Integrated Right Action
When Instinct, Intuition, Training, and Presence Align

Last month we talked about post-formal thinking—the ability to remain present in ambiguity, hold multiple perspectives and seemingly opposing truths without rushing to judgment, and stay there long enough for greater understanding, wisdom, and creative solutions to emerge.
This month, I would like to take the idea of presence in a different direction.
What about those moments when you have to act immediately?
There isn't time to sit down, weigh the pros and cons, consider every possibility, and make a carefully reasoned decision.

• Something happens.
• You recognize it.
• And you move.

Your instinct, intuition, training, experience, body, and even adrenaline align in a single present moment, allowing you to act appropriately without consciously thinking through every step.
I call this Integrated Right Action.
Psychology and neuroscience have several terms that describe parts of this experience, including automaticity, intuitive expertise, and recognition-primed decision making. But I don't remember—or haven't found—one psychological term that completely describes what I have experienced and taught for many years.
So, for the purpose of this conversation, Integrated Right Action is my terminology, not an established term in developmental psychology.
Reaction Is Not the Same as Right Action
Let me make an important distinction.
We can react very quickly and still make a terrible decision.

• Fear can react.
• Anger can react.
• Trauma can react.
• Our ego can react.

Adrenaline can cause us to fight, flee, freeze, or do something we regret five minutes later.
Integrated Right Action is different.
It isn't simply speed.
It is alignment.
Your body recognizes something. Your experience recognizes it. Your training is available. Your intuition is speaking. Your nervous system provides the energy necessary to respond—and these things work together rather than fighting one another.
That is why I believe presence is so important.

The Present Moment
The present moment is where this alchemical process of alignment happens.
It is the convergence zone where your body's intelligence, your experience, your training, your instincts, and everything you consciously and unconsciously remember can come together and guide your action.
Some of you have experienced this in martial arts training. Firefighters, emergency personnel, athletes, and others who regularly operate under pressure sometimes recognize patterns and respond appropriately before they've consciously thought through every available option.
This is part of the power of the present moment.
When we're truly present, we're not being pulled backward by what happened yesterday or forward by what we're afraid might happen tomorrow.
We're available to what is actually happening now.
And that matters because intuition can be difficult to hear when fear, judgment, anger, assumptions, and internal chatter are screaming over it.
Presence quiets some of that noise.
It allows the body, mind, intuition, experience, and training to communicate with one another.

Can We Strengthen Integrated Right Action?
I believe we can.
We don't develop it simply by trying to think faster. We develop it by strengthening the individual parts and practicing the alignment between them.

Practice presence.
Spend time observing what is happening without immediately judging or interpreting it. Presence strengthens our ability to recognize what is actually occurring rather than what we fear is occurring.

Practice making healthy decisions.
Repetition matters. Practice making healthy decisions about the food you eat, the company you keep, what you spend your time viewing, how you speak to others, and how you listen. When your mind and body become accustomed to making thoughtful, healthy choices in everyday life, you are strengthening the patterns you may need to draw upon when decisions have to be made quickly.

Study your reactions.
This is an important one. Regardless of the outcome, and whether your decision was instantaneous or deliberate, reflect afterward:
What did I notice?
What did my body tell me?
What did I miss?
Was that intuition—or fear?
What would I do differently next time?
Experience becomes wisdom when we reflect upon it.

Learn your body's signals.
Your body is constantly giving you information. Tightness, changes in breathing and heart rate, posture, gut sensations, and other physiological responses can tell you something is happening before your conscious mind has completely processed it.
The goal isn't to blindly obey every sensation. It is to know yourself well enough to distinguish an alarm, a conditioned fear, and potentially useful information.
We'll talk about this one in greater depth another time. It's important.

Listen to your intuition.
Intuition can be remarkably valuable, particularly when supported by experience. The key is learning the difference between intuition and the ego's protections based on fear, bias, past wounds, and old experiences.
Listen to your intuition—but remain curious about it.

Practice under manageable pressure.
I'm sure both your professional and personal life provide stressful moments—competition, challenging conversations, unexpected problems, and other situations requiring quick decisions.
These moments are opportunities to remember and strengthen your alignment. We learn how to remain present while the adrenaline is flowing, not just when everything is peaceful.
Practice trust.
Trust can be practiced.
Practice trusting your body.
Trust your intuition.
Trust your training.
Trust your instincts.
And perhaps most importantly, trust your ability to manage both success and failure.
The more you trust yourself in the present moment, the less energy you have to spend second-guessing yourself—and the more available you become for alignment to occur.

When the Moment Comes
Integrated Right Action doesn't mean we will always make the perfect decision. There may not even be a perfect decision available.
It means developing ourselves so that when the moment comes, all of us is available to meet it—our body, mind, experience, intuition, instincts, training, and awareness.
This is one of the deeper purposes of practicing presence.
We practice when there is plenty of time...
so we can trust ourselves when there isn't.
I'd love to explore this with you at this month's gathering.

Have you ever experienced a moment when you acted without consciously knowing how you knew what to do?

Was it instinct? Intuition? Experience? Training? Something else?

And perhaps the bigger question:
How do we prepare ourselves today for the moments tomorrow when there won't be time to think?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts—and your experiences.

Here is the Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87814168399

~André