86: Aligning with Your Intuition

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If we are very stressed, sometimes maybe it's not intuition and it's anxiety.
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So I would say that intuition is really an insight that comes fast, you know, out of the blue.
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Like I stepped into that car inside the car, and it was like this pool.
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I was not overthinking, I was not rethinking or ruminating about that idea.
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It just happened.
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Welcome to Sensitive Stories, the podcast for the people who live with hearts and eyes wide open.
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I'm your host, psychotherapist and author April Snow.
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I invite you to join me as I deep dive into rich conversations with fellow highly sensitive people that will inspire you to live a more fulfilling life as an HSP without all the overwhelm.
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In this episode, I talk with Sophia about finding your way through the fog to reconnect with your inner voice, discerning intuition from anxiety, and learning to trust yourself again.
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Sophia is a natural health practitioner, author, and mentor, specializing in working with highly sensitive people.
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Her work is informed by mindfulness, emotional intelligence, positive psychology, and holistic health.
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With a background in human genetics, environmental chemistry, and a master's in naturopathy, she bridges science, spirituality, and intuition to create practical tools that support sensitive people in emotional regulation, inner clarity, and self-trust.
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She's the creator of the bilingual Sensitivity and Empathy Cards, an empowerment deck designed to help sensitive individuals reconnect with their inner voice and navigate overwhelm with awareness.
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And just a reminder that this episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for treatment with a mental health or medical professional.
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Let's dive in the Sophia, welcome to the podcast.
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I am so delighted to talk with you today.
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And I'm wondering if we can start off with your HSP discovery story.
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How or when you realize that you're a highly sensitive person?
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Well, it was back in 2015 after a burnout.
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I did some coaching sessions, and lucky enough, the coach knew about uh HSPs, and she was from Barcelona.
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I'm from Portugal.
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And so after some sessions, she told me, Well, I really think that you should read this book.
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And it was the book from Dr.
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Elaine Aaron, you know, about highly sensitive person.
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And well, that was it.
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I read it, and of course, all the boxes started to tick, and I find myself with it, and then it started this like you know, self-discovery journey.
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Because I think that after it to some people, I think it's very fast, they just have this click and then they integrate very fast this knowledge, and to some people, maybe it's slower because of the deep processing.
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Maybe it tends to be slower than faster.
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That's what I think.
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Although there was a part of my brain that very fast started to, you know, to think about everything that was true about it, and my brain even went to the moment I was born because my mother told me that I was crying during three months, and nobody could sleep in that place, you know, in that household, because of me crying during three months.
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And I would only sleep when I was in somebody else's arm.
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And the minute they would start to me down, I would start to cry.
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So my brain went there very fast.
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So I think there is a kind of reframing that happens after we read the book or podcast or we make the self-test, and then our brain does what it does best, which is processing everything very deep and start to reprint everything.
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So, in a way, there was a fast reframing of a lot of things in my life.
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Why was I crying all the time?
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Why did I, I don't know, had my emotional roller coasters in relationships and all of that, you know?
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And the other is more, what do I do with this?
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You know, now that I know what do I do with this?
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In one part, my brain is just reframing my whole life, but then we need all this psychoeduc of okay, so how do I regulate myself and all of that?
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So it's a kind of an amazing journey.
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Oh, it's such a rich journey.
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And just what you're saying is so relatable that as soon as you have that moment of realization, you look back at everything, everything looks differently.
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You start putting the puzzle pieces together and you make such a good point that it doesn't end there.
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Once you start to integrate that information, it's okay, what do I do now?
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How do I live as an HSP with this information?
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And I know you have a science background, so I'm curious if that influenced you at all in that process of relating to your emotions or your intuition.
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Okay, so my science background, yeah, I did more than 10 years of scientific research in different areas since human genetics, namely paediatric cancer and you know, environmental chemistry and then marine ecology.
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But really, what I found out, and this was later, really, that you know, the common thread is always my infinite curiosity.
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And then on the other one, the other common thread is wanting to help and serve, you know.
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So I did all of this because I wanted to help and serve.
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So, but science, I went there because I used my curiosity to research, but I don't consider myself a person that only looks life through the lens of science, because at the same time, my curiosity led me to study history of religions and alchemy and everything you can imagine.
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I'm very curious.
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But what happened, it was that through science, I became very logical and rational, and I do need this, you know, background on things.
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So even when I do mentorship of highly sensitive persons, I go very much into the scientific part because I think that we need that, you know, to some people don't believe in it, you know, right?
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Some people really the psychoeducation, I think, must be a little bit scientific-based.
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And then answering how that influenced also the way I deal with my emotions and so on.
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Well, it wasn't through science, I tell you.
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While I was doing scientific research on those things, I was very emotionally immature, you know, and I couldn't self-regulate or whatever.
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What it helped me is that curiosity and that scientific background helped me after I did in 2020 the HSP training and all of that.
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And I started to study emotional intelligence, positive psychology, mindfulness.
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Then that scientific spirit helped me now, you know, to use these things, to be curious, to have a method behind and so on, a structured, let's say, emotional awareness.
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So I think that helped me, but it was after, you know, it was not because I was a scientist that helped me in emotional awareness, because it didn't until I used that scientific brain to study these areas, you know.
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So that makes sense that you're grounded in that curiosity, and then you can use your research or brain to learn more about the trait.
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Because you're right that we definitely need more emphasis on the research behind sensitivity.
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There's a lot of misinformation, increasingly so, as people show up on social media and information gets repeated, that's not accurate.
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So I agree that we really need to ground back into that.
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So it makes sense that you would have that strength, having given your background.
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And then you can apply it to your own journey and to the people that you're mentor as well.
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I love that.
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I'm curious if we could dive more into the intuition piece because I know that's something that you focus on a lot.
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And I'm curious how you hold maybe concrete information that you've learned through research, but also then your intuitive sense, what you know through your sensations or your guts.
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Do those two work together?
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Well, that is a very interesting question because nowadays I know that while I was doing research, I was using intuition.
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And that would come as in a haha moment while writing a scientific paper.
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And again, it helps a lot the deprocessing of the high sensitivity trait, because I remember perfectly sometimes, you know, I mean, you are just looking at Excel data and statistics and processing all the data and analyzing all the data, but then you have to transform this into scientific research papers, into words and conclusions and so on.
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And intuition would come like okay, this means this, and it would come just like as this clear idea, and nowadays I really connect this with intuition, you know.
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And in fact, there was a paper released in 2024 that it was about how HSPs use intuition in decision making, you know, by Malwaska, Camila Malwaska.
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And so, in fact, they saw that highly sensitive persons, also even as leaders, as sensitive leaders, they use more intuition than the other leaders, you know, and especially when they are under stress.
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Meaning, so when they are under stress and they have experience in a certain field, you know, or in a certain area, they would use more intuition.
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Because when you are stressed, sometimes you don't access so much your logical mind.
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And because you don't have that access, then you trust intuition.
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You know, that the intuition is that you know something without knowing that you know.
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But in fact, intuition is very sharp on sensitive people because it comes from the fourth pillar that Dr.
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Elaine Aaron speaks about.
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You know, the does acron acronym and the D is the depth of processing, the O is the overwhelming, the E is the empathy and the intensity of emotional.
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And the last one, the S of the DUS acronym, is really the sensitivity to subtleties.
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Well, intuition comes really from our sensitivity of these subtleties in the environment, meaning our nervous system is processing always, always these subtleties, information, data around us.
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And then it crosses this with our past experiences, with our knowledge, and then you suddenly have a gut feeling and the guidance.
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So, of course, this really comes also from this trait of high sensitivity.
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So intuition is very strong in a highly sensitive person.
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It's just that we don't know that we are using intuition.
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You know, I just realized after starting to dwell on this sensitivity trait and all of this.
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Oh my god, I was using intuition even in my scientific world, you know, and you have this amazing paper from 2023 that the sensitive leaders use intuition in decision making.
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So this is amazing.
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It's incredible.
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The fact that not only are we, you know, more attuned to the subtleties, but we're taking in all that information that we gather, processing it unconsciously, and then we have these little nuggets of wisdom come through.
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And it's not magic, it's based in our observation, it's so validating.
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And I love to hear that you before you even realize you were using that for your research.
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Yeah, I'm just curious if you've seen it show up in other ways in your life as well.
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Of course.
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Then what happened is like that in 2010, I just gave up my scientific career and I did a master's degree in naturopathy, and then I started a career as a natural health practitioner.
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And then it was very funny because in 2013 I really heard this very, very strong inner voice telling me you must do something to develop your intuition and stop being so rational.
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So, what I think is that this inner voice really needed to be listened to, you know, because I did this decade of scientific research and I was so much into my rational mind and this analysis and logical thinking that I was missing out on this very strong part of myself that it's there.
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You know, it's really just like this mountain with the clouds.
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I mean, the landscape is always there, but while the clouds are up here, we don't see the landscape.
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And then so there was this landscape down there, just waiting to be seen and validated.
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So I really got this very, very strong inner voice in 2013 telling me, really, you need to do something to stop being so rational, you know, and so that you can get together the two things.
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It's not that you have the logical mind in one side and the intuitive mind in another one.
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I mean, we are not cars, it's not mechanical, it's everything working together.
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Like I told you, it was already working together, only there were all these clouds in the mountain, and I didn't see the landscape for what it was.
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That it's all these parts working together.
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So we can use this in our daily life.
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So, and then back then in 2013, I thought, okay, so what can I do to develop my intuition?
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And I thought, you know, what cards?
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Cards oracles, because I had already tried other things, they were not so easygoing.
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You have to study more other systems.
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And this one, cards, I thought, okay, this sounds easy.
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And I thought my logical mind told me.
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So we also have Carl Jung.
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You know, Carl Jung studied all of these things, and also Tahoe, and how do you connect with your subconscious mind through symbolic imagery and all of that?
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So that was very again scientific backed up for me.
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And I was thought, okay, so I will study Tahoe because it's the most studied system on cards to you know how to use them, how do I shuffle this, how what can I do to start to connect my mind.
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And this is one of the intuitive tools that I started to use.
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Of course, we have a lot more things that we can use for our intuition, because, in a simple way, if we think about our intuition, that it's an inner voice, yeah, then in a logical sense, an intuitive tool, it must be something that opens space for us to listen to that inner voice.
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So everything that grounds us more and lets us open that space can be an intuitive tool.
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So mindfulness, it's being in the present moment, grounded in the present moment, it's an intuitive tool because it opens space and makes you pause for you to listen to your inner voice.
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Being in nature, journaling, you know, and then cards also.
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So there's a lot of things.
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Like I say, if we just think about this, is it my inner voice?
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How can I create space to listen more?
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So go to nature, be present, deep breath work, you know, journaling.
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And of course, cards, it helps a lot because it has images, and we work very well, you know, sensitive people with imagery and symbolism and reflection and so on.
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So it makes sense that when we're doing something more tactile, grounded, pulling ourselves out of that swirl of overthinking, that that helps lift the fog that you talked about, that fog that covers our inner voice.
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I'm wondering as HSPs, why are we so maybe resistant, or why do we struggle to trust that inner voice once we do have access to it?
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I'm curious to hear your thoughts about that.
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Because even once we access it, I think a lot of times we doubt the voice.
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I think you are true.
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It's true.
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I think we do doubt our inner voice, but I think this comes maybe from some patterns in our childhood, or you know, during our development, our growth, that we think that there's something wrong with us because we've listened so much that you're too sensitive.
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Why are you like this?
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And so you grow up thinking that you're too much.
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So if you think you're too much and that you are wrong, and there's something wrong with you, or you are an alien, or something like that, then you don't trust yourself.
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So if you don't trust yourself, you also don't trust your inner voice.
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And I bet there is a lot of stories of sensitive people having a very strong sign of okay, this is intuition, don't do that, don't go there.
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They don't follow it, and then they realize that that gut feeling was right, and I have that in my life.
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Yeah, you know, I had a very brief relationship with a person that has somehow, you know, very self-centered behaviors.
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We can all even say narcissistic behaviors, and I remember that the first time we went out together, I just sat on his car and I felt like something I cannot even describe.
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It was really like a force, it was physical, something trying, you know, to push that thing, to take me out of that car.
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And you know what happened, April?
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I didn't trust it, so I went down the rabbit hole, you know, to realize this was a very toxic relationship, a very toxic person, and I'm very grateful that after two months I realized that and I went out, but I got the sign, I got the intuition, the sign was there, I just didn't trust it.
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Yeah, you know, yeah, and nowadays it's different, you know.
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Other thing also that I should make a point is that if we are very stressed, sometimes maybe it's not intuition and it's anxiety.
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Good point, yes, that's important.
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Yes, so I would say that intuition is really something, an insight that comes fast, you know, out of the blue.
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Like I went into that car inside the car, and it was like this pull.
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I was not overthinking, I was not rethinking or ruminating about that idea.
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It just happened.
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Whereas anxiety usually it has a repetition in thinking, it has a fear, it has a tension around it.
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Intuition, even if it's an information telling you don't go there, usually it's as an insight and it comes fast, and it doesn't have a lot of stories around, you know.
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So anxiety is more this anxious and fear thoughts and repeated, ruminating, overthinking, and so on.
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So, this is to say that if we are stressed, maybe what we think it's a good feeling is just fear, maybe, you know.
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So that's why intuition it's just comes naturally, right?
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You know, so clear, like that visceral push you felt.
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It's clear.
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That one was really very clear.
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Then again, if we don't trust it and we don't learn how to develop our intuition, open space for that inner voice to come and for us to listen to it.
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There are all these clouds there, and we just don't see the landscape.
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We just don't see the intuition, we don't listen, and so on.
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So, you know, it takes.
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I think it's a journey also to trust the intuition.
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It's made slowly, then you see the signs, and okay, I did it with kindness.
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I realized okay, I didn't listen that time, the red flag, it was there.
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It's okay.
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It was a learning process, you know, because our mind very easily then starts to say, Oh, you were stupid.
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So I don't buy into that anymore.
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I did a lot of, you know, emotional intelligence and positive psychology and mindfulness.
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So I'm much kinder to myself.
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So if I have my inner critic telling me you were stupid because this happened and you didn't trust your intuition, you know, okay, just receive that voice, but then you can just reply to that critic with kindness and saying, Well, I'm doing the best I can with what I have now, you know, and then slowly and slowly we start into intuitive tools, like I say, journaling, mindfulness, going to nature, or maybe even cards, whatever.
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And then we start to trust ourselves more.
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It takes a little bit of that.
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Maybe some people really read also a book about it, or highly sensitive persons.
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They go to a workshop, they go to a community, they do a psychoeducation mentorship.
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It really takes time for this information to go into our bodies.
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And I mean, I work with it, I know since 2015 about the trade, and for me, it's still surprising when you feel it under your skin.
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You know, two weeks ago, I was with a friend of mine, and we were on a bus going to a place, and then the bus stopped because there was a protest there, and we had more five kilometers to walk.
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And we had walked already 10 kilometers that day.
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But I'm into long walks, that was not a problem.
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So the bus stops and says, Okay, I'm sorry, we cannot go through.
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There's too many people, you have to walk the rest if you want.
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And I just got out of the bus, and it was all this confusion of people screaming because it was a protest and buses and so on.
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And I really started to feel very tired.
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And I told my friend, I cannot walk these five kilometers.
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And he told, okay, so we go by subway, but you know what?
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The subway is one kilometer away.
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So I started to walk and walk and so on.
00:25:12.009 --> 00:25:21.450
And because the subway was that one kilometer away, it was outside already of all this confusion and people screaming.
00:25:21.450 --> 00:25:32.250
And as the silence started to come and all the chaos started to, you know, to slow down and so on, my energy came back.
00:25:32.250 --> 00:25:36.009
So when we got to the subway, I said, you know what?
00:25:36.009 --> 00:25:37.210
Make that work.
00:25:37.210 --> 00:25:42.970
My energy came back because I was outside of this chaotic environment.
00:25:42.970 --> 00:25:50.169
And I just turned to him and just said, you know, this high sensitivity thing is really amazing.
00:25:50.169 --> 00:25:51.609
It's really true.
00:25:51.609 --> 00:25:57.689
When I was in the middle of the chaos of all these people screaming, I was so tired.
00:25:57.689 --> 00:26:01.289
And now my energy came again.
00:26:01.289 --> 00:26:08.730
Just like so, you see, we have able to feel it in our daily life, in those little things.
00:26:08.730 --> 00:26:17.289
You know, you get overwhelmed because there is all this too much stimuli information or people or lights or whatever.
00:26:17.289 --> 00:26:25.129
We have to feel it in our bones so that we can start to integrate this information, you know.
00:26:25.129 --> 00:26:27.769
So it takes time to trust, really.
00:26:28.250 --> 00:26:29.129
It really does.
00:26:29.129 --> 00:26:30.089
We need to.
00:26:30.089 --> 00:26:32.569
I love how you invited people to be gentle.
00:26:32.569 --> 00:26:36.730
If you get it wrong, if you don't listen to the intuition at first, it's okay.
00:26:36.730 --> 00:26:45.529
Like you said, you're doing the best with what you have, and it takes time to rebuild that self-trust and that connection to our inner worlds, it's a process.
00:26:45.529 --> 00:26:51.369
Yeah, I'm wondering for folks who are listening and they're maybe just starting on the process.
00:26:51.369 --> 00:26:54.970
Do you think cards are the best place to start since they're so tangible?
00:26:55.289 --> 00:26:58.169
To develop intuition, yeah, just start as well.
00:26:58.169 --> 00:26:59.369
Yes.
00:26:59.369 --> 00:27:03.450
I mean, maybe I'm biased, it's just that I love it, you know.
00:27:03.450 --> 00:27:17.049
So because one of the things that you can do with cards, whatever cards they are, oracle, empowerment cards, taho, whatever, is just simply to do this daily ritual or weekly if you want.
00:27:17.049 --> 00:27:21.369
And it's just like number one, you just ground yourself and pause.
00:27:21.369 --> 00:27:29.689
And you really need to pause, and this is why it's nice, this thing, you know, because you need to listen to your inner voice.
00:27:29.689 --> 00:27:31.049
You need to pause.
00:27:31.049 --> 00:27:43.049
So the number one step of any of these rituals is really ground yourself, and this can be just do three deep breathings, okay?
00:27:43.049 --> 00:28:00.649
And then you have, if you have a card, oracle, or whatever, just after, usually you choose with your left hand, that is the hand of the intuition, you know, you pull a card, and then you just see some cards have the text, some have images, some have both.
00:28:00.649 --> 00:28:02.649
So you just look at the image.
00:28:02.649 --> 00:28:04.169
What do I feel?
00:28:04.169 --> 00:28:08.970
You know, and then third, you can do some journaling about it.
00:28:08.970 --> 00:28:11.769
Or if you want, you just reflect about it.
00:28:11.769 --> 00:28:14.730
And how is this impacting my life?
00:28:14.730 --> 00:28:19.289
This message during the day, you can start to notice little details.
00:28:19.289 --> 00:28:23.689
Oh, okay, so this is reaffirming what I read, you know.
00:28:23.689 --> 00:28:42.730
If a card tells you natural grounding, like a friend of mine pulled up a card and said natural grounding, and then she went to the psychologist, and the psychologist said exactly the same thing that it was in the card that was go to nature, ground in nature.
00:28:42.730 --> 00:28:45.929
And the card was about natural grounding, you know.
00:28:45.929 --> 00:29:11.369
So she connected the dots and she said, Okay, so this was the message from the card, you know, or you are having, I don't know, some problems in relationships, and the card has a message, okay, so just choose healthy relationship, and you start to realize, so maybe the problems I have in relationships is that I'm not, you know, betting on healthy, balanced relationships.
00:29:11.369 --> 00:29:30.809
So I do love the cards, and one of the nice things is if you start to do this very, very simple ritual, just at first pull a card a day, you'll start to see that when you start to get more and more aligned, the same card will come over and over again.
00:29:30.809 --> 00:29:36.889
Like in one week, sometimes you have three times the same card.
00:29:36.889 --> 00:29:44.490
And I think this happens for everybody because this happens to me a lot, and this happens to friends of mine a lot.
00:29:44.490 --> 00:29:49.769
So, meaning this message is really important for you, you're getting aligned.
00:29:49.769 --> 00:29:51.769
Oh, I'm on the right path.
00:29:51.769 --> 00:29:58.169
And then with these little things, you start to be more aware, like I said, to the message of the card.
00:29:58.169 --> 00:30:01.929
It helps you to be more mindful during the day.
00:30:01.929 --> 00:30:23.289
Besides being more mindful in the moment that you make this little ritual for yourself, then you start to be more mindful during the day, not being so much in automatic pilot, you know, seeing nature or people or life in a different way and a more grounded way.
00:30:23.289 --> 00:30:27.450
I think growth is really this thing.
00:30:27.450 --> 00:30:34.169
You cannot grow in one aspect of your life, and that the rest doesn't start to change, also.
00:30:34.169 --> 00:30:40.889
Because again, we are not a card, it's not mechanics, we are holistic, you know, so there is a context.
00:30:40.889 --> 00:30:59.929
So if you start to trust yourself more in intuition, you start to trust yourself more in everything, in the person that you are, being more kind to yourself, opening space, because intuition can also be called wisdom of the heart, you know, and heart is about kindness.
00:30:59.929 --> 00:31:07.769
So all of these things we just start to grow also as a person as uh an amazing path, really.
00:31:08.009 --> 00:31:16.089
Oh, what a gift that we can use that as a way to come home to ourselves, and then you're right, that then spreads out into every part of our lives.
00:31:16.089 --> 00:31:23.929
And I know you have your own card deck, and I'm wondering, would you be open to pulling a card for listeners and showing the deck?
00:31:24.409 --> 00:31:25.210
Okay, okay.
00:31:25.210 --> 00:31:34.730
So my card deck is called sensitivity and empathy cards, you know, and it's the two empowerment cards to awaken our inner strengths.
00:31:34.730 --> 00:31:45.849
And because it's sensitivity and empathy cards, every card has both an image but also a text, and it's all about really growth.
00:31:45.849 --> 00:32:04.649
It's all about the challenges that we have as uh sensitive persons, like you know, boundaries, healthy relationships, learning how to say no, being more kind and self-compassion to ourselves, and so on.
00:32:04.649 --> 00:32:10.409
So it's all about that because I really thought, okay, I want really to make an empowerment deck.
00:32:10.409 --> 00:32:16.409
You know, so all these 52 messages is really empowerment messages.
00:32:16.409 --> 00:32:18.889
So here it is, the deck.
00:32:18.889 --> 00:32:24.490
And it's divided, it's 52 cards, and it's divided into four elements.
00:32:24.490 --> 00:32:38.490
So there are certain cards of air, which are the gray cards, certain cards of fire, which are the orange, certain of water, which are the blue, and certain cards connected to earth, which are the green cards.
00:32:38.490 --> 00:32:44.970
So the messages are also, let's say, grouped into these different elements, you know.
00:32:44.970 --> 00:32:58.089
So water is more emotions, and fire is transformation, and air is about thinking and communication, and earth is about being grounded, you know.
00:32:58.089 --> 00:33:04.009
So I can just easily ask and already be grateful when I pull a card.
00:33:04.009 --> 00:33:12.490
I'm already grateful for the message that the cards are giving me, and I can just ask what is the message for this podcast, you know.
00:33:12.490 --> 00:33:24.809
So with my left hand, I just pull one, and so the message was aligned choices, connect with the card to align with your values.
00:33:24.809 --> 00:33:26.730
That seems pretty appropriate.
00:33:26.730 --> 00:33:33.129
Yes, it is uh it's orange, so orange is about transformation.
00:33:33.129 --> 00:33:46.809
This is very important for ourselves to get aligned, you know, because most of our time uh our lives we are not aligned with our values, we are aligned with external values.
00:33:46.809 --> 00:33:56.409
So just to already find out which are our true values, it's already, you know, a nice self-discovery path.
00:33:56.409 --> 00:34:12.490
And then to get aligned with that, then it's decision making will be much easier, I tell you, because as an HSB, you know, sometimes problems or challenges making decisions, one of the things is really finding out our values.
00:34:12.490 --> 00:34:16.889
You see, so it's just a simple card, but it has a lot of different layers.
00:34:17.210 --> 00:34:18.329
Ah, it's so powerful.
00:34:18.329 --> 00:34:20.170
Thank you for sharing that with us.
00:34:20.170 --> 00:34:26.490
I'm wondering if there were any final messages that you want to leave listeners with before we go.
00:34:26.889 --> 00:34:36.889
Well, first of all, I would like to say also that these cards, people can get them at the Etsy Shop Sensitivity Journey.
00:34:36.889 --> 00:34:41.289
And the listeners to your podcast have a bonus.
00:34:41.289 --> 00:35:03.690
So on purchasing the cards, if they use the coupon code of sensitive podcast15, so sensitive podcast in lowercase and 15 in numbers 1.5, they will get 15% discount on the purchase of the tech of the sensitivity and empathy card.
00:35:03.690 --> 00:35:14.490
I think that you know, I have my mindfulness mentor speaks a lot about kindness and being kind to ourselves.
00:35:14.490 --> 00:35:21.210
And I think as sensitive people, we are very hard and very demanding with ourselves.
00:35:21.210 --> 00:35:30.890
I mean, we can help everybody, but when we speak with ourselves, we are very harsh and we have a very big inner critic.
00:35:30.890 --> 00:35:51.530
And this really takes a lot of joy of our lives, you know, and I think that one of the biggest messages for highly sensitive people is really start to be kind with yourself, even if you have a big inner critic, receive that inner critic with kindness.
00:35:51.530 --> 00:35:58.410
You just see the inner critic, but you see the inner critic for what it is, it's just an inner critic.
00:35:58.410 --> 00:36:11.450
You know, I see you and I receive you with kindness, and every layer of ourselves, if we receive with kindness, they feel validated and they feel seen.
00:36:11.450 --> 00:36:18.490
So if it's like the more negative aspects, they don't bother us anymore because they just want to be seen.
00:36:18.490 --> 00:36:36.170
And then what happens as magic is also that when we are more kind with ourselves, then we start to be more kind with the world and not being so demanding and not being so rigid, and then letting life flow more.
00:36:36.170 --> 00:36:40.570
I don't know if you understand what I mean, but it happened to me.
00:36:40.570 --> 00:36:50.570
And one of the ways to be more positive in our mind, and this is really by positive psychology, and I have really this ritual.
00:36:50.570 --> 00:37:02.490
One of the rituals is to pull a card in the morning, but in the night, what I do is thinking about three things for which I'm grateful for that happened during the day.
00:37:02.490 --> 00:37:08.970
And this helped me a lot to be more kind and to be more positive.
00:37:08.970 --> 00:37:11.130
You know, just three things.
00:37:11.130 --> 00:37:26.570
It can be from the sun that was shining in the morning to the person in the supermarket that made us a smile is amazing how it helps our mind to be much more positive and much more kind.
00:37:26.570 --> 00:37:35.850
And I think that it's important for us as sensitive persons to have these, you know, little strategies and practices that have very fast results.
00:37:35.850 --> 00:37:47.289
You know, it's not that you are going to change in one year, it's just like if you start to be more kind to yourself, your mind is going to change in eight weeks, not one year.
00:37:47.289 --> 00:37:49.289
So this is nice to know.
00:37:49.610 --> 00:38:02.490
It's so true that we have such a deep capacity for gratitude, for joy, for contentment that if we lean into it even a little bit, it grows exponentially and it has a big impact.
00:38:02.490 --> 00:38:12.010
Now we say, like, that's the I don't know the gift of being sensitive, is we get to feel the positive so intensely and beautifully.
00:38:12.010 --> 00:38:14.650
And why not lean into that?
00:38:15.450 --> 00:38:23.370
I would like to read a poem because I'm much also into mindfulness poetry, you know, contemplative poetry.
00:38:23.370 --> 00:38:25.930
So, will you allow me to read a poem?
00:38:25.930 --> 00:38:27.610
Yes, I think that would be a good honor.
00:38:27.610 --> 00:38:29.050
I would love that.
00:38:29.050 --> 00:38:29.930
Thank you.
00:38:29.930 --> 00:38:32.570
Okay, so it's called windows.
00:38:32.570 --> 00:38:39.690
There is a beautiful complexity of growth within the human soul.
00:38:39.690 --> 00:38:48.490
In order to glimpse this, it is helpful to visualize the mind as a tower of windows.
00:38:48.490 --> 00:39:00.330
Sadly, many people remain trapped at the one window, looking out every day at the same scene in the same way.
00:39:00.330 --> 00:39:17.050
But real growth is experienced when you draw back from that one window, turn, and walk around the inner tower of the soul and see all the different windows that await your gate.
00:39:17.050 --> 00:39:27.769
Through these different windows, you can see new views of possibility, presence, and creativity.
00:39:29.210 --> 00:39:30.570
Beautiful, Sophia.
00:39:30.570 --> 00:39:31.370
Thank you for that.
00:39:31.530 --> 00:39:32.890
I feel like a gift.
00:39:32.890 --> 00:39:43.769
So just let's, you know, see through those windows, also.
00:39:44.410 --> 00:39:46.490
It's such a perfect metaphor, right?
00:39:46.490 --> 00:39:49.769
There's so many views that we can enjoy.
00:39:49.769 --> 00:39:51.850
We don't have to just stay with the one.
00:39:51.850 --> 00:39:53.530
So thank you for that.
00:39:53.530 --> 00:40:08.330
I appreciate everything that you shared today for opening up the conversation around intuition and how we can ground into that and just offering tangible, grounded ways to find our way back in through the fog.
00:40:08.330 --> 00:40:14.250
I'll be sure to share your cards and your website in the show notes for listeners so they can connect with you.
00:40:14.250 --> 00:40:15.930
Appreciate you, Sophia.
00:40:15.930 --> 00:40:16.410
Thank you.
00:40:16.730 --> 00:40:23.210
Okay, big Namaste here, and to all of your listeners, have a beautiful day.
00:40:29.050 --> 00:40:32.809
Thanks so much for joining me and Sophia for today's conversation.
00:40:32.809 --> 00:40:41.370
I hope you feel encouraged to listen to and trust your inner voice, those little clear nudges that come with noticing deeply.
00:40:41.370 --> 00:40:55.210
If you'd like to receive mentorship from Sophia or buy her sensitivity and empath cards to help you reconnect with your intuition, you can head to the link in the show notes or find her sensitivity journey shop on Etsy.
00:40:55.210 --> 00:41:00.730
Be sure to use code SensitivePodcast15 for 15% off.
00:41:00.730 --> 00:41:07.610
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the Sensitive Stories Podcast so you don't miss our upcoming conversations.
00:41:07.610 --> 00:41:10.809
Reviews and ratings are also helpful and appreciated.
00:41:10.809 --> 00:41:19.210
Check out the show notes or head to sensitivestories.com to find all the resources and the transcript from today's episode.
00:41:19.210 --> 00:41:20.970
Thanks for listening.