1For many centuries, philosophers argued that good decisions require us to suppress our emotions completely.
2Modern neuroscience, however, has turned that old and respected idea almost entirely on its head.
3Patients who lose the ability to feel emotion struggle to make even simple everyday choices.
4Without emotional signals to guide them, deciding what to eat for lunch can take an hour.
5Emotions appear to act like a rapid evaluation system that quietly summarises many years of past experience.
6A gut feeling is often just your brain recognising a pattern before you consciously can.
7Of course, our feelings can also mislead us, especially when we are tired or under stress.
8Fear, for instance, may push us to avoid opportunities that would actually enrich our lives.
9The wisest approach, therefore, is neither to obey our feelings blindly nor to ignore them completely.
10Instead, we should treat each emotion as a piece of valuable information that deserves a careful hearing.
11When the head and the heart work together, our decisions tend to serve us best.