Go With Your Gut

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Graduation season is upon us and it brings me back to the old days. (well, not THAT old!).

When I was a senior in high school, I went to a lot of information sessions with representatives from various colleges sharing all of the reasons why their school was the one to choose. I was naive and thought they were simply doing us a favor by coming to tell us about their offerings. I never thought of them as a “salesperson” jockeying for my tuition money.

OK, I’ll admit, I didn’t pay close attention in these meetings. I mainly went to get out of class.

Two months before graduation, my guidance counselor summoned me to her office.

“Do you plan to go to college, Kerri?”
“Yup, I sure do!” I replied.
“How many schools have you applied to?”
“Oh, is that what everyone is doing?” I asked.

She smirked, looked down, and shook her head.

“Yes, you need to apply and be accepted before you can pick a college.”
“Well, I guess I better get going,” I said.

Out of the seven kids in my family, I’m one of only two who went to college so the application process wasn’t a big topic of discussion in my household.

My lack of urgency whittled my choices down for me. The only deadlines I hadn’t missed were of the state schools in my home state of Massachusetts and those were coming up fast.

I quickly applied and was accepted to all of them. Phew!

I made my ultimate decision while driving out to the campus of North Adams State College (NASC) (now known as Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts).

As I rounded the hairpin turn on the Mohawk Trail and saw the beautiful, mountain view, I was sold.

“I pick this one,” I said to my friend who was driving out with me. “Look how pretty this is!”

“Don’t you want to see the school first?” she asked.

“Sure, I’ll still visit the school, but this is where I’m going.”

“OK,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

The touring of the school was merely a formality. It would have had to have been awful for me to change my mind. Fortunately, it wasn’t. It was lovely.

Not only did I get a stellar education, but I also met my future wife there. Thank goodness for my procrastination and my strong gut pull to select NASC!

Side note: Melissa was all set to go to a different school but they couldn’t offer her housing so she moved on to her second choice. And the rest is history. Sometimes things just line up, eh?

Clearly, I make a lot of decisions based more on my gut than my head! LOL But it’s worked out for me for the most part.

Even with all the static on the precious head-to-heart channel these days, I do my best to keep this line of communication open. After all, I know my heart and soul will never steer me wrong but my head sure will.

Some things I do to stay in touch with my gut might seem silly, but I’ve found them helpful. Maybe you will, too.

When I’m feeling disconnected from myself I will:

• Do my favorite energy-grounding exercise (you can find it here: https://kerririchardson.com/feelbetterimmediately/)
• Wake up my gut by tuning into it with silly, simple decisions like what to have for dinner or where to go for a walk
• Close my eyes and take three deep breaths
• Write down anything and everything that is swirling around in my brain, or
• Lay on the floor and listen to a 10-minute guided meditation (you can find great ones on YouTube, in the Insight Timer or Calm app, as well as the Hay House Audio) app

Instead of doom scrolling on social media (something I can be guilty of, for sure) or commiserating about how awful everything is, I’ll be spending more time doing this. Any one of these helps me come back to myself — something that’s desperately needed these days. Maybe you’d like to do the same?

Whether you’re making a major life decision or simply wanting to soothe your soul and invite your intuition to speak up, I hope you find some of these ideas helpful. After all, world peace starts at home.

P.S. If you’d like to be part of a loving, supportive community, check out Clutter Clear Your Life — my secret society of trailblazers who are making space in their lives to live BIG. Join today and you’ll be ready to come together to plan your most productive week every Monday and get started on tasks and projects you’ve been procrastinating on for a long time!

And on June 3rd, special guest, Dougall Fraser, cosmic coach and intuitive, will be joining us to help us use the power of color to overcome feelings of overwhelm. Perfect timing, don’t ya think?