Hello! Your gut here. We need to have a chat. I’ve been talking with the rest of the organs and the glands, and we’re really concerned about you. But mainly we’re all worried that you’ve been listening to brain again.

Look, we’ve told you before that brain is great for math and remembering that one line from that ABBA song in the middle of the night. But otherwise it just rationalizes, rambles on, branches off, goes into spirals and sometimes just plain lies. But I guess we need to remind you — again — that you just can’t trust that thing sometimes.

Remember when you had that flu? The entire body was telling you not to go to work. And what did you do? You listened to brain telling what you “should” do. Then, not only did you get the entire office sick, but you used up all your paid time off because you developed pneumonia. The lungs are still really upset about that. And even brain was looking forward to that vacation you and it were planning.

Let me be super basic about this because I know how attached you are to thought. We all — your senses, organs, glands and even brain stem — have been around a lot longer than brain. We’re the parts you folks originally crawled out of the water with millions of years ago. Brain is a newb at this life thing. Why are you paying all your attention to it?

We pick up on a lot. And heart really has your best interest in it. So when you’re stuck on something, maybe you could give us a listen. I realize that means ignoring whatever brain is currently stuck on at the moment, but we’ve got a plan! (Colon came up with it. It’s so tired of the strain.)

The plan is to just gain a little distance from brain. You could think of it like watching a movie of yourself thinking. You know, get nice and comfy, and just watch like a movie. You’re really good at listening to us when you watch a movie.

Remember that one movie where the young woman is driving at night, singing “She was! An American girl!” And then she pulled up in the parking lot to her apartment building and saw that guy with the cast on his arm trying to load a couch in the back of a windowless van? You were totally listening to us then! You were even shouting with us for her to keep walking, get in her apartment, lock the door and feed her cat.

We knew that guy was up to no good. But then she listened to brain, who probably said something like, “You should help that poor man! What can he do to you? He’s got a cast on! What do you mean, ‘why is he out here at night moving a couch with a cast on?!’ You should always help someone who looks disabled. And calling that a ‘kidnapper van’ is just really judgy and prejudiced of you.”

Well, we know what happened to her, don’t we? Yeah, she spent a week in a hole in the basement of a guy making himself a woman suit out of women. Not a great outcome, if you ask us.

So, we don’t really see why you can’t do that for yourself. You keep asking brain if that one guy just has a quirky sense of humor or if he’s really just a total jerk who wants something from you. Why not listen to us? Because that guy is really just a total jerk who just wants something from you. We know this the same way we knew that girl going swimming at night at the beginning of a film that had a giant shark in it was a bad idea. We just feel these things. It’s our job to protect you, and we’ve been doing it for a really long time without the help of John Williams or Howard Shore.

Look, all we’re really asking is for you to take the time to let brain do its brain things! It’s great at stuff like installing your printer drivers and figuring out how to turn off autocorrect. Just tune into us once in a while. And if you can’t sit still long enough to listen, then maybe take a walk until brain gets tired or take some deep breaths. You could even play a game or watch another movie about the trouble folks get into when they listen to brain. Just to give brain something to chew on while you sit with us and have a feel.

Anyway, we all just wanted to remind you that we’re here for you. We’ve got your back, literally, inside your spine where your central nervous system is. That  communication is a two-way street, ya know. We’re always talking back and forth with brain. You need to work on your listening skills, is all. So, that’s really all we wanted to say. Oh, and yeah, no, she really is an evil witch who is completely jealous of you but needs to put you down to feel better. Trust us, OK? We got you.

With deepest regard,

Your Gut

PS: Coffee is not a food group. Please remember. Thanks! – G

Namasté and trust your gut, you overthinking Legends!

-J.Lakis

✌🏼🫀🫁👁️👃🏼👂🏼✋🏼💪🏼🤟🏼

If you or anyone you know is experiencing domestic/sexual violence please contact RAIIN by phone or chat.

If you’re considering suicide, self harm, or have a mental health crisis: call or text 988 any time to talk or text with someone from the National Suicide Prevention and Crisis Hotline. Help is always available in English or Spanish.

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