Feel what you think.

What a strange concept indeed. Or maybe not. 

Maybe you are used to think about why you feel like you do, but never gave it any thoughts that you might felt it before you thought it. Or that feelings and emotions actually drives a lot of your thinking. Even before you think about it. 

To enhance our chances of survival in this world our brain will constantly try to predict what is going to happen. Now, in a minute, next week, next year. Well maybe you do not ponder a lot on next year right now, but you will take present informations and use them in a context of "financial stability now vs mortgage due next year" scenarios.

Of course we must accept that there is little we can do to predict the rest of our lives. That is just a fact. What we can do however, is to supply our brain with the most precise and clear informations. Informations that our brain can turn into actions with the highest amount of predicability. 

And that is where feelings can come in handy. When we want to access informations faster than we can rationalise them. I will refer to them as somatic markers. A kind of bodily manifastations of intelligence. They are fast, body-based indicators shaped by past experiences and emotional memory. They where somewhat made famous by Antonio Damasio who proposed the hypothesis of somatic markers influence on our cognitive actions.

In my daily work with clients I often turn to bodily awareness as a tool to better decide on most preferred outcomes. Outcomes that are in tune with the values and beliefs of the client. A gut feeling is not something irrational or emotionally non relevant. It is a very strong indicator that something is important. Even necessary. Remember the last time you had to decide on something that was important to you ? How did you approach the decision ? By cognitively figure out the pros and cons. Creating different scenarios that would unfold in each of the different decision outcomes.

If you did you are, most likely, just like the rest of us. But there is something very beautiful and simple in using somatic and emotional markers as a foundation to make decisions upon. 

👍🏼They can be very clear yes/no indicators

👍🏼 They can help us with a more nuanced picture of what is emotionally going on

👍🏼 They give us insights into our values and beliefs

👍🏼 They can help us understand why we react as we do and connect us with ourselves

So the obvious question to ask could be: How do I train my somatic intelligence ? A good place to begin is to train your awareness skills. The fist step on the way to conscious decision making is knowing the state of your nervous system activity. 

Whenever we are in a more stressed state physiologically or mentally, it is almost impossible to access the somatic markers. 

Now adrenaline might be an indicator that you are in the middle of a somatic marker experience. But it will make it much harder for you to feel anything. And since cortisol will make you less rational and impair you cognitively, you won't find much comfort in relying on those in an attempt to overwrite what is already there on an emotional level.

And here is an observation that you might want to feel. Think about something you have to decide on soon. Try to relax your system with a couple of deep slow breaths. Now think about the options again but this time try to feel what your gut is communicating. It might not be the answer you wished for. It might be the one you fear the most. But here is a truth. Doing something that is hard because it is right, is far better than doing something that goes against yourself.

If you are looking for clarity and enhanced awareness, don't stress. You already have the informations available. If you want to learn how to better use them lets talk.

Until then. 

Frederik