10/21/2023
Great article on what to do with our gut impulses, even when they’re “not objective”.
There was a New York Times article a while back that basically said most of our impulses are not trustworthy and cautioned readers about the pitfalls of felt sense impulses. But they were assuming gut feelings should be able to answer specific questions related to decision-making with accuracy. I’m paraphrasing from memory, but I believe they looked at studies where participants relied on their intuition in a situation where there was a right and wrong answer. The conclusion was like, well, this type of knowing clearly can’t be trusted.
The article made me angry. The gut shouldn’t be condemned for not acting like the head. It’s got a different role to play in our ability to know things. I think it’s a mistake to dismiss it in these grounds.
The article I’m posting here offers, in my opinion, a much better argument: that our impulses help us know ourselves better and are absolutely worth listening to.
This is the work I do. Holding space for people to deeply listen to themselves, noticing how they have learned to interpret what they find, and inviting them to slow down the process so they are acting in alignment with their multiple ways of knowing.
A little bit or well into our growth journey (that is, life), some people realise that their gut feelings aren’t always that well informed — that previous experiences have warped their instinctual sense of what’s a threat and what isn’t. Of what’s an actual need and what’s a off-balance ...
