Almanac Op-Ed: April
Decision-Making Practice - Spring Presents Lots of Opportunity for Decisions. By Matt Sullivan.
Springtime in Boulder! It’s almost time for the farmer’s market to start back up, time to go down and hang out by the creek, go on hikes, and be outside which at it’s core is what Boulder is all about. As the seasons change, we start to see folks spend less time in the house and more time out in the world, less time on screens and more time playing spikeball, and more folks up and ready to go in the morning. The hill is more alive with people and wildlife (morning birds and the occasional bear) and there is a general buzz that comes from the days getting warmer and longer. And when we get to that page in the Almanac, it’ a great time to talk about decision-making.
There are lots of ways to make decisions and there is no one way that works for everyone or every context. Decision-making is highly personal, values oriented, and should reflect our unique perspective on the world. Where we start is by asking if you are someone who makes decisions quickly (or too quickly; see impulsivity) or someone who makes decisions slowly (or too slowly; see paralysis-by-analysis) so that we can understand your baseline approach to decisions. Are you someone who is more risk-prone or risk-averse? Do you perseverate on small decisions or do you make big decisions on a whim. I’ve found that it’s helpful to empathize with and understand the part of you that has to make decisions and to have some compassion for why you might be too slow or too quick. That introspective process itself can be a fun place to explore with a mentor or a therapist.
Once we’ve established that starting point, we start to learn more about the brain and how to use it to our advantage to make decisions. We know now from lots of good science that the brain system is constituted of much more than just the brain itself. In this model, the brain as we traditionally know it is referred to as the head-brain, and the other two centers of the brain are the heart-brain and the gut-brain. These systems work in collaboration to create our lived experience and all three have seats at the critical thinking and decision making table.
The head-brain largely reflects our logical and rational self or mind. It is talented at comparison, language, logic, and recognizing patterns. Our head-brain tells us what we think we should do.
The heart-brain largely reflects our emotional self or mind. It is talented at knowing what you care deeply about, what moves you, your longer term held beliefs are rooted here. Our heart-brain tells us what we feel we should do. The gut-brain is harder to explain with words by definition because it is largely preverbal in origin I would presume, but this largely reflects your intuition. It is talented at knowing your core identity, your values, your instincts, your training and preparation live here too.
So the application goes like this: I have a big decision to make, once I’ve used all the other necessary skills to narrow my choices down to two, I put them to a vote. What does my head say I should do? What does my heart say I should do? What does my gut say I should do? There shouldn’t be a tie, and if there is, then more exploration needs to be done and the decision will have to wait for a moment. The worst thing that happens if you do this is that you’ve created some space between an impulse for action and the action itself, and that in and of itself can be a victory.
I personally love this exercise because it asks us to consider which parts of ourselves we value and which parts we either don’t trust or have gone uncultivated. Most of us identify with one part of our brain more than the other. I’ve personally had to learn to listen to my head-brain less and listen more to my heart and my gut. The more in balance I am with all three, the more clearly I see myself and the world.
Wishing you all a happy and healthy spring.