The Battle Between Common Sense and Intelligence

An extract from lecture 40 of The Calmness in Mind Process for anxiety disorders by John Glanvill.

Most people who struggle with anxiety are intelligent. That is not a compliment in this context. It is often the problem. Intelligence, when left unchecked, becomes a highly skilled storyteller that can justify almost any avoidance, any delay, and any self-sabotage. Common sense, by contrast, is quieter, more practical, and far less interested in looking clever.

Look at the behaviours that fail the common-sense test. Staying in a job you hate. Worrying about things that have never happened. Feeling lonely yet refusing to meet new people. Fearing thoughts as if they were facts. Living in an emotionally toxic environment rather than leaving. Seeking reassurance from people who share the same problems. Knowing change is required and still not moving. The list is long and ironic. Intelligent people do these things every day.

Why? Because the intellect is excellent at generating reasons. It can cite past experiences, potential embarrassment, social norms, lack of certainty, or the need for more information. It keeps the person safe inside a familiar, exhausting loop. Common sense asks a simpler set of questions: Does this behaviour move my life forward? Does it recharge or drain my energy? Is there any real evidence that the feared outcome will happen, or is it only a story?

Schooling trained most of us to value academic intelligence over practical intelligence. We were taught to memorise, to pass exams, to respect authority and to trust standard narratives. We were not taught how to make decisions under uncertainty, how to handle money, how to start something, how to sit with discomfort, or how to manage our own emotional energy. Emotional intelligence — the ability to notice and regulate our own states and influence those of others without drama — was largely ignored. The result is a population that can analyse complex problems yet struggles with basic self-direction.

A useful distinction is between the small-s self (the intelligent ego) and the larger Self (the quiet observer). The ego feeds on emotion, both the high of winning and the low of drama, guilt or unfairness. It does not want calm. Calm removes its food supply. Common sense belongs to the observer. It notices the story, separates it from the bodily sensation, and chooses the next useful action without needing the story to be resolved first.

Exposure and response prevention is pure common sense applied to fear. The intellect will argue that the exposure is too risky, too embarrassing, or too simple to work. The practical move is to lean into the feared situation with a new mindset and stay long enough for the body to update its old prediction. A student who feared wetting himself in queues was offered the practical solution of wearing a discreet incontinence pad for a few days of exposure. His intelligence called it disgusting. Common sense called it a temporary tool that removed the obstacle. Once the fear was starved of avoidance, it collapsed, and the real work of social confidence could begin.

Energy is another area where common sense outperforms intellect. Everything is energy. Breath, movement, focused attention and deliberate optimism raise frequency. Trapped trauma and repressed anger lower it. When those stuck energies finally move, the release can look dramatic — shaking, noise, heat, strong emotion. The intellect labels this as a panic attack or loss of control and tries to shut it down. Common sense recognises it as discharge of an overloaded system and allows it to complete, preferably in a private or noisy place where the body can finish the process without interruption.

Happiness and calmness are internal states. They are not delivered by the next achievement. While waiting for a delayed plane, the intellect complains about the inconvenience and demands compensation. Common sense uses the time to rest, imagines something pleasant, or simply accepts that the plane is not there until it is. The outer event stays the same. The inner experience becomes workable.

The practical shift is straightforward. Stop using intelligence to justify staying stuck. Start using common sense to take the next useful step, even when it feels awkward or incomplete. Separate the story in the head from the sensation in the body. Raise energy deliberately. Allow trapped material to leave without adding meaning. Decision-making then becomes simpler: if it aligns with what you have decided matters, do it. If it does not, leave it. The intellect will keep arguing. Common sense does not need the argument to end before action begins.