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Going With Your Gut

Updated: Dec 22, 2018



Why Listening to Your Intuition is the Way to Go


How many times have you thought, “I should have trusted my gut!”? When we face an uncomfortable situation or decision, we tend to rationalize it and use logic as the basis of our decision, even though something doesn’t quite feel right. We're left with anxiety and discomfort. If you learned how to trust that gut feeling a little more, you might be surprised how accurate it is.


Fun Fact: There are actual brain cells (neurons) in your gut.  This is known as the enteric nervous system.



What is Intuition?

Intuition – the Highest Form of Intelligence


Some of the greatest minds of human history such as Immanuel Kant, Carl Jung or Albert Einstein considered intuition as the highest form of intelligence.


Intuition is something that we all naturally have. However, we don’t always consciously listen to it. Instead, we tend to trust only what appears to be rational. While intellect is about rational, intuition is about creativity and doing something from the heart. Intuition is the best way to discover yourself. This is why it’s so important to learn how to hear and trust your gut.


How to Follow your Gut?

When you feel stressed, try to focus on your gut reaction and to interpret it. Practicing mindfulness can help you reflect on your emotions in a current situation and allow your intuition to guide you. Here are four tips on how to follow your gut:

  1. Breathe deeply and relax your muscles.

  2. Take a moment to reflect on your emotions. Mindfully focus on the present and listen to your body and it’s physical sensations.

  3. Focus on your gut reaction. That all knowing pit in your stomach you sometimes feel. Ask yourself what your gut is telling you. Explore the context – is logic discouraging you from listening to your gut?

  4. Declare your choice out loud and pay attention to what your gut ‘says’ about your decision.

How Listening to Your Intuition can Improve Your Life

Listening only to our conscious mind may limit us and lead to missed opportunities in life. On the other hand, paying attention to our intuition can help us see things from a different perspective. Intuition can offer fresh, creative solutions.


The benefits of going with your gut are numerous. Here are some improvements that awakening your intuition can bring to your life:


Better Self-Awareness

Allowing your intuition to have a say in your decisions will help you learn how to look inside for answers to your dilemmas, rather than search for them outside. Moreover, mindfulness exercises will increase your observation skills. You will become more receptive to new ideas that your conscious mind may want to ignore without even considering them.


Awakening your sixth sense will teach you how to enjoy your time alone and listen to your inner voice. Once you learn how to follow your intuition, you will boost your self-esteem and gain confidence in your decisions.  This will allow you to trust yourself and your abilities more.


Increased Emotional Intelligence

Self-awareness will help you know yourself on a deep level. You will become more aware of your emotions. Being intuitive, you are aware of what do you feel, why you feel that way, and how your feelings can affect other people.


Intuition also increases your ability to understand the feelings of others. This can improve your relationships, help you understand other people’s motives and predict their reactions. In short, intuition can help you succeed in both personal and professional life.


Enhanced Creativity

To go with your gut, you need to focus and allow your subconscious to emerge. Developing intuition will help you silence the inner critic and judge in your mind and open you up for creativity. It will encourage you to take a different viewpoint and look for creative solutions. Intuition can help you lose the fear of saying ‘No’ and let go of your negative emotions.


Better Decision-Making

Once you learn to listen to your gut, you can make decisions more effectively. Rather than giving a reactionary decision, you’ll learn how to sit with the feeling and see what the best response will be.

Your intuition will improve your memory. It will teach you how to interpret non-verbal communication. Furthermore, being intuitive will help you connect with others more easily and maintain successful relationships. It will encourage you to make better choices and with greater certainty.


Improved Mental Health

The better understanding of yourself and trust in your own decisions will lower your stress levels and boost your optimism and happiness. Learning to listen your inner voice can reduce stress and anxiety caused by your over-analyzing mind and improve your overall mental, emotional and physical health.


Listening to your subconscious mind pushes you to toward constant personal growth and leads to a reduction in distracting and often sabotaging voices in your conscious mind. It allows the voice of your inner wisdom to arise, helps you develop better boundaries, learn to say ‘No’, and reduce stress levels.


Turning in to your inner knowledge can help you improve memory, enhance your decision making skills and sharpen your focus. Going with your gut will help you feel satisfied with your choices and lead to fulfillment in your life.


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