Your gut feeling IS the evidence

Have you ever had a bad gut feeling about someone? Have you ever felt like you just KNEW something wasn’t right? I know I have.

And I know I pushed the feeling aside.

I didn’t have the evidence.I was scared to make a fuss and I was scared to be wrong.

I was nervous to step forward, stick my neck out and say, “STOP EVERYTHING. I NEED YOU ALL TO LISTEN TO MY GUT FEELING”.

But I wish I had. Because of course... my gut turned out to be right.

It’s really easy to say, “trust your gut!”, but for a lot of people (for most people), it can be a really hard thing to do. We get socialised into second-guessing ourselves and we become fearful of getting it wrong.

We get taught to ignore our feelings and instead, just look for the logic, look for the evidence.The older and more experienced I get in my field, the more I realise how wrong this is.

Our secret sense, neuroception, is our superpower. But for it to help us, we have to be willing to step into our fears. We have to be willing to pay attention. We have to be willing to feel what it’s telling us, and act on it.

“I’m sorry, I’ve had a sudden change of heart, but I don’t think you’re the babysitter for us”.

“I feel uncomfortable with our children staying overnight there. I don’t know why. It’s a no from me. Of course I feel bad that they’ll take offence - but it’s still a no”.

“I just don’t like the feel of the school. I know everyone else does. I don’t. It’s not the school for us”.We won’t always get a gut feeling about dangerous situations - some predators in particular are just too cunning, too clever, too skilled in all they do. To them, deception is a science and an art. But when we do get one, we have got to get better at remembering: Our gut feeling isn’t the reason to start looking for evidence.Our gut feeling IS the evidence.

Can you imagine what will change for the next generation, if we teach them to listen to and trust in their gut from the very beginning? #FoodForThought