Tina (00:00:00) - I feel that in order to get unstuck in our lives, we really need to be connected to our self, our intuition, our gut instincts. And when we're not like this, it makes it really hard to come from a place of stuckness to thriving. And so today, I wanted to talk about how you could take those first steps into reconnecting with that one superpower your intuition. Let's get into it. You're listening to the Soul Aligned Self-care podcast. I'm your host, Tina Stinson, and I had a stroke at the age of 39 from stress and burnout that shook my world. Now I'm laying it all out. The deep level self-care practices and mindset shifts that I needed that kept me healthy, balanced, and thriving. Join me in this intimate space as we explore healing, resilience, and the soul's journey to alignment. This is where real conversations about deep level self-care happen.
Speaker UU (00:01:03) - Let's get into it.
Tina (00:01:10) - Hey guys, welcome back to the Soul Align Self-care podcast. I'm so happy that you're here with me, and I'm really excited to talk about today's topic, which is using your intuition to get unstuck.
Tina (00:01:22) - So this was like a very, very clear lesson that I've learned on my path to getting unstuck. This I don't know if I want to call it a lesson, but it was like a learning, okay. because it led to finding my purpose. Me living in my purpose and your intuition is just so important. some people call it intuition. Your gut instincts, your inner guidance, your higher self, whatever you want to call it. We all have a different name for it, but it's really about connection to yourself, to your heart. Like a connection between your heart, soul and your brain. All right. And it's. It's absolutely necessary, really, to be able to live a life that's aligned and to be able to use all of those instincts that, you know, those things, that guidance that we get to move us into our purpose, to point us in the right direction. And the reason I felt completely disconnected with myself for so long was because I was living in that state of fight or flight, survival, stress and anxiety my whole life.
Tina (00:02:27) - Most of my adult life, I was living there. It was almost like a habit. And when you're in this state, your brain is only focused on like basic survival, keeping you safe and using as little energy as possible. You know, saving that energy for when you have to actually flight, right. So some of the things that are important to keeping you alive, your brain, your brain, that's the job of your brain to keep you alive, right? Even if the situation is not beneficial or supportive to your growth and happiness, as long as your brain knows it's safe. So thriving and living your life fully, and your purpose is not at the top of the list for your brain survival and any energy conservation. That's what's most important, okay? And to conserve energy, our brain tends to stick with what has worked in the past. The only guideline for success for the brain was that you. You're alive. Okay. And when it sticks to a path that you've been using for a long time, a neural pathway that is embedded in your brain, you lose less energy.
Tina (00:03:31) - So it's easier to go on that path. And this is how we get so stuck. We get stuck in like a hold and a holding pattern, like a I call it limbo. So there's many different times in our lives that we feel this, this, this limbo in our lives. And hold on. Do you hear that? My dog was sleeping very nicely while I decided to record this podcast. And now she's decided to chew on her bone. So hold on a second. Pause for a second. Can I tell you that she is just such a good girl? She usually remains completely quiet, so that doesn't usually happen for too long. Okay, so I'm talking about being stuck. So we we end up in this place of stuckness or limbo, what I call it many times in our lives when we're going through different transitions in our lives. And this is why we get there. It's basically like a survival technique. You know, this is why we feel stuck. We're in that survival mode, and we need to start healing our nervous system and strengthening our resilience to be able to handle everyday stresses better.
Tina (00:04:38) - And to start to do this, we really need to get connected to ourselves, in the mind, in our body. And then on a soul level, this is so important. And one of the ways that I started doing this was just by starting to check in with myself every single day. And I still do this to this day, and it took me a really long time to figure this out because I wasn't getting help from anybody. I was doing this all on my own, so it took me a really long time. And I would say, now I'm not going to ever say that I've perfected anything because I feel like there's always room to learn in any topic that you're learning about. But I've definitely made it into a process that that happens naturally for me. I don't have to be as intentional about it anymore. So checking in with yourself, every day, sometimes multiple times a day. I think it's necessary multiple times of the day. The same way that you would check in on, like a friend that you cared about, or a loved one that wasn't feeling good.
Tina (00:05:37) - Right? You wouldn't even think twice about doing that. Well, you should at the very least, treat yourself the same way you treat a friend or a loved one, right? We need to be the first in line to help ourselves, because that's that's really who's going to help us. We many of us have many people in our lives that love us deeply, but sometimes they just don't really understand what we need. We are the only ones that can really tune in to what we need on a mind, body, and soul level, right? So taking the time to slow down and I know we're all short on time, but if you don't take the time, your body's going to make you take the time at some point. Which is what happened to me when I had a stroke at the age of 39. Your body eventually finds a way to make you slow down when you need to. Okay? And I'm not saying that everybody's going to have a stroke. You know, stress. Anxiety takes a toll on your body.
Tina (00:06:31) - different ways for different people could show up as high blood pressure, migraines, autoimmune diseases, a stroke like I had, you know, all different ways. It just manifests in different ways. So I'm not saying that this is going to happen to you, but your body does find a way to slow you down if you're not going to by getting a cold. Right? Sometimes getting sick. So taking the time to slow down, get grounded in your body. All right. What do I mean by that? Because, you know, people are saying we need to be grounded all the time. What I mean by that is we're all distracted by so many busy things in the world, and our minds are in so many different places, and it's almost like calling your all parts of yourself back into your body and just being present in that moment. So sometimes it helps by, you know, people always say, closing down your eyes. Why is that? Well, when we close our eyes, that's one way we take in a lot of information, our senses.
Tina (00:07:26) - Right. So when you close down your eyes, you're cutting off some of the information that you're taking in so that you can really come back to yourself more. Taking a few deep breaths, slowing down your breathing. When we're in a state of like hypersensitivity or like stress and anxiety, our breath, our breathing seems to be like shortened right when we start to slow that breath down and take deep breaths into your diaphragm, into your belly, your chest. It signals your nervous system that everything's okay and you're fine and you can relax. And so the deep, deep breathing really helps you to tune in and get grounded in your body. And at some point taking a deep breath in. So like, let's do one breath right now. So we're going to breathe in really deep through your nose. You like expanding your belly, expanding your chest as deep as you can and then hold for a second at the top. And I like to, like, tense up my body a little bit when I'm here.
Tina (00:08:26) - And then as you exhale, exhale through your mouth and release your whole body. Let your shoulders drop down, let your jaw drop open, let all the tension leave your body. And just do this a few times. A few deep breaths like that. and you keep going until you feel like a bit of a release of that tension in your body, and usually you'll feel it on the first breath. I do a one breath with a person. It could be the first time that they ever took time in their lives to do this. And I'm like, how do you feel? And they almost always say, better and we just don't do this enough. It's so simple. It takes a few minutes and it makes you feel so much better. And so usually after about 4 to 8 breaths. That, you know, that usually seems to do the trick for most people. But as I said, you'll feel it on the first breath. But make sure that you feel that release and that tension in your body.
Tina (00:09:22) - And then the next step is to see how you feel, you know? what emotions are you feeling in that moment? Take the time to acknowledge how you're feeling. We're so busy as we move about our day. I call it like running on the hamster wheel. So we're going, we're going, going where? It's like we have blinders on. We're not paying attention to anything else, including ourselves. We're not tuning into ourselves. So how are you feeling in that moment? And if you have some tension left in the body, where are you holding it? Where do you feel your tension? So everybody's different. It could be your neck. It could be your shoulders. It could be your upper back, it could be your lower back. Some people even feel it in their hips and their core area. So just like ask yourself if you feel any tension in your body and where you're holding it, and maybe take a few more deep breaths and breathing into that area, breathing into that area.
Tina (00:10:16) - And then as you're exhaling, releasing the tension from that area, just focus. You know, obviously we can't breathe air into certain areas of our body, but when you focus on that area, it feels like you're bringing that healing breath into that area of your body. So what is this about? This is about acknowledging yourself and the way you feel. Something a lot of us never do. And then asking yourself what you need in that moment to feel good, and then giving yourself that. Okay. Also, something a lot of us never do. So maybe you just need those few deep breaths. Maybe you need a cup of tea, a cup of coffee. Maybe you need some water. Just thirsty. You've been going all day and you haven't even drank any water. Maybe you need a little snack, a walk outside, or maybe you just need to sit there for a moment and stillness. Give yourself a moment. Most of the time it only takes up to a few minutes to do this, but the change that it creates in your life can be monumental.
Tina (00:11:22) - This one small step can be so life changing. I like doing it like three times a day. I like doing it in the morning and in the morning. This is so easy because I usually do yoga, not always in the morning, but a lot of times I do it in the morning and then in the afternoon. when I take a lunch break at some point. I like doing this, even if it's a quick lunch break. And then at the end of the day, when I'm transitioning from work into like dinner and like relaxing or doing whatever I plan on doing that night, it's a really good time to check in. Now, to continue to strengthen this connection with ourselves, we need to keep doing the daily things to take care of our body. So it's not just about reducing the stress and the tension. It's about, you know, eating well. And it's not about being perfect when it comes to eating, but it's about thinking about when I put this certain food into my mouth.
Tina (00:12:18) - Is this adding to my health, or is this taking away from my health and making sure, like 80% of the time, it's probably, aiding your health? Okay. Doesn't have to be perfection. And that's an easy question to ask yourself to before you eat or drink anything. Getting enough sleep is so important. Making sure we do some kind of movement every day. It doesn't have to be vigorous exercise. As a matter of fact, when you're in this state of extreme stress and anxiety, like some of us are, sometimes really stressful workouts can can add to that stress and anxiety. and doing yoga movement might be way more beneficial for your body. And actually, in some cases, it could help us lose weight more than going on a seven mile run. Because when you're on the seven mile run, you're putting your body in fight or flight. When you're in fight or flight, your body doesn't want to do nothing but hold on to that extra weight so that it could use that extra weight for you to survive.
Tina (00:13:17) - Okay, so sometimes doing less actually helps us more. so movement every day, and it doesn't have to be a long time. It just get up and move a little bit, go outside. The more we care for ourselves and feel how good it feels, the more we want to care for ourselves. So it's like it has a ripple effect when we're in a better state of mind, from reducing the stress and supporting our health and tuning in to all the messages. I mean, when we do this, when we start, we're in a better state of mind from reducing the stress, okay? And we're doing all these things to support our health. That's when tuning into all the messages we receive from our bodies as a whole lot easier. We can pay attention to them more. We're actually checking in with ourselves purposefully to tuning into those messages. You'll start to notice them more. You'll notice the signs. You'll notice synchronicities. You'll those little knowing that you feel in your gut. You'll notice them more.
Tina (00:14:20) - you probably never really notice them before when you're in a state of stress, and then all of a sudden you're going to start noticing more and more and you're going to think, oh, that that can't be a sign, right? When it comes up. And I'll tell you when your intuition talks to you, it's a whisper. It's not a loud voice. It's not a busy voice. It's a whisper. It'll be one word. It'll be a one feeling. It'll be one gut feeling, one knowing that'll come up. It could be like tingles. It could just be a song that comes on that reminds you to do something. It could be like all those little things. And you might say to yourself, that can't be what Tina's talking about. But that is exactly what I'm talking about. And when you start paying attention to them more and more, the more they'll come up, the more you'll see them. What we focus on expands, right? So that's that's how it works. And so the I'll, I'll give you another exercise that you could do that will help with this.
Tina (00:15:11) - But that's what's so cool about clearing the energy in your bodies and reducing that stress that you then have the capacity to start to pay attention to all these little signs that come up in your daily life. And it's so amazing and it's so much fun, so healing your nervous system with different like somatic practices. And for me, this was like breathwork, many different types of yoga and meditation, like a yoga nidra meditation is just fantastic. Doing some like shaking work, just shaking your body is really helpful. Walking, hiking and dancing too. It's just you could just dance to your favorite song every morning. What a great way to start your day and to get any of that stress out of your body that helps me stay connected to my body. It helps me have a positive relationship with my body. So another thing I noticed that helped deepen my connection with my intuition. And I learned this from another teacher. I took one of her classes and her name was Sonia Shawkat is when I notice a message, a sign, or a feeling in my gut or anything that feels like guidance, I make a note of it.
Tina (00:16:20) - So writing it down, starting to train my brain to pay more attention to these things. And when we do, this will naturally begin to notice more, right? As I said just a second ago, what we focus on, expands. So journaling to me, journaling, it's like a doorway into our subconscious mind and one of the most powerful ways that we can connect for ourselves. So making notes, even if it's on your notes app in your phone. I also use text messages. I send text messages to myself when something comes up. It's just a really fantastic way. But writing with a pen to paper is really the most powerful way to do it. Now, another practice that has been very helpful to me is diving into human design and astrology. And some people are like, oh, I'm just not into that. But it's not only is it fun learning about the way we tick and like taking part in some of these ancient practices that have been around, like, forever. Whenever I see, like an ancient practice that has been around for a long time that people are still using successfully, I know there's got to be something more to it.
Tina (00:17:33) - And so I always give it a shot. And I love human design and astrology, but human design, I just absolutely love it. And I just, I just like nipped the tip of it right now. Like, I'm not deep into it and I can't really talk about it intelligently, but there's so many different places that you can learn more about it books and podcasts and articles and stuff like that. So as I said, not only is it fun learning about the way we tick, but it's been so spot on for me, especially my human design. It's like that old friend that you have that knows every detail about you, and notice even the parts that you don't. Shout out to my friend Janet. It helps me acknowledge why I am the way I am, and then learn how to use it as my superpower. So I highly recommend it. And for those of you that are tuned in to human design, I'm a generator six to. Okay, so so you can learn more about me.
Tina (00:18:29) - And if you don't know what that means, go listen to like a Human design podcast or something. one of my favorites is Human Design Hive. That was a really good one for me. I had, I had the host of Human Design Hive on the podcast once, and it was such a good episode. You know what? I'll put that in the show notes so you can listen to it. It's a really good, beginner human design, episode. So when it comes to really tuning into your own, Like repetition. I'm sorry. when it comes to tuning into your your your intuition, repetition is like key. So, like, really taking note, paying attention, constantly healing your nervous system. I can't stress that enough. You need to be practicing daily deep level and surface level self-care. This will help you be able to have this superpower that we all possess. and we can use it in the most powerful way in our lives. We use it as guidance. The more that you do this work, the more I notice, the more you will notice how connected you are with everybody in this world.
Tina (00:19:44) - You just realize how everything's connected. You start noticing all the synchronicities between everything and every person. And not only do I, want what is best for myself and my family, but I want what's best for everyone because I know when everyone is experiencing joy, then everyone keeps experiencing joy. Does that make sense? So I'm going to get to the point where what this has to do with getting unstuck, right? Because you're probably like, all right, I feel stuck. Why am I so stuck? I told you at the beginning kind of why we get stuck. But very simply put, when we're tuned into our guidance, it points us in the direction that is most aligned to our happiness and our well-being. So the first step to getting unstuck is really tuning into this guidance. This might just be the start to learning more about yourself and and what you're here to share with the world your purpose. But there is no finish line or endpoint that you're going to reach. Life is just a continuous learning and expanding of our experiences, right? Our lives the way we live our lives.
Tina (00:20:49) - So the way I define our purpose is to experience joy in life, to then share all the gifts that you discover about yourself with the world, and to be constantly expanding yourself and your own knowledge. And that is our purpose. I started my journey to healing my nervous system way back in 2007, and at the time, I knew of no one that could help me except maybe participating in therapy, which is not something I wanted to do. And I'm not coming down on therapy. Therapy is great, but at the time I really didn't see how it was possible, although it would have been if I made it happen. I learned everything I know today by educating myself and getting certified in all different types of modalities. That helped me heal. And now I help other people do what I did for myself, except I help them do it a whole lot quicker. Okay, so right now I'm in the process of updating one of my programs. It's called the Soul Alliance Self-care intensive. It's like my main program to, this is where I show you how to do all these things, how to heal yourself, how to come back to yourself, and then how to thrive in your life instead of just surviving, and how to be more resilient so you can handle all of life's challenges.
Tina (00:22:03) - Because we all know you can't avoid stress. You can't avoid avoid those challenges. There's always going to be like those ups and downs in our lives. So while I'm doing these updates, which is going to be throughout the year, I feel like I'm going to finish before the end of the year, but I really don't know how long it's going to take. You can get into the Salt Line self-care intensive at the lower price point, and you'll still get lifetime access and support and all the upgrades and additions that I'm adding this year. You'll still get all of those at no extra cost, including any future ones that I decide to add. So now is the best time to get in at the lower price. So there's both like a paid and full option and payment plans available. So if you want to check it out, I'll put the link in the show notes. also, if you wanted to work with me privately and do the same thing, I'll put a link for that also in the show notes.
Tina (00:22:54) - That's definitely possible. So but putting all that aside to get started today, I want you to just start checking in with yourself. That's the easiest way to get started. Take a few deep breaths and really ask yourself what you need. This is all you really need to do right now to get started. And this is just the beginning. I hope to see you soon. I love you guys. Bye!
