Have you ever listened to a gut instinct or intuition

[Cadence]

that went against reason, logic, or seemingly against your own immediate best interest?

[swag]

1. Is that you, Malcolm Gladwell?

[Cadence]

5. Hmmm. I don't know...

who's Malcolm Gladwell?

[swag]

36. A writer

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316172324/qid=1109712706/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-3554436-7287231?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[Cadence]

38. I'll have to check that book out.

Sounds similar to something I've been thinking about for some time.

[skypilot]

2. Yes.

His name was Angel. My gut told me that this guy was bad news, but do you know what overrode my intuition? The SMELL of him. I could not think straight any time I got a whiff of him. I had a long "con" list on this guy but the one "pro" was the way he smelled. I eventually kicked him to the curb and it took about two months to get him out of my system.

[wideopen]

3. all the time

and usually it works out best in the long run.

[Cadence]

4. That's usually my experience too

but this time I really, really don't understand my intuition and fear is taking over. It's hard to override logic based solely on intuition especially when it doesn't make sense. Although I've never been disappointed when I've trusted it before. But the stakes are bigger this time.. so I'm struggling with it.

[Aiptasia]

6. I usually trust my instincts..

[Cadence]

10. What would you do if your instincts

or intuition was telling you to not do anything.. to finish healing.. make final edits to a screenplay and not try to get a unix job... when your about to be bankrupt and can't pay your bills after getting laid off?

See what I mean? My mind is screaming.. get a job... get anything.. screw healing.. survival! survival! you'll never get a screenplay made anyway quit being stupid! You're being an idiot! It's a pipe dream. So what without the healing you don't want to live.. do it anyway!!! DO SOMETHING.

My intuition is calmly observing all of this going.. nope.. healing.. finish healing.. when the healing comes new opportunities will open up. It will be a whole new world. Belive in the impossible. It's all going to be o.k. People will want to hear your story it will help thousands. Stay internally focused.. stay in the flow.

[rbnyc]

15. In that case...

...leap and the net will appear!

ALWAYS choose caring for yourself and being creative over being practical.

The money will come from somewhere. I swear!

Have you ever read The Artist's Way?

[Cadence]

16. The leaping part is friggin scary

but that's exactly how it feels... I hope there really is a net down there!

Thank you... that's what my gut is telling me.

I haven't heard of that book... would it give me pearls right now to make this easier?

[rbnyc]

20. yes

It's a kind of work book that you are supposed to do chapter by chapter, if you're up for it. But it's also very useful to just read and do the parts that you want to do in a less structured way.

For anyone who is struggling with writer's block or who is struggling with putting their creativity first, I would say it's essential reading.

[rbnyc]

21. PS

It has a lot of higher power stuff in it. I'm not an atheist, but I have trouble with god language and any kind of personified divinity, and have a big problem with religion. It was a small struggle to make the higher power language jive with my personal beliefs, but it was worth it.

[Cadence]

22. Well the creative part is trying to rush forward

like the opening of a flood gate.. so that part is o.k. it's my mind giving up trying to do something practical and go with being creative that is the problem. The creativity is with me 24/7.. I write dialogue and funny scenes to entertain myself in my head almost constantly. Maybe I'll check it out for the letting go and following the creative urge aspect of it. Thanks.

[rbnyc]

9. Generally, I say go with your gut.

But as someone who has had premonitions, I can tell you it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between an instinct guided by unseen forces, and an unreasonable fear.

I predicted my car accident, but I didn't change my behavior because I was embarrassed to explain I didn't want to ride in the car based on a premonition.

Then, after I was on my feet again, I had a vision of the tub falling through the floor into the downstairs neighbors apartment while taking a shower.

Premonition or anxiety attack? And what do I do? Stop taking showers?

I decided, since I was having an array of anxiety symptoms after the accident, that it was anxiety and I should try to relax. So far the tub hasn't fallen through the floor.

;-)

It's a tough call.

[Nikia]

42. I have a hard time using my intuition because of this

For a while, I discovered that I could use intuition. Then I was wrong several times. Especially when I've been thinking about something, it is hard to tell the difference between that and both my hopes and fears. I have had a lot of anxiety lately and this makes it hard to even attempt to use it. I am hoping though that I will be able to work on developing it again soon and get over that I was wrong a couple of times.

[progmom]

7. That is a really interesting question.

I trust my instincts almost unfailingly, but I've also been in your situation - trying to determine whether your reluctance to follow your instincts is founded in fear or better judgement.

Can you do it, but have an exit strategy worked out?

[Cadence]

11. My intuition is very strong.. it's gotten me

through a lot. I think it was a childhood near death experience that amplified it. I knew my adopted father would die of brain cancer three years before he started showing symptoms. He died in '86 from multiple tumors. I knew that my adopted mother would be paralyzed in a car accident a year before it happened. I knew the morning of the accident something bad was going to happen and I couldn't get in the car with her. She almost killed me for not going with her but my sister went instead. I went back to sleep and dreamt the entire day. The phone ringing.. the nurse from the hospital telling me there was an accident. An hour later I woke up and thought.. I better eat some protein so I can get through this day. So I made some peanut butter toast and stared at the phone. When it started ringing it sounded like slow motion. I picked it up and the nurse (same voice as in my dream) said there's been an accident... I answered her questions before she asked them.. it was bizarre.

I told a man in Starbucks once that he needed to get his heart checked ASAP .. he was a healthy looking man in running gear.. probably earl fifties. It took guts to say it.. I felt like an idiot.. but about six months later I ran into him again.. He thanked me with tears in his eyes because that saved his life. He wound up having heart surgery because he had something going on that they wouldn't have caught until it was too late otherwise. He was shaking as he stood in front of me. So now I always tell strangers what I get even if I feel stupid. Fuck it.. it's bigger than I am.. there's plenty of time to feel stupid about other things.

I told a lady in a hospital once that she had a cyst on her fallopian tubes.. she argued with me. She didn't know why she was there they were running tests but couldn't figure out her pain. I told her to get an ultrasound of her stomach ...three days later I was talking to one of my grandmothers nurses and she said.. "oh you know that lady that was in here with the cyst..." I said "what cyst?" She said "She had a large cyst on one of her fallopian tubes they did surgery yesterday."

I could list these all day... but when it comes to myself.. especially when it seems my gut is saying to do something AGAINST my survival.. I have a hard time trusting.

[progmom]

27. I wonder if we were separated at birth?

(except you got all the gorgeous and funny genes)

Very interesting. I get a lot of that, and it was even stronger in my great-grandfather, who made a living as a psychic and a healer.

[Cadence]

29. Wow, maybe we are! That's cool. I've had people ask me to

pay me for a reading but I feel strongly that, that's not my calling. Even though I could do it. I'd much rather show a thousand people how to do it themselves than tell one person.. you're going to get this job.. marry this guy etc. But that's just how I feel in it. Everyone wears it differently and that's good.

Oh and I beg to differ on the gorgeous and funny genes.. you crack me up all the time! I see your posts in other threads and I'm always laughing thinking.. man she has a quick wit!

I wonder if we'd be good at writing comedy dialogue together.. we should try sometime. I have one scene in my screenplay that I could use someone to bounce off of to get it better. :shrug:

[progmom]

30. oooh - that would be fun!!!!

:)

[Bertha Venation]

8. Oh, hell yes. When I uprooted and left the only home I'd ever known --

not to mention my family, with whom I am very close.

Did it for Mrs. V. Did it for love.

My heart, my gut, just said it was right. She is my soul mate, and I had to be with her, wherever she was. She couldn't move to So. Cali., so I moved to the mid-Atlantic.

It was the hardest thing I've ever done and I have absolutely no regrets.

[Cadence]

17. Ahhh good story.

Thank you. :hug:

[Bertha Venation]

34. You're quite welcome.

I hope it helps knowing that going with one's gut often just plain works.

[Cadence]

35. It does.

Every now and then I just need reminding. :)

[radwriter0555]

12. Oh yes. It saved my life, literally, from a serial killer in Chicago in

1982.

I sat in bed and waited for him to show up, since I "KNEW" he was coming. I didn't have a place to go, or a telephone at the time, but I knew that he was coming that night.

He'd already been in my apartment twice before when I wasn't there. I'd come home and I could SMELL him, his beer breath. He left beer cans under my window and stole a bunch of stuff. No one believed me.

When he tried to climb in the window at about 1:30 am, I ran into the hall screaming bloody murder for help. Within 5 minutes there were undercover cops crawling all over my building, as they'd been staking out the area too, looking for him.

He had killed several women in the area, and the case was known as the Pine Grove murders. He got away that night, but so did I, thanks to my gut instinct.

A year later, I saw in the paper that they'd caught the guy...

[Cadence]

14. Wow good thing you listened to yourself

I'm glad you're still here. :hug: I've had things like that happen to where it saved my life.. that just reminded me of something.. it seems that intuition doesn't come in to hurt you.. only to help.. so even though it seems as if I listen to it I will be going against my best interests.. I can't be because that's not how it works.

Thanks for posting your story. That helped me clarify something. I was thinking that maybe my intuition was telling me to do nothing, so I would have outer experiences that would reflect my inner experiences for healing.. but that's the ego or subconscious that does that. Not intuition.
Thank you.

[mark414]

43. whoa damn

glad to see you're still with us today

[SarahB]

13. Yeah, usually it's right.

[bloodyjack]

18. No.

[elperromagico]

19. No. I voted for Kerry.

[Cadence]

23. Was your gut telling you something different?

[elperromagico]

24. No. I was referring more to this part:

"went against reason, logic, or seemingly against your own immediate best interest?"

Voting for Bush qualifies as being against reason, logic, and my own immediate best interest, don't you agree?

[bobthedrummer]

25. I don't think I'd still be among the living if I hadn't have respected

those feelings when they came over me, they are powerful indeed.

[Cadence]

31. How true.

Thanks for saying that.

[progmom]

26. I just sent you a PM without reading the whole thing - sorry.

Survival is all relative, isn't it?

Your instincts tell you that it's right to do the scary thing? To finish healing and follow your dream? Then honey - that's what you have to do. I will support you in this decision every step of the way. I think you know what you need to do.

What is survival if it means your bills are paid but you hate your life???

[Cadence]

28. That's a good way of putting it.

I just pm'd you back. I don't know I have a pm when I stay in the lounge.. only when I hit discussion forums.. wish it would notify while your still in one forum. :shrug:

You make good points.. ;)

My dreams are all I've ever had really.. I guess it would be a huge disservice to how far I've come not to pursue them.

[drumwolf]

32. Not often enough.

There are quite a few occasions where listening to my gut would have served me quite well -- for example, when I was looking for a place to live with roommates or interviewing for jobs.

One thing to keep in mind is that, for some people, your gut feeling is one thing and what you WANT to believe is another, and the latter can often trump the former... to your detriment.

[Cadence]

33. Yeah, I know about that.

I figured that out early on with this intuition stuff.. it has nuances and there are messages that come from different places. In this case though, I don't want to believe what my intuition is telling me. I currently want to believe in feeling safe, secure and the quickest way to accomplishing that. My intuition on the other hand is asking me to live outside of my comfort zone and take a leap of faith.

Once a few years back I wanted to believe the guy I was dating at the time was my soul mate and I tried to make myself believe that was coming from intuition... man was that a painful lesson. Never again.

Intuition is more like being in a flow going down river... you realize whoa, whoa, whoa.. your not really powering the canoe but there sure is a lot of energy taking you in a certain direction and the energy is all in alignment.

Belief masquerading as intuition feels like the canoe is sideways in the river and you can't get right, but you're trying like hell to stay in denial and feel all floaty like this is good.. I really did want to be sitting here fighting to enjoy the scenery.

I could probably come up with a better analogy but that's the first that came to mind.

[Cuban_Liberal]

37. All the time.

:)

[fudge stripe cookays]

39. I can think of two times in particular.

Once a few years ago, I was driving down I-35 from Denton to Dallas after school heading to work. I was behind a pickup truck with 2 ladders on the back.

I suddenly had this INCREDIBLY STRONG FEELING saying MOVE OVER. It was almost like some power grabbed the wheel away from me and made me get into the middle lane from the left lane.

Suddenly, BOTH ladders came hurtling out of the back of the truck, and caused a pileup right behind me. At least one or both rammed people's windshields. God was looking out for me that day.

Second-- when reprehensor and I began out internet relationship, I didn't know right away that he was "the one." I didn't trust myself anymore because I'd been through so many bad relationships. But our friendship just grew stronger every day. We knew everything about each other.

But when all my friends were telling me that he could be an axe murderer, I just felt differently. I'm glad I trusted my instincts one last time on him. He turned out to be the best thing that has ever happened to me.

FSC

[BurtWorm]

40. My gut is telling me not to post this reply, but I'm going to do it anyway

Only once.

[Cadence]

44. That was brave.

But if I flame you now are you going to wish you had listened to your gut? :evilgrin:

[BurtWorm]

45. I knew it!

I knew I should have! :evilfrown:

[Freebird12004]

41. "Yes, If It Feels Right I Do It"