Do you trust your inner wisdom? Most of the women I work with have learned to distrust the wisdom of their body. Social, religious, and sometimes cultural conditioning teach us to turn to the gurus and experts for guidance. We’re taught from an early age to neglect our boundaries, suppress our feelings, and above all ignore the wicked leadings of our heart.
Trauma disconnects us from ourselves as well. Dr. Gabor Maté says that when we disconnect from our gut feelings (for instance, either we feel them and we don’t listen to them, or we don’t even feel them, which is a deeper disconnect) that’s a sign of trauma. It’s a narrowing of our capacity to be in the world. A disconnection from the Self (from the Compassionate Inquiry course).
But we’ve been given intuition and a gut instinct for a reason. And the wisdom centers of mind/intellect, heart/emotions, and instinct/body are constantly speaking to us to help us stay whole and healthy. We need to relearn how to attune to and trust our inner wisdom if we want to walk in freedom and wholeness.
This takes some time and begins, I believe, with a decision to befriend yourself. Slow and steady, with ongoing practice, you can build (or repair) your relationship with yourself. You can notice how often you second-guess the leading of your body, or you betray yourself for “belonging” or acceptance. You can wake up to all the ways you suppress your needs and mask and suppress the leading of your own spirit (or whatever you feel comfortable calling this).
The good news is that we can relearn to attune to and trust our mind-emotion-body wisdom with practice.
The body remembers what the mind forgets.
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
10 POSTS TO HELP YOU ATTUNE TO AND TRUST YOUR inner WISDOM
REMEMBER: Quiet the noise of comparison, perfectionism, fear, and your mean inner critic and learn to trust yourself, attune to your inherent mind-emotion-body wisdom, and respond bravely and with compassion to what you hear.
PERMISSION TO BE LESS THAN GREAT
When we disentangle our minds, hearts, and bodies from the false yet pervasive notion that we have to be the best at something we’re able to just do the work that lights us up and be who we are: athlete, teacher, biologist, healer, advocate, gardener, listener, friend. Read the full post.
HOW TO QUIET THE NOISE OF COMPARISON IN YOUR LIFE
Your symptoms of low self-worth, procrastination, fear of taking risks, people-pleasing, a mean inner critic, self-judgement, and even social anxiety, may be rooted in comparison. Read the full post here.
SIMPLE LIVING TIPS FOR THE STRESSED OUT OR RECOVERING PERFECTIONIST
I sought out kindred spirits or wisdom-filled guides for how to live an intentional lifestyle in books and later the internet. Everything appealed and nothing quite fit. I needed to quiet the noise and carve out my own path. Read the full post here.
NOW IS A PERFECT TIME TO BE HAPPY
Whether I run marathons or limp along with a cane, live in abundance or count my meagre pennies, today is a perfectly fine day to be exuberantly happy. Or quietly, solemnly happy. Read the full article here.
WE NEED PERMISSION TO FEEL IF WE WANT TO LIVE BRAVE, WHOLE AND ON PURPOSE
We need permission to feel and the ability to name emotion in order to move through it. Only by trusting our experience, and then moving through it, are we able to process, grow, and more fully become our true and healthiest selves. Read the full article here.
Even Nobodies Have Gifts to Offer the World
The other morning I woke up afraid. Before I had really even begun my day, I opened my eyes and there she was. Catching in my throat, preventing me from pulling in a deep breath. I reluctantly said hello to Fear; she is a guest who likes to sneak in unbidden and overstay her welcome. I asked her what was up. “You’re starting to believe in yourself,” she replied. “And that never leads anywhere good. When you fall it will just hurt more.” Read the full post here.
HOW TO BUILD BRAVE BOUNDARIES WITH YOURSELF
Trust your inner wisdom by listening to or attuning to the wisdom of your body, pausing to name how it feels in your body to say yes to something you do or don’t want, and expanding your emotional vocabulary will help you set brave boundaries. Read the full post.
HOW TO BE A WHOLEHEARTED HUMAN IN A MESSY WORLD
One tiny seed, tended and watered, helped me heal from feeling never being enough and helped me deepen my roots of self-awareness, self-compassion, and imperfect action. Read the full post here.
THERE IS MORE THAN ONE RIGHT WAY TO BE HUMAN
We’re not bad, wrong or broken simply because we don’t fit into the little box we’ve been handed. There are so many ways to build a beautiful life. There are many paths to get to joy and there are many routes to wholeness. Read the full post here.
How to Overcome Fear As You TRUST YOURSELF
I will scan for beauty and look for evidence of my resilience and I will cheer myself onward like my life depends upon it. I will trust myself and speak life to myself – I am loved. You are loved. I will have some tears and remind myself that we overcome fear one step at a time. And every day I will continue to show up afraid. Joyfully, on purpose, but afraid if that’s what it takes. Read the full post.
NOW WHAT? resources to help you trust your inner wisdom
Take the next step.
befriend your inner critic workshop
You can’t bully yourself into wholeness. You cannot shame yourself into freedom or joy. You CAN learn to befriend your whole self – including your mean inner critic – by practicing self-compassion and deepening understanding of your stories and behavioural and emotional patterns and slowly transform your inner critic into your inner best friend. Learn more about this workshop.
the brave + beautiful membership community
Increase your emotional intelligence, practice pausing to listen inward and attune to and trust your inner wisdom rather than seeking worth or direction from outside of yourself, and learn to recognize the voice of comparison, perfectionism, fear, shame, and judgment in the moment so you don’t let it control you. Learn more about my private community.