Learning When and How to Trust Your Instincts
Some seriously woke (but important) stuff here.
Many members of the animal kingdom act on instinct. Once upon a time, long ago, human beings were equally as attuned to their inherent instincts as the rest of the world’s animals.
Over time – and I mean tens of thousands of years – we’ve allowed our big brains to apply more reason and logic to the world. I’m not going to get into the science, but this is why human beings are so adaptable, can live in any environment we choose, and are capable of creating technologies from simple stone tools to this device you’re currently reading these words on.
Yet we still have instincts. But our ability to connect to them has lessened a lot. What’s more, because of how we function, we frequently don’t trust them even when we encounter them.
Then, just to make this ever-so-slightly-more-complicated, learning to read, understand, and trust our instincts in context is a whole other ball of wax. Yet learning when and how to trust your instincts can do wonders for your overall life experience and self-awareness. (Woke AF, but again, how in any way, shape, or form, is woke a bad thing when its opposite is being asleep at the switch? But I digress.)
This will probably come as no surprise, but it begins with mindfulness.
Mindfulness is knowing yourself
Mindfulness is active conscious awareness. Simple as that. But becoming mindful takes work. That’s because you can only be mindful in this moment, actively consciously aware, right here and now.
The present is a place we as a species tend to spend very little time. We chew on the past and muse on the future to the point where we often lose track of the world around us and within us. It’s great to learn from the past and set goals for the future, but the only truly real, authentic time is the now.
That’s what the rest of the animal kingdom instinctively recognizes, and we don’t. Sure, animals seek food, shelter, and a means to propagate the species to get to a future, but it all happens in the now. Likewise, they can and do learn from past experiences that then get applied to living in the now.
Humans have the same ability, and mindfulness is where and how you unlock it. Becoming actively consciously aware is a 3-part matter.
First, you must be present, here and now. In the moment, not dwelling on the past or contemplating the future. Second, you ascertain the world around you, outside of you, via your six senses – taste, touch, smell, sight, sound, and intuition (that sense that has no easy explanation but still recognizes/acknowledges the world without).
Third, you look inside yourself to become consciously aware of what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, what your intentions are, if your approach is positive or negative, and what you’re doing/what actions you’re taking (or not).
Being mindful is how you become self-aware. With self-awareness, you gain insight into your instincts.
Instincts are both simple and complex
Instinct is a base part of the human operating system’s code. Instinct ties to fear in saving your life from that predator stalking you, swimming into a river’s too-swift current, and other dangerous threats.
That’s just a small part of instinct. It also involves sensing the intentions of people around you, a sense of purpose, guile, grit, and other base, hard-to-explain or put into words notions about the world you inhabit.
For example, I recently had to address a situation where someone I supervise was accused of wrongdoing. After a bunch of research, I’m fairly certain that person has been falsely accused. But there’s more to it. I spoke to them in person and on video, and their body language, way of speaking, and the overall vibe they gave instinctively told me they did not do what they’re being accused of doing.
I trust my instincts here and believe them. Is this perfect? No. They might be a truly exceptional liar. But I’m trusting my instincts here because of my own experience, years of studying and working with human nature, and work on self-awareness that has built trust in my instincts.
But while I’m highly certain I’m right here, that doesn’t always mean instincts are correct.
Sometimes your gut is wrong
I’ve entered into more than one relationship where I was certain we had a deep, meaningful, amazing connection. My instincts told me this was good, and I trusted what I’d started would be worthwhile. Sucks when that turns out to be untrue, doesn’t it?
However, that failure is not so terrible. Why? Because I learned something about myself. I learned more about questioning my gut, exploring whether my instincts were trustworthy or wishful thinking.
Being mindful is imperfect. Just because I strive to practice it doesn’t always mean I get it right. What’s more, other extenuating circumstances can misdirect and mislead me if I let them. Sometimes you want something to be true so badly you neglect your instinct or misunderstand/misinterpret it.
Instincts get buried at that weird junction between the conscious and subconscious mind. Learning to recognize them is the first step. Acknowledging them is the second. The third step is applying them – and that takes mindfulness. Examining the combination of your six external senses with your inner mindset/headspace/psyche self isn’t easy, but ultimately worthwhile. Trusted instincts help you grow, change, and build a life you desire to experience.
As you learn your instincts, you’ll misinterpret them along the way. That’s okay, because that’s how you grow, change, and ultimately experience life to the fullest. Sure, that can be infuriating and frustrating, but you can reframe it as enlightening and promising. But most of all, it puts you behind the wheel to drive your life to who, what, where, how, and why you desire to be. I think that’s worthwhile, and we are all ultimately worthy and deserving of that.
Learning when and how to trust your instincts isn’t hard
It’s all about practicing active conscious awareness (mindfulness) of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and the positivity or negativity of your approach to direct your actions.
Recognizing and acknowledging that you need to be mindful in the here and now to engage your instincts, you can work on active conscious awareness via your six senses and inner mindset/headspace/psyche self to see what they’re telling you. Knowing that instincts are an inherent part of the human animal, through self-awareness you can better read and interpret them, and from there learn when and how to trust them to help you experience life more fully and intentionally.
This empowers you. When you’re empowered, that can, in turn, empower others around you. That’s why I share these weekly posts with you.
Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity — from the vast cylinder that exists between them — shifts life in ways that open you to more potential, possibility, and the like. From there, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you in the here and now.
The more aware you are of yourself in the present, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, it can spread to those around you and empower them, too. That is an amazing conduit to help reason overcome fear in the collective consciousness.
Thanks for joining me on this journey.
This is the six-hundred-sixty-second (662) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energy for everyone. Feel free to share, reblog, and spread the positivity.
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