WHEN LOGIC FAILS

Stumped? WINTER ROSS offers a reminder that we can call on more than our rational mind.

MY BRAIN IS FRIED. I've come to South Carolina from New Mexico to be with my sick mother, who's in a nursing home. I am exhausted from moving from place to place: from guest room to retreat center to housesit to campground. I don't know where to go next, and I can't make a rational decision. I'm standing at a gas station, pumping gas into a vehicle that's been driving around in circles for months.

I close my eyes. I ask the universe for a sign. When I open them, I am staring at the sunset orange wall of the little station. It boasts a large mural of a desert-dwelling bird never seen in this part of the world. A roadrunner, racing westward.

Thank you, universe. It's time to go home.

While researching this article, I searched a used book Chinese wisdom. Instead, I found another book, abandoned on the arm of the chair I happened to sit down in: How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. I'm used to this. I wasn't surprised. I bought it.

Lehrer is known for his expertise in neuroscience, but his book includes an exhortation for us to understand that decisions should not be made through logic alone. He states:

"If it weren't for our emotions, reason wouldn't exist at all. Not only are these dichotomies (of logic versus intuition) false, they're destructive. There is no universal solution to the problem of decision-making. The real world is just too complex. As a result, natural selection endowed us with a brain that is enthusiastically pluralist."

Here, I enthusiastically share some traditional, time-tested tools that can help you make choices when logic fails.

SYNCHRONICITY

Carl Jung defined synchronicity as "circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection." It is a psychologically meaningful link between an internal event, such as a thought, image, or dream, and one or more external events occurring simultaneously.