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The truth is the answers that you seek are already rooted within. You already know the exact answers to the questions that you're asking, or you might be looking for other people to answer for you about what you should do or what the next step should be on your path.
Welcome to the Make Up Your Mind podcast. I'm your host Jahleane Dolne, and I'm here to help you make up your mind - literally and figuratively. I'm a motivational speaker, content creator, subconscious mindset coach, and the founder of The Postgrad Playbook- the only coaching platform and resource center for post-grads and 20 somethings to release mindset blocks and take action towards their chosen career , no matter how, quote unquote, unconventional that might look.
As an expert recognized by Afrotech, LinkedIn news,, and more, I help you identify what you actually want, release what's keeping you stuck, and have a game plan to take action with clarity, confidence, conviction, and ease. Here we cover all things, paving your own way and how that looks [00:01:00] personally and professionally. Get ready to finally make up your mind.
Let's get started.
Hi, happy Wednesday. Happy Juneteenth Wednesday. And welcome to another episode of make up your mind. I'm so excited to be back with another episode this week for you guys. Over the last week we've covered such a good range of topics.
But I noticed that in each one, I've either directly or indirectly talked about intuition and how it has such a prominent place in the whole paving, your own way journey, but just like purpose that we discussed the very first episode. Also, I say, it's funny that I'm saying we discussed, even though I know that this is me speaking the whole time., but I imagine it, like we're having a conversation, but even purpose, like we discussed in the very first episode, it's very elusive.
And I think that I see intuition the very same way. Purpose and intuition. Very different concepts, but the same in the way that they're highly individualized experiences and [00:02:00] very unique to you. But I think that when it comes to intuition, it's hard to really conceptualize and bring down to earth, the idea of what intuition is and how that shows up for you.
So hopefully by the end of this episode, you're going to have a stronger sense of what intuition is. And also debunk a lot of the misconceptions around it.
Like the title size, we're going to differentiate how it shows up compared to anxiety. We're going to understand Ways that you can strengthen your intuition.
Why your intuition might not be as strong and so on. To start it off with the misconceptions, I think a lot of times people don't take it seriously because they chalk it up to be something like just a guessing game or only certain, very gifted people have a sense of intuition. Which is absolutely not the case. It's not a guessing game and everyone has their own sense of intuition. really The definition it boils down to. The ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning.
Intuition [00:03:00] is so important. Because it can provide insights beyond logical reasoning and help you make decisions very quickly. Some examples of how this might've shown up and how it's shown up in my life. If you listen to the, moving to a new city episode that you'll know that I really wasn't sure where I wanted to move, but my gut was tugging me towards New York and it ended up being a right decision for me. But in other areas of my life I've had experiences with people in business in workplaces, potentially having opportunities. Deciphering if a good opportunity was good for me.
Even down to if I wanted to live in certain places, if I wanted to work certain places.
My intuition was so loud in a lot of those moments, when my logical reasoning was clouding the path I knew I truly wanted to take and making the whole scenario, a lot more difficult for me.
One area in my life where this really showed up in the past was once when I had a brand a couple of years ago that I really, really wanted to work with. And I did everything in my power that I could to find the right [00:04:00] contacts and pitch the ideas that I had for a potential partnership.
And. All was going well right off the bat, they ended up responding to me. We had a couple of meetings. And I was really excited for it until a couple things were sad that sort of made me feel a little bit iffy. And I wasn't sure if I wanted to proceed working with the brand, but I hushed down my intuition in that moment.
And I thought about all the benefits that would come with working with this brand in this capacity and having their name on my portfolio and what other opportunities that can bring. So I shushed down the inner voice, , and we got to working with each other, but very quickly things soured in almost every way that you could have imagined.
And I remember thinking, I wish I had just listened to my intuition when I had seen the red flags or I at least felt the red flags in my stomach. And I had that gut feeling to know that I shouldn't be working here and that there's going to be more opportunities down the line.
I just mentioned a couple of times different feelings that I've had in my gut and how I [00:05:00] shushed it down. And that's the thing about intuition is at that time and a big misconception people have is that they can't tell if it's their intuition or if it's their anxiety, which at the time I thought was just anxiety and was just a frivolous voice that was in my head trying to block me from my blessings.
There are several glaring differences between intuition and anxiety. And I already mentioned a gut feeling and maybe that's what you resonate with most as well. But. The overall feeling and sensation is one of the main differences between intuition and an anxiety.
Intuition is so subtle.
It's so subtle that it's very easy to miss, especially if your intuition has been invalidated over a very long period of time which is the case for most of us. If you were to be asked a question, your intuition in that knowing, and that calmness would come in and 0.0001 second. Whereas the anxiety is everything that comes in after it's the logical mind that comes in. After that [00:06:00] sense of knowing without any reason behind it.
Intuition can show up as hearing an answer to a question very quickly.
It can look like, see an image in your mind's eye. It can feel like feeling a sensation in your body. If it's like a yes or no question, or if you're trying to decipher, if you want to do something or not. It shows up very differently for every single person, but I think a universal through line of what you need to do is to strengthen in it is get really clear and be very present in your body. A lot of times we are operating in a place that's outside of our body.
Basically just meaning we're not grounded in ourselves.
And one, we're not grounded to ourselves. That's when things like Anxiety And living solely in our external world per se thrive.
And some quick ways to ground yourself are through meditation and just taking a couple of deep breaths in and out.
It's so important for you to be grounded in your body. So that way, you know exactly how you feel in. I'm going to say,, quote, unquote, homeostasis, like in your natural energy, not having the energy of everything [00:07:00] else inside you. When you understand how you are, when you are calm and present in your body and grounded through breathwork exercises. It's going to allow those subtle nudges of intuition to become louder and clearer to you.
The more you do this, the more drastically it'll feel different from the anxiety that comes in after.
Intuition is calming. It provides insight and a lot of times it might not be what you actually want to do, which is why we can push it down because it might not align with your current vision or how you want your life to go, or if you really, really want a certain opportunity to work out. But I find that your sense of intuition should never take you away from your overall sense of power. It never takes you away from the grand scheme of the mission that you're trying to accomplish.
It might redirect you which is why it might take you off the path that you're currently on right now, because that opportunity or what you're looking at in the moment, or what you're evaluating is not good for you, but it doesn't take you completely out of your power.
However, your anxiety, which is fear [00:08:00] base it does take you out of your power. It is a lot of what if worst case scenarios, we talked about this a lot in the how to quit your job episode.
I've found personally that as 18 more into my body and maybe you'll experience this too. My intuition shows up more in my stomach. Whereas my anxiety shows up in my head. And it feels disempowering and like a series of racing thoughts rather than tapping into a sense of true knowing.
Once again, this is so subtle, but intuition, like everything else is a muscle that's trained. You're able to grow it by listening to it and exercising it. More and more over time.
Typically as children, we do have very, very strong intuition, but that's because you aren't taught yet at that time to disregard your inner voice.
But as you grow up, in our society, people are taught to invalidate themselves at every single step to be able to conform.
But when you're going about your own journey, paving your own way, you're doing anything but conforming you're blazing your own trail. So it's so important to have that intuition [00:09:00] intact.
If you're in your twenties and you're really unsure about what to do next, or you have a decision that you need to make. One of the best things that you can do is the self-discovery work. So that way you're able to get rid of all of the ideas, thoughts, and beliefs that are not authentically used so that you can return to the truest version of yourself. And once again, tap into your intuition.
The truth is the answers that you seek are already rooted within. You already know the exact answers to the questions that you're asking, or you might be looking for other people to answer for you about what you should do or what the next step should be on your path.
A lot of times we are scared to confront our intuition because there's just so much fear standing in the way of what happens if we truly trust ourselves, which is why the self discovery and therapy somatic work and so on is so important.
There are several practices that I absolutely abide by that has over the last several years, helped me extremely tap into my intuition and has guided me through relationships opportunities and paving my own way.
The first. [00:10:00] Best tool I believe is the artist's way. Now, this is a 12 week creative recovery course. And I also think it's probably one of the most impactful programs that I've ever done probably in my life. Basically the premise is throughout the 12 weeks, you have two main assignments. You have to do three pages of stream of consciousness, free writing every single morning.
Once you first wake up and then every single week you go on an artist date. So you're refilling your creativity tank. The reason why I feel like this is one of the best tools to honing in on your intuition is that a big part of the program is to help you get past your sensor, which is your inner critic that stops you from being creative.
And once you get past your sensor, you're open to a lot more creative ideas and also your intuition. The morning pages really helped with that. And it's just a mental dumping ground.
So that way, any thoughts that you have that are not productive to helping you move forward are being spilled onto a page and then new thoughts, new ideas, new [00:11:00] energy, and your intuition can come through instead. There is this video going around on tech talk that was very popular of a woman who She had a cup and it was filled with mud and just like this black water with her and all of that. And she keeps running clean water into that cup to the point where it's overflowing. And over time, all the gunk cuts in that cup, bubbles up and out and goes into the rest of the sink until finally it's completely cleaned and all that's left in the cup is clear water. She used that analogy to represent what happens when you start to heal. And when you start to reverse limiting beliefs and. Unfavorable programming.
This tech talk and this analogy was one of the best ways to describe what happens when you go through the artist's way. Through this dumping ground and through refilling your creativity tank, you're able to return back to yourself. And once again, reinstate that creativity, that intuition and so on.
The three pages of longhand writing is a practice that I still do, even though it's been a long time [00:12:00] since I've completed the course. It really does feel so good after complaining it.
It feels like my brain just went through a carwash and I can think my own thoughts.
For the second tools that I swear by to tap into my intuition,
are, EFT tapping and somatic based therapy.
earlier. I talked a little bit about what it's like to exist outside of your body when you aren't grounded and somatic based therapy is a form of talk therapy that goes an extra step deeper.
So while you're talking about maybe situations that happened in the past, you can work with a practitioner to figure out where those sensations are coming up in your body.
So, for example, if you're recalling a traumatic event, you might feel a weight in your chest or a closing sensation near throat.
For a lot of people talk therapy. Isn't the end all be all solution to honing into your intuition and. Moving past limiting beliefs,
but somatic based therapy in tuning into your body helps you feel what's going on and then eventually heal it.
And meditation breath work and grounding exercises are used a lot in this. [00:13:00] Secondly is EFT tapping. Like I mentioned with the analogy of the dirty water in the cup, getting cleansed out, being replaced with cleaner and fresher water until all of the muck has gone.
EFT topping is basically a technique that's really been a rising of the last couple of years where
you're tapping on certain occupation points throughout the body that are believed to be energy centers. The idea is while you tap on them, you are releasing blockages and energy and therefore releasing emotional and physical distress.
There are a lot of free videos.
You can get started using this online. I've done it a bunch, even though at the beginning, I didn't think it was going to work at all, but. It's worked wonders. .
Usually when you're in a session or if you're tapping by yourself, You tune into a certain place in your body where you'd want to diffuse a sensation that's unfavorable or remind you of a past trauma.
I'd mentioned earlier, what really stops us from tuning into our intuition is being invalidated by the society around us, or being taught to believe that our intuition [00:14:00] was wrong.
So you can pinpoint specific memories maybe where that happened, or you didn't listen to your intuition. He'll the emotional wound around it. And then from there being able to tune your body and in theory, it should start to show up more and more and be easier to tune in after that.
Lastly, there are some tips that I have when it comes to strengthening your intuition. The first thing to know is that this will not happen overnight. Just like when you're working out, you're not going to see immediate results tomorrow. Even though we want to this is something that takes a lot of conscious effort over time to be able to strengthen.
It's a muscle that needs to be worked at, so focus on being patient with yourself, but intentionally strengthening this overtime.
Second, to be able to hone in on your intuition, you have to practice self-forgiveness.
Times in the past, when we suppressed our intuition and things to ended up turning out badly, We may subconsciously not forgive ourselves for not listening.
Not listening to your intuition is self portrayal because you're going against what you intuitively know is correct for you. And so you need [00:15:00] to actively work to forgive yourself from all the past times that that has happened so that you're able to trust yourself moving forward and therefore strengthen the intuition that's left.
Another good way to strengthen your intuition is to make decisions very, very quickly.
Maybe we work with a friend to create a list of low-stake questions and answer them as fast as possible.
That way you're responding with the very first thing that comes to your mind, which most likely it tends to be your intuition before the conscious mind and logical decision-making kicks in
lastly, a lot of times what our intuition has to say is not what we want to hear. So leave space open to be willing, to listen so that you have the capacity to accept your inner truth.
And once again, everyone experiences intuition differently. So all these exercises and taps will really help you strengthen how it most strongly appears for you?
so that is a wrap on today's episode and everything that comes with intuition versus anxiety and how to strengthen and develop your intuition when it comes to paving your own way. Thank you so much for listening. Please leave a review at the bottom.
If you're on YouTube, [00:16:00] subscribe. And. Of course, you know, I'm always reading for you and I will see you next week. Bye-bye.
