Did you know that your emotional right brain trumps your logical left brain when making decisions in life?

At the age of two, the brain’s right side, as it develops becomes more active and dominant over the left brain which is home to language, logic and reason. We think that we are reasonable when it comes to making important decisions, but apparently it’s all but an illusion.

When our right brain makes an emotional decision, our left brain tricks us and comes up with a logical reason to justify our decision. This process is called “post-rationalization.” In fact, this process has been scientifically proven by a neuropsychologist named Roger Sperry. In his experiment he triggered the command to walk in a subject’s right brain (emotion), in a way that the left (logic) brain was unaware. Interestingly, the subjects actually got up and started to walk. Yet when asked why they decided to walk, they came up with random reasons such as, wanting to stretch or to get a drink of water. The amazing part was that these subjects were not lying. They were entirely honest, because they were tricked and believed the reasoning provided by their left (logic) brains!

Emotions Fuel Our Decisions

Understanding the connection between our emotions and decisions is important. We make decisions every single day and it’s the very act of deciding that leads to our actions and results. I have shared with our readers before how my decision to relocate from New Zealand to Singapore have completely changed my life. I experienced new things, gradually changed my values in life, gained and lost priceless things and ultimately, became a different person. One single decision have changed my life upside down.

Decisions have the power to alter the course of our lives. But it’s not just the big decisions but also the small ones. Deciding to smile when you are upset, deciding to be grateful, deciding to wake up early or even deciding to drink more water. They are all trivial things but just like the ripples in a pond when you throw a tiny pebble, every single decision we make, big or small, will have a consequence in our lives.