Trust Your Gut—There's Nothing Woo-Woo About the Vagus Nerve

“Gut feelings” are referred to in medicine as “interoceptive sensations”. Interoception is the ability to sense physiological signals originating inside your body, such as heart rate, temperature, hunger, pain, irritable bowel, etc. Interoception and intuition go hand in hand. Oftentimes, a gut feeling is the first feedback your mind gets when making an emotional decision or conducting a ‘cost-benefit analysis’ of the pros and cons of a particular decision.

Your Vagus Nerve Sends Gut Instincts to the Brain and Can Keep You Calm
A wide range of visceral responses and gut feelings are transferred up to your brain via the vagus nerve. In previous studies, signals from the vagus nerve traveling from the gut to the brain have been linked to modulating mood and distinctive types of fear and anxiety. Having grace under pressure is directly linked to the calming parasympathetic response associated with healthy vagal tone.
Your vagus nerve is constantly sending updated sensory information about the state of your body’s organs, digestive tract, heart rate, state of arousal, etc. “upstream” to your brain via afferent nerves. In fact, 80-90% of the nerve fibers in the vagus nerve are dedicated to communicating the state of your viscera up to your brain in the form of gut feelings.
more: https://www.psychologytoday.com/…/trust-your-gut-theres-not…

The purpose of human life

Human life is meant for God realization, and the human being is given higher intelligence for this purpose. Those who believe that this higher intelligence is meant to attain a higher state should follow the instructions of the Vedic literatures. By taking such instructions from higher authorities, one can actually become situated in perfect knowledge and give real meaning to life.

In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.9) Śrī Sūta Gosvāmī describes the proper human dharma in this way:
dharmasya hy āpavargyasya
nārtho ’rthāyopakalpate
nārthasya dharmaikāntasya
kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ
“All occupational engagements [dharma] are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational service [dharma] should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification.”
The first step in human civilization consists of occupational engagements performed according to the scriptural injunctions. The higher intelligence of a human being should be trained to understand basic dharma. In human society there are various religious conceptions characterized as Hindu, Christian, Hebrew, Mohammedan, Buddhist and so on, for without religion, human society is no better than animal society.
As stated above (dharmasya hy āpavargyasya nārtho ’rthāyopakalpate), religion is meant for attaining emancipation, not for getting bread. Sometimes human society manufactures a system of so-called religion aimed at material advancement, but that is far from the purpose of true dharma. Religion entails understanding the laws of God because the proper execution of these laws ultimately leads one out of material entanglement. That is the true purpose of religion. Unfortunately people accept religion for material prosperity because of atyāhāra, or an excessive desire for such prosperity. True religion, however, instructs people to be satisfied with the bare necessities of life while cultivating Bhakti. Even though we require economic development, true religion allows it only for supplying the bare necessities of material existence. Jīvasya tattva jijñāsā: the real purpose of life is to inquire about the Absolute Truth. If our endeavor (prayāsa) is not to inquire about the Absolute Truth, we will simply increase our endeavor to satisfy our artificial needs. A spiritual aspirant should avoid mundane endeavor.
Source: Nectar of Instruction
 Raja Chandrasekaran.

A Rare View of China's Last Dynasty

In May of 1870, Thomas Child was hired by the Imperial Maritime Customs Service to be a gas engineer in Peking (Beijing). The 29-year-old Englishman left behind his wife and three children to become one of roughly 100 foreigners living in the late Qing dynasty's capital, taking his camera along with him. Over the course of the next 20 years, he took some 200 photographs, capturing the earliest comprehensive catalog of the customs, architecture, and people during China's last dynasty. On Thursday, an exhibition of his images will open at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery in New York, curated by Stacey Lambrow. In addition, descendants of the subjects of one of his most famous images, Bride and Bridegroom (1870s), will be in attendance.

 The wedding portrait of Zeng Jifen and Nie ji Gui, who were only recently identified. The bride is the daughter of Marquis Zeng Guofan, a high-ranking Chinese official during the Qing dynasty.

• 
  

Left: A view of the Fragrant Hills Pagoda, which was part of the Grand Zongjing Monastery. The pagoda is embellished with glazed tiles of yellow, green, purple, and blue. Right: The 12th century pagoda of Tianning Temple, standing a few miles from the west gate of the city. It is one of the oldest buildings in the capital. Like many other Liao dynasty pagodas, the structure is solid. A sealed underground chamber holds Buddhist relics, statues, and sutras placed when the pagoda was built.

Thomas Child / Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection / Courtesy of the Sidney Mishkin Gallery

•  

thanks:.theatlantic.com