Trusting your gut

Trust Cafe

Image credit: Trust Amsterdam

“At times you have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.”
– Alan Alda

Bristol born and bred

I’m a Bristol girl, born and bred. I’ve travelled, spent a few months in places here and there, but I’ve never actually lived anywhere else.

There are good reasons for that. I love this city, it holds my heart. My life is rich and filled with inspiring, meaningful connections and opportunities for growth. Friends, family, colleagues, clients – there’s an awful lot to be thankful for. But for years now I have found myself wondering what it would be like to live somewhere else, to walk a different path on streets that have never felt my feet.

Amsterdam calling

A couple of years ago a friend and I went on a city break to Amsterdam. During that trip something deep inside me came alive, like a planted seed slowly but surely moving towards the light. I thought to myself, “I could really be here.” I even said it out loud to my friend. That day wheels were set in motion that have carried me all the way to where I am now, which is moving to Amsterdam in less than three weeks time.

Earlier this week someone asked me what I really wanted out of life. I said that I would like to know, fundamentally, that I don’t need things to be a certain way to be OK. I’d like to feel that everything I could possibly need is within me already.

I now see, more clearly than ever, that this is what moving to Amsterdam is all about. I am removing all certainty, all knowns, taking a leap of faith and trusting my gut. And you know what? I’m not even there yet and the benefits of that trust are already showing themselves in the most wonderful ways. It’s incredible how much power can come from trusting the intuition of your body.

Walking a new path

Every time I visit Amsterdam I’m struck by the power of walking a new path, of stepping towards something that you absolutely can not see or predict but is nonetheless there. Walking down streets that I don’t yet fully know I am somehow fuller and more knowing than I have ever been. There is no other sound than the soft rhythm of my feet falling gently upon my own, chosen path.

This is a bodily feeling. The intuition of the soul, not the logic of the mind. I didn’t think moving to Amsterdam was right, I felt it was. Something in the centre of my body recognised the space and said, “This is where you need to be.” I trusted my gut. Such power lives there.

Body talk

Of course trusting your gut doesn’t have to mean moving your entire life to another city. Our bodies talk to us all the time and can sometimes help us to access where we’re really at more readily than the mind. Not to say that our minds aren’t powerful or important, of course not, but in a society where we’re often encouraged to work things out with our minds alone, to first and foremost “use our heads” and “figure things out”, the innate intelligence of the body can end up taking a back seat.

When that happens it can mean we are not as alive to certain signs as we could be. We may not be able to access how we really feel in a given situation, guided instead by the thoughts in our mind or perhaps things we think we should feel.

Noticing

One of the best ways we can nurture our connection with our bodies is to begin to notice what’s there. Maybe there’s a flutter in the heart, a movement in the stomach, a pull towards something or even a resistance.

Allowing these sensations room to manoeuvre isn’t always easy. In fact it’s downright uncomfortable at times. But when we do allow these feelings some space, when we acknowledge and sit with them, we can loosen our grip on needing to understand or analyse why things are the way they are and, instead, simply allow them to be as they are in that moment. We can sit with ourselves and our bodily sensations with a sense of peace and acceptance, a feeling that nothing needs to change and everything is as it should be

Stay in touch

I will be back in Bristol from time to time and available for treatments. Please get in touch for more details or to book yourself a massage.

And if you want to come and see me in Amsterdam you’ll find me at Dr Feelgood, where I’ll be further developing my massage practice and starting a new chapter in my career. Or pop in and see me at Trust, an exciting movement and collective that I’ll also be working with.

You won’t hear from me here for a little while. I need some time to find my feet and see where this new path takes me, so this will be my last blog post for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, look after yourselves and your bodies and thank you, as ever, for reading.

With love and trust,
Sophie. X

One thought on “Trusting your gut

  1. Emilie on said:

    Nice one Soph ❤️ Love your style. Best wishes, may your heart forever ‘flutter’ 😉 Take good care. X

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