“Trust your gut!” We hear this message frequently in spiritual circles and in memes on Facebook. As a teacher, I’ve even recommended it, particularly during basic shamanism classes when students learn to journey.
But trusting what seems to be our inner guidance can sometimes be unwise. If our instincts have been injured, we might be hearing our conditioned programming rather than our true wisdom. Our gut might lead us astray if we haven’t yet done the repair work.
Here’s an example. If we leave an unhappy or abusive relationship, we might quickly start another relationship only to eventually realize our new partner is similar to the old one. I’ve heard people say, “But I was guided toward them. Why didn’t it work?” This dynamic can also occur when we take a new job and end up in the same circumstance all over again.
We are unfortunately resonating with a pattern of dysfunctional energy, not our natural instincts. (Author and intuitive Sonia Choquette calls these “divine soul appointments.”) Only by doing the inner work to clear the old resonance and reconnect with our higher wisdom can we truly source from our pure, natural instincts.
Our shadow can also interfere with trusting our gut. Shadow is a psychological term for the parts of ourselves we judge harshly and push away in an attempt to keep hidden. But of course anything we deny holds a lot of power.
We might feel the impulse to take a certain action and think it is coming from our intuitive self, when we are really being influenced by a piece of our shadow that is unhelpful or disruptive.
For many years, my fear of being lazy led to becoming a workaholic. My ability to care for my physical body was in my shadow. I’d frequently receive nudges (from what I thought was my intuition) to keep going and finish a project or to start in on another task even if it was well after quitting time. I followed the compulsion to keep working, but it was not intuition from my higher self. I was sourcing from the influence of my shadow.
The key is discernment. It’s helpful to run the messages we perceive as coming from our gut through the filter of our higher self. Is what I’m sensing real? Is it a message from my inner wisdom or from my inner wounds? Will it replicate a dysfunctional pattern if I go down this path? How are my past experiences affecting my perception around this?
By bringing awareness to our personal healing and repairing our instinct injury, we can learn to source from our higher guidance and make healthier choices that avoid replicating the pattern.
This work is real, and it matters.
March 28, 2022