Yes, I think they do! Do you trust your instincts? Are you good at listening to your gut feelings? Do you listen to your intuition? If the answer is no, or not often, I’m hoping to persuade you otherwise.
When I’m coaching, one of my questions is often ‘What was your first feeling when … occurred? It’s often a good place to start, taking ourselves back to our instinctive response before all the ‘shoulds’ and the ‘oughts’ kicked in, and other people’s views.
What Is Intuition/Gut Instinct?
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have a moderate (in my view anyway) obsession with my gut. That’s because I’ve had quite a bit of it taken out. My go to gut person is Dr Tim Spector. If you’re interested in good gut health at all I urge you to read him. He is the gut daddy (did I just say ‘gut daddy’…). You might like to check out my interview with Jeanette Hyde, too.
What both those luminaries will tell you is that there is a strong brain gut connection. In fact, there is as much brain matter in our gut as there is total brain in a cat. Yes, I know that sounds weird, and my two cats are now looking very cross. I must stop reading out loud.
You know it. How often does something happen, or you have a thought, and you immediately feel your stomach lurch?
Intuition is the ability to tap into that feeling before ‘the something’ happens. In essence, it’s like a connection to your subconscious; it’s how the subconscious and conscious minds communicate. Which is why it can be such a strong source of creative power, wisdom, and understanding — it transcends your experience or reasoning. And yes, it even works when you have had bits taken out. (You will let me know if this is too much information, won’t you?)
Three Benefits When You Trust Your Instincts
1. Trust Your Instinct and Know Yourself Better
If you can learn to listen to and trust your instincts it will teach you a lot about yourself. You’ll begin to realise what it is you really want out of life. This being the real world you may not always be able to follow your gut, but at least you’re making a better informed decision. And you can file away what you’ve discovered about yourself for future decision-making.
2. Trust Your Instinct and Make Better Decisions
Which brings me neatly onto point two. Allowing yourself to listen to your intuition will help you make much better decisions. You can list all the pros and cons involved and look at the situation logically. But ignore your gut at your peril. Give yourself some space to tap into what you actually feel about the decision. If it’s life changing, don’t rush it.
By all means do the lists, talk to trusted people, research etc. Then take space to allow your instincts to talk to you. Walking, drawing, knitting, sewing, puzzles, anything mindful might create the brain space for your instinct to be heard.
3. Better Physical and Mental Health
There can’t be many of us who haven’t pushed ourselves to the limits. Pushed so far that our body has got out of kilter, physically and mentally. It’s exactly what Jeannette Hyde did with her beige eating and working flat out.
If we take the time to listen to our intuition we know what we’re doing isn’t helpful, but somehow we manage to shut that little voice down. The more we practice that inner listening, the more automatic it becomes and the harder to ignore.
Your health is important. Listen to your intuition and do what is best for you. Trust your instincts.
RenewYou, My Tried and Tested Career Booster!
RenewYou has helped thousands of women make positive and lasting change in their lives. I deliver it one-to-one as part of a bespoke coaching package for women looking to move into leadership, to progress their career, or who wish to be the absolute best version of themselves.
Posted on January 26th, 2023 by Jane
