It is a strange thought, to lead with your belly, to go by the feeling you have in the middle part of your body and not your head or your heart. You know, Going with your Guts.
Some experts say that the brain uses a combination of logic and emotion when making decisions of any kind. However, we all know that feeling we get in the pit of our stomach when we need to make a decision.
It is that feeling of uncertainty, sometimes sharp and intense, not painful but disturbing, and not life threatening but agitating. You know, when you feel torn, unclear and questions and doubts fill your head because very soon you have to decide, make up your mind and go left or right.

-There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen – Rumi

And then, like a primal scream, your gut cries out. It hollers out an answer, a word, a yes or no. It articulates your feelings, your inner impression of the situation and then…you decide.
You know that feeling don’t you? You heard that gut reaction bellow out? And you have felt that intuitive yelp from within? And then, what did you do? Listen and act on it? Or perhaps did you shake off the gut and go with what is expected of you? Follow pressure and tradition, what your boss, peers or authoritative figures around you say? Then, what happens? The Going with your Guts fades away.

The trouble is that our Decision Muscles are not nourished at home, are not exercised at school and very little training is allowed in the corporate world. In fact, society does not encourage intuitive actions, considers it unreliable and irrational. People who rely on their gut feelings are not taken seriously, some even go far as saying it is superstitious!

-You cannot make progress without making decisions – Jim Rohn

Some years ago, I went to the east Coast of the U.S.A as part of a four person Performance Poetry Team. We competed in ten Slam Contests against some of the top American teams. We started out in Connecticut traveling through a bunch of small towns with English names, like Manchester and Worcester, competing and then moving on. One night stand shows.

Each team member had three minutes to perform their original piece and then, seven selected members of the audience would score, with cards, like in the Olympics. I usually got 5.6 or 6.5. Whereas, the American team members regularly received 8.9 or 9.5. The difference was huge! Our accent, our humour, our stories were just planets apart. We were different, we stood out, it was like, they didn’t get us.

Discontent descended and crawled into the mind of our team. This was not how we imagined it. We were supposed to knock ’em flying with our sharp and worldly content, our tongue-in-cheek, self depreciating and infamous British wit. Someone was not giving their best, someone was letting the team down, someone was getting low scores and someone was going to have to do something about it.
The finger pointing began. The bickering increased and the cursing escalated. The integrity and coherence of the group fell apart. The team energy turned dark. And, everyone wanted out! And each person wanted to be the first to leave! It was a real drama sandwich of ego plus anger.

It was decision time. Something had to change, something had to give. This is when the logical rational mind kicked in. What choice do I have? Where can I go? (Don’t forget, I was out in Boston, the land of stranglers and guns!) I was at that point of weighing up my pros and cons. Thinking on my feet, who could help me, what can I do? You know a hissing and fizzing noise that clouds all smart decisions. All I knew, was that I had to make a decision because the solution for healing and saving the situation had passed.

For me, it was simple, once I cleared the clutter of rational mind interference and tuned into my gut, I asked myself, What do I want? Yes, that was it. What do I want? Then, it was clear, I wanted out of this ugly situation and so I focused on the “out” and nothing else. Decision made! All I had to do was act upon my gut.
Act upon and focus on getting out.
Unfortunately, Tuning in to our feelings, our intuition is not widely accepted in our society. It is not proven and therefore not valid. But check out this article below and it shows how emotion governs so much of our decisions in life. Not that you need convincing, you know how to get gutsy solutions, don’t you?

http://www.medicaldaily.com/science-decision-making-5-surprising-ways-we-make-life-choices-337546

On the video, (published on Friday on this page) I will illustrate this simple act of tuning in to our intuition, our gut source of energy to show you how simple it is to access this gift we all possess.

Come and check it out, ask questions, make comments, I will get back to all of you. As you know, this is a topic that effects everyone, so join in the debate.

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