Go With Your Gut
“Trust your gut” the saying goes. Why do we say that? What does our gut have to do with trust? Newly discovered scientific findings support this age-old adage. A lot of intuitive information is felt in the gut before the brain even has time to process it.
We have all had that sensation in our core when something feels off. Too often, we ignore this deep physical intuition and dismiss what our gut knows, talking ourselves into the story that our conscious mind wants to believe. A red flag is a gut-level reaction to a situation that occurs on the job, in our romantic life, or anytime we are presented with an unknown, stressful situation. How do our physical systems determine our gut-level intuition and reactions?
What Exactly is “the Gut”?
The gut, stomach, or digestive system (all names referring to the solar plexus area in the middle of our body), has an innate reaction to stressors and dangers. The survival mechanisms that keep us alive are not long thought-out processes, but high-speed responses to abnormal situations. From our ancestral mammalian beginnings, we have reacted quickly from deep intuition to life-or-death interactions to keep ourselves, our offspring and our tribe, safe. Today we are not faced with fighting off bears, snakes or marauding hordes, but we do have to decide if that dark street is safe to walk down, or if a person we just met means us harm. That first split-second reaction the belly has is usually right. This is the gut response, a reaction that wasn’t based on deep thought, but a decision made by the safety mechanism in our gut.
The gut system is made up of the stomach, the spleen/pancreas, and the large and small intestine. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the organs within this system responsible for the quick-thinking and initial reaction are the spleen and the pancreas. One of the spleen’s jobs is housing thought. Emma Suttie writes that “Every organ in TCM is seen to have its own unique Spirit, and the Spirit of the Spleen is called the Yi. The Spleen is directly related to our capacity for thinking. How well we manage our thought, concentrate, exercise discernment and form intentions is dependent on the strength of the Spleen.”
Anxiety—the Flip Side of Intuition
By the time the mind gets involved, the body has already synthesized the incoming information and reached a conclusion. Too often we ignore this information and consult our brain for a more correct response. Why do we question our core knowledge? Why can’t we accept our gut reaction as 100% correct and reap the benefits instead of continually questioning our ancient subconscious knowledge? Why do we intellectualize it and live with the second-best choice and a less favorable outcome? All of us have experienced the feeling that we should’ve gone with our first choice, our initial, gut reaction.
The reason is anxiety, the flip side of intuition. Anxiety is a mental function, not a gut response. Psychology Today defines intuition as “. . . a form of knowledge that appears in consciousness without obvious deliberation.” The anxiousness that permeates our minds on a given subject (or for many of us all day, every day), also originates in the spleen and digestive system. It indicates that something is not working correctly and we are ignoring our gut.
The Spleen—Where Thoughts Live
On a mental level the Spleen governs thought. Any mental process such as thinking, concentrating, studying or focusing is governed by the spleen. People with a healthy spleen are generally active, practical, and responsible, they focus well and memorize efficiently. People with unhealthy spleens tend to have a busy mind, they overthink and they manifest stuck behavior. When there is accumulated dampness in the spleen, thoughts take the quality of the dampness and become sticky and oppressive.
Let’s look at the weakening of the digestive system to understand why we don’t trust our gut when it supplies a quick and straightforward response. When the system is not balanced and the spleen is unhealthy, it is not completing its tasks. One aspect of this inability to see the right decision or trust in what we think we know is that the digestive system qi is low. Unfortunately, it’s easy to have weak spleen qi or spleen qi deficiency in our modern lives as our minds are constantly tasked with processing information and our bodies are tasked with processing difficult-to-digest foods. Cold, raw, and damp foods inhibit the function of the spleen. Living in this state of overthinking and under-digesting lowers digestive function and keeps access to our intuition out of reach. Over time, this persistent weakness of the spleen takes a toll on the kidney organ system.
The Kidneys—The Fear Factor
The kidneys anchor and root us to keep our heads out of the clouds and keep our courage intact. Our kidneys become weakened from stress and excessive demands on the physical body. The kidney’s emotion is fear and when they’ve been overworked for too long, the adrenal glands tire out and there is no grounding, no strength of conviction, and fear results. Low kidney qi causes the kidneys to float instead of rooting. Our ideas float around in our heads, waiting to have the strength to make a decision that won’t get us a second-rate outcome. Fear becomes our dominant emotion, and anxiety is ever-present.
The continuous loop and feedback of anxiety and fear, fear and anxiety, will continue until the digestive system is strengthened. With regular acupuncture treatments and herbal medicine, fear will decrease, anxiety will be expelled and the weakening of the vital kidney qi will cease.
The Brain—A Secondary Organ
The brain and bone marrow are outgrowths of the kidneys—the kidneys contain the essence, the essence sustains the marrow, and the marrow nourishes the brain. In TCM, the brain functions—decision-making, thinking, learning, stressing and worrying— are scattered over the five organ systems that maintain learning. Anxiety and overthinking in TCM are brain functions out of balance as a result of heat rising or energy stuck in the head. A weakened digestive system, functioning improperly, will lead to stagnation of qi and this leads to heat resulting in racing thoughts, insomnia, and ultimately, anxiety. Decision-making is muddled and cloudy from the heat, and phlegm and stagnation occur.
Acupuncture—Righting the Wrongs
In the clinic, we use acupuncture to treat the digestive system by righting the wrongs that have been done to it via improper diet, stress, and emotional mistreatment. Releasing what is stuck, boosting what is weak and soothing what is flaring in the five-organ system starts the digestive tract on a healing path. This positively affects kidney health and jing/essence, lessening the burden of an overtaxed digestive system. This process doesn’t happen overnight, but it does begin with the first session! A change in diet and lowering stress levels are key. Herbal formulas along with nutritional supplements are also prescribed based on individual needs.
The instantaneous thought processes that go on when we make a split-second judgment call, a “gut reaction”, originate from the spleen and digestive system, as well as the kidneys, and secondarily the brain. By keeping these organs strong and replete with qi, our decisions should be sound and we won’t have to look back with regret or second guess our most fundamental choices.
To learn more about anxiety, intuition, and balancing your emotions through acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine, contact Acupuncture by Andrea today.