Getting Unstuck #2: Trust your gut.

In the coming days and weeks, I’ll be sharing some tips and tricks to help you get unstuck - no matter the circumstances of your stuck-ness.

This is the second in a series - if you missed the previous posts, click here.

Here's the second tip:

Trust your gut.

Here's a great quote on trusting your gut from Melody Wildling (a professor of human behavior at Hunter College) that sums up why this is so important:

“Trusting your gut is trusting the collection of all your subconscious experiences. Your gut is this collection of heuristic shortcuts. It’s this unconscious-conscious learned experience center that you can draw on from your years of being alive."

Considering that 95+ percent of our actions and behaviors are influenced by the subconscious mind, I'd say this is pretty important!

Ms. Wilding goes on to say:

“[the gut] holds insights that aren’t immediately available to your conscious mind right now, but they’re all things that you’ve learned and felt. In the moment, we might not be readily able to access specific information, but our gut has it at the ready.”

In our world of information overload and also generally being a head-centered culture (by culture I mean in a very general sense), we sometimes lose sight of that trust.

So how to get back to trusting our guts as a means to helping us make decisions?

You have to create space to hear what your gut is saying.  There I go talking about “creating space” again!

Ok, next question: How to create space?  In my last post, I spoke about getting in touch with the physical body.  Some other ideas:  go for a walk, meditate, take a nap... anything to step away from thinking about things.

I'm a big fan of naps and "shutting down".  And whenever you wake up, there is always space between sleeping and being fully awake.  It’s a lovely place to be, somewhere that we luxuriously enjoy before we remember our problems, issues, and struggles.

Here's a way to take advantage of that space:

Upon waking, I invite you to hit the snooze but stay awake, eyes closed. Better even to wake naturally.

When you start thinking about that issue that has you stuck (and our minds always get in there first thing in the morning), gently put the spinning on the mental hamster wheel aside - and check in with your gut.

Acknowledge any reactions here.  Initial sensations, feelings, emotions. Whatever comes up.

These sensations might be fleeting before the mental chatter starts up again, but see how long you can hold on to that sensation to help uncover what you *truly* want and need.  Not what your head is telling you, or what our friends/family are telling us.

This, like getting in touch with the body, can be hard at first.  But this skill can be cultivated over time.

Be curious about listening to your gut.

Right now, my gut is telling me I need to send this along and start my day before I start over-editing (something I am prone to do whenever dealing with the written word)..!

....what is your gut telling you?