How many times has someone told you to trust your gut?
Or to use your intuition?
What does that even mean?
In the past few years I have done a lot of somatic meditation and coaching. I have learned to ‘get in touch with my body’. I didn’t know what it really meant to ‘trust your gut’, but I am learning.
Prior to my introduction to somatic healing, I really wasn’t that in tune with my body.
They say the body keeps the score, and that stress or other maladies often manifest in bodily sensations.
Some research has even shown strong correlations between what we think in our minds and what we feel in our bodies – especially our ‘guts’ or gastro-intestinal system.
I used to wake up daily with severely aching shoulders and neck. I would blow it off as being sore from working out or stretching or something. But as I learned to ease the stressors in my life, my aches and pains subsided.
Coincidence or causality?
I have had experiences during meditation or sessions of Internal Family Systems therapy where specific memories associate with specific bodily sensations.
Coincidence or causality?
My experiences have been so strong and frequent that I no longer care if it is true, or real, or causal or not. I simply see this as something that happens.
Our bodies have their own ‘sensations’ and ‘experiences’ separate, or at least somewhat disconnected, from our brains.
I don’t know the how’s. Or the why’s. Or the what ifs. And I don’t really care.
But I have learned how to minimize the attention I pay to my mind. Or the degree to which I listen to the voice(s) in my head. The internal dialogue.
And when I minimize these voices, I connect more to my body.
It’s that simple.
When I meditate, I have more body connection and less mind connection.
That’s about all I can say, except to add that it is an amazing experience.
And also that there is knowledge there. A different kind of knowledge. A different kind of KNOWING. Through my bodily sensations and connection rather than an analytical, intelligent, or brain type knowing.
And I am guessing this is what all those colloquialisms are referring to. Your gut. Your intuition. Your bodily knowledge.
This week I’ll share my thoughts about intuition.
Full Episode Friday at www.chrisburcher.com