Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 4 Issue 7, 1 January 2020 | Page 14

What is the Gut Instinct?
Your gut instinct is the physical reaction you have to the world around and
inside of you.
When you experience an overwhelming “gut feeling,” your body is carrying
out a primal response to subconscious information. The ultimate purpose of
your gut instinct is to protect you. As your gut instinct is the most ancient and
primal “sixth sense” you have, it is the one you can rely upon the most.
One example of your gut instinct in action would be deciding to
spontaneously avoid walking down a road at night because something “feels
off.” That feeling is your gut instinct warning you that danger is afoot. You may
then glimpse an intimidating gang of men down the street as you hurry by –
your gut instinct has just saved you from potentially being robbed, beaten up,
raped, or worse.
How Does Gut Instinct Work? (and Why You’re an Animal)
We human beings like to believe ourselves to be separate from animals. Yes,
we might be more sophisticated. But at our core, we are still animals – human
animals. Our primal impulses and evolutionary origins don’t just disappear
because we sit and read the newspaper each morning or wipe our asses with
lavender-scented toilet paper.
As noted by anthropologist Clifford Geertz:
… man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun.
Rather than get hoity-toity about the fact that we’re only really advanced
animals, why not embrace it? By honouring the wisdom of the subconscious
mind and its impact on the body to produce ‘gut instinct’ we can save
ourselves from a lot of suffering. (This has been proven by the way.)
What’s the Difference Between Gut Instinct and Intuition?
Gut instinct and intuition are often used synonymously. And, yes, they are
interconnected. But they aren’t quite the same.
So what’s the difference?
Put simply, gut instinct is your primal wisdom. Intuition is your spiritual
wisdom. We need both if we are to walk our spiritual paths with courage and
intelligence.