Intuition or Anxiety?: How To Tell Which Is Making the Decision Whole, Full, & Alive

Three things we dive into in this episode:
 
1. How to figure out when anxiety is driving your decisions.
 
2. How to recognize your intuition + defining the three pieces of the intuition triangle framework
 
3. Identifying when your intuition is speaking and guiding you to make a change
 


📘Resources
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📌Episode Highlights
[04:46] Defining Intuition and Anxiety
Anxiety is protective, excessive worrying.
Many of us live with some degree of anxiety, possibly rooted in traumatic experiences.
Caitie: “Anxiety is this kind of just—we’re going to define it as this voice in your brain that's trying to protect you, but it's not really protecting you. It's an attempt to protect, it's an attempt to try to keep you safe, but it's actually kind of keeping you stuck in, first of all, an anxious loop, a loop of ruminating thoughts, a loop of self-deprecating thoughts.” - Click Here To Tweet This
Intuition is our inner wisdom.
Intuition is a peaceful interplay between instinctual gut feeling, emotional intelligence, and rational thoughts.
Don’t justify intuition as just one of those three puzzle pieces.
[11:39] Intuition vs. Anxiety in Making Big Life Decisions
Caitie has been living in New York City for the past 10 years.
Having traveled extensively since she was 16, she considers NYC her home.
She started casually thinking about moving in late 2021 and more seriously doing so when she and her partner broke up.
[15:36] Reaching a Place of Arrival
There is an energy of constant grinding in NYC. But Caitie had reached a place where she wanted to flow more than grind.
Early this year, she felt that she was a bit more in a place of arrival in her career.
She had a biological and psychological need to flow more and grind less from doing personal work in therapy and healing.
She wanted a place where she could feel better in her body to support her clients' and her own health better.
[19:33] Leaving New York
Caitie started traveling in March to give herself time to decide where to live next.
There were emotional and rational aspects to her decision-making, which helped her understand that her decision to leave was her intuition.
If it was her anxiety talking, it would urge her to stay to keep her in her comfort zone.
She ended up moving to Denver, Colorado
Aside from feeling inspired and emotionally and socially supported there, the cost of living was slightly lower than NYC.
Caitie: “It's not that I haven't had moments where I've doubted this decision. But I've noticed that the moments where I have doubted the decision are more my anxiety talking rather than my intuition talking.” - Click Here To Tweet This
[32:00] Navigating Intuition vs. Anxiety in Making Small, Everyday Decisions
The concept of intuition versus anxiety comes up for Caitie a lot with exercise.
Your intuition will push you out of your comfort zone for positive, long-term growth; anxiety will keep you in your comfort zone to relieve tension only in the short term.
Intuition will nudge you to place trust in the unknown; anxiety will attempt to play it safe and predict the future.
Your intuition will always invite you to grow, challenge yourself, and honor your personal values, even when it feels scary.
Anxiety will ask you to shrink, play it safe, and miss out on the fullness of life.
[41:46] Processing Prompt
Use the intuition triangle in an area of your life you’re trying to make a decision about.
It can either be a big life decision or a small decision you need to make everyday.
Draw a triangle on a journal, or even mentally, with gut instinct,