When to Trust That Bad Vibe

Follow Your Instincts

We’ve all got that nifty biological survival tool known as intuition, which aids us in all sorts of situations throughout our lives. “Getting a vibe” off a person or circumstance is most often the result of your trusty intuition, or sixth sense, giving you information that will benefit you in that moment. Sometimes, though, you may feel like you’re receiving bad vibes when in actuality there may be a few other factors at work. Here are a few circumstances where this may apply.

An Unclean Slate

In a perfect world perhaps, with each person you meet, you would view them and the situation free of any prejudgments. Unfortunately, as an imperfect human, and the sum of all of your experiences, it can be nearly impossible not to have opinions which you inevitably bring into each encounter. Any past negative experiences can taint your present moment, and too often people carry fears resulting from these previous incidents into new situations. You’ll want to make sure that the weirdness you may be feeling in an environment or with a person isn’t just a resurfacing emotion from a similar situation you’ve previously had that went terribly wrong. If you cannot attach any earlier experience to the current circumstance, then you’ll definitely want to listen to that inner nudge telling you to be wary.

At a Bad Moment

As exemplified by the phrase “catching someone at a bad moment,” everyone has their off-days or moments where they can’t seem to shake their bad mood. When someone is in a negative head space, they could easily end up producing some of those bad vibes. If you don’t know the person or what circumstance has led them to their current dark mood, you may feel that your instincts are telling you this person is bad or off. In such a case you must make sure that you are reading the situation and the person correctly. Is your gut telling you this person isn’t a good person overall, or is it really merely saying that they are currently emanating negative energy?

It is generally good advice to trust your gut instincts in any given situation. The more in sync you are with yourself and the environment, the better you will be able to differentiate your true gut reaction from a negative personal memory, or a stranger’s bad mood. Robert Heller may have phrased it best when he said, “Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it’s enough.” Not only is this true in reading a situation correctly, but in being able to intelligently act upon what your instincts are telling you.