Women have been conditioned to play small, keep quiet and not make waves. Through doing so it’s caused us great disconnection from our bodies and our intuition. Thankfully it doesn’t have to stay this way.
We dig deep into this topic including tips to support you in tapping into your intuition and trusting your instincts.
Listen to the Episode
Why You Feel Like You Can’t Trust Your Instincts – How to Tap Into Your Inner Knowing
- Good girl mentality
- Effects of being disconnected with your body
- You have innate wisdom and power within
- How to tap into your inner knowing
Show Notes
Free Honey Pot Meditation: https://janninemackinnon.com/honey-pot/
Sign up for annual for the Unapologetic Practices Collection and receive a complimentary 90 minute Carnelian Coaching Session: https://janninemackinnon.com/practices/
How a Butt Plug Strengthened My Intuition: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/J9ggoHRNkKb
Why You Need To Date Yourself: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/v6XlsGRNkKb
Finding Your Voice With Kyla Gagnon Breathwok Facilitator: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/9XWiQdVNkKb
Transcript
Are you someone who feels confident in really being able to tune into your instincts and act on them regardless of how out there they may seem or regardless of other people’s thoughts of your choices and what you’re doing. Is that you? Or perhaps do you feel a connection to your inner knowing and to your instincts, but when it comes to actually acting on them, taking those leaps of faith into the unknown against the naysayers, perhaps you’re a little bit less confident. Or You may be in the pool of women who really struggle to actually feel. their gut instinct. Or perhaps you’re someone who kind of maybe has some gut instincts or intuition but you find yourself questioning it. Questioning if it’s really the right call.
Oh, is this something you really should do? Really seeking outside of yourself for those answers even though you might have those little nudges, little niggles that rise up within you. Or,
Maybe you’re someone who feels like you just don’t have intuition, that that’s just not you.
And all of these kind of different pools of women, when it comes to really trusting your instincts, trusting your inner knowing, are all Very normal within that spectrum. I really see it kind of as that spectrum as someone who really struggles to feel their gut instincts, perhaps doubts that they have an intuition all the way through to really feeling super connected to that inner knowing, taking action.
on those different impulses and really trusting the process, being able to take those leaps of faith and feel confident. There’s that spectrum and everyone tends to fall in different places. The edges are obviously the more extreme edges. And I would say there’s a little bit less people in that camp.
But overall, I do find women tend to be kind of around the middle and more so towards that disconnected side. And this is definitely a pattern I have been seeing more and more with the women I work with. It’s really been coming up quite a bit lately. And I don’t know if it’s something in the air or perhaps I’m just really honing in and attracting those clients that really want to work on
feeling that confidence from within using their voice and their authentic expression and just expressing their different thoughts and ideas and being able to take up space. And the really common thing I’m seeing with all of these women is they have very similar stories. They span between late 20s to late 50s, have lived very different lives.
Yet there’s a very common thread with what I see as that good girl mentality, that people pleaser. That what starts out as a girl and turns into a woman is the one who doesn’t want to make waves. She doesn’t want to put her opinion or her thoughts out there. And generally, this has always started in childhood, and there’s been instances and experiences of speaking up for themselves, questioning things.
Sharing their ideas, sharing their different passions or thoughts, what might seem silly to others. I have those air quotes because I definitely don’t think it’s silly. And unfortunately, this is met with judgment, criticism, embarrassment, or even worse. And so as these different cycles repeat in childhood, they can start quite, quite young, toddlerhood, preschool areas, we begin to have some of these experiences where we quiet ourselves a little bit more.
Then life goes on, we might try and go out of the box a little bit, say something, ask a question, state our ideas, share this thing we’re into. And again. We’re met with that criticism, judgment, embarrassment, or other things. And so we begin to learn that it’s easier, it’s safer, it’s better for us just to stay quiet to be that good girl.
To not put our opinions out there, to not speak up for ourselves, to listen to authority often, whether that authority is our parents, our teachers, our coaches,
we’re spiritual leaders. And we just tuck our head, carry on, stay quiet, play the part. And all the while we are becoming more and more disconnected with ourselves.
And that’s what leads to really struggling to trust your instincts, because as this disconnection continues, it goes on and on, it grows deeper and deeper every single time we have this impulse to share this idea, to request, to do this thing that we would love to do, to state our opinions on a project, and we choose to stay quiet.
We choose to hold ourselves back, we choose to play it safe, and that is ignoring our body’s signals. And so it causes a disconnection that compounds on each other every single time we do this. And we do this for decades, over and over and over again, many times a day, day in, day out. And it becomes such a natural thing that we begin to not experience those impulses anymore.
We don’t notice them because we have overrode them and shut them down for our entire lives.
And it’s wild, the impact this has in truly overriding your body sensations, your gut instincts. I have seen clients who are so disconnected from their bodies that someone can touch them in a certain way and they don’t even feel it.
And if that’s you, I want you to know you’re not alone. And it all plays into this conversation and this disconnection that is facing so many women. It also manifests itself in health issues. I truly believe, and I know I’ve stated that on this podcast before, but so many of the women’s health issues that are just on the rise.
PCOS, endometriosis, different fertility issues, and hormone issues really go down. And yes, there’s multiple layers to this. I am not a medical expert, but a big part of it that I believe goes down to our disconnection with ourself and with our feminine. And I have seen time and time again, the more women are truly able to build this connection with their body, with their sensations, and learn how to live in flow, to live in alignment, to live cyclically, and make the necessary adjustments in their life that their body is nudging them, urging them, and telling them to do.
These different symptoms they experience begin to fade away, and just as it took quite a while for these things to pile on, this disconnection to happen, and these health issues to arise, slowly over time in doing this work, those things begin to fade away. Now, if you’re lucky enough to perhaps feel like you might be amongst that spectrum and kind of that pool of disconnection, but are not experiencing those health issues, perhaps you notice very regular states of anxiety, of exhaustion, of unworthiness, of low confidence and low self esteem.
Putting everyone else’s needs ahead of your own, feeling like you need to earn rest or earn enjoyment and joy and time for yourself.
And to those women, to all of you that feel like you can identify in some way or another along that spectrum, I want you to know that although this is very common, it does not have to be this way. That that state of disempowerment, of disconnection, Does not need to be your reality and that there is many, many tools available to you to really support you and being able to connect with your body, to build a relationship with yourself, to be able to tap in to those instincts, to your intuition, your inner knowing.
And really trust these things that are coming through you because they are so, so wise and be able to take action on them. And the more you do that, the more it compounds and the more you truly come into alignment with who you are, with the way you truly want to live and to lead your family, to lead yourself in your business as a partner.
As a mother, and as a full multi faceted woman, really cultivating that sense of community. Through authenticity, through alignment, because we
as women, one of our just incredible superpowers that we have is our inner wisdom, is this power that lies within. And how we access that is by being able to really tune in to our body.
This wisdom, this intuition Really comes from our yonis, from our sacred womb space. This is our sacral energy chakra. It is where our life force energy really flows, where we are connected to our emotions, to our cycles, to fluidity, to femininity, and through that, our intuition, our inner knowing flows and from.
That inner knowing, those instincts, we are able to connect and to create. And it is so, so powerful. And it is so different from men.
Men have incredible superpowers in being able to think logically and strategically. And that’s why there’s beauty when the two of us come together, because I think we really do need a mixture of both.
And when we can really lean in to our femininity, into these inner instincts, our inner knowing, we are able to just tap into this wealth of knowledge that doesn’t even need reasoning. or logic. We can just know from within. We can know from our emotions, from our connection, and just from that knowing that comes from our connection with ourselves, with each other, with the earth, with our cycle.
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And when we live from this place of connection with our instincts, In our inner knowing, we are able to really bring ourselves into a state of alignment because again, going back to that good girl idea of really quieting ourselves, doing the things and how that leads to exhaustion and anxiety and other health issues.
That is us really living out of alignment. We’re living for others. Because we find it more comfortable to make other people comfortable and live with discomfort. And that is out of alignment. So as we can strip that away and let that go and really trust what feels right within us. We are able to make choices and take action that are in alignment.
And some examples of that are being very aware of what we are taking on, feeling comfortable saying no to that. We are able to really choose and tap into what brings us joy, what brings us pleasure, what lets our sensuality really come alive and allow that to feed us instead of it being something we might hide or stuff down or avoid or be completely disconnected from.
We are able to make big decisions while, of course, tapping into some strategy and logic. Because again, there is a time and a place for that. There is importance and value to that. And
there is so much that comes to our instinctual knowing of what to do. And I feel like in my life, I can boil quite a few different things down to these moments where there was a big decision and all of them Had doubt from outside parties or even from within, and I would really go with what felt right for me.
And it might seem crazy. And it might have meant quitting my job, dropping everything to go and travel to the Yukon, travel 3, 000 kilometers for a job, and just have an adventure. Another time it meant what led me to what I’m doing now in that I decided to walk away from my business and everything I had started before and start completely fresh, which was just a really tough and big decision.
And one of the best I’ve ever made that has brought me to my passion to be able to work with women in this way. And I wouldn’t have had it. If I didn’t trust myself, if I didn’t trust my instincts. Even when it comes down to our family and having this incredible home that we have, and both of us being self employed, those took big, scary decisions to take the leap of faith and to do the thing and to persevere through the hard times, to be able to trust ourselves, to carry ourselves through.
And I’m going to be talking about the process of how to get yourself through it.
And like I said, it wasn’t always easy along the way, it shit absolutely hit the fan in many different ways. And it has all brought me to where I am now, which is a pretty incredible place, if I do say so myself. And I think there is just so much merit in taking the leap of faith, doing the big and scary thing because it feels so in alignment.
And that’s how you really make those big shifts in your life. And do really creating and co creating that life you know that you are meant for. So, bye! What are some ways that you can really tap into your inner knowing to really build a strong relationship with yourself?
So no matter where you are on that spectrum, perhaps you’re more towards that end of feeling disconnected or maybe you’re somewhere in the middle and you feel those nudges. But are still working on that trust and taking those big leaps of faith and feeling really confident in them Even when people might question you or think you’re a little bit out there.
There are a lot of different tools that can help you along the way to really being able to build that relationship with yourself and For me, I think this is what really changed things like I touched on I have always Had this piece within me this connection Me taking that leap of faith and driving to the Yukon for a job happened when I was roughly around 20, 21.
So I have had that connection and I will say it has gotten so much stronger in these last few years that I’m able to notice these different little nudges. for much smaller things, and I’m not always on it. Um, if you go back to episode 20, how a butt plug strengthened my intuition, I was reminded of that episode being out in the world, um, a vulnerable one.
Um, but that is where I touch on kind of building this relationship with my intuition and it has its ups and downs, but it really began that core, Connection, that core strengthening, that intuitive muscle through the weekly date nights with myself. And again, I have a podcast episode on that. I can’t remember what episode number it is off the top of my head, but I will put it in the show notes with you with everything else.
But it is through carving out that space with me to connect with me, to connect with my body and my inner knowing that I was able to strengthen that muscle and really begin to use it in a lot of different ways. So how can you? So it really comes down to Getting quiet enough and still enough to listen to yourself.
Our society, and I think Kyla even touched on this a couple episodes ago in our episode around finding your voice, is that the current norm of how everyone operates is, it’s just very busy, very loud. There’s constantly things on the go. There are constantly music playing or podcasts playing. You’re going from one thing to the next and going, going, going, and you don’t even have any time to sit with your thoughts.
We’re so distracted, so disconnected, and then by the end of the day, we’re so exhausted. And so we go to numb ourselves out even more, further disconnecting ourselves by scrolling on social media, watching a show, listening to something, and just really continuing that disconnection with ourself. And so first we need to take a stand.
And decide that we are going to build a relationship with ourselves, to be able to be alone with our own thoughts, without something running on in the background. And now, I love a good audio book, I love a good podcast, um, I have this podcast. I like podcasts. And I think there is something to being really intentional with how you consume content and giving space for quietness and stillness.
And so this can begin with just an hour a week and grow from there. But when you have that time for that quiet and that stillness, you can do basic things like journaling and meditating, which I think is just an incredible foundation. They’re great tools that carried me through for about a year before I dove in deeper, and I think they really help you get a lot of clarity.
📍 And then when it comes to really coming into your body, embodiment practices, take things a step further. And there are three specific ones that I think can be really helpful for tapping into your inner knowing, into your intuition. So
the first one is what I call a yes no. Exercise. And it might sound a little weird or off at first, but bear with me.
Everyone loves it. And so it’s very powerful who does it. So I urge you to just go through the awkwardness, go through the clunkiness, give it a try and you might, be surprised by how impactful it can be. And so to do this, You lie down on the floor on your bed with your knees bent with your feet flat on the bed or the floor and your knees are pointed out towards the ceiling.
And as you exhale, you open your legs and as you inhale, you close your legs back up. You exhale, you open your legs. You inhale, you close your legs. And then you begin to weave in, yes, as you open and no, as you close really feeling that full body. Yes. As you open, you surrender and no, as you close yourself off, as you take a stand and continue with this, yes and no, back and forth, really bringing awareness.
to the sensations in your body. When you say that confident, yes, or they’re really confident, no, and really tune in to what’s alive. Where does certain strength come from? What kind of signals is your body sending you when you’re in these states? Is there that Relaxedness with a yes or perhaps there’s a fiery up, firing up going on in your yoni or your solar plexus.
When you say that no, that confident no, what does that feel like? Does it feel like a strong, passionate no? Or do you feel yourself closing up?
And you can play with this. Perhaps try saying yes and no when you’re thinking of something that’s the opposite. Thinking of something that you know you’re a no for.
But you’re saying yes. Notice what comes up in your body when you are kind of lying to yourself. When you are repressing your body’s sensation, what comes up? So this is a process I do with clients, like I said, and it is very powerful when you just bring this awareness to something that is so simple. It really shows you what your body feels like and the more you practice something like this, more you notice those signals in your day to day and the more you use your voice with them, the more you act on them.
Rather than repressing them and avoiding them, you strengthen this connection and it grows and it builds as does the trust you have in yourself, the trust you have in these instincts and it begins to start in those baby steps and it compounds and compounds on top of each other and all of a sudden you have this great foundation of the strength and intuition and really having that trust in yourself.
There is a another one that I love that is Yoni breathing. And so this is in my unapologetic practices collection, which if you sign up for annual, Between now and June 18th, you’ll receive a bonus of a 90 minute carnelian coaching session with me after your 14 day free trial ends, so you can try completely for free.
You can join us for the live practice on June 18th. And when you feel like, yes, you are a yes, you want to continue within there’s a membership and continue on with that annual subscription, I will reach out to you and we will schedule in a 90 minute coaching session and we can really help support you in your journey with some specific tools and explorations
that are customized for exactly where you are right now. Now, coming back to the embodiment practice, that is Yoni breathing. Again, it’s in the unapologetic practices collection. So you can do this with my guided audio, or you can do it on your own in your chair or lying down. And what you are doing is first bringing awareness To your breath.
If you’re familiar with meditations, just getting still, getting quiet, bringing your focus inwards, tuning in to the cycles of your breath, moving in and out. And then when you feel ready, beginning to breathe into your yoni. Bringing the power of your breath and that energy into your sacred womb space.
Breathing it into your yoni and exhaling and allowing it to expand. And you, we move through this in the guided embodiment practice or best work practice. If it’s, I want to say it’s about 27 minutes, I think I might have seen when I was popping in to do a different one myself this morning. And so what this practice does is it’s really building that connection with your yoni, with your sacred womb space.
And like I touched on, this is the home of your inner knowing, your oracle of your intuition. It is this sacred portal that only we as women have, and like I said, it’s just this great way to really connect with it, to strengthen it. So again, you notice these different signs and signals she sends to you.
Now I will say, if you are someone that feels quite disconnected from your body, this will again be uncomfortable. And tricky at first. Everything is. We are rarely good at things right out the gate. Yes, there are some things that we have our talents in, but overall, if it’s a practice, a new skill, which embodiment practices are, it’s in the name.
It’s clunky at first and if you have a lot of, ,that disconnection through that good girl, behavior that I’ve been touching on throughout this episode or perhaps there is trauma through birth or sexual trauma, or disconnection from your body through different health issues, there can be a lot more blockages there.
And so it can take longer to build that connection with your womb space. I will also add, if you don’t have the physical organs, if you’ve had a hysterectomy or different things like that, you do still have this sacred energy space. It is still a part of you, whether or not you have that organ. So I just want to add that in, but it takes time.
And I believe I touched on it earlier when it’s been decades of stacking the stuff on, of disconnecting ourselves, it’s going to take some time to unravel that and to reconnect. But through a dedicated embodiment practice, I Definitely recommend two to three times a week. Weaving in smaller ones where you can and longer ones when you can really provide yourself that space is incredible and something I swear by.
And the unapologetic practices is There to guide you through. And when you sign up for annual within the next week and a couple of days, you’ll have access to a bonus coaching session with me where we can really take some time to move through things and really support you in reconnecting with your body.
Now, one last option that I will give you in terms of really tapping into your body is actually dance. And this is another one that it’s interesting. My clients who feel uncomfortable or awkward dancing. tend to be the ones that feel the most disconnected from their body, especially from their sacral energy center.
And when you dance, when you move your hips, you are really able to stir up. This energy center to shift different blockages that can be stored here. And so it is very, very healing. I had this incredible conversation with a Instagram friend a few months ago, and. She mentioned just how impactful dance was and how surprising it was for her that through dance, through sensual, embodied, connected dance, and moving those hips.
It unlocked so many things to such a big degree that actually like creativity just began pouring through. Because again, this intuition, this creativity, the sensuality is all tied together in our sacral energy centers. Dance can be a very powerful embodiment practice as well. The one I like to weave in with clients.
I did that just earlier today actually as well.
So, just to kind of summarize things a little bit, that disconnection that so many women have with themselves, with their body, with their intuition, that instinct, this is just a very real symptom of the way women are conditioned to stay quiet, to be that good girl, to play it safe, to hold our tongue.
To not express ourselves for fear of judgment, punishment, embarrassment, and all sorts of things. And through learning to play it safe, and to stay small, to stay quiet, we continue to override our body’s signals that are just wanting to come out and play, to express, to be curious. And the more we do this day in and day out, it really disconnects ourselves from our bodies and from our inner knowing and our bodies hold so much wisdom, so much knowing.
And
when we are able to break through those layers of conditioning that we have stacked on over decades and really learn to connect with our body. We are able to tap into just a wealth of knowledge that supports us in how we’re able to connect with our families, how we are able to show up for them, show up in our marriages and our partnerships, the way we are able to make decisions, again, for ourselves, for our families, for our lives.
And to take those big leaps of faith that truly makes such an impact on where we end up and how we live from that place of purpose and passion and joy. And so we can begin to really build this connection with ourselves, really trust our instincts enough to take this action through the day.
I’m going to be talking about various embodiment practices like the yes no exercise, yoni breathing, dancing, as well as journaling and meditating.
These are all tools I have been using for years at this point and that have just been really helpful. Um, and I just, I just, I just made such an impact on how I feel, how I show up, how connected I am, how I’m able to tap into that intuition. And I have seen it for the women I work with, for women who have a wall across their c section scars, to be able to feel liveliness and sensations down there.
For women who have, Spent decades of needing to control things because they don’t trust their instincts for women who have spent their life looking outside for answers and solutions, trying to buy things to fix themselves, trying to look for others opinions of how they should act, what decisions they should make to really being able to come from that place of inner knowing.
Which provides so much freedom when you are able to trust your instincts and to be able to act on them.
So I would love to help you no matter where you are on that spectrum and really building that sense of confidence and trust and then to this just incredible power that lies within you and it lies within all of you.
Feminine beings, all beings. But we as women have special superpowers in this area. And if you’re someone that feels disconnected, that doesn’t feel like this is a lie for you. I promise it is, it is in there and it might take time and you really got to get still and quiet and you got to practice day in and day out and show up for yourself and through that dedication.
Things will begin to shift, to unlock, and your inner power will begin to pour out, and the way it will create ripple effects in your life is truly incredible and truly beautiful. So as I’ve touched on, the Unapologetic Practices Collection is available for you to support you in all of this if you are on a self led journey.
When you sign up for the annual membership by June 18th. I will include a 90 minute free carnelian coaching session after your free trial expires. So feel free if you’re a little bit on the fence, sign up, take a peek around, do a little taste of some of the embodiment practices that are in there.
Join us for our live embodiment session on June 18th. And when you feel into it, when you meditate into it, when you ask your yoni what’s the right decision and if it feels like a full fuck yes. Then we are here to play and to just support you in that dedication you have for yourself. If you ever have any questions, I am always here.
You can shoot me a DM on Instagram at janine. mckinnon or an email to info at janinemckinnon. com. I would love to chat whether it’s a question or you just want to share your thoughts on the episode. I am always here for you.
Until next time, trust your inner wisdom and make some magic.
