Your Gut and Your Brain Can be BFFs

A few years ago, I did feeling feelings work for a number of months with Lacou Flipse, one of the wisest, most dedicated advocates for the discovery of self I’ve ever met.  It was a somatic process beginning with where feelings were felt in the body. From there, I would meditate one what the feelings were trying to communicate without judgment.  Some may write it off as woo woo but it really transformed the way I relate to my own mental and emotional processes.

Another teacher of mine, Sheryl Paul, works with women who are smart, intuitive, but also prone to anxiety (Hey, there!). Sheryl talks about how, in any moment, we have a choice: we can choose to control or we can choose to learn.

The biggest gift I got from both of these amazing women was the ability to meet discomfort with compassionate curiosity.

Practical application

When I was a senior manager, I can remember disagreeing with more senior colleagues. Generally over minor things. But, I couldn’t always articulate why because my own self-consciousness of being the junior executive got in the way. My intuition was trapped in my gut.

It took years of learning to slow down, consult my gut and then ask curious questions to get to the place where my gut would talk to my head and my head would be able to parse out what it was trying to tell me.

Did it mean I suddenly started spewing the most brilliant insights ever shared? Of course not. But, it did mean I generally had a viewpoint worth considering, which led to me developing the ability to disagree with my colleagues in a more confident and productive way.

All that is to say that uncomfortable feelings can be paralyzing. We all practice avoidance and procrastination sometimes. But, here is the good news: on the heels of that discomfort is a well of wisdom that, when met with curiosity and tempered with context, can lead to some really good insights and decision making.

Exercise: Try sitting with the discomfort around a particular issue. What does your gut have to say about it? Try to meet it without judgment or any imperative to act immediately.

I work with folks facing all kinds of challenges in their professional lives from communication issues with colleagues to blocks to intrinsic motivation to overwhelm and fatigue. I love helping them tap into that inner spring of discomfort and wisdom and watching as they move through it to some truly great decisions.

Interested in talking to me about coaching? I have room for two more coaching clients right now. Click here to get in touch and I’ll reach out about scheduling a free consultation to see if I’m the right coach for you.