Let’s say you’re walking home late at night on your own in your own hometown or city. Let’s say you’re about to take a shortcut through down an alleyway but, due to the early hours of the morning, it’s full of darkness and shadows.
As you go to take a step into this alleyway, what does your body do? Do you feel an impulse in your stomach? Maybe an itch on the back of your neck? Whatever you feel, there’s something in the back of your mind telling you it’s a bad idea.
This is known as your gut instinct.
What is Gut Instinct?
In short, your gut instinct is another way of saying ‘intuition’. When approached or when we encounter a situation, whatever that may be, our minds start to process what’s going on. Using a mixture of emotion, logic and past experiences, your body starts to come to a conclusion about what action to take next.
This could be applied to any kind of situation, positive or negative, and happens within our minds every second or every day. To a certain extent, the human ‘flight or fight’ defence system is a huge part of this intuition.
Whether we’re trying to process, make a difficult or easy decision or trying to save our own lives, our gut instinct is there to help us make the right decisions. So often do you listen to yours?
The Workings of Our Gut Instinct
So, let’s say that you’ve never done a skydive before. I remember vividly the first time I did one. I was travelling New Zealand, and we booked in to jump 15,000ft in the air out of a plane. As we were going up and my brain was processing what was about to happen, I could feel my gut instinct telling me it was a bad idea.
When we finally came to the jump, and my legs were hanging on the outside of the plane, every single cell in my body was telling me that it was a bad idea. However, we jumped, we free-fell for 2-minutes, the parachute was deployed, and we landed. Everything was fine.
However, the reason my gut instinct was freaking out was that this was an experience I have never had before. Next time I skydive, my gut instinct was a lot calmer about the jump.
Imagine you’ve just spend all your life living in one room. If you were to leave the room, everything around you, from trees and masses of people to skyscrapers and mountains would terrify you until you got used to what is and isn’t harmful and dangerous.
This is called training your gut instinct. In short, the more experiences you open your mind and body up to, the more accurate and effective your intuition will be.
Training Your Gut Instinct
Through meditation, you’re giving yourself a fantastic opportunity to train your gut instinct. We all go through difficult and challenging times in our lives. Maybe you’re having troubles in your relationship; maybe you’re trying to progress your career or perhaps you’re trying to figure out what to do with your life.
Whatever situation you’re currently living in, while meditating, be aware of the thoughts and feelings that pop into your head. Is your brain constantly drawn to the thought of breaking up with your partner or perhaps you need to work harder to make it work?
Maybe you’ve got a business idea in your head, and you’ve not got the courage to jump into achieving it, but your mind is telling you it’s a good idea? By practising the ability to focus and become present in your mind and body, you can then carry these abilities into your everyday life.
From personal experience and the word of thousands of bloggers across the internet, listening to your gut instinct can help you to achieve and succeed in everything you do. This allows you to live without fear of failing and living the happiest life possible.