A Matter Of Trust

BUTTERFLIES IN YOUR STOMACH? OR DO YOU FEEL IT IN YOUR BONES? WHEN YOUR BODY GIVES YOU SIGNALS IT’S WISE TO LISTEN. JO HARTLEY EXPLAINS HOW TO USE YOUR INTUITION TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Oprah once said that using your intuition is paramount for any lasting success. “I’ve trusted the still, small voice of intuition my entire life,” she said. “And the only time I’ve made mistakes is when I didn’t listen.” Many of us agree. A new study about intuition has found that the more we rely on gut feelings to make a choice, the more we feel that the choice reflects our true selves and the more confident we become in it.

“Intuition is the ability to know something without conscious reasoning or thought,” says registered psychologist Rachel Hard.

“People often describe physiological symptoms associated with the gut when they don’t feel good, safe or sure about something.”

A stirring in the pit of the stomach or a stomach drop sound familiar? Rachel says that these feelings come from your ‘second brain’. “It’s believed that intuition comes from our gut,” she explains.

“This is essentially neurons, chemicals and hormones that flood the brain with messages about the state of our body, such as when we’re hungry or stressed.” Rachel notes that the brain then processes these messages to understand what’s happening in our body and why we might feel anxious without cognitive awareness.

“At this point, if we pay conscious attention, our brain ‘steps up to the plate’,” says Rachel. “We can apply reasoning, past experiences and expectations to figure out why we feel that drop in the pit of our stomachs.”