u201cwhere you are alternately tensing a set of muscles and then releasing them\u201d to reduce physiological symptoms of anxiety.<\/p>\n

Be realistic about the worst-case scenario<\/p>\n

Anxiety often involves lots of catastrophic thinking<\/a>, \u201cso a really good question to ask yourself is, \u2018OK, what’s the worst that could happen, and if it happened, how would I cope?\u2019\u201d says Beck. Accurately assessing risk can help put anxiety into perspective, experts say. Think through the probability of that worst-case result happening, and if it were to, \u201csay, \u2018Would that be the end of the world?\u2019\u201d asks Barlow.<\/p>\n

Label the feeling\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some therapists use an approach where they train patients to recognize anxious thoughts as merely thoughts, explains Brewer, \u201cand that helps some people to step out of it and kind of observe.\u201d By looking at an anxious thought like an outsider would (\u201cThis could just be my anxiety talking,\u201d for instance), you might be able to evaluate whether a thought is one worth following or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trust your gut. Listen to your inner voice. Follow your instincts. If you\u2019ve ever faced a big, difficult-to-make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[54281,90296,265590,1985,97,63687,265588,193777,265589,265587,265585,265591,259,260,36041,265586],"class_list":{"0":"post-611710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-boston-university","9":"tag-brown-university","10":"tag-debra-kissen","11":"tag-experiencing","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-inner-voice","14":"tag-inner-voices","15":"tag-intrusive-thoughts","16":"tag-judith-beck","17":"tag-judson-brewer","18":"tag-kristen-lindquist","19":"tag-light-on-anxiety-treatment-centers","20":"tag-mental-health","21":"tag-mentalhealth","22":"tag-ohio-state-university","23":"tag-trust-your-gut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}