How Much Can You Trust Your Gut Instincts?

Trusting gut instincts depends on mindfulness here and now.

Photo by Jake Young on Unsplash

Thought and feeling can be easy to define when you’re mindful. Conscious awareness, here and now, lets you know what you’re thinking and what and how you’re feeling.

But what about gut instinct? And how is that defined?

For me, gut instinct goes deeper than thought or feeling — and is a combination of both. It’s a certain, instinctual awareness that exists somewhere deep within. I can’t explain in words how it feels, but it’s like an in-depth knowledge of how my thoughts and feelings blend into certain knowledge that simply is.

It’s also something only recognizable in a present mindset. Conscious awareness of active thoughts, feelings, and intentions can put you in touch with gut instinct. But if you’re not aware of your mindset/headspace/psyche conscious self, you can’t know your instinctual self.

There’ve been arguments that humans lack instincts other animals have. I disagree. We’re just so focused on controlling and dominating our environments, we lose sight of our inherent instincts.

And then, just to make this that much harder, trusting our gut instincts can be a very questionable process.