Underlying Voice of Intuition
As a mom we are well versed, or at least I hope you are, in that 6th sense. We just have a feeling. We know when something is wrong with our kid, illness is coming, a tantrum is about to ensue, or something just isn’t right.
My husband used to ask me how I knew. I couldn’t explain it, I just knew. We are so in tune with our children that we don’t even consider that gut response.
Maybe you’ve lost connection with it yourself. AND maybe you are ready to instill the knowledge of how powerful this can be in your kids.
Let’s jump in.
Interestingly enough, in the womb, your intestine develops with its own nervous system before your brain. (Let me clarify here - when we refer to the gut or “I have a gut feeling” we are referring to the intestinal or GI system.) I am not a scientist - so feel free to research this on your own.
Our brain develops AFTER the GI system. So there are some that say, and more and more research is coming out, that our the real brain is our gut or our intestinal system. Hence why it's so important to feed it properly. The gut processes the nutrients that feed the brain that controls the rest of our body's systems. You can think of our brain as the engine but the gut is the driver. If there’s something wrong with the driver, the car won’t be very efficient and may even crash.
Listening to our gut may sound a little woo woo to some. But can you think of a time that you just knew, you had a deep feeling? Maybe you left a party early and then later you heard the cops came, or you didn’t go on that road trip and your friends had a miserable time. Or maybe you can recall when you had a feeling but you didn’t listen and the outcome wasn’t what you were hoping for.
I remember after Christmas one year, traveling from one family to another by car. We met up with my husband's family for dinner and after they all wanted to go to a movie. For some reason, I felt very strongly that I didn’t want to go. But I let the family convince me. Even while sitting in the movie I was not feeling comfortable. When we came out of the movie our car had been broken into - all our clothes and new fun Christmas gifts had been stolen. But the worst was our 5-month-old dog, Jackson was in the car still, with the alarm going and he was so scared. It was heartbreaking and super difficult to get him in the car again for quite some time.
I knew - but I didn’t listen. Those are the times that really stand out to me. When I listened and things went well they were not as momentous. It’s the ones I missed or ignored that haunt me.
Nobody taught me to listen to my intuition. I wish they had. I wish my mom had known the secrets of this and had given me lessons. The power that can come with knowing…wow.
So how do you teach it or how do you get in touch with it yourself?
Start with small decisions. Have two options. Clothing makes sense to me to start with. Have two outfits ready, close your eyes, and picture yourself in these outfits for the day - all day. Which one brings you more joy? If neither of them do, then that can be the gut feeling - time to go back to the closet and try again. Use this often throughout your day. (tacos vs. pasta, movie vs reading, card game vs board game.) If you are really out of touch with your intuition your brain (ego) may just take over and tell you to wear the blue shirt. But keep trying.
Start bringing attention to the times you had a feeling about something. It can be small things or big things. Maybe you went to grab an apple at the grocery store and changed your mind on which one to grab, and someone after you picks it up only to find out it was actually rotten on the back side. Or maybe you took a different route home and later find out there was a big wreck on your normal route.
Journalling about big decisions can be helpful. If you are deciding between two jobs. Journal about each one. If you can easily journal about one over the other and when you read back you can sense excitement and energy - there’s your answer.
This is great and all, but what is the benefit? (Or what if I don’t like what my gut is telling me?)
Can you imagine how powerful it would be for our children to go off into the world with this power? Knowing that our kids have someone looking out for them…themselves. Maybe that party they were invited to doesn’t feel quite right. Maybe they choose to study something at school that really lights them up and they choose a path in life that brings them joy and prosperity. Maybe they sense the right friends to be around and maybe they just know when you need to hear their voice.
I like to think of it as a superpower - I am not fully in touch with it as much as I’d like yet either because my ego sometimes gets in the way. (By ego, I mean the brain that sits at the top of our body. The brain that thinks it knows everything. Sometimes you have to learn to quiet that loud brain.)
Sometimes you quiet your thoughts into journaling or meditation to think about your two options. Your intuition gives you an answer but your ego doesn’t like the answer. (In other words, you think YOU don’t like the answer.) Listen, you gotta do you. Even just the knowing may make your conscious mind more aware. By this I mean, maybe you were deciding whether to go on a trip with your friends. Something about the trip was not sitting well with you. But you really want to go on the trip. The mere fact that you are at least aware may be exactly what you need to avoid a situation. You’ll never really know if you avoided something, but you can just assume.
If you practice using it - then you’ll start to feel the difference of a gut feeling and just feeling nervous about something. We often feel nervous about things that our gut is perfectly aligned with. When I leave my family for a girl's trip, I am always anxious about going and I have to sit in quiet for a bit to clarify my feelings. Am I feeling that something’s going to go wrong on this trip or am I just anxious to leave? With practice, you can begin to feel the difference.
With our kids, they really need to learn to tune into that so that they do not become fearful when they have butterflies or are a little anxious about something. Put yourself out there a bit and feel the difference. Run a race, do a form of public speaking, jump off a diving board, talk to a new person. These anxious feelings can be confused with a gut feeling, an “I shouldn’t be doing this” feeling”. If you don’t differentiate between those feelings, some joys and opportunities can be missed.
Tap into your gut feeling often. Reach out and let me know how it goes or how you’ve used this power in your life.
You got this!!!
