Have you ever said to yourself: “oh, I really wish I hadn’t done/said that, I just KNEW I shouldn’t have!” Or, have you ever met someone you immediately (for no apparent reason) either loved or hated? Exactly. Well, today I will be looking at a new study on gut feelings, discussed in a recent Science Daily article: http://tinyurl.com/3x4ljx.
Oh, first, the sentence on house-hunting hit home (no pun intended) with me: when I was house-hunting many years ago, I fell in love with the house that Stefano and I ended up buying, oh but that’s a very long story. Well, okay, in short, if I hadn’t ignored the realtor’s warnings, we would not be living here today. As it was, I followed my instinct and gushed on and on to the then-owners, two elderly ladies, about how lovely their house was. At the signing of the contract, the ladies confided to me that they were so fed up with potential buyers walking through their home and making negative remarks that, the very day we saw the house, they had decided to take it off the market. Then we showed up. As a result of my gushing, the ladies were confident that I would love their house (I do!), so they decided to sell it to us. Point is, I followed my instinct, and we were able to buy our dream house (although a castle in Scotland or Northumberland UK is a close second! 
). Okay, enough rambling!
First, what exactly is a gut feeling? I suppose it could be described as a sort of intuitive feeling that we cannot rationally understand but that frequently leads us to make decisions, decisions guided more by emotions than by rational thought.
I am all in favour of following my gut’s “suggestions,” in case that weren’t clear. I recently wrote, e.g., about my gut feelings against starting chemotherapy back in 2005. Those feelings were later confirmed by more than one myeloma specialist. Well, I have tons of examples from my past, but I have digressed enough for now.
There is a wonderful book, translated into several languages, that teach women to follow their istinct. The author is Clarissa Pinkola Estés and the title is Women who run with the Wolfes (Donne che corrono coi lupi, in Italian).
It’s a fascinating book, and thanks to your post, Margaret, I might read it again.
Sherlock
Dear Margaret,
My judgement was correct in going to MD Anderson. I recieved an email yesterday from them that I needed to call so they could discuss something, figured it was about doing chemo or maybe a clinical trial that I might get into.
The call was to tell me that they misdiagnosed me. I have went from stage 4 to stage IIIb and now I am stage IIb. I underwent surgery the second time that removed 9 additional lymph nodes when the pathologist said my SNB was positive. MD Anderson required they send all of this and they looked at it, my SNB was negative and they shouldn’t have removed the other lymph nodes.
I am totally dumbfounded now, how can this doctor be in business when he makes a mistake like this, how many other people underwent surgery that wasn’t required because of his mistakes?
You have been a great help to me, and I am now going to be there for all of you and continue with my novel treatment to help keep the problem at bay. You have been an angel for me in all the darkness that surrounded me, and I will forever be in your debt.
Thank you Margaret for being such a compassionate soul for all of us.
A Buddhist might argue that intuition is a function of both past and present lives. It does seem strange how we can have insights into the unknown sometimes.
Hi Margaret,
This is a very interesting site you have. I came across yours from Bix’s, and since we share the same first name I was prompted to visit.
Love this subject. I truly believe that intuition is our survival instinct and can save our lives. I had a similar experience with cancer “treatment” as some of the others. I followed my gut and declined a recommended declined a bone marrow transplant (almost ten years ago), did do other conventional treatment and changed to a strict macrobiotic diet. I got better, and better. So I stayed with it. Then I started paying attention to my gut feelings on a regular basis, and MANY other things in my life improved. Now if I don’t (out of busyness, or whatever) I regret it.
Great subject and it will prompt me to return!
So happy that curcurmin worked for your multiple myloma. Wonderful.
Love your blog banner too.