What is a "gut feeling"? It's a feeling in the pit of your stomach in response to a situation or event. Often it's used as a divination tool to help with decision making. If there is no feeling it's a green light and if you have that foreboding feeling it means stop. But how do we trust it? How do we know if it's the right thing to listen to?

Gazebo at Midnight

At one time in my life I went camping. I can't say that I would want to sleep on the ground again but my boys were little at the time and I wanted them to have that experience. It was the May long weekend and we were off to Penticton for a ball hockey tournament; some friends of mine were playing and we were groupies for the team. Penticton is an 8 hour drive from Calgary and we left late friday afternoon. We finally arrived in Penticton at 10 pm, exhausted, but knew we needed to set up the tent. My boys were tired and it was always fun getting them to help set up our 14' by 16' tent; it was a small Taj Mahal. We finally got the tent up and it was dark out. I then got the feeling. My gut told me I needed to set up my 14' by 14' portable gazebo right now. I got the most incredulous looks and comments from the group that I was crazy for it was already midnight, dark out and it was over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). Why on earth should we do that NOW? Can't we assemble it in the morning for Pete's sake?! I couldn't ignore the feeling so I started to assemble it on my own. My girlfriend (who was used to my gut feelings) said that she knew what this meant so she started to help. No sooner was the last peg installed that a torrential downpour broke out. People came flying into the gazebo like rats running from a drowning ship. When they all stood under the gazebo, I got incredulous looks AGAIN and my girlfriend just shrugged said, "We have learned to not ignore Jax's gut feelings".

My gut let me down

My friend has had the exact opposite situation. She was let go from her job with a good compensation package and had a good feeling that a new job was right around the corner. Two years later she found herself with no job and even less money. What about that good feeling? That was only the beginning. She then had a great feeling about a tax return for her disabled son only to have the government take it away from her. Not only did they do that but somehow she was audited and had to prove that she was the sole caregiver of her son. She wasn't one for doctors nor did she have adequate other resources to prove her status. Finally the government had to accept a note from the school for that's all she had. Again it blew up in her face. There were many countless positive or negative gut feelings that have blown up in her face. Only the other day, she stated that she really doesn't know what to believe anymore where her gut feelings are concerned; they have seemed to completely backfire. So how do we know what is a helpful or hindering gut feeling?

Motive Operandi

Motive. Assessing the motive is essential to establishing a good barometer by which to understand your gut feelings. On the surface level can you recognize some fear at the heart of the feeling? Fear feelings and gut feelings are two completely different things and people often confuse the two. Fear feelings are ones filled with dread and apprehension and also keep you stuck. Instead of a warning to not do something they are simply an indicator of what core belief is trying to get your attention. It may be that what you are facing is something you should take closer inventory of. Ask yourself why you are afraid of this situation. That will give you a clue as to what belief is driving your emotional bus. Gut feelings, on the other hand, are an indescribable feeling that goes against obvious evidence. Kevin Trudeau talks about a story where he got a got feeling on his CD's Your Wish Is Your Command. He decided it was time to sell his house and he wanted to put it on the market. All his financial advisers told him that NOW was the best time to sell but he couldn't bring himself to do so for it didn't feel right. He waited and waited and went against his financial advisor's advice. A few month's later a real estate agent had heard that Kevin was going to sell his home but it currently wasn't on the market. The person buying the house was fabulously rich so when Kevin gave his price the deal was done and that price was millions of dollars more than he was originally going to sell it for. Good thing he listened to his gut!

What say you?

Now readers... maybe you can help me with a little dilemma here we have at my house. As you can imagine with my personality and mindset rules really don't apply to me. I have followed my gut instincts for many years and that has resulted in multitudes of awesome stories to tell you. My social circle has learned to curl up and gather some popcorn to await the next Jax saga. So currently I have a new situation that has created a gut feeling. When I married my handsome hubby I received a conditional green card which expired in September of 2016. I received this hokey looking letter from USCIS stating that I have filed for my permanent card and awaiting that process for approval. WIth the current state of news around immigrants I have a gut feeling about crossing the border into Canada. My gut keeps saying... hell no she don't go! It's funny for I usually don't have these feelings around these types of situations but this time I do. My hubby keeps telling me that I don't have anything to worry about and it's possible he's right but I can't shake the feeling. He also says that I could be creating my own reality and that I should go anyways. I have learned to never ignore the feeling and I'll continue to do that. What do you think?

Who is the Common Guru? Here is our introductory article
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Pictures courtesy of Pixaby