Have you encountered a situation where you engaged in a bad habit, but deep inside, you knew it wasn’t right? Well, that feeling is your inner voice, or you can call it gut instinct.
When making decisions, it is always better to have all the facts in front of you. But it is not always the case. Whether to decide which people to let into our lives or how to react to situations, sometimes we are only left with one option – to trust our instincts.
The gut instinct is that little voice inside your head that tells you how to act in a specific situation. It is the first thought that pops up in your mind when you are currently dealing with a problem, and most of the time, it is the right choice.
Instincts, or intuition, are feelings of knowing something unexplainable. These primal parts of nature are programmed in our subconscious minds. Instincts are developed from birth but are not easily comprehendible. Yet, they are said to be more trustworthy than our conscious minds.
To embrace your inner self, try listening to your gut feelings. They act like a guide that protects an individual with courage, integrity, and smartness. Everyone is gifted with a sixth sense, but a few know how to use it. Gut instincts are a primordial form of decision-making that humans have had for centuries.
How Do Instincts Work?
Our gut instincts are controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for bodily functions like breathing and digesting food.
When we encounter a problem, our subconscious mind kicks into gear. It contains all our past experiences, including sorrowful and joyful memories. The subconscious mind scans our past events for something similar that has been encountered. Then it tries to come up with solutions passed on to our conscious mind in the form of a gut feeling.
The autonomic nervous system includes the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Sympathetic nerves activate a fight-or-flight response which releases the hormones adrenaline and cortisol to either face threats or evade them. The parasympathetic system helps stabilize our heart rate and keeps the body in a state of rest.
Trusting Your Instincts
Trusting your instincts goes without saying – after all, they exist for a reason.
I am pretty sure that we can all think of an event or time when our instincts tried to warn us, yet, we ignored them. Instincts are what keep us safe, yet trusting our instincts all the time can be detrimental. There are situations where we require rational reasoning, but few circumstances are better off by trusting our instincts.
Here are a few reasons why you should trust your instincts.
- Your instincts will never fail you; they will guide you the right way.
- They help you rightfully estimate yourself.
- It helps you build self-esteem and boost your confidence to navigate life’s problems and deal with unfortunate circumstances.
- Trusting your instincts aids you in building up self-belief and coping strategies.
Trusting your instincts isn’t a simple process but requires practice and consistency. Instincts are your true friend and want the best for you. That is the reason one should never underestimate their inner wisdom. If we take the example of Alyssa’s father from Big Medicine Pretty War, he believed that his daughter would captivate Big Medicine. As she trusted her intuition, she accomplished what she believed.
For greater insight into trusting your instincts, get yourself a copy of BIG MEDICINE PRETTY WATER and delve into the character of Alyssa Aleeray of how her gut instinct led her to perform incredibly in life.