Episode 16: How to Build Confidence, Listen to Your Intuition, and Learn to Trust Yourself

How do you build confidence and learn to trust yourself? These are the questions Tracey and Cayly are tackling on this week’s episode of the podcast.

Over the past several years, we have both dedicated a significant amount of time and energy to the practice of recognizing and exercising our intuition, and have both seen profound shifts in our lives as a result of our efforts. In this conversation, we describe our individual journeys through this process and offer actionable advice on how to start building your own intuitive muscle.

We talk about the benefits of doing hard things, the necessity of embracing discomfort as essential for building resilience, and how taking risks — and even failure — can facilitate greater self-trust and confidence.

We loved this discussion and am confident (pun intended) that you will love it, too. There are so many great resources in this episode and I sincerely hope you find it useful and insightful.

As always, sharing is caring, so please forward this episode to a friend who might also benefit from the information. And if you have a spare moment, please jump over to the show page on iTunes and leave us a 5-star rating. It’s super easy and we would be ever so grateful if you would do us this small favor and help more folks find the podcast. Many thanks in advance!

Highlights from this episode include:

- The psychology of the selves and the different parts of us that make up who we are  https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-social-self/200906/the-self-is-typically-community-selves-not-single-monolith

- Is your self-critic useful or should you seek to eliminate him or her entirely?

- How do you identify your own aware ego and know when he or she is driving your bus?

- Intuition is a muscle that you have to train on a regular basis

- The role of belief in growing your intuition and how you learn to believe that part of yourself

- Your intuition will likely ask you to do hard and uncomfortable things

- How doing hard things builds confidence and self-trust

- How listening to your intuition can make others uncomfortable but also fosters healthy, sustainable intimacy

- Tracey’s experience of listening to what her gut was telling her about her relationship with her mom and how this conflicted with what our society expects of us in familial relationships

- How growing confidence in ourselves and our inner truth eliminates the need to justify our decisions to others

- How Tracey and Cayly identify their intuition in their bodies and the physical sensations that accompany it

- Your body’s alarm system and how our bodies sometimes confuse fear and excitement

- Study on reframing anxiety as excitement  https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xge-a0035325.pdf  https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/4214916/Mendes_ReappraisingArousal.pdf?sequence=2

- The Fear Book by Cheri Huber  https://www.amazon.com/Fear-Book-Facing-Once-All/dp/0963625519

- When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron and how change is inevitable  https://www.amazon.com/When-Things-Fall-Apart-Anniversary/dp/1611803438

- The relationship between resilience and building confidence and trust in yourself

- Daring Greatly by Brene Brown  https://www.amazon.com/Daring-Greatly-Courage-Vulnerable-Transforms/dp/1592408419

- How meditation helps us engage our intuition and direct our focus with intention

- Does being confident mean you never experience fear or self-doubt?

- How improv has enhanced Tracey’s ability to take risks, trust herself, and feel confident

- How failing at something can actually help you build confidence

- Helping Kids Tame Worry on Tracey’s website  http://practicalparentingpdx.com/helping-kids-tame-worry/

- “Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” ~Pema Chodron  https://www.amazon.com/When-Things-Fall-Apart-Anniversary/dp/1611803438

- And more!