Gut Level Part 2
December 11, 2025
Gut Level Part 2
Recently, at the gas pump, I realized I left my credit card at a restaurant in a town an hour away. My mind raced with worry that the card had been taken. Because of the perceived loss, I was under stress and forgot to pause to enter my body. My ego kept telling me that the worst-case scenario would occur, which only heightened my concern. As soon as I remembered to drop into my body, things changed. I became aware of a gut level feeling that everything would be okay. My worry evaporated. Turns out that, unlike the ego’s predictions, the card had been turned in and the manager had it in safe keeping.
The ego can also give us a false positive assessment of a situation, when in reality there is cause for concern. Again, despite the ego’s messages, the gut can “Alert us that things are to the contrary.”
When was the last time you had a gut-level feeling about something or someone? Was it accurate, or did emotion and thought cloud it, just as they did with me? It can be challenging to distinguish genuine gut wisdom from the noise of our minds and hearts, but to do so is definitely worth it.
The ego’s thoughts and the heart’s emotions often outweigh the body’s messages when we live primarily in our heads or emotions. To hear the gut’s truth, we must spend time listening, sensing, and trusting its quiet intelligence. Including the body by dropping into it from the mind and heart is an act of conscious being.
For decades, the ego has built its own story about people and the world. It does this through its perceptions. Although it is often spot on, it is greatly influenced by its passions, fears, and fantasies, which often distort reality to fit its narrative. Eckhart Tolle dramatized this point by referring to the ego’s “hallucinations.” At the gas pump, my ego distorted reality by convincing me that the worst would happen. Only when I breathed deeply and dropped into my body’s gut level, did I feel my strength and faith.
A major part of my spiritual work, and possibly yours too, is to pause before reacting to our fixation. The pause is sacred space. In that stillness, we drop into the body, find grounding, and silence the ego’s noise. When the body, heart, and head are in harmony, the soul enters, and we awaken to our divine nature. This is presence.
Spiritual practice: Today, practice “the pause.” When something unsettles you, stop. Breathe. Remember the higher truth—you are tethered to the Divine. Notice how that awareness shifts your response.
Self-inquiry: What keeps you from trusting yourself to pause?
Prayer:
Dear Spirit, Help me pause before reacting, so I may hear the truth beneath my fears. Amen.
