Should I trust my instinct or not..??

Instinct comes in many forms – basic, fatal, guttural (?), natural, primal, animal, motherly, leadership..

Some classify fear, anxiety, guilt, anger, depression are all instincts.. But in my opinion, they are not the same.. These are emotions..

Webster dictionary defines Emotion as

A moving of the mind or soul; excitement of the feelings, whether pleasing or painful; disturbance or agitation of mind caused by a specific exciting cause and manifested by some sensible effect on the body.

and Instinct as

Urged or stimulated from within; naturally moved or impelled; imbued; animated; alive; quick;

As you can see, these are quite different definitions.. Let’s take for example Fear which is one of the natural emotions in a human being..

If you mention “bogeyman”, it instinctively raises fear in a child.. But this fear itself is not an instinct, its an emotion caused by a natural instinct..

So emotions maybe instinctive but I don’t think emotion and instinct are synonymous with one another..

Anyway, I digress..

As you know, instinct is something that we all as human beings have.. Some trust it, some don’t.. But for sure, EVERYONE at some point in their lives have uttered the words “I should have just gone with my instinct” or “I should have just trusted my instinct“..

Yet how many of us really trust our instincts ALWAYS..??

Why is it that even after realising that we can and should trust our instinc

ts, we don’t..?? Is it a lack of confidence in ourselves, the fear of failure, the fear of ridicule, the fear of doing something that has not been done before or something that is not done normally..??

When we trust our instincts and things don’t work out as it should have, then is our instinct at fault or is it our thought process that is at fault..??

I don’t think instinct can be at fault or we had a wrong instinct..

For example, if you touch a stove or something hot and you shriek and pull away your hand, that is instinct..This instinct that caused you pain came without you having to think about it..

Say you are at a golf course.. Your golf buddy asks you to use a certain club on a certain hole and you agree with him/her till the list minute, when you listen to your “instinct” and you choose another club and the ball lands in the water..

This also caused you pain (albeit a different type of pain), but I think pain was not caused by your instinct but by your thought process..

In this case, would you say your instinct was wrong or your thought process was wrong..

Does instinct control thought or vice versa, which brings me to the original question – should I trust my instinct or not..??