How your nervous system is connected with your intuition
Let’s talk about something that doesn’t get enough attention: your intuition and how it’s deeply connected to your nervous system. Yep, that inner knowing you sometimes feel but can’t quite explain? Your body is behind it. And when your nervous system is frazzled, your intuition can feel like it's on mute.
First up: What is self-trust?
Self-trust is believing that you can listen to yourself and make choices that align with your values. It’s knowing you can navigate life, even when it's messy. It doesn’t mean you always know exactly what to do (who does?) but it means you trust yourself to figure it out. A big part of building self-trust is learning to distinguish between your stress response and your intuition. If you’re in fight-or-flight mode, chances are you’re reacting from survival, not from deep inner knowing. This is where the nervous system comes in.
The nervous system–intuition connection
Your nervous system is like your body's 24/7 security guard. It's constantly scanning your environment and asking: "Am I safe?" This process is called neuroception (fancy science word, but it's really just your body's behind-the-scenes danger detector). Your intuition is often your body picking up on something before your brain consciously understands it. Therefore, your nervous system is a part of your intuition. Gut feelings, heart flutters, a sudden sense of calm - those are nervous system signals. When your nervous system is in its ventral vagal state (aka you feel relatively safe), we are able to access deeper layers of our intuition that exist within our creativity, imagination, present moment insights and connection with self, others, and the natural world.
Meet your vagus nerve
Let’s give a shoutout to the vagus nerve: it’s part of your parasympathetic nervous system (aka "rest and digest" mode) and it’s key for feeling relatively safe, social and connected. When your vagus nerve is toned, you’re more likely to:
Feel grounded and creative
Connect with others
Access your intuition
When it’s not? Most likely - anxiety, brain fog, and disconnection.
How to help your nervous systems, so you can hear your intuition
Here are a few simple ways to support your nervous system and reconnect with your inner wisdom. Some of these you may have already heard before, or have even tried. But even doing this 1-2 a week, building up a little bit of structure and consistency can really make a difference.
Deep breathing
A slow, long exhale tells your body, "Hey, it's safe to relax." Try breathing out for longer than you breathe in. This slows your fight-or-flight response and opens the door for intuition to come online. You can also try making some “ah” sounds as you breathe out - the vibrations can help steady the body even more!
Grounding practices
Put your feet on the ground. Literally. Bare feet on the earth is great, but even sitting with your back against a wall helps. Focus on the contact points where your body feels supported.
Gentle movement
Walk, stretch, sway. Moving and gently stretching your body can help settle your nervous system and helps your brain and body talk to each other more clearly.
Journaling (but make it a conversation)
Ask your body a question and write down whatever pops up. No censoring. Just curiosity. You can even have a dialogue between "you" and your "intuition." Doing this, completely unfiltered, is a way to let your intuition know that you are listening and want to deepen your relationship with your inner wisdom.
Be kind to yourself
This one really matters. Self-criticism activates your stress response in your nervous system because your system is perceiving your inner dialogue as a threat. The more kind you are with yourself, the more likely you’re nervous system will quiet its loud alarms and enable you to hear more subtle messages within. I am not suggesting that you say fake positive things that do not feel true to yourself. I invite you to tune in with inner dialogue that feels genuine in the moment. This might look like neutral acknowledgments, such as “I feel my breath flowing in, I feel my breath flowing out.” “Today is a hard day, what is one small thing I can do for myself?”.
The bottom line
You already have intuition. Your body already knows. But to hear it, your nervous system needs to feel supported.
Be gentle. Breathe. Move. Check in. Self-trust builds one small moment at a time.
And if you want to go deeper into this, definitely give this podcast episode a listen, we get into all of this with a bit more story.