GUT THINKING

As is obvious to anyone who knows me, my brain often resides in the wrong part of my anatomy. Instead of being in the head where it belongs, it migrates to my stomach and firmly ensconces itself there. I know this to be true. Why else would I eat chocolate and ice cream and all those other goodies my brain-in-my-head would tell me are not good for my physical well-being and that I must avoid? The devil made me do it? I only wish I could blame someone else and not the fact that my brained moved.

If there is any consolation, and there is little, especially when the pants get tighter around the waste, it is the knowledge that no one is immune from such thinking. When we think from the stomach, the gut, we really do not think. We react to stimuli, pleasant or otherwise. If the food looks good, smells wonderful, appeals to me, I will eat it. My gut thinking takes over.

On the other hand, if someone tells me to eat what is placed before me because it is good for me, my gut thinking immediately kicks in. The gut knows, instinctively knows, that the food will taste awful. On the other hand, if my brain resided in my head, I would eat the food no matter how horrible it looked or tasted simply because it would be good for my health.

Gut thinking goes beyond the physical. If it only remained there, we would have a world both of fat people and a world of fatheaded people, for that is what gut thinking creates. In fact gut thinking is an oxymoron. We do not think with our gut; we react. Gut thinking produces prejudice: if it looks horrible, it must be horrible; if it doesn’t feel good to me, it must be bad; if I do not understand it, it must be wrong; if the people I like say it’s the truth, it must be the truth.

We think with our brain and react with our gut. Yet, all too often, we allow gut reactions to control our thoughts, our words and, even worse, our actions. If this tastes good, looks good, it must be good for me; thus, it must be good. If it tastes bad, looks bad, it must be bad for me; thus, it must be bad. Again, we allow our gut reaction to pre-judge the truth to make what is not true into the truth.

History is replete with examples of whole societies prejudging others because they did not like what the other looked like, acted like or spoke like. It was only when they were able to allow their brains to take over and allow themselves to truly get to know the other that they discovered the truth. Would that all those examples are historical and not current. But, sadly, even tragically, they are not.

It is very difficult to admit the truth when we think, or rather react, with our gut. It is even more difficult to admit that our actions and reactions are the result of gut thinking, which, again, is not thinking. What brain-thinkers and gut-reactors both all too often forget about is that part of the body in between: the heart. The heart tempers both the gut and the brain. Can you imagine what a heartless society would look like? It would be so out of whack if ruled by the gut and so dull and boring if ruled by the brain. More later.