lessanxiousWe’re told to “trust our gut.”
To “follow our intuition.”
But no one really teaches us how.
What if intuition isn’t just a whisper from some mysterious source?
What if it’s actually your nervous system speaking – quietly, physically – trying to keep you safe or show you something important?
And what if the reason so many of us feel stuck, confused, or anxious… is because we were never taught how to understand the messages our body is sending us?
Part 1: What We Call Intuition Is Often a Body Sensation
When people say, “I just had a feeling,”
What they often mean is:
- Their chest got tight.
- Their stomach turned.
- They felt calm, or energized, or suddenly tired.
- Their breathing changed.
- Something just felt off.
These aren’t random quirks.
They’re nervous system signals.
Your body is constantly scanning your environment – internally and externally – looking for patterns. Looking for safety. Looking for danger. And sometimes, looking for possibility.
But most of us were taught to ignore that.
Part 2: We Weren’t Taught to Translate the Signals
As children, many of us were trained to override our instincts:
- “Don’t be rude, go hug them.”
- “You’re fine. Stop crying.”
- “That’s not scary, you’re being dramatic.”
- “Don’t question it, just do it.”
So we learned: My body’s signals must be wrong.
We got very good at pushing past our discomfort. Or misreading excitement as fear. Or mistaking shutdown as calm.
Nobody ever sat us down and said,
“Let’s figure out what these feelings actually mean.”
Part 3: Your Body Has Its Own Language
Every emotion has a physical footprint.
- Anxiety can feel like buzzing or clenching.
- Sadness might feel heavy.
- Joy might feel warm, light, or expansive.
- Safety often feels like a soft exhale, a steady heartbeat, a relaxed jaw.
These patterns are personal.
What feels like “yes” to you might feel like “no” to someone else.
But the nervous system always speaks through sensation.
That means you can learn the language.
You can build your body’s dictionary over time.
You can practice asking: What does safe feel like in my body? What does dread feel like? What does “this is right for me” feel like?
Part 4: Intuition Can Get Hijacked by Trauma and Habit
If your body has been through stress, trauma, or long-term survival mode, your nervous system might sound the alarm when nothing is wrong.
For example:
- A healthy relationship might feel boring because you’re used to chaos.
- A good opportunity might trigger anxiety because it reminds you of past failure.
- Rest might feel unsafe if you learned that being still meant being vulnerable.
In these cases, the signal is real – but the interpretation needs care.
This is where healing and retraining come in.
Working with the body helps you re-learn what safe feels like. What trust feels like. What “yes” feels like.
Part 5: Intuition Is a Skill, Not Just a Trait
You’re not broken if you can’t hear your intuition clearly.
It’s not that some people “just have it” and others don’t.
It’s a skill. A sensing. A slow and steady learning of your own signals.
You can practice.
Try this:
- Next time you’re making a decision, pause.
- Close your eyes.
- Imagine saying yes. What happens in your body?
- Now imagine saying no. What changes?
Notice the breath, the heart, the temperature of your hands.
It may be subtle at first, but it gets clearer with practice.
This is how you build a conversation with your own body.
This is how you begin to trust it.
Part 6: Why This Matters So Much
When you start listening to your body instead of overriding it, everything changes.
- You get out of relationships that don’t feel right, even if they look “fine” on paper.
- You stop pushing yourself to say yes when your body is saying no.
- You recognize early signs of burnout instead of crashing into a wall.
- You find yourself making better choices, faster, with less second-guessing.
You stop living only from the neck up.
You start living as a whole system.
One that was always trying to help you feel better, do better, and stay true to yourself.
Part 7: What You Can Start Doing Today
You don’t have to overhaul your life.
You just have to get curious.
Try asking:
- What does “safe” feel like for me?
- What does “off” feel like?
- What situations make me feel clear and steady? What situations make me feel small or tight?
You can also:
- Begin a body journal. Write down how you feel physically in certain moments and what decision you made.
- Try gentle practices like breathwork, meditation, or somatic grounding to reconnect with your physical self.
- Learn to slow down, even for 30 seconds, before answering texts or making plans. Ask, what does my body say?
The more you notice, the more you’ll trust.
And the more you trust, the less you’ll chase outside validation.
Your Body Isn’t the Problem. It’s the Compass.
If no one ever told you this before, let me say it now:
Your body isn’t betraying you.
It’s trying to guide you.
Not with logic, but with language deeper than words.
That sensation you brush off?
That tight chest, that flutter of calm, that sudden stillness?
It might not be “just a feeling.”
It might be your deepest truth.
And when you learn how to listen to it,
You start making decisions that feel like peace.
You stop explaining your way out of what your body already knows.
You begin living with less fear and more trust in yourself.
Not because you’ve figured everything out,
But because you finally learned to translate the only language you’ve had since the day you were born.
The language of your own nervous system.
