Trust Your Gut | David Vobora | TEDxSMU

it's January 15th 2012 I have zero concept of time I don't know if it's day or night my body shutting itself down the only thing that my body craves are the drugs that put me in this place who's rejecting everything else I just experienced my first seizure from drug withdrawal and laid in a hospital bed helpless detoxing staring at a plate of cold tuna casserole that sat on the table next to me it was day three of seven and detox the hardest day my body was bearing the brunt of the physical war waged against itself from prescription pain medicine if I could just feed my body some nutrition that I could find relief but I mean who even likes tuna casserole right so harder than any training or competition as a pro athlete I mustered all the strength that I had to reach out to try to grasp the food my hands barely willing to open commanded my body to take it to the microwave but when I did a tremor short-circuited my stability and I fell to the ground powerlessly shamed and humiliated on my hands and knees I began scraping up lumps of tuna casserole and broken plate with my bare hands my hands trembled the limbs jerked uncontrollably and my eyes poured out with tears my spirit was crushed the nurses rushed in and restrained me for fear that I was going to try to cut myself with the broken plate they lifted my incapable body off of the floor just weeks prior I was playing in the NFL for the Seattle Seahawks in front of a stadium of 80,000 people how did I end up in this place the answer I was living without a gut and I was only using one brain if I asked you to draw a picture of the brain you draw this right but the organ that I should have been tuned into was in fact this the stomach the gut I bet at some point someone has told you to try your gut instinct right which means listen to your inner voice your intuition and if you're good and you're experienced at this you know that it's oftentimes correct even more so maybe than your conscious mind think about a time in the last week when you felt something about a situation or a person you didn't know why but you felt certain that it was true there's power in the gut and science actually backs this up this theory that there's two brains and these two organs they have a lot of undeniable similarities the gut operates on the enteric nervous system or the ENS well the brain in the head operates on the central nervous system the CNS now both share over 30 identical neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine dopamine serotonin in fact over 90 percent of the body's dopamine excuse me serotonin is in the gut and approximately 50% of its dopamine now this thing the ENS the CNS they communicate together but this is interesting because the ENS can operate autonomously even though what we understand about the CNS is it's the main operating system now the ENS and the CNS communicate via the vagus nerve now I know a lot about Vegas but I didn't know anything about the vagus nerve so I looked it up the vagus nerve winds severed the ENS can continue to function I bet you guys didn't think you're going to get a science lesson from an NFL player today huh but here's the that human physiology tells me it tells me that there the fact is that there's two cooks in the kitchen right both can offer information to guide action both give prompts and without a ability to let one lead or have perfect harmony between the two we can impair our truest inclinations so the gut has massive value I probably I probably should have said this I could have realized what took me to drug detox two years earlier because I was on the side of the road my car had broken down my girlfriend's with me we're waiting for roadside assistance and this is when we witnessed the most gruesome and horrific motorcycle accident father and a son traveled together on a bike when a car made an unexpected lane switch running into the two throwing the father over the handlebars at 75 miles an hour he tumbled end-over-end crashing into the center median as the bike laid down at pin the young boy sliding sideways across the interstate a car in the innermost Lane ran over the boy and the bike and the impact caused everything to burst into flames all of this happening to more than 50 feet away from me I wish I could tell you that I ran toward the wreckage to perform a life-saving act but I didn't instead I reached for my cell phone to dial nine-one-one and I look up to find my girlfriend wearing nothing but a swimsuit cover-up in flip-flops and she is the one running toward danger toward two mangled bodies one still pinned under a burning motorcycle later when I asked her why she didn't hesitate she looked at me and said I don't know I didn't think I just trusted my gut because if that was my dad or my brother I'd expect someone to do the same you see my my girlfriend she showed what gut instincts can do right she trusted her gut now I learned two things that day the first I was going to marry this incredible woman and I did and the second that I froze sure someone needed to dial nine-one-one but how many other drivers had already had their phone on their hand on their phone to do this necessary but uninspiring move see this didn't make sense to me because at the time I'm an NFL starting linebacker right a modern-day gladiator someone that should have prided himself on rising to the occasion when it mattered most how can I apply valor every day on the football field but in the case of a life-and-death scenario do nothing so the father lived son did not my wife relied on instincts with called her into action while my head rationalized because of fear and I cowardly played it safe so if the gut is this powerful this valuable and psychology reminds us of the purpose of intuition why do so many of us here in this room today do our best to rationalize it away it's because of fear this battle is happening constantly it's a battle between intellect and instinct right and fear locks us into conformity okay it makes us buy into others expectations for our lives and then it robs us of our true inclinations so why did I not act on the motorcycle crash it was because of this why did I stuff my face full of pain medication it was because of the fear of an identity crisis when I got hurt in football I didn't know who I was without football so the idea of going back to something that I wasn't a lead at struck fear into my heart I didn't have a gut instinct it led me to a place that it was easier just to grab that and numb myself than to step into that uncertainty how many of you raise your hand if you've ever been the last pick at anything in your life last pick yeah well I was the last pick in the 2008 NFL Draft making me mr. irrelevant the title given to the last pick because they rarely make the team but I put everything that I had into overcoming that title and I changed the statistics on mr. irrelevant I became a starter my rookie year I had achieved success but because my why was completely wrapped up in my own agenda it didn't have meaning it didn't have purpose and was not sustainable so I was living gutless that's what pushed me to cope as I took a year off after rehab I started to rehabilitate my mind and my body and I was preparing to return to the league but what I was doing was I was waking up my gut I was taking the time to figure out who I was what my gifts and skills were and what I just endured and what the purpose of it was in my life so as I began to soul search the call came for me to return to the NFL and in that moment something was different I thought I'd be excited but I wasn't so I decided to listen to my gut even though it was scary even though I'd much rather take the paycheck in the NFL instantly my brain tried to call me back but I knew in my gut it was time to close that that chapter I did I moved to Dallas I started a gym started training elite athletes business was going well one day driving home late from work I was stressed out I was tired you know my problems were so big I was having a bad day my wife called late dinner was getting cold on the table my two little girls are screaming in the background she was less than thrilled so I cut through a parking lot to dodge a traffic light which is totally legal and as I did that I have the quarter of my I saw a man in a wheelchair with no legs I felt a deep tug in my gut instantly my brain said you don't have time your wife's going to kill you you're tired you're hungry right all justifiable reasons but instead this day I was in tune to this slammed on the brakes and I whipped it next to him I hopped out of the car and I invited him to my gym to workout with me not knowing the place he was in but this combat injured marine showed up the next day the day after that and for the next three months we trained every day I watched the life come back into his eyes even though his body looked different he was redefining his physicality he was finding a new identity through that I learned one thing you can serve without compassion but you can't do compassion without service compassion is never convenient let me say that again because it's rich you can serve without compassion but you can't offer compassion without service because compassion is not convenient what I'm telling you is that the gut has massive value if you'll listen it's worth being tuned into because you're going to be able to assess situations and then act and help those in need or even help yourself think about a time maybe you've been in a relationship now you knew and your gut it wasn't right but your head wanted to believe it was right on paper it was so you stayed with that person because you didn't want to hurt them some of you may be there right now you're doing yourself and that person a disservice you see the supply and demand in today's world through my lens is that your supply your gifts your talents your experiences the adversity that you face that's the supply and the demand is to change the world for someone right front of you it doesn't take anything extraordinary we like to make leaders those who change the world right we just marginalize our own capability we put it conveniently out of our reach but the truth is that in our daily lives we have an opportunity to deal hope and the gut is the best compass to do that so this led me to recognizing a need for a person right person with disabilities then a recognize a void for a larger demographic there's over 10 million Americans with a physical disability so I designed a training methodology to assess them and train them to restore hope through movement ok this is what caused me to start my nonprofit the adaptive training foundation which does just that we offer them an opportunity through psychosocial healing to redefine their lives I'm often referred to as a sweat psychologist someone who uses weights and conditioning to reach their clients because again we can give a veteran a home we can give them a job but if they don't have an identity none of that will be sustainable what's happening inside of my gym is that these adaptive athletes these people that have been ostracized for a long time been left on the sidelines they're now getting into the game not only are they finding themselves again but as they do that they recognize that they too can pay it forward they're teaching able-bodied people like you and me what's our excuse so what my plan from a national level is to change policy the same way that there's a handicapped parking spot outside of a large corporate gym I expect there to be an ad a handicapped certified trainer inside that gym that's progress and this is how we can scale to reach a global need you guys it's critical to wake your gut up I challenge you in closing today to go and wake your gut up for it is the genesis of your highest calling and through service that excites you change the world for someone today thank you so much you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 73,141

Rating: 4.8613472 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Social Science, Disability, Health

Id: faGUQ06fR1Y

Length: 13min 23sec (803 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 09 2016