⁠My latest article on Jumble & Flow, “This middle-aged woman’s honest review of Natural Cycles, a non-hormonal birth control app“ has me thinking about science, intuition, rationality, and gut feelings.

Mainly, I believe in all of it. I believe in science. I believe in intuition. I believe in being rational. And I believe in gut feelings.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve pitted intuition and gut feelings against science and the rational, as if both can’t exist together. 

Our society has become one of opposition.

If you’re not for it, you’re against it. If you’re against it, you must not be for it.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve lost nuance. We’ve lost the idea that there is a time and place for opposites. And that life is about the balance of both—Of all.

In the article, I talk about listening to gut feelings. They came through painful menstrual cramps, and eventually felt I needed to listen to my body and go off The Pill. It may be true that there is no scientific evidence that shows that The Pill produces adverse effects and has few side effects for most of the population who takes it. 

As a former research analyst, both qualitative and quantitative, I also know that numbers and percentages give us a helpful birds eye view of a population’s experience, but each person has our own nuance, and we are not just a number. We are individuals with bodies that are all our own. With emotions, feelings, varying environments and situations that contribute to our own personal health, biology and needs.

By choosing to use Natural Cycles, I am not anti-science. I am choosing to use science in a different way. 

This is how intuition and the rational can work together. My intuition tells me I need to make a change. And science gave me a new possibility that uses rational scientific methods to create a new way. We do similar things every day of our lives. We get a feeling — a need, a desire, a “knowing.” And we use our logical minds to make it happen.

As Albert Einstein said “I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.“

It is not anti-science to open up our imaginations. Use our intuition and our gut feelings. It is progress. It is improvement. It propels positive change.

I’ll end this on another Albert Einstein quote: 

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Sending much love.

In gratitude, Bonnie
💜🌈🌞✨