Listen to Your Gut

there’s five minutes left in your exam

and you have to go back to those

questions you were debating if the

answer is

a or b it is one of those moments when

you’re taking an exam

and you’re trying to pitch what your

notes are saying and your gut is telling

you something differently

like most people i usually go against my

gut and later learn i got the answer

wrong

have you ever wondered why we get gut

feelings is there even a purpose to them

there is actually a science behind this

the human body speaks to us every day we

know when we are hungry

when we are tired when we are excited

and when we are scared

one method our body uses to communicate

to us is through our gut

otherwise known as our second brain sup

one of the three branches of our nervous

system called the enteric

nervous system recent studies in the

journal nature

support the evidence of the relationship

between higher cognitive functions and

gut brain crosstalk

these higher cognitive functions include

our intuitive decision making

known as gut feelings now i am

not alluding that when you were a baby

you had gut feelings about the people

you were around

google gaga is not short for hey mom i

do not like your friend

but our gut brain crosstalk began with a

very necessary task

of eating ghrelin is a hormone that

composes one of our signaling systems

between our brain and our gut

it is the responsible for the basic

emotion of hunger

next time you’re really craving that

cheeseburger just know that means your

body is releasing ghrelin

garlic contributes to the dopamine based

reward system in our bodies by

stimulating central dopamine

which is associated with the feeling of

happiness

this phenomenon is our first initial

gut-based response to stimuli

that stimuli being hunger which may also

form the foundation

for brain-based memories of basic

emotional states

these basic emotional states go on to

influence our gut feelings when it comes

to predicting the future

and our intuitive decision-making skills

data has also

suggested that predictions and

prediction errors are strongly

associated

with the part of our brain called the

amygdala which is responsible for

experiencing emotions

patients who have lesions in this brain

region have an impaired ability to make

adaptive decisions for the future

now why does this matter neurons are a

specialized cell in the brain that are

responsible for communicating to other

cells in our body

when you touch a hot stove sensory

neurons communicate to the rest of our

body creating that oh my gosh this is

how hot reaction

which causes you to immediately remove

your hand off the stove

evidence suggests that there’s a

specialized group of neurons located in

our gut

and that communicates with our brain

this evidence can go on to support how

basic emotional responses are influenced

by our gut

our brain and our gut are more highly

connected than we think

now what does this mean for you we have

all been in a situation where someone

has told us to make decisions that are

best for ourselves

which for some reason is not all that

simple

this is where people usually start to

overthink learning how to better

understand your own body’s intuitive

communication system will be a skill to

help

make decisions not only easier but also

better and healthier for you

how can this be achieved read your body

as a whole

do you feel spacious or compressed the

difference between spacious and

compressed is that spacious feels

powerful it feels exciting

think of that feeling after you get a

really good workout or when you can’t

wait to do something you love

even if these feelings are accompanied

with fear you’re ready to take on your

day and accomplish your task

all that good energy is reading in you

and out of you

compressed feelings are heavy they’re

tight you feel that flood of anxiety and

tightness in your chest

your jaw’s feeling clenched and your

body is hunched you just feel all around

uncomfortable when i was in college i

was one of those students who was

involved in everything

or at least i wanted to be i worked

part-time in a lab

volunteered while being a full-time stem

student

on top of that i was full-time

20-something-year-old

experiencing the greatness of this age

group or some may argue

it is not that great i was learning

about relationships

family struggles and life as an adult in

general

with that being said i was flooded with

many decisions that needed to be made

constantly learning how to listen to my

gut helped me make decisions that were

best for myself so i can

always put myself in situations that

made me feel spacious

i also learned the hard way when i

ignore my gut

especially when i came to exams i would

often get the answer wrong

this is where my relationship with

learning how to listen to my body

started

next time when you’re in a situation and

you have to make a decision

and you’re not too sure take a moment

and pause

listen to your gut more than likely you

will choose the right answer

thank you for listening