You know that uncomfortable feeling you get sometimes, like when an overly friendly stranger offers help you don’t want? Or the sense that you shouldn’t get into an elevator with someone, even though you can’t explain why?
This fear can be a asset because our subconscious picks up on details that alert us to danger. One of my favorite nonfiction books is The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence by Gavin de Becker. He provides many stories of survivors who, looking back, realized it was their intuition that alerted them to a dangerous situation. Intuition, he says, is “the journey from A to Z without stopping at any other letter along the way. It is knowing without knowing why.”
This fear can be a asset because our subconscious picks up on details that alert us to danger. One of my favorite nonfiction books is The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence by Gavin de Becker. He provides many stories of survivors who, looking back, realized it was their intuition that alerted them to a dangerous situation. Intuition, he says, is “the journey from A to Z without stopping at any other letter along the way. It is knowing without knowing why.”
Yet we often try to downplay our fear. What if we’re wrong about the danger? We don’t want to look silly or seem alarmist. We don’t want to possibly insult a stranger by not getting in the elevator. We don’t want to seem rude.
But if our intuition is telling us otherwise, de Becker argues that rudeness is the last thing we should be worried about. Being afraid can save us from harm.
De Becker says, “No animal in the wild, suddenly overcome with fear, would spend any of its mental energy thinking, ‘It’s probably nothing.’ Yet we chide ourselves for even momentarily giving validity to the feeling that someone is behind us on a seemingly empty street, or that someone’s unusual behavior might be sinister. . . We, in contrast to every other creature in nature, choose not to explore--and even to ignore--survival signals.”
But if our intuition is telling us otherwise, de Becker argues that rudeness is the last thing we should be worried about. Being afraid can save us from harm.
De Becker says, “No animal in the wild, suddenly overcome with fear, would spend any of its mental energy thinking, ‘It’s probably nothing.’ Yet we chide ourselves for even momentarily giving validity to the feeling that someone is behind us on a seemingly empty street, or that someone’s unusual behavior might be sinister. . . We, in contrast to every other creature in nature, choose not to explore--and even to ignore--survival signals.”
Have you ever experienced helpful intuition? Have you ever acted on fear and been grateful for it? Or, since it's October, what's the scariest book you've ever read? Let me know in the comments.
If you like books AND surprises, subscribe to my newsletter for a chance to win a mystery package of 3 Advanced Reading Copies (various genres).
I recently attended a conference and walked away with too many new books to possibly read, so I want to share the book love. I'll select one newsletter subscriber at random at the end of the day on Saturday (Oct 17, 2015) and announce the winner in my upcoming newsletter. If you subscribed previously -- thank you! You're already eligible. (If an international person wins, I'll offer a substitute gift due to shipping costs.)
My monthly newsletter is where I share book news, what I'm reading now, and other goodies exclusively for subscribers. Subscribe here. Good luck!
I recently attended a conference and walked away with too many new books to possibly read, so I want to share the book love. I'll select one newsletter subscriber at random at the end of the day on Saturday (Oct 17, 2015) and announce the winner in my upcoming newsletter. If you subscribed previously -- thank you! You're already eligible. (If an international person wins, I'll offer a substitute gift due to shipping costs.)
My monthly newsletter is where I share book news, what I'm reading now, and other goodies exclusively for subscribers. Subscribe here. Good luck!
A previous version of this post appeared at YA Outside the Lines.
RSS Feed
