3 Essential Reasons Why You Need to Listen to Your Gut Feelings

Have you ever been in a situation where you did not listen to your gut feelings and regretted it?  I have, on a number of occasions, not listened to my gut and I have paid for it, in time lost, injuries, loss, relationships gone wrong…..

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When I Should Have Listened to My Gut Feelings

The most memorable was one wintery day in February, many years ago. I was pregnant with my first child.  I had a distinct feeling that we should not go down a street that was behind the hospital.  

Cars lined both sides of the street and it had been a winter filled with snow.  I ignored that feeling and we drove down that snow packed and rutted road in our small car.  I will never forget how time slowed as we hit that huge car head on. Neither car could stop in time.

The sound of my head hitting that windshield is one that I will never forget. Fortunately, we all walked away from that collision (into the adjacent hospital!!), although our little blue car was a tangled mess of metal, a total write off.  The most important thing was that my in utero baby, Jennifer, was fine, even though I lost my front teeth.  : )

What is a Gut Feeling?

What we refer to as a “gut feeling” is often our way of expressing the information that we pick up on a subconscious level.  We notice aspects of events, weather, the way people move….the list is endless….and we often don’t realize why we feel the way we do.

There is that little voice in the back of our mind that whispers to us that something is not quite right.  We might not be able to put our finger on the pulse of what is bothering us, but it is there.

A gut feeling is not a fear, it is different. A fear does not come from the same place as a gut feeling.  A gut feeling comes from a primal place in our bodies. Think of it as a protective mechanism that originates quickly in your subconscious mind.

Relationships and Your Intuition

You need to listen to your gut feeling, or intuition, because your brain is a marvel that processes the information in front of it quickly, so fast that you aren’t thinking about it consciously or logically.  Imagine if you were crossing the street and you felt that you needed to step back immediately. You did, just in the nick of time, missing an oncoming car that you didn’t “see” consciously.

That intuition can prevent you from making BIG relationship mistakes.  The day that I married my first husband, I knew that I was making a mistake.  I went ahead anyway. 

Can you think of a time in your life when you KNEW, deep inside, that you were making a mistake?  How did you feel about that? Were you right?

How does a gut feeling manifest?

• Happens extremely quickly
• A feeling of certainty, immediate knowledge
• Felt in the heart region or in the stomach area (gut)

Tweaking your Intuition Muscle

If you ignore your gut feelings, they will decrease over time.  If you pay attention, even if it’s a small detail like getting a feeling that gas is on sale at the next station, you grow your instinct for intuition. It’s not supernatural; it’s part of our human experience

Reasons for Listening to Your Gut Feelings

1. Protection.  This one is rare but if you need it, it’s great to have!!
2. To feel more connected to your purpose in life. When you listen to your intuition, to your heart, you can only be more connected.
3. Better relationship choices.  Paying attention to those gut feelings can let you know when a relationship is “off” or not quite “right” for you.  It might be right and in fact, wonderful, for someone else.  It just might not be for you. Gut feelings can also tell us when we are making the right choices.

Work those muscles. Pay just that little bit more attention and of course, use your judgment wisely. Listen carefully to that still small voice and remember that decisions are your choice.

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Sherie

I am a Relationship Coach who helps others create happy, healthy, loving relationships…including the relationship they have with themselves…by breaking through those blocks and barriers to success. I use various techniques gathered through training as a Master Practitioner of NLP, timeline, hypnosis and common sense gathered through life experience.

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