Trusting Your Gut Feelings
What are gut feelings? Some people experience them as a voice in their head telling them to go this way or that, some people experience it as a literal clenching sensation in the gut, others experience it as a sense of dis-ease and stress pertaining to a particular situation. For me I know that I mostly experience it as a clenching in the gut that is often accompanied by a voice guiding me in some way. Gut feelings are often referred to as intuition or a sixth sense.
The gut has its own nervous system called the enteric nervous system. Scientists often call this the second brain as this system uses the same chemicals as our actual brains to help us digest our food and also alert the brain when something in our environment is amiss.
In Indian spiritual traditions such as Hinduism, gut feelings are viewed as spiritual knowledge coming from deep within a person.
Recently I have been reflecting on the importance of listening to our gut feelings in order to protect both our physical and mental health. Having not listened to by gut on a few occasions in the past I have come to the conclusion that the greatest advice we can give anybody is to listen to their gut feelings.
I remember last year being in a very difficult work situation where my gut was literal screaming at me to stop working with one individual. It was a difficult time for me as I was relying heavily on this person for the majority of my income but my insides were telling me that something was wrong. As a consequence, I suffered greatly for months on end. One minute this person was my best friend in the world, next minute they would pull the floor from under me with personal digs and going back on certain promises they had made. It took me over 6 months of ignoring my gut feelings before I eventually took the risk and cut ties. After cutting ties I suffered many other consequences as a result of my relationship with this person. Mutual friends of ours chose not to invite me to certain social gatherings and others were far less friendly then previously. The vibes had changed significantly.
To my amazement after cutting ties from this person I went through a severe catharsis where I had episodes of diarrhoea accompanied by the strenuous coughing up of large quantities of phlegm. It was if the emotional and mental toxicity I had been experiencing while engaging with this person had physically manifested and been stored in my body. This lasted for approximately three weeks before my body and mind returned to a peaceful state. Had I listened to my gut feelings I would avoided the physical, mental and social consequences that followed.
Another recent situation where I ignored my gut feelings and suffered as a consequence was earlier this year while I was studying Compassionate Inquiry. As part of the training we are required to do dyads and triads with other trainees. These are online zoom calls where 2-3 people meet up and practice the approach and give each other feedback on what we did well and what we could maybe work on. As I started working with one particular individual on the course things started of great between us. We learned lot from each other and actually became quite good friends and a good support system for one another as we embarked on this highly emotionally triggering program. At one point I began to have a gut feeling telling me that I needed to get away from this person. It made absolutely no logical sense to me at the time and so I ignored it. Fast forward a few weeks and we are in the thick of drama. This led me to suffer a few weeks of worry and anxiety as to what this person may say about me within the group and if there may be consequences of some sort. Thankfully the storm passed and everything was ok however had I listened to my gut feeling earlier on I would have evaded all this drama and stress and channelled that lost energy into more productive means.
On the contrary, whenever I have listened to my gut feelings I have seen great things happen. When I was 19 my gut told me to leave two college courses within two months in order to follow my passion of studying Kinesiology. Despite the overwhelming fear I felt inside this turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made and also led me on to Gabor Mate’s Psychotherapy approach Compassionate Inquiry.
Recently I have started to consult with my gut on all important matters in my life. To do this I close my eyes and intentionally connect to my gut. I literally ask my gut questions out loud about situations, people and decisions I have to make. What will happen for me is my gut will clench and at the same time I will hear a voice saying something. If I am thinking about a decision I have to make I will think about the different options in front of me. Often when I think about one option my gut will clench and then I will hear a “NO” or a “YES”. Sometimes my gut will give me more information than that. For example if I ask it “why” it may proceed to tell me why I should or shouldn’t take a certain course of action. Basically I have a conversation with my gut.
As I have started listening to my gut more and more I am noticing a lot more ease in my mind and body. A lot of times my gut feelings don’t make sense to my logical and analytical mind but nevertheless listening to them is creating a lot more flow in my life.
If you’ve read this far I invite you build a relationship with your gut. Talk to it about your life and hear what it has to say. Then try listening to its guidance and see what happens. If you found this blog helpful and you’ve tried listening to your gut I’d love to hear how it went for you.