International Yoga Day: Honour Your Gut Guard, Let It Down
“Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it's enough,” Robert Heller - British management journalist, and founding editor of Management Today.
While you celebrate and pontificate today on the importance of the yoga of the body and mind, don’t forget to honour, exercise and un-pretzel your gut. That poor abused little voice that is held liable and accountable for all decisions that you make in your life when made from a place of fear and conditioning (usually the wrong ones in hindsight).
As the years go by and time lapses, layer after layer, episode after episode many of us tend to become guarded and end up making decisions based solely on our gut, to the exclusion of evidence in many instances to the contrary. This then becomes the custodian of the keys to our soul where we systematically begin to build fortresses around ourselves.
The gut, our inner voice, is a wonderful mechanism but sometimes screams in vain because of past experiences and traumas.
It could be a series of bad relationships, a divorce, it could be a series of deceitful friends or colleagues or it could just be the kaleidoscope of life viewed with clouded lenses of differential experiences. The limen is different for each one of us.
It’s never just one thing that walls us into the coffin of solitude but an amalgamation of episodes little by little that makes us suspicious enough to seek solace just within the four walls of our mind. Bolted up and guarded not allowing anyone in.
The gut is a wonderful alarm system, but it is important to notice when we are operating purely from our amygdala or employing some semblance of reality while making judgments.
Just like when you start yoga or meditation as a practice, letting your guard down isn’t an easy one. It’s all about practice. We carry the badge of a “great gut” extremely proudly so deconditioning won't be easy.
Start with baby steps. Make an inquiry each time a thought emerges, especially the ones which come with full force and gusto. The ones that scream loudly, “This is wrong! This person is wrong! They are going to cheat on me! He or she has an agenda! My gut says so!”
Ask yourself, “ Is this the truth? What evidence points in this direction? Am I operating from a position of fear? Am I allowing my decisions to be coloured by my past experiences? Is there more to this than meets the eye?”
You may be surprised when you distance your self from knee-jerk decisions and move towards attempting to put your gut in different asanas; a yoga of the gut of sorts.
The Internet is flooded with wonderful images of people in tough poses, each of which most of us can only dream of mastering. They all started somewhere, belief and a leap of faith in themselves, where over time you learn to breathe into each pose, many times through the pain.
While listening to our inner voice and gut is important, it is equally important to shift from a myopic guarded stance to a bolder open-hearted approach. Allow people in, take that jump. So whether you are in the Silicon Valley, Paris or Delhi; your name is Raoul, Rahul, Alka or Andrea, breathe, meditate and don’t hesitate to be bold. While this may all sound airy-fairy and woolly it’s worth a shot.
Like the famed actress, Mae West said, “I'll try anything once, twice if I like it, three times to make sure.”
Challenge your gut a few times and see the consequences. Yoga, Unani, Ayurveda et al, who knows what might work.
Ultimately, life is empty and meaningless, it is you who gives it meaning, so steer it in the direction of your highest and best.
