Do you like animals? Cool. Me too.
So, today I will share with you an observation. It’s a little crazy. But trust me, it opened a whole new door of perception in my mind.
Ok, here’s the story:
I follow a page on X that shares very interesting animal videos (for me, interesting means behavior related). The only reason I follow that page is to observe the animals and learn from them.
Sometime ago they shared a video of an encounter between a group of photographers and a silver-back gorilla in the wild. You may have already seen the video, but I’ll still leave the link at the end of this letter (now don’t rush to the video, hear me out first).
So, here’s what happened.
Two photographers encountered a family of gorillas in the wild. The leader of the tribe was staring right at the cameraman and the other photographer was sitting on his knees a few feet away (probably with his heart in his mouth).
The gorilla was looking right at the camera as if he were thinking what to do, and then he beats his chest, and walked away a few feet with his back to both people (like he was telling them, imma count to 10, leave or you’re dead).
Here’s how I interpreted it:
The gorilla was the leader of the group. His job was to protect his family. He looked at both people and within a few seconds figured out that they weren’t a threat. So he beat his chest as a warning to convey that he was not happy and they should leave before things get dirty.
I watched that video over and over again thinking why didn’t the gorilla attack them?
And then it hit me, it was INSTINCT.
Let me explain.
You see, animals run purely on instinct. Instinct is a survival mechanism programmed into all animals by nature (you and me too).
Like if you clap your hands in front of a pigeon, it instantly flies away. Or if you encountered a tiger in the wild… well, I don’t have to explain that one.
Instincts react in 3 ways:
- Attack
- Run away to save your life
- Trust and chill
And how an animal reacts depends on which one out of the three is dominant. Like in a dog, trust is dominant. In a pigeon, running away is dominant. In a tiger, attack is dominant.
We humans have the same instincts. And if you’re an introvert, they’re as sharp as a surgeon’s blade.
Now here’s how instincts work in humans and how you can use them.
The mechanism of instinct communicates with us through emotions. And fundamentally, nature has given us only three emotions: Fear, Anger, and Trust.
These 3 are the original emotions programmed into us by nature for our survival and safety. And any other emotion you know about or have heard about stems from these three fundamental emotions.
Examples:
– Love stems from trust.
– Loyalty stems from trust.
– Revenge stems from anger.
– Guilt or shame stems from fear
– Inferiority complex stems from fear
Pick up any emotions and if you keep digging, you’ll find one of these three at the bottom.
Every action you take, and every decision you make comes from instinct.
This is how humans perceive:
Let me give you an example to understand the above picture.
Suppose you went on a date with someone. They’re good looking, well dressed, well mannered, have a good sense of humor and all those nice things. But despite all that, deep down you feel there’s something off about that person. You may not quite put your finger on it, but you just know.
That’s your instinct in action.
Now what do we do when our heart and mind is in conflict? We try to reason. You start telling yourself… but the guy paid for the date and treated me so well or the girl was so beautiful and well mannered.
But let me tell you this: instincts are never wrong. Never.
You know why?
Because instinct is the intelligence of mother nature. The same intelligence that runs the whole planet. And its sole purpose is your survival and safety.
Do you think your mind is more intelligent than nature?
What you call vibing with someone, or clicking with someone, or feeling calm with someone– it’s your instinct of trust giving you the sign that it’s safe to be with them.
As an introvert, you know exactly what I’m talking about. There are people who give you that warm and cosy feeling, and then there are people who make you wanna run away.
Childhood conditioning and self-limiting beliefs can disconnect us from our instincts. We lose our ability to trust ourselves. If you’d like to learn more, you can check out my book ‘Born to Stand Out’.
Just like the gorilla who knew that those 2 humans were not a threat and spared them with a warning, you too can use your instincts to make better life decisions.
Let me explain.
If your house were on fire, would you first sit and think about how to get out?
Absolutely not.
You would jump out of the window if you had to, to save your life. That’s the instinct of fear (survival) kicking in and guiding you to safety.
When you’re connected to your instincts, you don’t think, you act.
Now, I’m not saying you should stop using your mind and blindly follow your feelings. All I’m saying is to use your mind and the ability to reason in alignment with your instinct, not against it.
Let me explain that with a personal example.
Sometimes, right before I’m about to post a tweet, I feel resistance. This has happened countless times. And whenever I ignore that feeling, that tweet gets lower engagement than usual.
So with experience and awareness, I’ve aligned my writing with my instinct. Now just before posting a tweet, I pause and read it. And if I feel even a hint of resistance, I stop and rewrite it until it feels right.
This is what I mean by using your reason in alignment with your instinct.
Because I’ve realized that nature’s intelligence is a billion times superior to my ability to reason. I may not know how it works, but I know this: it’s never wrong.
And no matter what my mind tells me, I’ll always keep my instincts above reason.
Now here’s your video. Enjoy.
Stay blessed,
Karun