“Your Brain Is A Wild Thing”: 67 Women Who Learned To Always Trust Their Own Gut

Last winter I was trying to pass time in a boring uni lecture by flipping through snapchat 'stories'. I saw the 'story' of a girl I went to HS with for one year, but hadn’t spoken to in probably 3 or more years, it was just a black background with a single peace emoji. I thought it was weird but kept flipping through other ‘stories’. I couldn’t get away from the feeling that something was definitely, definitely wrong. I ended up messaging her a bit and chatting with her and she was definitely in a crisis.

A few weeks later she told me that she tried taking her own life that night, and after my conversation with her, she went to the ER and was now (weeks later) doing much better and getting help. I can’t even explain why I knew something was off. I was on fb chat with my roommate and asked her what she thought and she told me it was probably nothing, just an inside joke or end to a snap story that didn’t upload properly or something. I was like yeah, you're probably right, and logically, that is what would make the most sense... But still, I somehow couldn’t get over the feeling that things weren’t right. I could just FEEL it. I’m very glad I listened to my gut.

In 1995, I started having panic attacks that my husband was going to pass away. He commuted an hour from work and if he was even 15 minutes late, I would start crying hysterically, thinking that he’d been in an accident. A few months later, he didn’t feel well and was diagnosed with end-stage cancer and passed away within a month.

Suddenly had the gut feeling that we needed to move out of where we were renting, ASAP. We moved two months before our lease was up; planned not to break lease and we kept paying until the end.
One night not even a week after we'd moved... The roof collapsed during a typhoon. We would have been crushed, and all our belongings ruined if we hadn't moved early.

Took an entry level ju jistu class with complete strangers in a Philadelphia park, on a whim, days before I needed it. Got pinned on my back, was about to get punched in the face (god knows what else). That position was the majority of the training that day and I had a great sparring partner.

In 2011 a creep crawled into my apt at 3am and tried to strangle me in my sleep (and I’m sure worse). Unfortunately for him, I was at the peak of training for my first marathon (near the 20-mile run mark), *very* actively working on trusting my own perceptions through meditation, AND immediately remembered a self-defense episode of Oprah I’d apparently tucked away as a teen in the 90s. He didn’t stand a chance. Best gift of my life was the chance to witness my own strength and instincts.

20+ years ago I had been having the worst nightmares about my mom passing away for weeks. I kept them to myself because they were terrifying. I started making sure my mom hugged me and kissed me every time I came and went anywhere. I said I love you so many extra times and spent every second close to her. We went to dinner one night before Christmas and I made her give me the hug and kiss and we said I love you. And while we were at dinner, she had a heart arrest and never regained consciousness again.

I was super pregnant and woke up in a panic. It was sleeting the day before and frozen overnight. My husband was about to head to work and I literally burst into to tears and told him he needed to stay home. He said if he slipped going down the stairs outside our apartment, then he would. He slipped. We saw on the news later that morning that there had been a fatal three car pile up on his route to work due to black ice. It was right about where he would have been had he left. Trust your gut.

A year before I had to run for my life through the woods I had a gut feeling to start training on the treadmill again.

Women, listen to your intuition. It's always right.

Ex threatened me after years of torment. I ran one night and had to [run] through the woods while he drove around looking for me. Our town was quite small and surrounded by woods. I hid in a dead tree for hours while he blew up my phone until I finally got a call through and got saved.

Felt the vibes were off on a guy at a pizza store when I was crying. He was the employee and paid for my pizza as my card declined on a $1. It was on my college campus. He kept trying to get my number and meet me after classes. He wanted to take me on a motorist at midnight. I told him my fiance and mom wouldn't like that. He said they didn't have to know.

I left and didn't go back to that shop. Later that week, a campus alert came up. A girl who had my exact demographics was found in a dumpster. Another one was found [attacked] but alive. I called the detective and she told me to always trust my gut and read the book The Gift Of Fear. The suspect drawing looked just like the pizza guy.

He apparently had an alibi, but I'm still not sure...

I felt I wanted to become stronger and had been going to the gym and strength classes for a few months until I had pretty good condition. The day I needed to grab my stuff and leave out of a dangerous relationship I was able to do it on my own when the situation got out of hand. I remember thinking how I couldn’t have done it if I hadn’t been training for months. I pulled myself and my stuff literally and figuratively out of there.

Before my mom was diagnosed with cancer I felt in my soul something was wrong. I would text her everyday to see if she was fine. I came home from states away to take her to a doctors appointment and was going to leave my dog with my roommates but had a feeling I should take her. My mom got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and [passed away] a month later. My dog saved my life through it. Women always know.

I was on a one-way ticket out of the country and completely ready to go: cleaners scheduled for guests, bags packed, hotels booked, checked into my flight – everything. I just couldn’t ignore my gut, which screamed, “Don’t go yet! Do not go yet!” I trust my intuition, so I canceled it all. Two days later, I had major seizures and needed to see my local neurologist. Trust your gut especially when it overrides what you want. Inconvenient and disappointing? Yes. Potentially life-saving? Also yes.

I've always had a strong intuition that I trust no matter how ridiculous or rude it makes me seem.

I was walking in the middle of the day when this man started approaching me and crossed the street towards me. I'm always cautious of strange men when I'm out alone, but got a really bad gut feeling about this guy. So when he got within 5 ft, I just started running and he chased after me yelling something. He followed me for a while from a distance so I called the police. They said they were looking for a man matching his exact description that had [attacked] another woman in the same area a few days ago.

Whenever I get a weird feeling about strangers, I always follow it. Be weird. Be rude. Stay Alive.

Randomly thought I wanted to switch my IUD out for another kind after 3 years- string was lost, blind sweep didn’t find it, so they did an ultrasound to locate it- found 4 large tumors.
Always. Trust. Your. Gut.

October a few years back I suddenly started looking for places to live in my hometown and told my husband we should move home, something we'd talked about as a "some day" thing for a decade. November we moved home. January my dad ended up in the hospital and I was home to be able to spend his last few years with him, and he got to know his grandkids.

When I was 12 years old, I was getting this really horrific feeling around my father. I felt like he knew something was coming. He reminded me of like a wolf for like 2 months- it made my skin crawl. I asked my mom if I could stop visitation for a while - found out that he was planning to end my mother and stepfather, kidnap me and take me to Mexico so we could finally "be together" and then end us both on the beach. If I hadn't skipped that weekend...

He called during a mental breakdown while on the way to our house to enact it. And also sent horrific detailed emails for weeks after being stopped. I always found it so funny that he called tbh like "hello! I am in the car about to commit crimes!" So we just left the house.

Several years back now, I got it into my head out of nowhere that I need to be able to comfortably lift, carry and RUN with my kids in my arms, no matter how big they get. I started working on that, that same day.
A few weeks after I was confident in being able to do this *even on my high pain days*, we were in a situation where I literally needed to send off an emergency "pick us up at this particular spot" text, scoop my sleeping kids out of bed and run, about a mile from home around 2am.

In the winter of 2019 I started getting what I can only describe as "disaster anxiety." My son turned 1 and I returned to work, and I thought that probably explained my sudden overwhelming urge to stockpile.

I live in an earthquake zone, so I spent my time building out my emergency kit.

At the start of the pandemic there was a buying frenzy. Over the next few months there were shortages of shelf-stable foods, baby formula, baby wipes, infant Tylenol, toilet paper & n95 masks - all in my kit.

Last night I had an extremely vivid dream that my cats escaped and we couldn’t find 2 of them. Flash forward to tonight and as I came down the hallway to bed I noticed the FRONT DOOR WIDE OPEN. Immediately check for cats, all 4 safe in bed. I’ve been edge all day about the doors and the cats. And apparently for good reason. WHAT A PREMONITION! Your brain is a wild thing.

8 years ago my mom was in town to help me with my children when my son had surgery. Our second oldest son (20 at the time) was visiting. I went to change one of my twins diapers and had this weird sense I needed to check on my husband in the shower. Baby on hip I walked in just in time for him to pass out into my one free arm so close to hitting the tiles walls and floor! I was stuck under him with my baby in my other arm. I screamed and my mom and son came to help. Neither are usually here!!!