How to Listen to Your Gut Feeling and Why You Should

Last Updated on 2 years by Iva Ursano

You’ve heard these expressions a million times-“listen to your gut feeling-follow your gut-follow your intuition-trust your gut”. We hear them yet we still don’t pay attention to them. Why not? Today I’m going to share a few ways on how to listen to your gut feeling and why you need to start doing so.

Ignoring the advice, “listen to your gut feeling”

The problem we have with this advice is that too many of us still don’t trust our gut feelings. We’ve made so many mistakes in the past and suffered through so many toxic relationships (and other bad life decisions) we simply don’t know how to trust. We can’t trust our heart, we don’t trust our intuition and we don’t trust our gut feelings.

But if you look back a few years and think of a time or two when you knew you shouldn’t do something but you did it anyway and it turned out horribly wrong. Remember that time? That first initial feeling you got “I shouldn’t do this”, that feeling, that’s your gut feeling.

And you ignored it. And look what happened. Oy.

We ignore that advice yet a part of us knows it’s right. We should trust our gut. But it’s too scary. So much unknown. So many questions, no answers.

Learn to let go of expectations

We go into something with high hopes, which is totally natural and honestly there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s the expectations that are wrong. We need to learn to detach from expectations and just go in to something with love, joy, and remember to do our best and be our best and really just enjoy the moment, person, thing, relationship, whatever.

If we’re going to talk about relationships, of course, when we enter into a new one we have expectations that this is the one and don’t foresee any endings. Though, those aren’t really ridiculous expectations, they kinda are. You can’t expect anything, ever, to be perfect or perfect for you or even, permanent.

Nothing is permanent. Not even relationships. People change, people move on, people die. All unforeseen happenings.

When you release the expectation of perfection and permanence, you can then just enjoy the time, right now. Today.

How to listen to your intuition in relationships

While we’re still talking about relationships, and though it’s hard to let go of expectations that your relationship will be perfect, it’s also important to listen to your gut. I want to share a couple of tips with you right now on how to listen to your intuition in relationships.

Then we’re going to move on to how to listen to your gut feelings in life, in general.

So let’s just you just met someone and you’ve been dating for a couple of weeks/months. Sometimes this person will say or do something and there’s a tug in your tummy, if you will, that triggers a lower emotion. That’s your intuition telling you something’s off.

Or maybe you have a feeling that this person is lying about something. That feeling, that’s your intuition, your gut instinct. Don’t ignore it. It’s probably right. Sometimes, relationship anxiety or a gut feeling about this person is not for nothing. You need to pay attention to it.

You should check out this awesome guided meditation from Joe T-Hypnotic Labs ( I listen to a lot of recordings!) which will help you tap into your intuition better.

Your gut feeling never lies

I want you to think about your heart for a second here and go back to a time when you did listen to your intuition and it was spot on. Your gut feeling never lies. Intuition is the real deal.

Now think of a time when you didn’t follow your gut and things went bad and you know you could have prevented it if you had only listened to your intuition. See where I’m going with this?

You also have to keep in mind something very important. Your intuition has an enemy-your brain/mind.

Your brain will tell you things like this: “Don’t listen to your gut, it doesn’t know what it’s talking about. Follow me. I’m the smart one here”. That’s mostly a lie. Your brain, though yes it can be smart, also operates from a survival/fear based mode. It wants to protect you and has no idea what the heck your intuition is talking about.

Do you get that?

So you listen to your brain instead of listening to your gut feeling and then what happens? Usually something pretty bad.

Ok I’ve babbled on enough about why you should listen to your intuition, now I’m going to show you how.

You might really like these articles too:

How to Deal With Negative People-6 Types to Avoid

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5 Toxic Relationship Flags Never to Ignore

How to listen to your gut feeling (and not be afraid to)

1 Pay attention to how your body feels

Oftentimes, it may feel tense or nervous. On the flip side of that it may feel tingly and full of joy. That’s your intuition!

2 Notice your breathing

Are you having a hard time breathing or does your throat/chest feel tight? Or maybe your breathing is elevated (excited feeling). It’s important to watch these little signals.

3 Notice signs around you

This may be difficult to do at first but you’ll get better at it. Pay attention to signs around you. A bird singing or a butterfly around you could be a sign. A baby crying or people in a cafe arguing also could be a sign. Watch your surroundings and tune in.

When in doubt, go with your gut feeling

Always. If your head is telling you one thing and your friends are telling you something else always go with your gut feeling. That’s the one that’s telling the truth, in any situation, no matter what.

I hope this article helped you to listen to your gut feeling and why you should.

Peace and Love

Iva