Follow the wisdom of the Gut & Heart

“To live intuitively is to live in freedom.

My definition of freedom is to live without fear. Most of the fear we have is created by the thoughts in our mind, we worry over decisions we have to make and the people we care for. But when you learn how to trust your intuition, you know that there are multiple ways we know what we know, and the thoughts in our head are trying to keep the physical body safe, and therefore it’s always looking for problems!

But did you know you have more than one brain!

Embedded in the lining of the intestines, is the enteric nervous system, with hundreds of millions of neurones one-thousandth the number in your brain. Gut neurones communicate with the brain through the vagus nerve, which runs from the base of the brain to the chest and abdomen. This ‘gut reaction’ happened to protect us from danger. Using the gut, we could sense predators before we saw them with our own eyes. The clearest connection between the gut and the mind is how we experience anxiety and stress. A gut instinct is when we have a reaction to something we may find fearful. Making decisions through this form of intuition means that we make choices out of fear or defence.

There are, in fact, two forms of intuition as I write about in my book ‘You DO Know learning to act on intuition instantly’. The second form of intuitive knowing is often discounted because it has no words. It is rooted in emotion. For example, when we have an excited, expansive feeling and we simply know, we may not understand why we know, we just know. This second intuition centre comes from your heart. The heart has its own independent nervous system. Like the gut, there are at least forty thousand neurones (nerve cells) in the heart. This is as many as are found in various subcortical centres of the brain.

Following this heart lead intuition can lead to remarkable life changes, as your decisions become about the expansion of who you are rather than limiting yourself to avoiding pain or fearful situations. On a personal level of using heart-based intuition means you can make quicker decisions about what is right for you, which also means less stress. It also means that you can open your heart more widely to people as you know who you can trust, making it the intuition to follow for love.

Next time you hear ‘follow your gut’ you will understand it’s not a brainless act after all.

Becky Walsh, Author, Speaker, Radio Host and Life Change Catalyst

Becky Walsh is one of the world’s leading authorities on self-belief and intuition.

She has hosted her own award winning radio show on LBC 97.3 UK and presents on Hay House radio. Becky is often delivering comment and analysis in the media worldwide and is a blogger for the Huffington Post and Psychologies magazine. Becky is an excellent speaker and has given an address at ‘I Can Do It’ Seminar London. Her private practice for breakthrough’s by phone or in person in Bristol and London.

Becky is a Hay House author of ‘You DO Know – Learning to act on intuition instantly’ as well as four more published books. Becky has an online course ‘Get clear on you book idea’ for budding world changes. Becky’s teaching also effortlessly blends her unique humour with ground-breaking, smack-on-the-forehead insights that put YOU in the driving seat of your life.

Note:  Becky’s article was printed as she wrote it. However, the article had several significant errors of spelling/punctuation, and they were corrected.

I shall feature another organisation dedicated to this connection in another post.