Your gut is just your experience talking faster than your brain can explain. Listen, then check it.
STILLNESS
WHAT THIS MEANS
A gut feeling is compressed experience. Your mind has matched the situation in front of you against everything similar it has ever seen and handed you a verdict before the reasoning is ready, which is why it arrives wordless and fast. That makes it worth hearing and not worth obeying blindly, because the matching cannot tell good experience from bad.
When a strong feeling turns up about a decision, write it down, then spend ten minutes looking for actual reasons. If reasons appear, go with it. If none appear at all, treat the feeling as a question instead of an answer.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
How do you check a feeling you cannot yet explain?
MORE IN SOLITUDE & SELF-KNOWLEDGE
- Notice the things you wish you’d said. Those are the things you care about too much to keep swallowing.
- Write one page before you touch your phone in the morning. You’ll meet your own thoughts before everyone else’s arrive.
- Notice which compliment you instantly argue with. That’s the part of you that still needs convincing.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.