6 Simple Strategies to Help You Better Trust Your Intuition (#77)

Are you overthinking every decision, wondering if you have what it takes to leave corporate and build a successful business? If fear and self-doubt are holding you back, it’s time to start trusting your intuition—it’s there to guide you!

In this episode, we’re diving into 6️⃣ practical strategies to strengthen your intuition (without meditating) so you can confidently make decisions that align with your purpose.

What You’ll Learn:

 ✅ How to turn inward and stop seeking external validation
 ✅ Why spending time in nature clears mental clutter and enhances clarity
 ✅ The powerful signals your body sends—and how to interpret them for better alignment
 ✅ How to recognize signs from the universe and take inspired action
 ✅ The importance of aligning with your core values for better decision-making
 ✅ Why limiting feedback to one trusted source sharpens your intuition

Your intuition is a powerful tool—if you learn to trust it, you'll make decisions with more confidence and ease.

🎧 Tune in now and start strengthening your inner voice! Remember: Your intuition is always guiding you—you just need to create the space to listen.

⚠️Note: I wanted to give a trigger warning for anyone who has dealt with miscarriage or lost a child. If you want to skip that story, start the episode at 5:24. 

If you're looking for additional support through coaching, visit my website to learn more about working together and my signature program EDIT Your Life™: www.karinfreeland.com/life-coaching

Then book a call here!

Not ready for coaching? Get a copy of my self-help book: Grab Life by the Dreams!

Transcript

Karin Freeland: 0:00

Welcome to Rock Your Reinvention, where I help high-achieving career women like you get unstuck, make your corporate exit strategy, and successfully transition to your next chapter. Hi, I'm your host, Karin Freeland, a certified life coach and corporate exit strategist. Whether you want to start a business, become a speaker, or something else, I'm here to give you the tools and strategies to shift your mindset, build your confidence, and take bold actions so you can rock your reinvention. Ready? Let's go. Hi, and welcome back to another episode of Rock Your Reinvention. I want to talk about a little bit of a serious topic today, trusting your intuition. And I want to start by sharing a story, and it may be a little triggering for some, so I just want to give you that heads up. Let me take you back to October 2010. My husband and I were absolutely overjoyed with a positive pregnancy test. And the next day at my OB appointment, I waited with anticipation in the doctor's office. What would he or she look like? What was the due date? What's it gonna be like to meet this new little personality? And if you have been pregnant, you'll probably remember similar feelings. When the doctor entered, I could sense her trepidation. And she said, the pregnancy isn't registering on the urine test. You need to go immediately to the hospital for an emergency ultrasound. Not what I wanted to hear, right? I felt like my whole world was collapsing in that moment, but I didn't have enough information. So I get to the hospital and the nurse who's conducting the ultrasound barely says a word to me. And it just kind of left me there with my bleak thoughts about what might be happening. And shortly after she finished, a doctor burst through the doors and said, you need to have emergency laparoscopic surgery today to remove the fetus because it is stuck in the fallopian tube. And I absolutely exploded into tears. His words confirmed my worst fear that this pregnancy was going to end as an ectopic pregnancy, just as we'd lost our first baby. And he said, I'll give you a minute to inform your husband. And I just sat there with my phone in my hand, starting and stopping texts, considering what do I say to my unsuspecting husband who has no idea that I'm at the hospital right now. And that's when I heard it, a voice, a small whisper. And I called my OB immediately. And I said, I need you to look at the ultrasound. They want to abort. But you know, the technician, she said one thing to me during the ultrasound. And I know she wasn't supposed to, but she said it might be a burst cyst. And my doctor reviewed the film and she said, you know what? I'm not confident enough for you to proceed with the surgery today. And she overrode the ER doctor. She permitted me to go home with one stipulation. She said, if you have any signs of a miscarriage, one drop of blood, one agonizing cramp, I want you back in that hospital immediately. Karin, this is life or death. So you might be wondering, wow, Debbie Downer, thanks for that. Why, Karin, would you start your podcast episode with this story? And it's because You and I have been given a very special gift, a gift of intuition. And I hope this story demonstrates the power and importance of listening and trusting the nudges from our intuition. Because of that beautiful gift, 13 years later, my son Ryan is alive and bringing joy to everyone who knows him. It makes me sick. when I think about what would have happened if I had blindly followed that doctor's advice. I mean, he wouldn't be here today. But thankfully, I listened to that whisper. And I know that you might not be trusting your intuition fully right now, especially if you're considering leaving corporate. You're worried if you have the skills and the capabilities to make the leap, to run your own business successfully, to completely redefine how you view success and how you live your life. You're overthinking every decision, trying to get it right, but you don't have to because you have this beautiful guide, your intuition. Now, maybe not every decision you're dealing with right now has life or death stakes, but if you don't strengthen your intuition now, you might not be ready when a time comes for such a pivotal decision of your own. So I'm inviting you today to start trusting your intuition, strengthening your intuition, because you have been given this beautiful gift for a reason. And with that, the question now really becomes, how do you strengthen your intuition? And without having to meditate, That is an option, but I'm not going to cover that today because I don't know about you, but I feel like meditation is the answer for everything in the self-help world. Just start meditating. Well, I don't know about you, but I pretty much suck at meditating, right? It's definitely not my number one go-to. And it's a great thing to strengthen. It's a great thing to do. But I just want to give you some other tangible options today that do not require you to meditate. The first thing you can do if you want to strengthen your intuition is turn inward. It is a natural tendency when we feel stuck or we want to make a big change to ask others what they think about it, to gauge their feelings or get a pulse check from them. Hey, you know, I'm thinking about a pivot. What do you think I'd be good at? And then we wait for them to give us some magical correct response, like they have a crystal ball or something. Now, this might be friends or coworkers, parents, mentors, et cetera. There's a lot of people that we reach out to. Perfect strangers, that's me. Like, I would ask people who did not know me from a hole in the wall, what do you think I should do? Like, they were going to know. But that can actually limit you and your ability to reinvent. Henry Ford once said, if I asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse because no one could envision a car. Only he had that vision. And I found a similar situation when I was first feeling stuck in corporate, right? Because I would ask everybody else what they thought I would be good at or what I should do next. And everyone would tell me, oh, just change jobs, get a different marketing job, something better, more high paying, and let's be real, more stressful. No thanks. No one could even fathom me as a life coach who would author two books and have a podcast. That was not on anyone's radar, right? No one ever said that to me. It was only when I started to travel inward and really look at the signs of my heart and my gut that I could start to cobble together an image of what would make me happy. And that's the work you need to start with. Now, I go really deep on this in chapter four of my book, Grab Life by the Dreams, but one of the best ways to go inward is journaling. This process allows you to bring the hidden subconscious thoughts to the surface. You know, the thoughts like, will my husband still love and respect me if I'm not a breadwinner? That was a real thought. Will I still love and respect me if I'm not the breadwinner? What if I fail? What will people say? These are real thoughts that I needed to address if I had any hope of changing my circumstances and creating a fulfilling life. And you have some thoughts that need to be addressed as well. So I want to give you a couple of questions to get this process jump-started for you, in case you don't have the book. One question I would write down and ask myself is, what would I regret most about my life if I died tomorrow? What brings me the most joy and energy these days? If money weren't a concern, what would I like to do for work? And I really want you to take some time to journal through these thoughts and see what insights arise for you. The first thing you need to do is turn inward. The next thing I want to invite you to do is spend time in nature. There is something so refreshing and nourishing about being in nature. For those of you with a faith background, it's also very comforting to be in God's creation and just see all the beauty in the details. It also has a much slower pace and yet everything is accomplished, right? Flowers are pollinated, trees grow and provide shade, beautiful animals come together and they mate and keep that cycle of life flowing. But more important, nature is generally quiet. It gives you space to clear your mind and tap into your truest feelings and desires, AKA your intuition. I highly recommend sitting by a lake or in a park, go on a nature hike and find a spot deep in the woods where you can stop and just reflect. And at first it may take some time for your mind to really clear all the clutter out. So be patient with yourself, but you'll find the more that you do this, the easier it is to hear your inner voice and notice any signs your creator might be sending to you. It could be a recurring thought that keeps popping up, a pattern, a flower you keep seeing that might have significance for you, a song you keep thinking of, Jot all of this down so you can revisit it later and see what synchronicities might be happening. The bottom line is we live such distracted lives that we need time away from the hustle and bustle to get centered and to hear our intuition speak to us. And the more we do that, the more we're going to recognize our intuition speaking to us like, oh, I think I should pay attention to this because you're going to be familiar with that. And you can't do this when you're plugged into Netflix or TikTok during all of your downtime. You need space. You need silence. And being in nature is a great way to get both. The third thing I want to invite you to do when you're really trying to get familiar with your intuition and strengthen that is listening to your body. Our bodies send us so many signals, but you probably ignore most of them. Either because you don't see the connection and aren't tuned into what your body is telling you, or because the truth is inconvenient. And I get it. Knowing that your stress and burnout is killing you and you'd be better off walking from that six-figure paycheck is not an easy pill to swallow when you have worked your entire life to get where you are today. I understand that. And oftentimes, we suppress those feelings out of short-term comfort. But the long-term effects are going to be detrimental. So let's get you listening to your body more closely. For example, when you're at work, how does your body feel? Are you riddled with anxiety, guilt, frustration? Do you have constant headaches? What about when you discuss a particular idea? Maybe you've been thinking about becoming a full-time speaker. what does your body say about that idea do you feel excited does your heart race with anticipation do you bite your lip thinking about all the possibilities i know i always bite my lip when i get really excited when you think about going for a promotion how does your body respond you know do you have heart palpitations is there dread exhaustion what do you feel it's time to start noticing those somatic signs and taking them to heart your body is a key vehicle for listening to your intuition. And if you don't listen to the whispers now, you're gonna have no choice but to listen to the screams later. And I see this in my clients all the time. They're like, well, it started out this way, but now I've got all these ailments. I'm like, yeah, your body's rebelling, because you didn't listen to the early warning signs. So pay attention. I'm gonna share a quick client story. I had a client who left her corporate job and she was offered a job basically going back to the same company that she had left. And even though she didn't really want to go, like she kind of knew, I don't think I want to do this. I just said, well, let's honor this and explore it. Right. And like do our due diligence. And so I said, can you read the job description to me? And I want you to pay attention to what happens in your body. And instantly she was like, oh my gosh, I don't wanna do this. She felt dread racing heart, a pit in her stomach. And so we could both confidently say, you know what? I don't think this is something that's gonna work for you. This isn't something you need to spend another second of your life considering. And that was so liberating and freeing for her. The fourth thing I wanna share with you that you can do to strengthen that intuition and really start trusting it is to find the signs. And I mentioned this a little bit earlier when I talked about being in nature, but I wanna share a bit more about this. Now I have a whole episode, number four, how to read the signs from the universe. You can go check that out and get more details on that and the valuable practice that sensing the signs is. But essentially everyone is designed with a unique purpose, right? And if you aren't living that purpose, the universe, God, your creator, right? Whatever your belief system is, has a vested interest in getting you to achieve that purpose. And signs come in all shapes and sizes and through different mediums, depending on what works for you. So for example, I listen to a lot of Christian music, so I get most of my signs through the radio. If you don't listen to Christian music or the radio, that's okay, but that's not how you're gonna get your signs, okay? It's gonna be through a different format. Sometimes signs will come through people in your life, synchronicities or patterns, silver linings. It may even be images. numbers, or even tragedies. The key is being able to notice and decipher them. So one rule that I try to apply when I am looking for signs is to accept the simplest meaning of the sign. Okay, the universe is not trying to confuse you. It's not some big crazy game that you have to solve, right? It wants you to see the sign. So look for the most direct meaning when possible. Recognize your gut reaction. What do you instantly feel? What internal knowing do you get about that specific topic or idea? And of course, it's helpful to jot down the potential signs so that you can see if anything repeats itself or fits with another sign that you were given. The more you observe signs and test them with your intuition, the stronger the connection will be and the easier you'll be able to follow them in the future. It just builds on itself, right? The more you do this, the easier it is to recognize those signs. I'll share another quick client story with you. I had another client who was thinking of working with her husband. She was in a toxic role in a big corporation and she was really miserable. And lo and behold, her husband had a business and really could benefit from her expertise. And all of a sudden, while we're working together, her position gets eliminated. And she was like, oh my gosh, what do I do? And I'm like, this is it. This is the sign that you've been waiting for to follow your gut and partner up with your husband in his business. And now she's been doing that for over a year and it's been a wonderful transition for their family. She's so much more present for their kids and they're like a real team at home and in the business. That is so exciting, but it wouldn't have been possible if she wasn't recognizing the signs because most people will be like, oh, I'm just going to go get another corporate job since my role got eliminated, but not her because she was that in tune with her intuition. The fifth thing I want to share with you today is to align with your values. Now, obviously to align with your values, you have to actually know and document your values. But I think a lot of women stop there. And I don't want you to do that. So your values just become, right, if you're one of those people who just stops after you write them down, just becomes a collection of words on a piece of paper and not something that you truly live by. And instead, I want to invite you to do weekly check-ins for a month. Yes, a solid month, okay? Every Friday afternoon, I want you to put at least 30 minutes in your calendar. And I want you to revisit your week. I want you to look at where you were in harmony with your values and where you were in conflict. Now, what does that actually look like? So let's say one of your values is family, you know, or your kids. And you send your child to school with Tylenol to mask a fever so that you can go to work. Hi, I've done this, so absolutely no judgment there if you did that this week. But you might get to Friday and realize that move was in conflict with your family values. Or you might get to Friday and find, you know what, you stayed home with your child to care for their fever. And you'd say, you know what, I was in harmony with that value this week. Go me. And it's really important to note that this isn't a bash fest, right? This isn't to make you feel bad, but it's to empower you to decide how you want to react moving forward. The less in conflict you are with your values, the happier you're going to be. And the more in tune with your intuition, right? Because your intuition will be aligned to those values. You're going to start to notice why you're in conflict and what you need to do to remedy that, right? So maybe you are doing this because you fear being fired. And if that's the case, maybe it's more about changing jobs for a better culture than leaving corporate altogether. But if we don't identify the spots where we're out of alignment, then we're never going to be able to bring them back into alignment. And your values are the compass for your intuition. I'll share a quick client example on this one too. I had a woman who was focusing on her career and realized that even though she put her marriage at the top of her values list, she actually had no time for her husband because she was always focused on work. And so she realized oh my gosh i'm not in harmony here with that value and i want to do something about it i'm not okay with just saying i value my husband and then not spending any time with him so they got a babysitter for their girls and they instituted wednesday evening date nights so that they could connect in the middle of the week when they typically would start feeling like they were disconnected and voila marriage now prioritized and value actually lived, okay? So you see what I'm saying? It's not just a collection of words on a piece of paper anymore. It's something that you actually implement and live out on a day-to-day basis. The sixth thing, and last thing I want to share with you today on how to trust your intuition is to limit your feedback to one source. Now, this is a biggie. For all my self-help coaching junkies out there like me, I love you because you are just like me, right? I also want you to notice when you might be getting too much feedback and you're not listening to your intuition anymore. And I get it, right? I want all the intel, all the tips and the tools, all the support to achieve my highest potential. And of course, you do as well. That's why you're here, right? That's why you listen to this show. But you know what? I got to be honest with you. At some point, you can be overwhelmed. Yes, you can have too many sources of guidance and it becomes confusing and it trains us not to use our own intuition. I'll give you another client example. I was working with a woman one-on-one and she was, like I said, with me one-on-one, but then she was also in someone else's group coaching program and And what I found is that it started to create a lot of inner conflict for her because I would ask her questions about how she wanted to show up and what she wanted next in her business. And it didn't always align with what the other coach was blanketly telling her. You have to do these things like the, this is the way we do it. This is the process. Like don't deviate from that, but it wasn't totally in alignment with how she wanted to run her business always. And so, through this whole questioning, she kind of realized like, this is stressing me out, right? So if you want to strengthen your intuition, you can't have multiple coaches and multiple conflicting pieces of feedback coming in because you're just going to, A, you're not gonna be able to hear her own intuition, but it's gonna just be noise, right? So I want you to pick one coach and go all in on that program, right? The other thing that I think is really important is that sometimes we need to take a break from coaching. We may have a season, even if it's just two months, right? To step back and take the reins of your life again and then really figure out, well, where do I feel like I still need a coach? Where would I still get benefit from that? Because sometimes when we have a coach, especially if their style is more like telling you what to do, which I see in a lot of business coaches, right? you may begin to think that their way is the only way and it's not. So I want you to be mindful of how a coach is helping or potentially restricting you. And only you can answer that for yourself, right? No one else can tell you how much coaching is too much. You'll know, right? And I've talked to people, entrepreneurs, and they've said the same thing. After a while, like they felt like they just needed to take the reins back because they were almost relying on their coach too much instead of listening to that inner voice. So there you have it. Six ways that you can tap into your intuition, start trusting it and get better at listening to it. And so let me just run these through really quick again. Number one is to turn inward. Go inside and figure out what do you really want? What's working for you? What's not working for you? Number two, spend time in nature. We need quiet in order to hear intuition. Number three, your intuition is speaking through your body. So listen to your body. Number four is look for the signs, right? They're out there. You just need to be mindful of them. Five, align with your values. Make sure that you know what those values are and do those weekly check-ins. And lastly, number six, limit your feedback to one source. You do not want to be overcoached to the point where you do not trust your own intuition anymore because your intuition is one of your greatest gifts. Believe me when I say it's always guiding you toward the right path. You just need to learn to trust it. By incorporating these tips, you'll strengthen your inner knowing, make more aligned decisions, and finally be able to step into your true power. Book your free 45-minute session. Until next time, stay fabulous.