Gut Feeling

 

“Follow reason but don’t ignore that gut feeling. We create reasons with our limited knowledge and experience, but gut feelings often come from universal knowledge.” ~ Debasish Mridha

Otherwise known as a primal response to subconscious information. Also known as your intuition. A knowledge possessed without relying on reason or inference. It is subtle and does not afford itself to reasoning – you just know but don’t know how or why you know. We can all cultivate intuition and learn to listen to that seemingly ‘other worldly’ voice. “It is not logic, it is not analysis, it is just knowing without knowing.” – Sophy Burnham

Intuition can be extremely useful on a day to day basis. It causes us to choose one path instead of another, trust one person and not another, take one course and leave a seemingly obvious one. It comes in handy when making split second decisions in the course of the day – humans are estimated to make at least 35,000 decisions every day. If you relied only on logic and analysis to make all of them, you would be paralyzed at just the decision on which eye to open first or which foot to step out of bed with!

So how do you cultivate a sensitivity to intuition? It is largely a matter of practice and experience but it can be helped. For starters, take time for solitude. Learn to spend time alone, quietly contemplating. People who practice meditation know that feeling of quieting the inner and outer storms and just connecting to that part of yourself that will never compete with the rush of daily life. A few minutes every day spent in silence should help you return to that place of hearing the still small voice.

Practicing creativity is also a great way to nurture connection to your intuition. Play an instrument, draw or paint, carve, knead – whether it is an indoor or outdoor craft, in the workshop or in the kitchen. Even the simple art of turning groceries into a meal requires creativity and with it some intuition. Especially if you’re like me who prefers to listen to my ancestors saying ‘enough’ instead of measuring ingredients!!

Being mindfully observant of the goings on around you and inside you can help cultivate a connection to your intuition. Don’t be in a hurry to react to events or even to respond to those who speak to you. Learn to ‘sit with it’ for a while, turn it inside out like you would chew a hard piece of meat you cannot immediately spit out. Cats have an interesting quirk of looking at something they are curious about from above, below, sideways and if necessary, turning their heads upside down to look at the thing from a different angle. Be a cat, nurture your curiosity and learn something every day. Interrogate your feelings before you act on them – is that pain really in my head and where did it come from? Is it calling for a pain killer or does my body want me to pay attention to something else? Listen, ask, observe.

And lastly, when you’re with other people learn to listen, really listen to both what is being said as well as what is not said. Watch the body language that does not seem to match with the words – I’m fine with a shrug of the shoulders. People say much more with their gestures than they say with their words. Infants and pets have an expert level ability to see those things we feel but leave unsaid – engage your observation skills to reclaim that ability you had at 2 that fell along the wayside.

As a bonus, learn to listen to your dreams and your waking thoughts. Recently I found myself thinking about a friend I had no connected with for a long minute, three days in a row. On the fourth day, I reached out and I’m still thanking God I followed my intuition, several weeks later. We live in the information age but overwhelm and burnout are now constants in our lives. Cultivate an ability to know without knowing why. You need it more than you know.

“In solitude, listen to your heart, for at that moment, it speaks nothing but the truth.” ~ Michael Bassey Johnson