When You Doubt Your Intuition: Learning to Trust Your Inner Knowing
You probably know the moment I mean.
Something in you says yes (or no, or don't sign that, or leave the party now, or visit this place), and a split second later your mind arrives with a folder full of very reasonable arguments against it.
Sometimes you listen, and often you don't, shrugging it off. A few weeks later you may even hear yourself saying the two words every intuitive woman has said at least a hundred times: "I knew."
If you keep second-guessing yourself, even after all the inner work you've done, you're in very good company.
This post is about how to listen to your intuition even while the doubt is still there: how to tell your inner voice apart from fear, how each one tends to feel in your body, and what might be happening when the two are so tangled up that your finding it incredibly hard to even tell which one is talking.
In this article, we’ll explore:
Why intuition can feel hard to trust, even when you’re deeply intuitive
How intuition feels different from fear in your body
The ways your intuition naturally communicates with you
Simple ways to strengthen your relationship with your own knowing
What happens when deeper patterns continue to block your trust in yourself
Image Source: Flou (Pinterest)
Your intuition hasn't gone anywhere
Most of the women who find their way to me aren't short on intuition. They journal, they meditate, they've sat in circles and on therapists' couches, and they can read a room faster than many.
What they tell me is that they can't always trust it. They trust it right up until something important is on the line, and then the head-versus-heart tug of war begins.
So when women ask me how they can listen to their intuition, I start by helping them hear the intuition they already have, underneath all the other voices competing for their attention.
From there, it becomes a practice of learning the language of your own intuition. Like any relationship, the more attention you give it, the clearer it becomes.
How intuition tends to feel
Every body is a little different, but after years of sitting with clients (and plenty of trial and error in my own life), there are a few qualities I see again and again.
Intuition usually arrives before the reasoning does. It might come as a simple knowing, a short sentence, an image, or a sense of which way to turn, and any explanation tends to follow later.
It's calm, even when the news is inconvenient. Your intuition might tell you the job you worked so hard for isn't the right one, and it will still land with a kind of settling, as if something in you has finally exhaled.
It also doesn't argue. If you ignore it, it tends to come back saying exactly the same thing, a bit like the friend who calmly repeats her opinion of your ex at every dinner until you finally agree with her (slightly annoying as it may be).
In the body, people often describe a dropping sensation, warmth in the chest, a softening through the belly, or simply more room to breathe.
It's also worth knowing that intuition doesn't speak to everyone in the same way. For some people it arrives as a picture or an image (this is called clairvoyance). For others it's a word or phrase they hear inside (clairaudience), a feeling in the body (clairsentience), or a sudden, complete knowing with no idea where it came from (claircognizance), to name a few.
Most of us have one or two that come through most strongly. If you've been waiting for a vision while your intuition has been showing up as a gut feeling all along, that may be part of why it's been so easy to doubt, you are receiving guidance but you aren’t looking at it, you're closed off to the unique way you are receiving it.
How fear tends to feel
Fear usually comes from a part of you that has been trying, often very hard, to keep you safe, and it deserves some gratitude for that. It just isn't the most reliable guide when you're making decisions about the direction of your life.
Fear tends to be urgent. It wants you to act right now or never, and it has very little patience for "let me sleep on it."
It usually comes with a story about the future, often with a detailed worst-case ending and a whole supporting cast of what-ifs, in short - it catastrophises.
When you push back on fear, it finds a new reason, and then another one after that. (If you've ever talked yourself out of something and noticed the reasons kept changing, that was probably fear doing the talking.)
In the body, fear contracts. You might feel your chest tighten, your breath catch, or your shoulders creep up toward your ears, along with a buzzy restlessness that makes it hard to sit still.
It often sounds familiar, too. Fear has a habit of borrowing the voice of a parent, an old teacher, or a younger version of you who once got hurt and decided it would be safer to stay small.
Intuition often feels like a gentle knowing.
Fear often feels like a demand for certainty.
Where intuition likes to show up
You might notice that your clearest knowings arrive when your mind has slowed down - in the shower, on a walk, while you're journaling, or in that drifting moment just before sleep.
There is a reason for this.
When your mind is busy analysing, planning, and worrying, your attention is focused outward - solving, preparing, anticipating. There is less space to notice the quieter signals within you.
As you soften and move out of constant doing, something shifts. Your awareness turns inward, your body has space to speak, and intuitive guidance often becomes easier to notice.
This is why so many intuitive moments arrive when you aren't trying to force an answer. They come in the spaces between the doing - when you are relaxed enough to receive.
Two simple ways to check which one you're hearing
The first is to learn what yes and no feel like in your own body.
Sit comfortably and say something you know is true, like your own name, and pay attention to what happens inside. There might be a softening, a lean forward, or a little warmth.
Then say something false (I like "my name is Gwendolyn," unless of course it is) and feel for the shift. Many people feel a tightening, a heaviness, or a slight pull back.
Try this a few times and you'll start to recognise your own signals, so when a bigger question comes up you have something to compare it with.
The second is to try the decision on for a day.
When you're genuinely unsure, pick one of the options in front of you and live as though you've already chosen it. You don't need to tell anyone or act on it. Carry the decision around with you for a day and see how you sleep, how your body responds when it crosses your mind over breakfast, and whether you feel more like yourself or less.
Then do the same with the other option.
Intuition tends to survive a night's sleep and still be there in the morning, steady and unbothered. Fear tends to either get much louder at 3am or dissolve once the pressure is off, and either way, you've learned something.
You don't have to wait for the doubt to go
Many of the women I work with believe they need to feel completely certain before they can act on their intuition, so they wait for the doubt to leave first. The trouble is that doubt is usually the last thing to go, and it tends to leave after trust has been built up rather than before.
The gentlest way to build that trust is to start small. Follow your intuition on things that don't matter much, like which way to walk home, which friend to call, or whether to take the umbrella, how you might feel going to a certain event.
Each time you follow a small nudge and it turns out well, you're building a track record with yourself. Over time, the bigger decisions have something to stand on, and the doubt has less to hold onto.
When you can't tell them apart at all
Sometimes the difficulty trusting your intuition isn't because you can't hear it. It's because something deeper has learned that it isn't safe to follow it.
Sometimes the fear runs deeper than a passing thought, and it turns out to be a pattern.
It shows up at every big threshold. You might feel the same pull back just as things are about to open up, or the same sense that wanting more is selfish or asking for trouble. When you look back, you can usually see it running through your whole life, just occurring in different experiences or situations.
That's usually when people find me.
When I open someone's Akashic Records, I'm looking for the point where that pattern first began. Sometimes that's early in this life, and sometimes it goes further back. When we find the root beneath the root and clear it there, the pattern loosens its grip, and your intuition no longer has to compete with an old protective strategies to be heard.
Working with me
If you've read this far and something in you is leaning in, I'd love to meet you. There are two places I'd suggest starting, depending on what you're looking for.
The Soul Essence Akashic Records Reading
This is a written, soul-level reading of who you are at your core. It explores how you're wired, your natural strengths, the themes that keep repeating in your life, and how your intuition uniquely communicates with you.
For a lot of women, it puts words to things they've always sensed about themselves but never quite trusted. Once you can see how your own intuitive knowing works, doubting it becomes much harder to keep up.
The Soul Awakening: Past Life Healing & Soul Essence Reading
If you read the section about patterns and felt a little oh, this one is for you.
Sometimes what sits between you and your intuition or repeating experiences is a block that began in another lifetime.
Those experiences can leave a protective reflex that carries forward. In this life it might show up as hesitation, self-doubt, keeping yourself small, or that familiar habit of second-guessing, even though its origin sits further back.
In a Soul Awakening Experience, we go into your Records to find where the block began and clear it at the root. The clearing begins in our session, and you complete it yourself over the days that follow with a personalised process that's unique to you.
Clients often tell me they feel so much lighter afterward, and many notice that their inner voice becomes much easier to hear and to trust.
Frequently Asked Questions
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The Akashic Records are often described as an energetic library or field of consciousness that contains the story of every soul. Within the Records are the experiences, lessons, gifts and patterns that have shaped your soul's journey.
In my work, the Akashic Records provide a space to explore your soul's gifts, the lessons you're here to learn, and the deeper patterns influencing your current experiences. Alongside the guidance that comes through your Records, we also work with personalised energetic clearing, gently releasing what no longer needs to be carried and creating space for greater understanding, healing and transformation.
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An Akashic Records Reading is a personalised session where we explore your soul's gifts, lessons and the deeper patterns shaping your life. We uncover the experiences, energetic influences and root causes connected to what you're currently navigating, while also working with personalised energetic clearing to support lasting change.
My intention is to create a grounded, compassionate space where you can better understand yourself, make sense of your experiences, and move forward with greater awareness, self-trust and empowerment.
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There isn't a perfect time to book an Akashic Records Reading.
Many people arrive when they're navigating recurring patterns, moving through a season of change, wanting to understand themselves more deeply, or feeling an undeniable pull towards the Akashic Records. Others simply know there's something beneath the surface of their experiences that they're ready to explore.
If you've found yourself returning to the idea of an Akashic Records Reading or recognised yourself throughout this article, it may be a sign that you're ready to deepen your understanding of yourself and the experiences you're navigating.
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Relationships are one of the most common reasons people book a reading.
Whether you're navigating the end of a relationship, recurring relationship patterns, family dynamics or wanting to understand why someone has had such a profound impact on your life, the Akashic Records can offer insight into the deeper lessons, energetic patterns and influences at play.
As we gain greater understanding, we also work with personalised energetic clearing to support the release of what no longer needs to be carried, creating space for greater compassion, healing and a different way of relating moving forward.
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For many people, the reading is just the beginning.
As the guidance settles and the energetic clearing continues to integrate, new insights often emerge over the weeks and months that follow. Some people experience immediate shifts, while others gradually notice that situations which once felt confusing begin to make sense, emotional patterns soften, or they're relating to themselves and their lives in a different way.
You'll also receive a personalised PDF a recording of your session and a post-clearing follow up call, allowing you to revisit the guidance whenever you need and continue integrating what has unfolded.
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Yes.
All of my Akashic Records Readings are held online via Zoom, allowing you to receive the same depth of guidance and energetic clearing wherever you are in the world.
Following your session, you'll receive a personalised PDF and recording, giving you the opportunity to revisit your reading and continue working with the guidance and energetic clearing long after the session has finished.
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Both sessions explore your soul through the Akashic Records, but they have different intentions.
The Soul Essence Reading is centred around understanding who you are at a soul level. It explores your soul's gifts, natural strengths, driving energies, purpose and the qualities your soul came here to embody. Many people describe it as a profound sense of recognition, helping them understand why they are the way they are, reconnect with the truth of who they have always been and work with the natural patterns they face in a different way.
The Soul Awakening Akashic Records Reading includes this Soul Essence exploration as part of the session, then goes deeper. Alongside understanding your unique soul blueprint, we explore the intentions and experiences that have brought you to the reading, uncover the deeper patterns, root causes and soul lessons shaping your current challenges, and work with personalised energetic clearing to release what no longer needs to be carried.
If you're looking to understand yourself at a soul level, the Soul Essence Reading is a beautiful place to begin. If you're wanting that understanding alongside guidance and energetic clearing for what you're currently navigating, the Soul Awakening Akashic Records Reading offers a more in-depth experience.