#23: Trusting the Intelligence of Nature – Our Instincts

Instincts, intuition, and truth emerge when we make the body the authority and trust its signals. In therapy, especially when working with the unconscious mind, allowing memories and messages to come forward can guide us toward healing our pain bodies. This process helps us move closer to our authentic selves, enabling our adult selves to guide and attend to the parts of ourselves that need care.

Throughout your journey with psychotherapy, it is important to trust the messages and memories that emerge without always questioning or trying to make sense of them. Our self-understanding and memories always carry messages we need to listen to; they lay a path toward our liberation. As we navigate life, tuning into our body's instincts—whether it's a dry mouth indicating thirst, a craving for specific food for nourishment, or seeking cold water to re-engage with the parasympathetic nervous system—all can inspire our actions. By giving authority to our bodies to express our unique needs, we align more closely with our unique healing journey.

This principle is particularly present at birth. Trusting a mother's instincts—whether she feels the need to lift her leg, change positions, or immerse in water—and listening and honouring these instincts bring her closer to birth. These ideas aren’t modern concepts; they are inherent and fundamental to what makes us human beings and part of the natural world. Since the beginning of time, they have been the pillars of humanity. Only in the past century have we shifted to relying on external authorities and institutions to guide our decision-making or take our autonomy.

The beautiful and hopeful thing is, this period is coming to an end. People are returning and reuniting with nature. People’s instincts are questioning the status quo and shifting their desires. People are wanting to heal and making themselves the authority in their healing, health, and lifestyle.

By becoming present to the self and tuning into what the body is telling you, you can help re-engage this natural process. You can ask yourself: How am I? What am I feeling? What do I need? Practising this in a basic form regularly can help rebuild the foundation of responding to our basic needs and reuniting ourselves with our instincts. This meditation of tuning into and listening to our instincts doesn't require formal teaching; it is an inherent human ability that simply needs re-engaging or reconnecting.

Allowing our instincts to guide us creates deep self-trust. Whether it's feeling drawn to contact an old friend, deciding to stay home rather than go somewhere, or any other decision-making, we often overthink these impulses and engage with negative core beliefs. An alternative is to trust that there is a good reason behind these feelings, even if we don't immediately understand why. We may only later realise the significance of these instinctive decisions; acting from this place opens the door to possibilities.

So, whatever you want to call it—leading from our inner knowing, solar plexus, womb, or intuition—it all returns us to trust our instincts and aligns us with our true human nature.