Episode 26: Learning to Trust Your Instincts

In this episode,

Lizzie digs into gut instincts, why they work, and how to tell the difference between gut instincts and anxiety.

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Post-pod questions to consider

How do you know when your gut is talking to you? Where in your body do you feel gut instincts?

Episode Transcript

Hey. You're listening to Midnight Philosopher with Lizzie. Thanks for tuning in. Today, I'm going to talk about gut instincts. 

Gut instincts are just that. They're instincts. Instincts ingrained in people since the beginning of humanity. And think about it, all animals have instincts. The moment you see a chipmunk freeze when it senses a hawk is nearby, or the moment a cobra rattles to get ready to attack, your gut instincts allow you to size up a situation in your body before your conscious mind is necessarily aware. And for this reason, getting in tune with your body can help you discover when you're feeling a gut instinct. 

I've felt gut instincts many times in my life. One time, I was walking my three dogs alone in the woods. Suddenly, I felt my ears prickle and a slight weighted feeling in my chest. I knew something was about to happen. My body tensed into fight or fight flight or flee mode. And sure enough, a second later, the biggest brown eave eagle I've ever seen in nature swooped down, gliding only maybe seven feet above the dogs of me, and landed in a tree nearby. 

My gut instincts were right. Subconsciously, I must have noticed movement or felt the presence of being watched. My subconscious picked up on subtle clues in my environment that my brain had not yet processed. 

Another time that I felt my gut instincts is when I had appendicitis. So I have a pretty high pain tolerance, so it wasn't really the pain in my abdomen that tipped me off. It was just this feeling, this feeling deep inside of me that something wasn't right with my body. I remember thinking that I needed to get help, and I just somehow felt sure of it. There's been other times in my life when perhaps anxiety has led me to feel that something wasn't right with my body. And, you know, those are moments that have been stressful in my life, but the appendicitis felt different. 

It didn't just feel like I was anxious or I was worried. Because when I'm anxious and worried, I think, well, if this is true, then this is true. If that is true, then this is true. If it and... you know, I start to spiral. But what was different was when I had appendicitis, I wasn't thinking, if my body isn't right, then something is wrong. Instead, I was thinking, I need to get help immediately. I wasn't worrying. I was making an action-oriented plan. 

And I think that's kind of a distinction between gut instincts and anxiety. Gut instincts are often action-oriented plans, whereas anxiety is often future worries and thoughts. 

And a third time that has impacted my relationship to my gut instincts is when I could tell that I was in danger. I won't go into the details of this example, but I would like to give a trigger warning that it involved sexual assault. It was not my fault what happened, but I had this feeling this guy was up to no good as soon as we made eye contact. And I ignored my gut instincts because I knew this guy and wanted to believe the best in everyone. My vagus nerve picked up on something that I dismissed with my conscious mind. 

After this incident, if I feel that feeling of danger tugging at me, I trust it. The thing about gut instincts is that you won't really know if you were right. You won't know if your gut instincts are right because they keep you safe. So it's hard to gather evidence, like concrete evidence, that yes, my gut instincts are working. However, when you will know when you don't listen to your gut instincts and wished you had. 

So I've really been trying to trust myself and my instincts. No matter what happens, what your gut instincts tell you, or if you choose to follow them or not, trauma is never your fault. What happened to me wasn't my fault, and if you've ever been through trauma, it wasn't your fault either. It's just impacted my relationship to my gut instincts in a way that helped me realize that I have good gut instincts, and I need to trust them. 

So how do you trust your gut instincts, you might wonder? 
How can you begin to do this? The first step is being able to identify what's happening for you in your body. Since gut instincts occur in the body, leveling up the body mind connection is key. 

You can do this with activities like progressive muscle relaxation, which involves squeezing muscles one at a time. So basically, you might start on your feet and squeeze your feet for five seconds, and then release for ten seconds. Then you might squeeze your calves, followed by your glutes, followed by your stomach, your arms, your fists, and your face. And you can really notice how your body sinks into that relaxation, and you can also become aware of how your muscles feel. Do they feel tense? Do they feel loose? And noticing how which muscles might be holding a feeling inside of them. When when you release that muscle, do you feel a release of a feeling? 

You can also do this type of thing when you really notice how your body feels when you walk or when you eat or when you smile, just really being in touch with how your body feels. And you can start to notice where in your body you feel different emotions. For example, some people with anxiety will start to feel stomach sick, or some people who are angry might start to feel angry in their fists and, like, clench their fists or clench their jaw. So you'll be able to start determining where in your body you feel different feelings, and so you can also start to tell where in your body you feel gut instincts. 

The next step after figuring out where you feel gut instincts is to believe yourself. This can be a really hard and challenging step, but you can say things to yourself like, I may have made mistakes in the past because I'm human, but I've learned from them, and I deserve to be trusted. I deserve to trust myself. I'm a trustworthy person, and I deserve to trust my instincts. 

And the third step for trusting your instincts is then taking the action those instincts have implied. For example, in the case of the hawk or sorry, the eagle, I paused. That was what my gut instinct told me to do. But in the case of my appendicitis, my gut instincts were like, you need help. Go to the hospital. So it's really, first of all, trusting your gut instincts. After you notice where they are in your body, you trust them, and then you take that actionable step that they've suggested. 

So, in this episode, I talked about gut instincts and how they are your body's way of picking up on subtle cues in your environment, and with other people that you feel, you know, you might not notice, but your unconscious mind notices. Sometimes your gut instincts will let you know something majestic is about to happen. 
Other times, they will let you know when something is physically not right with your body. And sometimes, they can let you know when danger is approaching. And again, I would just like to reiterate that always remember remember trauma is not your fault, no matter what your gut instincts might have said. 

Thanks so much for listening tonight. I'm going to go listen to my gut instinct about which TV show to watch. Have a good night.