Shut up — Listen to your Gut

Gut knowing is not just a fancy metaphor.

There is a brain in the belly.

It’s a physiological fact called the enteric nervous system. It has neurotransmitters similar to the central nervous system.

It communicates with the brain in your head. It tells you more than that you have overeaten pizza.

It can instantly trigger hunches that warn you to approach or avoid certain situations. It also can immediately inform decision-making processes.

You get a sense of “Don’t take that road home” later to discover that danger lurked in the shadows like a potential mugging.

Your gut tells you at a social gathering to approach a total stranger, “Talk to him.” Later you discover that it was one of the more critical encounters in your life.

In a session with a client, I find a place of silence deep within. I then ask, “Give me the wisdom to see what is going on at a deeper level.” Suddenly I say something to the client, and she begins to cry uncontrollably.

I hit a nerve.

My gut took me there.

Here are some of my conclusions about knowing from the gut.

We all have this perceptual software in our system.

I ignore many electronic functions in my automobile, like the emergency alert (I use my phone to contact AAA).

We do the same with our intuition. We ignore it because we overthink many situations. As a result, we need more rich sources of direct knowledge.

Fear and noise paralyze us.

The Scriptures instruct us, “Be still and know that I’m God.”

All sorts of important information are waiting to get through to us. But they are blocked by environmental noise or the chatter in our heads. This is where centering prayer and meditation can quieten us, raise our awareness, and guide us in new ways.

Messages come on different channels

We all have our own particular internal scanners.

Some are visual in the way they process information. Here intuitive folks have mental pictures of incoming messages. My wife Kris has a strong auditory channel where she will hear phrases like “pay attention to this”. Others will choreograph an emotionally laden scene from the past and therein gain new insights into old family dynamics.

We are all interconnected. We are one

A couple of decades ago, I was awakened in the middle of the night. I wandered aimlessly into my study and sat blearily eyed at my desk. Suddenly I found myself weeping uncontrollably.

What happened?

The following day I received a message that my mother had died in South Africa at the moment of my weeping episode in California.

Was that chance or gut knowing/intuition?

And why did my brother in Indonesia have an experience similar to mine at the same time?

My sense is that we are all connected at the level of consciousness. This applies to people across the room, relatives on other continents, and even ancestors.

(See my article on the “Day I Met an Ancestor” https://readmedium.com/237b740d0fa6)

Gut knowing could be our point of contact with the Divine deep within and far beyond.

Maybe you:

Want guidance for an important decision

Need to attune to the inner world of another

Read a group for its emotional tone, underlying conflict, and hidden agendas

Then:

Find a place of inner silence.

Ask for wisdom

Wait for an answer

This capability is within reach of all.