What Are Gut Feelings & How Can You Know When To Trust Them?

Chances are, at one point or another, you've had a gut feeling. Maybe someone instantly gave you a bad vibe, or you had a sudden and unexplainable urge to skip an event. But what are gut feelings, or "gut instincts," really? And should we always trust them? Here's what experts in science and spirituality have to say.

Our gut feelings or instincts are similar to our intuition, though often a gut feeling will involve some sort of physical feeling as well—which isn't always the case with intuition.

From a physiological perspective, neuroscientist and author of The Source Tara Swart, M.D., Ph.D., says, "Your gut feelings are a combination of your gut bacteria communicating directly to your brain via chemical messengers in the blood (cytokine transmission1) and the gut neurons connection to the limbic (emotional and intuitive) part of the brain."

And from a more spiritual view, clairvoyant intuitive and author of A Little Bit of Intuition Catharine Allan tells mbg that "people usually get an overall sensation of knowing" but how that knowing presents itself will be different for everyone, which brings us to our next point.

There's a reason it's called a "gut" feeling. That's where you'll probably feel it! According to Swart, "There is often literally a visceral sensation in the gut area—like butterflies in your stomach or just a deep feeling at your core."

However, for some people, she says, "This can be felt more around the heart or throughout the body." This intuitive hit can also cause your hairs to stand on end or goose bumps to form, for example.

Allan points out that intuition, the driver of our gut feelings, often manifests in one of four ways: As clairvoyance, claircognizance, clairsentience, and clairaudience. With that in mind, your gut feelings may also show up as visuals, thoughts, physical feelings, or words, respectively.

From an evolutionary perspective, these sorts of extrasensory perceptions may actually have an advantage. Our ability to pick up on a potentially threatening or dangerous situation is certainly a helpful skill, and it's not uncommon to get that sinking feeling when you feel afraid.

As Allan notes, fear or danger often presents as a feeling of tightness in the gut or an overall anxious feeling.

Gut feelings aren't always negative! And actually, they can be quite pleasant, indicating something good for you. If you've just met a new person, for example, romantic or non, maybe their presence gives you a very good vibe. Allan says this might feel like "a sensation in your stomach that feels warm and safe and happy."

Have you ever had a nagging feeling you were getting sick or something was off with your body, and it turned out to be true? We know our bodies better than anyone else and can often pick up on subtle changes and imbalances.

When it comes to anything medical or health-related, the safest bet is to get checked out. If your gut is telling you something is wrong, don't ignore it.

Are you feeling the urge to start a new career or move across the country? Sometimes our intuition knows what's right for us before our conscious mind does.

Whatever idea you have for your next big move may seem risky, but if your gut is persistently telling you to take the risk anyway, you may just want to listen. "Often we're raised to override that with our logic," Allan says, but when you bypass your initial gut feeling, she says, it can often lead to distress.

And lastly, just as gut feelings can tell us when someone is good for us, they can also tell us when someone is, well, not so good for us. If you're being manipulated in any way, for example, Allan says it can lead to feelings of disgust in the gut.

So, are gut feelings foolproof? Unfortunately, no, it's not that simple.

But as you start to listen to your gut and intuition more closely, you'll be able to better distinguish between what's real and what's not.

"You can't remember everything you have experienced in life, but you do store all this wisdom," Swart explains. "Gut feelings are pattern recognition systems designed to keep you safe and well, but sometimes they can hold you back from thriving based on old fears."

Allan echoes this point, telling mbg, "The main danger of giving free rein to your gut feelings is you could be projecting."

She offers this example: Say you were cheated on in the past and you're convinced your newest partner is a cheater, too. "You might be right—but it could also be projection from the previous trauma that you haven't processed, and you're just slapping it on the next person that comes."

Or, alternatively, you could be projecting your fantasy or idealization onto someone you're just meeting because you really want to find love. What you think is your intuition telling you "They're the one" could just be another projection.

With that in mind, pairing your gut with the logical mind or getting some outside perspective from a friend can help.

"Journaling can hone intuition by [helping you see] repeated patterns when you trusted your gut versus went with logic," Swart adds.

If you're someone who deals with anxiety, distinguishing between anxious fears and intuition may be a challenge.

But as Allan previously clarified for mbg, "Intuition comes from a calm and mindful state that is not emotional and is therefore objective to the energy or messages that come through [...] Anxiety is a screaming, vibrating, unbalanced force; it sends people into a state where they have a racing heart and jangled nerves."

She adds that honing your intuition and gut feelings takes self-awareness and trust, as well as noticing the patterns of when your intuition was right or wrong, and when you were experiencing anxiety or not. And that, she says, "is everyone's journey—just to learn what sensation, what vibe, what energy, is accurate."

Gut feelings are physical manifestations of our intuition—but they're not always accurate. With patience and practice, as your spiritual life gets deeper, you'll be better able to tell when you're receiving a gut feeling that should be trusted. Over time, these feelings will only get stronger and clearer, and you'll feel better equipped to act on them.