We are and then we think

The Daily Drip

What's strange about decisions and thinking is that most of the time, we believe that we think rationally through a problem and then decide what to do.

The truth is that your brain is wired to feel first, then think.

This means that most of the time, you've already made the decision and you're just using your conscious brain to explain how you came to it.

The neural workflow goes like this:

Emotion > Attention > Conscious thought

In brain regions, it looks like this:
Basal Ganglia > Anterior Cingulate Cortex > Prefrontal Cortex

In Descartes' Error, author and neuroscientist Antonio Damasio explains that "I think, therefore I am" isn't quite accurate.

"We are, and then we think." All of the operations of thinking are a part of the operations of being.

We feel, and then we think.

Making decisions, then, is more about being in tune with your emotions and understanding why you feel a certain way.

By reflecting on how we feel, we can better understand how to improve our decision making.