Listen to Your Gut

Jun 1

Written By Michelle Cloutier

Listen to your gut.

I’m sure you’ve heard this expression, right?

But, did you know it’s important to “listen to your gut” on both a spiritual and a physical level?

1. Let’s talk about the spiritual side, first.

Your “gut feeling” is your intuition. It’s that inexplicable knowing that you feel.

Maybe it’s a feeling that you shouldn’t go somewhere, or that a situation feels “off,” or you should call so and so, etc.

Whatever the situation, it’s your higher-self (your soul, God, whatever YOU call it) talking to you and guiding you.

If you’ve reached a place where you “trust your gut”, you’ve probably been called “crazy” for doing something (or not doing something) for reasons no one else can understand b/c you don’t even understand, you’re just “listening to your gut”.

I’ve made my peace with appearing “crazy”. IDGAF who thinks what about what I’m doing or not doing, whether I have a “good reason” or not.

My “gut” has never once lied to me or betrayed me.

But, you can bet your ass that I’ve regretted not listening to my “gut”.

We’re all born with intuition. And, the more you listen to it, the stronger it gets.

It’s a learning process for sure, but once you know, you know.

2. Now, let’s talk about your physical gut. Your “microbiome”, that’s the scientific word for it.

Have you heard the expression, “Your immune system lives in your gut.”

I learned that about 10 years ago. I wish I had known sooner. I wish I had known all of the things that create an unhealthy gut, or microbiome, but we live and learn.

Here’s a list of things that wreak havoc on your gut:

Antibiotics;
Drinking too much alcohol;
Stress;
Lack of exercise;
Smoking/vaping;
Not getting enough sleep;
Lack of prebiotics in diet; and
Not eating a diverse diet.

Before I knew these things, I messed up my gut hard starting in my 20s.

Some background on how I f’d up my gut over 10+ years:

I was super stressed in college (wicked type A, right here) and I didn’t sleep enough, at all.
I was drinking too much.
I had chronic sinus infections (I’m highly intolerant to dairy, but didn’t know it then).
I was constantly on antibiotics.
The stress and lack of sleep only got worse in Law School.
I was a full-blown insomniac for 2 years and I lost 20 lbs.
I was smoking by that point too and not exercising at all.
Then in my 30s, I had kids and again wasn’t sleeping much.
Still not really exercising.
Still eating dairy.
Still getting chronic sinus infections.
Still constantly on antibiotics.

The years of constant sinus infections was a vicious cycle b/c Western Medicine is so focused on treating the symptom and not the cause. Not to mention, I didn’t know that antibiotics were killing the good bacteria in my gut and causing me more problems. My doc failed to tell me to replace the good with a prebiotic and probiotic.

Btw, dairy causes the body to produce a lot mucus and inflammation and really isn’t good for anyone even if you think it doesn’t bother you. You might be surprised if you cut it out of your diet for 30 days, just sayin’.

Now that I know how important gut health is, I’m doing everything I can to improve my gut health.

“Your gut microbiome is made up of trillions of bacteria, fungi and other microbes. The gut microbiome plays a very important role in your health by helping control digestion and benefiting your immune system and many other aspects of health.”

Some signs of an unhealthy gut are: