Personal Section: Trusting Your Gut Instinct in Business and Everyday Relationships

By: Dyanne Street

Some time ago, as I poured my heart out to a dear friend about a deep personal conflict I was wrestling with, he advised me to write my conflict down very clearly on a piece of paper; put it on my nightstand; clear my head of all problems and issues for the night, and go to sleep. He said when I awoke I would have the answer to my problem.

I had always respected his spiritual attunement and insight. A mutual friend of ours has always considered him a "spiritual guru" so his words rang of import and wisdom to me… even if they were a little, shall we say, unconventional …

Bah. Humbug, you say? Well, don’t be so quick to dismiss his counsel.

I asked him if he was sure this would work. He said that we suffer from worry-clutter (his words) and that we don’t give the answers a chance to come through. The answers are there, he said, we just have to give them a pathway. He said we don’t have five or six senses, we have unlimited senses and sensibilities (his words).

He answered my question honestly, he said, maybe. He cautioned that if I wanted to tap into this innate power which resides in the core of each of us I needed to start this process now. That way, the next time I had a crisis; I would know exactly what to do. I would go inside without hesitation and listen for my answer. His suggestion was a way for me to start connecting with a power that I could count on in times of need. He helped me get in tune with intuitive forces at my center my gut. It’s called gut instinct because it comes from our core, our quintessence. It will not fail us if we allow ourselves to grow in it.

There is no science to intuition or instinct. They are not intellectual processes. They speak to a quality, a gift, within all of us that has guided and protected the species for eons. It’s powerful and awesome when it’s authentic and specific. We’ve all had moments when our senses told us something was the absolute right thing or wrong thing to do.

Think about it: You’re starting a business. You need investment capital and you’re a little insecure about going it alone. Someone comes to you with the money, the connections, and the know-how but something inside you says don’t take this person on as a partner. What do you do? It’s a timeless conundrum: practical versus gut-instinct.

We’ve all been through cheating mates, lying friends, and back-stabbing co-workers. They smiled in your face and acted like everything was as usual but your gut told you something was not right. You couldn’t put your hands on it but you just knew…

Do we sometimes just verbally flip a coin and call it gut because we’re too tired to work through the answer? In order to trust our gut-instinct we’ve got to give the process what it needs to serve us well. We’ve got to be open to it. Recognize it and learn how to receive it. It’s like the old joke that asks, How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

The answer is: Practice, baby, practice.

The more we open ourselves to using it the more attuned we are to its frequencies. The more attuned we are the more receptive we are to the message. The better we become at interpreting it correctly, the more we are able to trust it. Sometimes it smacks us so hard we have no choice but to go with it. Most times it’s more subtle.

Instinct or intuition is an intriguing synthesis of the mind, heart, and spirit. So, though going with our gut may not be an intellectual process, once we’ve made the connection the results will always be the smarter choice.

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