Gut Instinct

Listen to me

Watch me

The last blog Control was all about how we can spend our time trying to control things which are not in our control and how this will only lead to fear and insecurities. So, if we’re not doing that, what are we going to do? I believe it’s time we get back in touch with our own gut and start listening to how we truly feel instead.

For all of our existence we lived on our instinct and if you haven’t already read The Caveman then do, it will help remind you of this. I believe that if we’re listening to our instincts we are also using the primeval part of us that I keep telling you about, the part that breeds fear when we have too much time on our hands. It’s now time to listen to how we truly feel, instead of going against it, working to understand our gut instinct in a productive way, in turn you will feel much happier, more able to be yourself and less likely to do your own head in with worry.  I believe in the past this would have been how we lived, either primeval fear or instinct would be running through us, if you have experienced anxiety and fear, you know that it can be a very physical experience. That’s because many instincts are based on a gut reaction which are connected to our nervous system and many other parts of our body. We now know living with these irrational fears and anxieties are unnecessary, but now we need to start listening to them and using our mind in a more positive and productive way.

Listen to your instinct and start using them in positive and productive ways.

Let’s consider instinct, which is something you don’t need to learn as it happens naturally, without you even thinking about it. Babies cry by instinct, sheep follow their mothers by instinct, animals sense fear by instinct, feel thirst and hunger by instinct plus all the range of emotions are said to be instinctive too. Some behaviours are a combination of instinct and learned behaviour, like language. Others happen without any teaching at all, like the instinct to run when you see a grizzly bear. This natural response I feel has been lost since we have become more social beings we have had to listen to what everyone else wants and not listen to what we truly feel.  This is because as caveman all we had were raw emotions to guide us, as we evolved we have tamed these emotions and become more social beings. Village life started this process, it continued with society as we know it now, which has been shaping our instincts and developed us so much over the last 500 years. I don’t think any of us want to go back to those primitive ways of living, but we can’t be sheep in our society either.

Find the balance between primeval feelings and blindly following what we think we ought to be doing

 

The next step is to start listening to our gut feelings, as they can help guide us, they come from our true inner self and we get to harness all those amazing parts of our unconscious mind that drives these instincts. Going back to the baby that had the instinct to cry for food and also the instinct to say stop when they were full, for many of us we have lost that instinct and just eat for eating’s sake. This can be because we were conditioned to clear our plates as kids, having to eat lunch at 12.30 just because that was the time we were told to eat, you get the picture. We had to eat over out instincts, now they seem lost and we can’t find them. The same happens with fear, we have spent so long living in fear that we lose our true gut instincts.

It’s time to reclaim these, we are not controlled by society as we were in the early 1700’s up until the 70’s, but the habits can still be controlling us. Having switched off our gut instinct, it can make us feel unsafe and now we don’t know where the switch is to turn it back on. I think this is a big reason why we keep going back and doing the same things again, not for the fact that we don’t know we shouldn’t be doing it, but more for the fact we don’t know what we should be doing instead. This is where getting back to hearing our gut instinct is needed and in doing this it will change many areas of your life. You know that worry and control don’t work, just like over eating and dieting doesn’t, but no one really teaches you to listen to your instinct. Mainly I think this is because it’s FREE so no one can sell you this or make any money out of you, as you already have it inside off you.  Also, I think we have been so controlled by our social life away from listening to it, this has helped us evolve from those primeval caveman instincts, but know it’s time to be individuals and be who we truly are.  So why aren’t we listening to it and being free from bad habits and anxiety? Mainly because we have forgotten that it’s there.  The fear of listening has been ingrained into us, so we evolve from emotionally primeval reactions to who we are now,  also we are so used to living in the world where everything we search for is outside of ourselves we haven’t thought to look inside for the answers.

The journey within can be seen as something we shouldn’t do, daren’t do or we just thought that we wouldn’t find the answers so close to home.  Learning to listen to yourself is one of the most important tools you have for creating true balance in your life. We have spent so long listening to our parents, teachers, people in authority, our bosses and society that we have lost the importance of listening to your gut instinct. The gut feeling is the instinct that you feel inside, without the fear hindering you, you have space now to hear this voice and it’s safe to start to listen, it’s not the scary voice which send you spiralling out of control into worry.

Gut instinct come from a true place of safety and security and it’s time to trust and listen to this part of you.

Of course, if you haven’t listened to this side of yourself for a long time the connection to this may seem quiet and may need a bit of coaxing to start getting to be heard more easily.  Start with simple things, the feeling comes from your gut and not your mind, you must have heard the saying go with your gut, this is your instinct. We have all had a gut reaction to something, but we can also feel this instinct by taking the time to reflect on the decision or issue at hand.  All gut instinct WON’T come with I should do this, as that’s for someone else, I know your gut won’t be thinking that way, but it’s not selfish to follow your instinct either.  Just imagine the situation and see it going in different ways and feel how that makes you feel, then think about the choice you need to make and again feel which way your gut is taking you. Practice will help you reconnect, try removing any irrational fear processes by getting the facts, writing things down, then trying again to connect to your instincts without those irrational fears bothering you, practice makes perfect.

Over time you will feel more connected with your instinct and this will enable you to develop more inner safety and security allowing you to live more calmly and happily in your life. Next week I am going to talk more about instinct and how intuition will help you reconnect to these sides of yourself.

 

Thanks for dropping by, Sara x

 

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