Conversations With My Gut

I've been thinking a lot about gut instinct, that feeling of "I don't know, something just doesn't feel right." Evidently [and it may not be a 100% accurate figure], the brain takes in approximately 11 million bits of information per second, but we are only aware of 40. Which is incredible. It is frequently said that we don't use anywhere near enough of our brain [now that is up for some debate online so I'm just going with the fact that we ourselves don't use it to its best ability and not our body]. It makes lovely sense that we're unconsciously using the rest of it to process all that other data.

It's processing it in the background while you go about dealing with the 40 bits you need. So your brain has picked your 40 essentials and let you have them, then takes the other bits that are "irrelevant" and plays with them while you're doing your mundane 40.

Last year I stopped to let someone cross the road and a lorry sailed into my boot and threw my car and I through the crossing. When I spoke to the pedestrian afterwards I said he was lucky he hadn't crossed as he would have been right in front of my car. His reply was "something made me stay there." Gut instinct told him... if you move, there'll be trouble. Had part of his brain registered that the driver was turned looking out the side window, seeing if he could get out before the next car and concluded that he wouldn't see my car soon enough to stop? We'll never know, but it's a fantastic thought. Our built in safety feature, our mental airbag.

I wondered specifically about other people and instinct. If someone has a strong gut instinct should you ever try to change it? If someone doesn't want to do something I'm accepting of that fact. I'm guilty of using the line "I'm really sorry but I'm just not ready" when breaking up with someone. The truth is I was totally ready, but telling someone that your gut instinct tells me no isn't nice or polite.If that happened the other way round I would be upset, but if something is telling them to move on, then they should do that. Is it fair of me to say stay and try? Am I not just telling them they shouldn't trust their own judgement?

If someone had told that pedestrian that gut instinct was rubbish and to ignore it, he could be injured, or worse. Instincts are a survival technique. Don't ignore them.