Trust In Yourself
Learning to trust yourself will help to bring you more clarity and simplify many of the thousands of decisions we have to make as adults on a weekly basis. Trust is the opposite of fear and as you learn to trust yourself, you’ll likely experience less anxiety and stress in your day-to-day life.
This practice takes time to develop and external expectations are strong. With practice, we get better at trusting our bodies and our inner wisdom.
Of course, we still need analysis and logic to make good choices, come up with a plan, and set achievable goals. But we benefit when the essence of our goals, our direction in life, and the food and lifestyle that we choose is in alignment with our body, heart, and soul.
When things are in alignment, your analytical brain won’t be fighting what feels like your truth, but rather working with it to help you achieve your goals.
As you learn to live in alignment with your own truth and follow your incredible wisdom, you can experience a new way of making decisions and showing up in the world. You can step into your power and live your true purpose. It is all possible.
These practices will not only guide you on your healing journey, but they can decrease stress in a major way in your life. Healing your gut is often dependent on our ability to decrease and manage stress, in addition to eating foods that serve you well.
My Story
I’ve always had a strong sense of my intuition. I knew from a young age what I was drawn to and what I needed. Of course, some things were louder and more obvious than others, but I often felt in my body what was true for me.
My challenge was choosing to follow my instincts versus what I thought I “should” be doing. I’d let my analytical brain come in and override what I knew to be true for me. Often this was based on the external expectations of what I thought I should be doing.
When we allow those external expectations to control our choices, we succeed at putting ourselves in a box. This can suffocate who we are and muddle the messages our body is sending. Instead, we end up focusing on what we “should” be doing or who we’re “supposed to be” at the expense of being who we are and living out our individual truth.
I was the master of letting my analytical brain interfere with my life and my intuition and therefore, putting myself in a box. Many times I made decisions that went against my truth, because I thought that’s what should be happening. Eventually, I started replacing “should” with “could” and a whole new world of possibility opened up.
Stress and the Gut
There’s a major highway between the gut and the brain called the vagus nerve. This nerve allows your body to be in a state of rest and digest and to come out of the all-too-common heightened fight or flight state. Dysfunction/ poor communication along this nerve greatly impacts your ability to digest your food, relax, enjoy, and be present.
This is only one way that stress impacts your digestion and your mental and physical health. There are plenty of other detrimental effects on the gut when under chronic or traumatic stress.
Stress also directly impacts the good bacteria in the gut and the physical health and functioning of the gut itself. I’ll save that conversation for another time, but it’s important to mention how stress management aids in healing your digestion and your body. It’s absolutely essential.
Learn Your “Yes” and “No”
Learning what “yes” and “no” feel like in your body will help you to access your inner wisdom. The practice of embodiment and becoming familiar with these bodily sensations will help you recognize with clarity what you need or want in any given moment.
I learned this practice from Elizabeth Dialto’s incredible work and she dives much deeper into embodiment. You can find her website and podcast here if you’re interested in further exploring this practice with her.
Here’s one way to do this:
1) Think of something you absolutely know you want. Say it out loud. This is your “YES.”
For example, “I want chocolate.”
Notice what you feel, write down the feelings and the sensations, describe it, and locate it in your body if you can.
2) Think of something you know you don’t want. This is your “NO.” Say it out loud. Notice how you feel, write it down, describe it in detail, and locate it in your body if you can.
3) Practice with simple and clear things that you already know you want.
4) When you’re ready think of something you’ve been contemplating, but aren’t sure that you want. Say it out loud. Notice how you feel, write it down, and describe the feeling and location in detail.
5) Practice, practice, practice. You can think back to what you knew you wanted and what that felt like. You can always revisit your written notes as a reminder.
TIP: Often when it’s a “YES” you’ll feel an expansive quality and when it’s a “No” you’ll feel a contractile quality. The rest will be completely individual to you.
Choosing to Listen
When you begin to hear your body, tune into your inner wisdom, and feel what you want and need, then you get to make a choice whether to listen.
Choosing to trust this inner wisdom won’t happen automatically. As you practice and continue to use the information you gather to make the best decisions for you, it’ll become easier.
You can begin to live in sync with your truth, your wants, and your needs.
Things will become more clear, with less effort.
As important as your analytical brain is, don’t let it take over and override your truth. In my experience, when you go against your truth, it won’t serve you well.
Dive Deeper
If you’d like to dive deeper into learning how to trust yourself, I work with my clients on exactly that!
I offer a free consultation session where we can come up with a unique plan for you to move towards healing your digestion, finding relief from your symptoms, and learning to trust your body and your intuition in the process.
Message me here and we can set something up!
