We are taught OUT of trusting our instincts through socialization. It’s an important part of my embodiment practice to listen to the wordless stirrings deep inside and to bring them forward in some sort of reasoned decision. Discernment is not a 100% foolproof process. I should back up. I call trusting my instincts specifically discernment, but it’s more than that. It’s also searching inside of myself for the Divine and what the Spirit seems to be calling in this moment. So while I trust my instincts, I don’t entirely rely on them because I don’t actually believe they are separate from my sense of the Spirit/Divine/God/what-have-you. Instincts is such a broad term with differing colloquial definitions, and the way I interpret this question, yes, I do trust my instincts but as a part of a whole discernment process which usually involves meditation and prayer and careful consideration.
Recently, I made a big job-changing sort of decision, and my instincts were on fire all throughout this process. It’s hard because I went into it expecting that the next step would become apparent and easy when it was time, but it all sort of came to a head a week ago without the way out looking any easier than it had before. It just looked more necessary. I am anxious about this decision because it involves jobs and career moves and finances. But I also trust that I really need to do this, even though I can’t see the steps between where I am now, where I’ll be in the new year, and where I hope to get to by mid next year. Just talking about it gives me a bit of a knot in my stomach. I suspect this process is showing me that yes, I can make hard decisions and trust that I’m picking the “right kind of hard,” a phrase I got from Glennon Doyle in We Can Do Hard Things. Sometimes, unfortunately, you can’t really know if you’re picking the right hard until you’ve made the next step or next several steps. That’s the worst. But still I’m here trying to trust the process and trust myself. Trust the Spirit.
What about you? How do you even define instincts?
Actually an Artist 
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