Hey, my friend! What is up? And welcome back to Do Life Big. I am pumped to have you here. I hope that you are doing fantastic. I sure am. And I am ready to dive right in today. And we're going to be talking about trusting your gut feeling. Oh, right.
And I say this all the time, listen to your intuition. Trust that gut feeling that you have. I'm sure that you know what I'm talking about. And I've been living like this now for a long time. And I stopped, and I thought, “Hey, you know what? What if I just started to do some research here and see if there's any kind of data to back this up?” Is it actually an accurate way to make decisions, you know, trusting that gut feeling? Or is it just a bunch of like mumbo jumbo and like, you shouldn't really listen to it, right? So I did a bunch of research. And I read a lot of articles, dove into a lot of research, and read a lot of things that neurologists had to say.
And as a matter of fact, there is science behind trusting your intuition. And so make sure to trust it. And we do hear people say that all the time; trust it. And your gut is actually referred to as your second brain. Like that's crazy to me like it's referred to as your second brain. And there's actually scientific research that's based on this, just how important it is to actually trust your gut and to listen to it.
During the research, I was reading that there are actually 100 million neurons that line your entire digestive tract. That's more neurons than are found in our spinal cord; like that is absolutely crazy. So if there's actually research to back this, how can we get better at relying on our intuition and that gut feeling in terms of making decisions in our life? And this is all research-based. And it's a powerful tool in terms of making those decisions in your life. Because you know, here's the thing, we're taught that we should just rely just solely on our brain and rely on our brain to make all the decisions in our life. And then our feelings really can't be trusted, that our feelings aren't reliable. So just go with your brain, right? Use your brain to make the decisions.
But have you ever heard that saying, the heart knows what the mind can't understand? Well, that's because the heart and the gut know what the mind can't fully understand. And when it's time to make a decision, and you approach it intuitively, your brain actually works at the same time with your gut to quickly just kind of assess all of your memories, the things that you've learned in your past, your personal needs, and your preferences, and then it makes the wisest and best decision given the context.
So it's pretty neat because your gut functions as a separate nervous system from your actual nervous system. And then your gut actually communicates to your brain and vice versa, which is why they both influence each other. And so this is why when we think about someone or something, we can actually get that feeling of butterflies, right? You know, like where you feel like, “I'm getting butterflies.” Right? That's how that happens. That feeling that you get when you're nervous, or you're excited, or we've all felt that pit in our stomach as we think about what to do in a certain situation. It's because your gut is actually feeling something. So why doesn't anyone really talk about this and how to make this actually work better for you.
So here's the thing, intuition, and your intuition is just like a muscle, which is a good thing because it means that it can be strengthened with practice. So that means that even if you don't really rely on your intuition ever, but you want to, that, you can strengthen that muscle and you can start to practice it so that you can get better and better at it because it's important that you do. But before we do that, you need to be able to distinguish between feeling fear and your gut feeling.
Here's the thing, fear – when you think about fear, and when you are filled with fear, and you have fear, fear has more of like a really unnerving energy. Like it's a pushy, anxious, forced almost kind of energy. And it can make you feel really tense, or kind of in a panic, you know, anxiety, desperate, and it also has a lot of self-critical thoughts revolved around it. This is where you start to have all those critical thoughts about yourself in your mind, which makes you want to hide or really just compromise who you really are as a person. That's fear. Now, your gut feeling or intuition, on the other hand – has more of like a pulling energy, right? Like your choice is actually moving you toward your best interest. It usually will give you more feelings along the lines of excitement, ease, and contentment, and like you just know, it feels right. And physically, this gut feeling will cause you to just relax. And with intuition, your inner voice is much more grounded and wise, right? So that's the difference between your intuition and fear.
Now, you can start to practice this, and start to practice listening to your intuition by making just really minor simple decisions, right? You don't want to do anything crazy and make a huge life-changing decision at first. If you're not used to relying on your intuition, right, but start small so little things like just choosing the outfit that you want to wear out, instead of overthinking it all and bringing all these different variables into it about why you shouldn't wear it, and what's not going to work out about it right, just choosing that outfit, or even just raising your hand to speak up without kind of censoring what you want to say just by being yourself. And here's the thing, when you first start using your intuition, your decisions aren't going to come quickly, at first. They aren't because it's new to us. So it's gonna take time, it will be slow in the beginning, and that's okay. But each time you make these decisions, really step back.
And I want you to think about how you feel about it. How do you feel about it? You know, I really was blown away researching about how closely related our brain and gut are. Like, it's absolutely wild. And as I was researching, so many different examples came to my mind of when I actually listened to my gut instinct, and it worked out. And also when I didn't choose to listen to my gut instinct and how it didn't work out. And I was thinking back to, you know, just even, for example, with myself just deciding to stop building the online business that I had been building that was a six-figure producing business, you know, to just stop doing that, and all of a sudden, start a brand new business from the ground up at ground zero, right?
My intuition, even though that other way, was like the safe way, right, and the comfortable way, and people would probably be like, “Oh, my God, what are you doing?” My intuition was pointing me in another direction. And it's worked out really well. And it was a good decision; I listened to my intuition, right? But then I can also think back to another time when I didn't listen to my intuition. And I really, really regretted it, right? And I'm sure that you can think of a time where you listened to your gut instinct too, and then other times when you didn't, and those times that you didn't listen, Oh, man, it always comes back to bite you right in the ass, doesn't it? It's like, “Oh, God, I knew I shouldn't have done that.” Right? I should have listened. I have that feeling. And I totally ignored it.
So maybe what we should try to do is take a step back and think, “Hey, how am I feeling physically in my body right now about this?” Right? Just giving ourselves a second here? And obviously, yes, you should always ask yourself, “Okay, well, well, what do I think about this?” And not just rely on your gut feeling, right? Like, what am I thinking about this? But what is even more important than that is asking yourself, well, how do I feel about this? How do I feel about it? Right? So you want to use both of these to make your decisions, your brain, and your intuition to make the best decisions for you throughout your life.
And when we get a gut feeling about someone or something, we should learn to pay attention to it. Because the gut feeling can be our body's way of just saying that this is what we should be doing. Or don't go this way, don't trust this person. This could be a potential danger, etc., all that. And your gut can actually pick up on these things quicker than your brain can. And studies have actually shown that people who tend to rely on their gut instinct are often better able to predict outcomes and make accurate judgments even when they don't have all the information at hand. And, you know, this is what I believe. I mean, I do believe that God, or you want to call it the universe, whatever, is always trying to talk to us and send us messages through our feelings. Like, I really do believe that, especially since you know they can't talk directly to us, we're getting these messages all the time sent to us. And that's why we have to pay attention to our feelings. Now, that's just my opinion. That's just what I believe.
But you better believe that when I get a strong gut feeling that I'm going to listen to it because your brain is really fearful. But if you listen to your instinct, it will not steer you wrong. So I'm always asking myself, How do I feel? And how do I think about this opportunity? Or how do I think about this person, or thing, whatever it is, because the problem with our brain is that our brain isn't usually in the present moment? It's not; it's usually in the future and thinking about what can happen next. Or it's thinking about the things that have happened in the past. So it's not in the present moment, but your gut, your actual physical body, and the way that you feel is always in the present moment. So check in with your gut feeling and ask yourself, “Hey, how do I feel right now?” And you can use this when you think about how you feel when you get around certain people too.
You might really like the way you feel when you're around this particular person and think, “Oh, man, I really need to be spending more time with this person,” or, you know, it could go the other way, and you might not like the way you feel. And you might want to avoid this person, not going around them anymore, right? Like, this just doesn't feel right. So I'm going to avoid it. Something isn't clicking with this person. But just there's something in me that tells me that I shouldn't trust this person. And this will help you make better decisions in life.
This happens because something inside your body is picking up on something that your brain hasn't. And your brain is thinking things when you're around someone, and your nervous system is actually picking up on their nervous system as well. So use your brain and gut instinct combined for making important life decisions. Things like your relationships, and business, finances - you should always check in with how you feel and even better, is that when you're checking in with how you feel, write down how you feel about it, and then use those things to make better decisions, and just become better at listening.
So I'm going to give you just three examples of when and where you should or shouldn't actually trust your gut.
Number one, you should rely heavily on your intuition or gut feeling when you have a lot of knowledge and experience. But whatever it is that you're having this gut feeling about, okay, if you already know a lot about it in this area, and you're like the expert, go with your gut feeling.
Number two, don't use your intuition when your emotions are high. So here's the thing. The thing is, is that your emotions, whether you're feeling something positive or negative, they can really confuse your intuitive signals. So, for example, say you're in an argument with a friend or with someone that you just maybe started dating, right? You're in an argument with this person that you just started dating. And your intuition is thinking, “Should I leave this freaking moron? And just break up with them? Or do I stick it out and see what happens next, right? What do I do?” Well, your emotions are high, right? You're annoyed, you're so aggravated, the best thing to do is to just wait until you've calmed down, wait until your emotions have gone back to normal, and you're calm, and then make your decision about what to do going forward. So never rely on your intuition when your emotions are high.
And the third one is to not rely on your intuition to predict low-probability events. Now, what I mean by this is, right, we've all been to the beach, say you pull up to the beach, and you get to the beach with your family. And you're like, “I'm not going in the water because the shark is waiting for me. He's going to get me; he's been waiting all day. And as soon as I get in, he's going to eat me.” Like, I know, I'm going to be eaten by a shark. Right? I know. Sometimes I think this one I think about possibly trying scuba diving. But anyways, I'm going to digress here. But really, how many times have you thought something like that? Or maybe you've been on a plane, and you felt turbulence? And you've thought, “Oh, this is it; we're going down,” right? You can't rely on your intuition in situations like this, where it's very slim that those circumstances are going to actually happen. It's really useless to rely on it in those situations. So just don't bother, right.
These types of events, they're really graphic in our minds, so they produce a lot of fear. And they also take up a lot of space in our minds, but they're a very low probability of happening. And the probability is one of those things that our brain is really, really bad at judging. So don't use your intuition about those kinds of things.
All right! So I hope that you enjoyed today's episode about listening to your intuition, and your gut feeling, and I hope that you learn to tune into it a little bit more. And not only just use your brain but also use that gut feeling to make decisions for yourself. I hope that you remember to kind of take a step back and always ask yourself, “Hey, how do I feel about this right now? What am I thinking?" Write it down. Really, just give yourself a chance to start to process what's happening before you make the decision, right? Don't be so quick to make the decisions. And then if you're someone who is looking to work on relying on their gut instinct a little bit more, start out small. Start by making those small decisions going forward. That way, you don't get overwhelmed. And it won't be anything drastic. And then you can gradually build up.
And then just remember those three examples of when and where you should and shouldn't trust your gut was:
1. Rely heavily on your intuition or gut feeling when you have a lot of knowledge or experience about whatever it is that you're making a decision about. That's when you should rely on your intuition. Right.
2. Don't use your intuition when your emotions are high.
3. Don't rely on your intuition to predict low-probability events.
All right. Thanks so much for tuning in today.
You know, I love you. You're awesome.
If you enjoyed this episode, go, share it with a friend right now, and tag me on Instagram at @katherinereuter. And I will see you the next time. All right, see yah!
