Trust
the Gut
“All
our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an
instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root,
bud and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render
no reason.”
Ralph
Waldo Emerson
“Trust
your gut,” I said, when she asked what she should do about her
friend, who was telling her one thing, while her intuition told her
something quite different. In the words of Steve Jobs, “Don't let
the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
I
am a believer in 'going with the gut', or following one's instincts.
I think it is interesting that we still place intuition in the belly,
rather than the head. How could it be a brain function, we wonder,
when it's so slippery and unsubstantial. We somehow trust our
thinking brain more than we do our “seeing” brain. But the
thinking brain is much more likely to spin the information in the
direction we want it to go. It can deny, regress, act out,
dissociate, sublimate, compartmentalize, project, rationalize,
compensate, and convert unwanted impulses into more acceptable ones.
The intuition simply knows, without all that song and dance.
Most
of our great scientists stumbled upon their discoveries by following
their intuition. Einstein, for example suggested that no original
discoveries are made by thinking them, they are found when one is
“feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.” Jonas Salk
posited that “intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look
next.”
All
of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, use our intuition every day.
And those of us who consider ourselves mystics, rely on it
wholeheartedly. William Wordsworth described faith as a “passionate
intuition.” What else could it be—there is no way to prove our
belief that there is something greater than ourselves at work in the
world, but somehow, we know it is true. We sense it, we feel it, we
see it. It helps to use the thinking brain to inform and educate, to
problem solve, and plan. But never underestimate the truth and
valuable guidance that comes from your “gut”; it will never lead
you astray.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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