Your brain vs your gut. Which one do you trust more?

Pull out a pen and  paper. Sit back comfortably. Do NOT read on till you do it, I will wait.

Write down a few key life decisions you made in your life. You know, the stuff like college choice, marriage, house, job, moving across the country or countries

Next, write “G” next to each “good decision” or “B” for “it was a bad idea”

Next, put a “G” of it was a gut-based decision and “B” it was a brain driven idea.

What do you see?

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Mine looks like this:

My first job – B (should be T for terrible) and B

Marriage – B and B

Taking a job in HK – G and G

Leaving China – G and G

Accepting a job in Seattle – B and B

Setting up my own business – G and G

Rebranding my business – G and G.

If you care to know more; my first job was the logical thing to do, I felt from the beginning I was stepping to a messy set-up and it happened. Marriage – we dated for 7 years, lived together, it was the next logical thing to do, the thing that all couples do. Deep inside I knew this was not for me (us), I didn’t even bother to change my last name. Logical and a bad idea. B and B. But, my favorite mistake to date.

Leaving my 5-star job in Shanghai (G and G), China raised the eye brows of many; how can you do that in the midst of a recession, how can you just quit your job without another one? Where are you going? I didn’t know but my gut was telling me to do it.

I read an article at the Harvard Business Review that they did some fancy research that showed that decisions based on gut feeling served the person better than based on brain and logic.  I see the pattern in mine. How about you? Are you getting the B-B and G-G pattern or a mix of B-Gs?

From a purely dietary perspective, the gut is sacred. You can only be as healthy as your gut. More serotonin (a neurotransmitter responsible for moods and depression) is produced in our gut than the brain.

So my next G-G I’m surrendering (don’t you love this word?!) to is rebranding my business. I worked with a marketing/internet ninja coach, the fabulous Karen Brunet who convinced me to hone in on the one thing I excel at, have a very personal story to tell and connect to my core passion. Being found by Google is part of it, she figures. This is how Thyroid Diet Coach was born. It’s highly counter-intuitive to let go off all other health coaching opportunities. It can best be described as getting over to the edge of a cliff and jumping off in the hope of learning how to fly.

But I learn fast, so things have been pretty good. With the help of many of you here, I’m making good progress and getting to help more and more thyroid-frustrated women.

I am absolutely in love with the new logo; the sketching, the placement and the subtlety of the hand. If you need a young, talented designer, Kristin is your girl. I’ve always been fascinated by the power of our hands, especially our palm. Look at the 9/11 footage of people’s reactions to the tragedy– they covered their mouths, hearts, heads and chest with their hand. Our hands have more healing magic than we are aware of. As a reiki practioner, I can put my hand over my or your head and make the headache go away in 15 minutes.

You might not even know what reiki is, and that’s OK, here is what you can do: next time you see a person in distress, just lay your hand on their shoulder or back and see what happens. For many, it’s not an intuitive thing to do; our logical society has taught us better; it’s too emotional, touching is not appropriate. I don’t know about you but it sounds a bit B-B to me.

Ok, so let’s recap. This long post has a rather simple message (I don’t know why I needed so many words to say it); decide if you are the gut or brain player. If you are more of B, get more G into your life and see what happens. Start with the small things. Like just doing something that has absolutely no logical backing apart from the fact that you just want to do it. Badly.  Start with a joy ride for 20min just because they have the best [organic] smoothies, move on to skipping weddings you don’t care about and finish off with quitting your job for a better good. Or a Tibetan monastery. Whatever feels right. In your gut.

P.S. If your current thyroid health situation and the choices you are making surrounding it seem to be B-B to you right now, we encourage you to join in our Thyroid Community Calls for targeted thyroid nutrition information and to learn about ways to receive support in your journey to thyroid health.

One Response to Your brain vs your gut. Which one do you trust more?

Natalia says: September 21, 2011 at 9:18 pm

Thanks for a thought-provoking post!
I’m curious about the article that you reference. Here’s an interesting summary of one on the subject of intuition in decision-making, “When to Trust Your Gut” by Alden Hayashi: http://www.bnet.com/cp/when-to-trust-your-gut/174966

What I found to be most insightful is that the quality of our intuition seems to improve with the amount of analysis we conduct and new experiences we have because they hone our brain’s ability to make connections. Our brain and gut are most effective when they work in tandem!

I encourage you to consider the suggested practices for sharpening our intuition:
- Place yourself in unfamiliar situations
- Acquire a diverse background
- Know-and check-yourself
- Don’t fall in love with your decisions

Cheers!

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