The truth about gut feelings

Right now, I am officially jobless. I left my job after three months.
 
It wasn’t a hard decision. The fact is, I clearly remember feeling very unsettled the moment I decided to accept the job. And that wasn’t even an official decision yet. It was during my consideration phase. Then, I had dismissed it, thinking that this feeling had arisen just because the job scope was new to me and I was just trying to cling to my comfort zone. I dismissed the ill-feelings as my lack of adventure and convinced myself to take the plunge.
 
But the job didn’t quite go the way I wanted. I could have had too high an expectation but it was more than that. It just didn’t fit, somehow. So it wasn’t long before I finally decided to tender my resignation following a series of unfair and unjust events.
 
The feelings following this decision were unmistakably, relief.
 
I took upon some time to reflect on the incident but still I could not explain my feelings and responses at the simple chain of events. It was almost as if ‘I’ knew what was going to happen.
 
I should have known better. Oprah Winfrey once said this on her show “Learn to let your intuition—gut instinct—tell you when […] the job isn’t good for you (and conversely, when you’re doing is just right)”.
 
The truth is, this is not the first time that such ‘para-normal’ things have happened. At one time or another, I had “known” things I didn’t even know how I know them.
 
Intuitions, or commonly known as gut feelings, are sudden, strong judgments with origins we can’t immediately explain. While they seem to emerge from an obscure inner force, scientists believe that the true origin of gut feelings is in the brain[1]. Be it the gut or the brain, intuitions are unconscious recognitions of a deeper knowledge within all of us.
 
But where does this knowledge come from? A closer study suggests that this deeper knowledge is attributed to the subtle energy system of Chakras and how they work to produce many of the unexplainable intuitions that all of us experience from time to time. First formalized by physician-sage Patanjali about 3000 years ago, the Chakras are a system comprising of 7 vital energy centres and 3 interconnecting channels. These centres each govern specific aspects of our physical, psychological and spiritual being and their state of balance is integral to the health of the various body systems that they govern. In other words, imbalance, damage or blockage of these centres will lead to problems in the physical, psychological or spiritual aspect of our being that the affected centre deals with.
 
And if you ask me, I think scientists might be right this time round.
At the region of the top of the head is the crown chakra or Sahasrara. Corresponding to the limbic system, the Sahasrara is unique among all the centres because it serves to integrate the functions of all the other chakras. The way in which it achieves this is beyond thought. Literally. In other words, it works only in the state of mental silence.
 
I am sure there would have been decisions in your life too during which you just have no answers and you just decided to just go with the flow of whatever happens. Or you might just have a very strong feeling towards something. Those are in fact moments which you are tapping into the dimension of the Sahasrara. At this juncture, knowledge is drawn from the Cosmos. Knowledge beyond all that is known.
 
Gandhi once commented about inner silence:
“What a great thing it would be if we in our busy lives …prepare our minds to listen to the voice of the Great Silence. The Divine Radio is always singing if we could only make ourselves ready to listen to it, but it is impossible to listen without silence”.


We can’t listen without silence. That is why we need silence. That is why we need to still the mind.
 
Because without that, no matter what innate knowledge exists within us, we won’t be able to hear a single word the divine radio is saying.


[1] Michael Gershon, a professor at Columbia University, writes in. The Second Brain

1 thought on “The truth about gut feelings”

  1. Hi Wei, I chance upon your writing while yoga classes.
    When I read what you have wrote, I almost can’t believe that someone has went thru the same stage i am in right now.
    I just quit my job. Feeling incredibly lost and looking for my place to rest my mind and soul. I saw the movie Eat, Pray, Love. It is almost similar. I do not know what I want in this moment and I am looking for inner peace.
    Can I speak to you? drop me a email.

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