Do Things That Give You Physiological Reactions

Have you ever experienced this? Standing in front of a podium with sweaty palms, feeling your throat tighten when seeing someone you like, or your heart racing when encountering an interesting project—these bodily reactions are more honest than your brain. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy once said: “Your body will tell you the truth, even when your mouth is still lying.” This is your true life navigation system.

This is what we commonly refer to as “saying no with your mouth while your body says yes.”

It’s like choosing a partner. They might be perfect in every way—great physique, attractive appearance, high education—but you just don’t feel it. Trust your instincts in such cases.

When Steve Jobs gave his Stanford commencement speech about “following your heart and intuition,” he actually left out the second half—your gut knows what “heart” means better than your brain does.

Many people use Excel spreadsheets to make life choices, analyzing pros and cons clearly, only to end up choosing a direction that feels completely wrong. It’s like forcing a left-handed person to write with their right hand—it may look neat on the surface, but the soul is protesting. Dancer Yang Liping has a wonderful saying: “When a peacock spreads its tail, it doesn’t need to calculate the angle of its feathers.”

Here’s a real case: Xiao Lin, a coffee shop owner in Shenzhen, was originally an investment banking elite. Once, while passing through an urban village, he smelled freshly ground coffee and suddenly felt his heart race. He decided on the spot to get into coffee and quickly took over an 8-square-meter shop.

Now his community coffee shop is thriving. His secret is adjusting new products daily based on customers’ reactions. “When I see their eyes suddenly light up as they smell the coffee aroma, I know I’ve chosen the right beans. This kind of body signal capture is more direct than market research.”

Carl Jung said: “Your unconscious is controlling your life, and you call it fate.”

Those things that give you goosebumps, people who make your eyes light up, moments that excite you—these are signal flares from your unconscious.

In previous articles, I’ve written that for a person to succeed, you need to find things you’re good at and enjoy.

Some friends ask: How do you find them? It seems like there’s nothing I particularly love.

Let experience tell you: For instance, as a child, without any training, you naturally did certain things better than other kids. Everyone’s physical coordination and flexibility are completely different. Some people are naturally tone-deaf, others have natural drawing talent, and some naturally run faster than others.

Let your body tell you. I know a finance influencer who went to Dali and felt incredibly comfortable—all his aches and pains disappeared. Being a freelancer, he decisively left his current city and settled in Dali.

In his words, his health is now excellent, and he has a great appetite for everything.

For example, the Xiao Lin mentioned above was already a hardcore coffee enthusiast.

What I’ve described above isn’t encouraging impulsiveness, but teaching us to read the body’s Morse code.

However, it’s important to distinguish between physiological excitement and pathological anxiety.

The reaction from truly “right things” is like waves hitting the shore—tension mixed with excitement, not the suffocating feeling of drowning. Like a mountaineer standing at a cliff edge, fear and excitement dance tango in their veins. Every step forward has more vitality than running on flat ground.

How to implement this specifically?

Spend five minutes each morning scanning your body: When thinking about something, is your stomach contracting or expanding? Are your eyebrows relaxed or furrowed? Are your shoulders tense or relaxed?

Record this for a week continuously, and you’ll discover this is a more accurate career guide than professional assessments. Designer Kenya Hara once said: “Tactile memory is ten times deeper than visual memory.” Paths chosen by voting with your body are particularly energizing to walk.

You might ask: What if bodily reactions conflict with reality?

Remember how Einstein invented the theory of relativity? He said that moment of inspiration felt like the entire universe trembling in his spine. But during the next four years of verifying formulas, he still had to bury his head in calculations. Physiological reactions are a compass, not autopilot—they give you direction, but you still steer the ship yourself.

Finally, here’s a secret technique: Next time you face a major choice, don’t rush to make lists.

Go for a 3-kilometer run, let dopamine and adrenaline wash away the junk information in your brain, then suddenly ask yourself: Do I really want to choose this? Pay attention to your first moment’s muscle reaction—that’s the wisdom hidden in your genes. Like sea turtles knowing to head for the ocean the moment they hatch, some answers are already written in our neural circuits.

That’s all.