What Does It Mean to Trust Your Gut?

No doubt you have heard the phrase, “Just trust your gut.” Ever wonder what it actually means in a practical way, what it feels like and how to do it?

Abiding inside our most authentic self is a feeling, a voice, a resonating vibration that knows what is best for us and if we can just quiet all the noise around us and all the chatter inside our brain, we can actually hear the guidance coming from deep, deep inside our very essence. That guidance –that intuition– is our gut communicating with us and it can be our greatest protection when we make the effort to connect to it and allow ourselves to hear it.  It’s always there yet it’s easy to miss the messages it wants to give us when we engage in any compulsive activity such as working or playing too hard, eating, drinking–you can fill in the blank here. Another common way to block the guidance from our gut is by assuming the answers we need are outside of ourselves.

Want to begin a daily practice that will help you trust your gut?

Find a time and a place where and when you can be still and undisturbed.  Initially, as you are learning, you need only to dedicate a few minutes each day.   Close your eyes; breathe slowly and deeply from your belly. When your mind wanders and starts thinking about mundane things, just stop those thoughts without judging yourself or them; refocus on your breathing and start again.

Making this effort to pay attention to your gut is a step toward true knowledge of who you really are, what you really need and what action or non-action serves you in your highest and best good at this point in time.  The more effort and time you put into connecting to your gut, the more power, strength and guidance you will receive from it.

Decide how much time you want to devote and choose when and where you will do it. Set the timer on your phone, whether it is for one minute, two minutes or more; then just begin.

Your gut is the best friend you will ever have; the more time you spend communicating with it and learning how to listen to the guidance it sends to you, the easier it becomes to follow that guidance with assurance, confidence and calm.

Advertisement

Trust or Fear: Which Do You Choose?

There are two places I can always go, but never at the same time.  I have to choose one or the other.

I can go to the place of fear where I will most certainly experience worry, anxiety, doubt, insecurity, and discomfort.  I don’t like going there yet it’s so easy to find myself there when I’m not being mindful of my thoughts.  Being in fear makes me sad, impatient and self-centered.   I feel nervous and uneasy there and I know instantly I don’t want to stay.  It’s not a friendly place and it’s very crowded.  Lots of people hang out there and none are happy.  There’s lots of complaining, moaning, whining, blaming, judging, criticizing and there’s no shortage of despair.

I like the other place, the place of trust.  Everyone in trust is calm, relaxed, and peaceful.  People take their time in this place; they are confident, generous, optimistic and practice gratitude.  You see lots of smiles in the land of trust.

We are always in control of our choice and we can always change our mind; which one do you choose?