The phrase “Intuition in your gut” is talking about a feeling, knowledge, or understanding you get without being able to explain it rationally. The “intuition in your gut” keeps you out of harm’s way and lets you make quick decisions without thinking. Intuition and gut feelings are an inner knowing. It’s a skill and an ability to immediately know what’s coming in the future or understand something in the present without any conscious rational thinking.
Intuition or gut feelings come from patterns we’ve identified in our past experiences. Your brain is always learning, making connections, and coming up with different patterns. Intuition comes from your memory. Let’s say in the last 5 years, everytime you talk to someone who’s wearing a beret, they end up being mean to you. Although your conscious mind might not make the association between berets and meanness, your subconscious does. Now, automatically, when you meet someone who’s wearing a beret, you will be on high alert because of your past experiences.
Since intuition is based on our past experiences, it doesn’t always make it accurate. It’s full of bias. Let’s take our previous example again. Assuming that everyone who wears a beret is mean is wrong. Although that might be your experience, it is simply not true. Remember to analyze your intuition and only listen to it if your rational mind also agrees with it.
Why is gut health important?
The gut and our intuition are inherently connected. The gut, our digestive system, is full of nerve endings and neurotransmitters. Because of this the gut and the brain are always communicating with each other. In fact, 90% of the time the gut is actually the one sending messages to the brain. If your gut is feeling unhappy, your brain is first to know.
Many neurotransmitters are actually produced in the gut and then they are sent to the brain. Serotonin (happy chemical) is actually produced in the gut. So, if you have bad gut health, then you also produce less serotonin. This is why gut health is connected to depression and anxiety.
Why do we feel intuition in our gut?
Intuition speaks to you through your body. In other words, intuition speaks to you through the chemicals that are created in certain situations. When you are in a place that your intuition doesn’t think is safe, then you immediately start to feel fear. This emotion is the result of different neurotransmitters that are being created. And guess what? These neurotransmitters are created in the gut.
When your brain has a subconscious thought, then the gut makes the body react. Like if the brain gets nervous subconscious thought, the gut starts giving your butterflies to alert you. When your intuition is trying to give you a message, it uses the gut to create the right neurotransmitters and alert you. Then, once the gut creates these chemicals, you will start to feel the right emotions or body sensations, like butterflies, fear, or anxiety.
