I haven’t always known that my gut feelings are accurate.

I had to learn the hard way by making some choices that went against my gut feelings – and then suffering the consequences.

And even though I was in my mid-30s (I’m 57 now) when I got lots of evidence that those gut feelings were spot on, I still sometimes disregard them. To negative consequences.

So now, at this point in my life, I’m trying to pay attention and to follow those gut feelings – even when they don’t match the pictures I have in my head.

You might be wondering, “Just what do your gut feelings tell you?”

If you’re someone like me, someone who has very accurate (always accurate) gut feelings, this list will be familiar.

And if you’re not sure whether you have gut feelings, you can read through and see if anything in your life is similar.

My gut feelings run a pretty good range. They tell me:

1. Whether someone is a good or bad person. I get an immediate read when I meet someone. One of my friends calls this his “people feelers.” What we sense is a vibration that is either positive or negative. Immediately upon meeting someone. Throughout my high school teaching career, I’d ask the kids in my classes if they could tell as soon as they meet someone if that person is a good or bad person. In the first years of my career (in the mid to late 1980s), about a third of the class would raise their hands and exclaim, “Yes!!” – while the other two-thirds would look around and say, “What do you mean?” But by the end of my high school teaching career, I’d ask that same question, and two-thirds would raise their hands Yes!, while the other third would look around and say, “What do you mean?” Maybe we’re becoming more intuitive?
2. Whether someone is an energy vampire. Energy vampires aren’t necessarily bad people who don’t pass my good/bad person gut feeling. They might be good people. But they’re people whose energy drains me. I know someone is an energy vampire when I’m exhausted when I’m around him or her. We can be merely talking, but I’ll feel I need to go home and take a nap. I’ll be SO tired –  for apparently no reason. But it’s an energetic reason. Energy vampires get their energy from other people. I try to limit my time with people like that. It’s hard, because some of them are really nice.
3. Whether a place is good or bad. I get distinct gut feelings in places – both inside and outside. Some buildings just feel yucky. The energy might feel stuck, stagnant. Some places can even feel malevolent. Those places I get away from as quickly as I can. I had that experience of feeling really bad energy in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park a few years ago. The further we drove into that valley, the worse I felt. So I finally asked to turn around, to leave the valley, and we did. Once we got out of that area, I felt a lot better. Conversely, some places feel really good. In some homes, you know the people are happy. Those homes just feel good. And sacred places usually feel good. I think that praying in places creates good energy that lingers there. Especially if the place has been prayed in for decades or centuries.
4. Whether someone is feeling sick or anxious. Sometimes I’ll be with one person or in a group of people, and I’ll feel really nervous or even sick – out of the blue. No nervousness or feeling sick earlier in the day. I used always to think I was feeling my own anxiety or illness, but over the years I’ve discovered that sometimes I pick up on others’ feelings. When it comes out of the blue like that, it’s a sign it’s not my own feeling. I’ll leave that person’s presence, and I’ll start feeling better. Often I experience this when I’ve driven somewhere, and on my drive home I’ll start feeling better. By the time I get home I feel fine. Yep, those feelings weren’t mine. There is a name for this absorbing of others’ feelings. It’s called being an “empath.” I’ve been in groups in which the energy was terrible, with lots of people feeling anxiety. What I feel in those situations is usually a stickiness, as if the atmosphere is sticking to me like something sugary or oily. When that happens, I need a shower when I get home. Water washes that stickiness away.
5. Whether this is a good situation for me. If a situation is good, it will feel good to me. I’ll feel expansion, lightness, openness in the air. If a situation is bad, it will feel prickly, jangly, claustrophobic, off-kilter somehow. As if the air is charged with a negativity. I hate when there’s something I really want to do (or think I want to do), and it just doesn’t feel right. I’ve ignored that WAY too many times. And those situations never turn out well! So now I try to be conscious of what I’m feeling, when and where and how

This isn’t my full list. But these are the situations that come to mind first when I hear “gut feelings.”

I’m curious to know if you have similar feelings. Or if you have other situations you’d add.

These are ones I definitely need to pay attention to.

They come to give me guidance for better decisions and better FLOW.

And I know now I shouldn’t ignore these gifts!

Turnaround point in the Lamar Valley, Yellowstone. Yeah, it’s pretty, but . . . BAD energy!