Pursue the whole body yes

Democracy isn't always the answer

When struggling with a decision, only act when you have consensus from your mind, your heart, and your gut. You are seeking a whole body “yes.”

Let’s meet the voters.

Your mind speaks using words. It’s easiest to understand, but has the ability to rationalize anything. It’s subject to bias too. Logic is a cerebral response, but just because something “makes sense,” that doesn't mean you want it.

For want you must listen to your heart. Not “listen,” exactly. Tune into your body. Like cracking a safe, you must gently twist the knobs of you, feeling for the tactile response of emotion. Emotion is a physical response: it spins tales of desire and disgust entirely without words.

Your gut is hardest to read. It won’t chatter like the mind. It doesn’t grip you like emotion. But your instinctive reflex is always flickering inside you, like a pilot light. Instinct is a spiritual, and primordial response. It can spark you into action or lard you with resistance.

To activate a dormant instinct, surrender your next 10 decisions to the flip of a coin and observe yourself. Your gut is that twinge of resistance (or relief) as the coin lands. Your gut may speak quietly, but it always speaks the truth.

Most important: this isn’t a democracy. For any choice, you need a whole body yes or the answer is no. You will avoid doing things you detest, which is useful. You will do less in general, and that's OK. You will move toward a world that every part of you accepts with unqualified enthusiasm, and that is living with integrity.