How the body affects decision making

We tend to think that decisions are made by the head. That it is the mind that analyzes, weighs options, and chooses the best one. But this is not the full picture. The body participates in this process at every stage and does so all the time, whether we are aware of it or not.

This is not a metaphor

Expressions like "I feel it in my stomach" or "my heart tells me" sound like poetic metaphors. Meanwhile, they describe something very concrete.

Neurologist Antonio Damasio studied patients with damage to specific parts of the brain responsible for processing emotions and bodily signals for years. The result was surprising: people who retained full intellectual capacity suddenly could not make decisions. Even simple ones. They literally did not know what to choose… Because they lacked signals coming from the body, which under normal conditions automatically indicate direction.

On this basis, Damasio formulated the somatic marker hypothesis - a concept that assumes that the body generates physiological signals (pulse acceleration, muscle tension, sensations in the abdomen) that act as decision filters.

The gut as the second brain

The digestive system has its own nervous system with hundreds of millions of neurons, which operates somewhat independently of the brain and constantly sends it signals. This connection works both ways: the brain affects the gut, but the gut also influences the brain, mood, motivation, and decisions.

When you say "I feel it in my gut" - it's not just a saying. This signal really exists. It's just that we rarely have enough calm to notice it.

Stress changes the rules of the game

Cortisol - the stress hormone - directly affects the part of the brain responsible for logical thinking, planning, and risk assessment. Even short-term stress disrupts the functioning of this area and makes decisions less thoughtful, more impulsive, and more susceptible to emotional shortcuts.

Importantly: in a state of chronic stress, the brain begins to shift the command center from the prefrontal cortex to the amygdala - the structure responsible for survival reactions. This is evolutionarily sensible but in practice means that decisions are made from a position of threat rather than calm evaluation.

Interoception is hearing yourself

The ability to feel and interpret signals from one's own body is called interoception. And it is something that can be developed.

Research conducted, among others, by the University of Cambridge has shown that people with higher interoceptive sensitivity, measurable for example by the accuracy of detecting their own heartbeat - make better decisions under high-risk conditions. For financial traders, this ability turned out to be a predictor of success.

This means that being in touch with the body is a skill.

What to do about it

The body is an important partner to our mind. The problem arises when we are too tired, too distracted, or too stressed to notice these signals at all. Then the body "speaks," but no one listens.

Slowing down for a few days is the ideal way to clearly hear the signals it sends again. And for the decisions you make to truly be yours.