March 22nd 2018

The 4 Levels of the Inner Voice Series: The first level is that of our gut feelings. It's the first step in listening to the more subtle ways our body and inner world communicates with us.

In this series, it’s a four-part series that I’m doing right now, and it’s all about the inner voice. This series is all about the four levels of the inner voice that I’ve experienced in my journey. The first step, the first level which this video is all about is the gut level, the gut response. When you have a gut feeling what does that actually mean?

Gut feeling

That impulse was the first kind of interaction I had with my inner world that was beyond my mind and what I was thinking. This feeling response in my gut was the first thing that kind of gave me information about what was in front of me and the decisions I had to make. It was information that was coming from a place beyond thinking and rational deduction.

With our gut, what I’ve come to understand is that it is our body’s way of communicating to us which way to go; yes, no, maybe, go ahead, pull back, wait, think of it more, mull a bit more on the decision, or go for it. So all of these gut feelings that I would get was my body’s way of communicating to me.

It is remarkable in that the body has access to all the information that’s stored in our mind and of course our body, the memory cells in our body. And so everything we’ve experienced is stored in our system. Every thought, every feeling, every fear, every interaction, every single day is stored in our system and our body has access to all of that information.

The body holds so much information

What I’ve learned to understand is that when I have a gut response it is drawing on that body of information. And so if I get a yes feeling it feels like okay, everything is clear, from what we’ve experienced in the past this should be okay to proceed with. If I get a gut response that’s a no, it’s cautionary because something perhaps similar has happened in the past, things are flagged that remind the body of something that’s happened in the past and it’s like proceed with caution or definitely don’t go there.

It’s a wealth of information that’s available to us that we can access through this gut feeling. It’s a very subtle feeling. And it’s a lot more information than what our mind can remember. We can draw on this part of our inner world and this communication connection from our inner world to make decisions with what we’re facing in the current moment.

The limitation is that the gut response does not have any links to I would say divine intelligence. I don’t think the gut response is really connected to our intuition. I feel that the body’s way of processing information and giving us guidance through our gut response, through our gut instinct, is based on everything that’s happened in the past. I don’t feel like it’s the inner voice that’s communicating to me.

Take the guidance with a pinch of salt

And so I always take my gut response, my gut instinct, with a grain of salt, with a little bit of space and awareness and openness to receive more information from my inner voice which is linked to divine intelligence, the Ātma, the soul, the oneness principle, because that part of us is greater than any individual person. And it for me exists in a dimension beyond space and time, and so it can see around corners. It’s a greater guide than our gut response.

The limitation with the gut response is that it can only guide you based on what it’s seen before, not on anything it can predict or understand about what could happen in the future. It is wonderful in terms of giving you a wealth of information from what you’ve experienced previously but it’s not the best guide that you have available to give you guidance on how to proceed with decisions that are at the forefront of your mind and life right now.

The way to develop a relationship with your gut is to know that it’s very subtle, and to ask questions that are very, very simple. It’s the same way of how to develop a relationship with your inner voice. It’s to start really basic and simply.

You’re at the shops and you’re deciding which bag of chips to buy, and you look at two options and you say Alright, which one should I buy. And it’ll give you an answer. You’ll have a gut response, a yes, an opening and expansiveness towards one and a contraction and like a tightening in the stomach or butterflies or something that’s not too pleasant, you’ll experience as a no.

It’s a process of trial and error

When you experiment and trial and error with things that are so inconsequential like a bag of chips or what you’re going to wear today or should you fill petrol now or later and you’ll get a gut response for ‘do it now’, you’ll access the part of you that is still linked with so much information and knowledge and wisdom that’s stored in your body and your mind, and that training of tuning in to something that’s quite subtle is a really great foundation to then build on to hearing more subtle information and words and sounds and ideas and pictures from your inner voice.

The gut instinct is something that can be developed and should be developed if you’re wanting to cultivate a really strong relationship with your inner voice. That is the first level of accessing information from your inner world that is beyond your mind.

The challenge for the week is …

As a challenge for the next week tune in to your gut and see what it’s coming up with. And play around with it, trial and error, experiment with this part of yourself and see what happens in the week ahead. It will be really interesting to reflect a week from now and notice how things have unfolded. Sometimes things can only really become more apparent a few days later where you’re thinking that’s why I had a gut response about that because ten years ago I was at that intersection and that’s where there was an accident and that’s why I clenched when I was turning right for example.

Know that the gut response is also like layered with fear, and that is a really strong response to keep you protected and keep you safe. And so that’s cautionary when making decisions because you don’t want to be making decisions from fear but that’s the limitation of listening to your gut or your gut instinct, I feel. It can only give you information and give you guidance based on what you’ve experienced in the past.

Sharanya

xx