The Gut Instinct
By Vaughan Wynne-Jones
November-4-2007
Lilly heard the glass break on floor, thrown there by her
father. She knew what came next, so she ran to her room
to hide. At ten years old, she’d had enough bad experiences
when her father got like this to know that it was best to
be out of his way before he decided to throw something else…maybe
at her.
Fifteen years later, Lilly is
at a party laughing with her friends…a drunken guy
about her age drops his drink, and the glass shatters on
the floor. Lilly’s blood runs cold and her gut tells
her to flee – to hide…She tries to put a brave
face on it, but for the rest of the evening she feels that
something isn’t right.
Lilly’s ‘gut instinct’
is the result of programming. Her experiences growing up
caused emotional reactions in her that got encoded into
her body to save her from danger. Why does this happen?
As fast as our brains can think
sometimes, it’s the things we do on instinct which
save us – or hurt us. There are some instincts which
come from us in our DNA, encoded over generations (including
our parents) that teach us how to be basic human beings.
It’s why so many of us share fears – or unease
– of the same things. It can be the dark of night,
loud noises, confined spaces, snakes and scorpions. Our
‘gut’ makes us react instinctively – before
our brain has had time to process and weigh the pros and
cons of a given course of action.
The events in our life create
thoughts, which in turn create chemical reactions in our
body. If the same experiences appear over and over, our
brains release the same chemicals and gradually our body
takes over some of the reactions to the events. It’s
what enables us to drive a car and talk on a cell phone
(bad, though that may be). It is why a seasoned detective
can walk into a room and know there is someone there and
draw his gun before his brain has processed it, because
his body has already picked up cues from the environment.
It’s why a Tae Kwon Do expert instinctively blocks
a random punch, and it’s why Lilly wants to flee when
she hears glass shatter.
Sometimes this is good –
after all, we are designed to do these things. However,
sometimes bad experiences in our life can get us wired in
such a way that they actually hold us back from being the
person we want to be. This is why abused people may stay
with the abuser, because something in them recognizes comfort
in that abuse and it feels wrong to them to leave. Frequently
they will then rationalize that ‘instinct’ in
some way, without addressing the root cause.
Anyone in anger management will
tell you that our gut can be wrong. Our gut’s desire
to fight, when we should flee, or flee when we should stand
is a result of the previously mentioned programming. So
if the programming is faulty, if the environment that raised
you produced a faulty gut instinct, then going with your
gut may not be the best approach!
Most of the time when people
say ‘this feels wrong to the core of my being’
it’s because some experience earlier in their life
led them to react a certain way to that situation, and now
it has become programmed into their cells to react that
way - unless of course it’s Britney Spears winning
the MTV Music Award because that is just plain wrong.
Of course, not everybody had
a lousy childhood. You may say “wait a second, a lot
of people have lead charmed lives. Shouldn’t that
also cause problems, because if you haven’t had to
use your emotional defense mechanism to survive, how do
you learn to trust your emotions to live, love and be happy?”
Good point, glad you brought
it up.
Sun-Tzu said "Live with
a man for 40 years. Share his house, his meals. Speak on
every subject. Then tie him up and hold him over the volcano's
edge and on that day, you will finally meet the Man"
The reason that people put themselves
to the hazard with sky-diving, military service etc is most
often so that they can truly meet themselves. If you don't
come face-to-face with your own mortality from time to time,
then there is a big part of oneself that remains unknown.
But emotionally, you miss out
also. Thoughts generate chemical reactions which we call
feelings - emotions. Emotions act on the body faster than
thoughts. If you are put into a dangerous situation, and
you come through it, the things that helped to do that -
your emotional ability to respond to danger quickly and
react etc. - are stored chemically for use next time.
If you put a suburbanite into
a violent neighborhood, they don't know how to react. If
gunshots are heard, while the locals are dropping to the
floor instinctively, the visitor is standing around wondering
whether he heard a gunshot or a car backfiring. Over time,
nature has a way of whittling out those who don't learn
how to react to danger, thus making us better, smarter creatures.
Now, in the West, many of us
don't get exposed to danger very much. Not all of course
- first responders, police, marines etc do. However, in
many parts of Africa and the middle-east it's simply a way
of life.
If there were to be a major climactic
or global event that caused a significant upheaval in our
environment, which people are most likely to survive the
initial catastrophe - those who leap instinctively, or those
who stand there wondering what that big whooshing noise
was? :)
I can watch someone throw a punch
towards me and block it, because it has happened so many
times in training and competition that I don't shy away
from it. My body is emotionally able to cope with the concept
of someone throwing a punch at me. Whether it is physically
able to at this point is another matter…
The reality is though, that you
cannot go through life without experiencing emotions, because
that’s what your brain does – turn thoughts
into emotions. So we all employ emotions to survive, some
people simply employed different ones to get them where
they are today.
When we reach inside ourselves
and start to question what we find there, we may spend a
lot of time looking at ourselves, examining our lives and
emotions and thoughts, even our bodies - tweaking things
here and there, eliminating some things, rewiring others.
That’s a good thing – but it’s also important
to know that some things don’t need to be fixed. Some
of the things we are wired to react to are undoubtedly healthy.
So there are times when we need
to reprogram ourselves because the world we live in is not
the world we grew up in, and there are times when we don’t
because the world is the same. To know the difference, we
must first step outside ourselves and ask:
Am I the only person reacting this way?
Is it possible that my gut is giving me bad information?
What happened in my earlier life to make me react this way?
How can I correct it?
We can correct by remembering
the event, and realizing that it was a past event and has
no bearing on the now. Usually this takes some therapy of
some kind, either through inner searching, meditation,
or just talking with someone and listening to what we say
out loud. Then when we start to feel that way again, it’s
time to stop the thought process in it’s tracks and
think of a way that things can end differently. Gradually,
by doing this, we start to rewire our brains, so that we
don’t react the same way. So that instead of wanting
to flee, Lilly can laugh, shrug, and fetch a towel…
Vaughan
Wynne-Jones Copyright © 2007, all rights reserved.
Article originally posted on www.PaganNews.com Permission
granted to distribute as long as this notice is kept intact.
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