The full body yes — what your intution is telling you
I can tell you the exact moment I decided to start this podcast, because my body decided before I did.
I was sitting with a business coach at the time — not even someone who specialized in podcasts, just someone I was working with on something else entirely — and out of nowhere she said, "You should start a podcast." I didn't think about it. I just felt this wave wash over me — warm, certain, like a beautiful warm Caribbean wave of water. And I said, "Okay." Just like that.
And then, about four seconds later, I looked around like someone else had said it. "Who's she?"
It was a full body yes, but it was immediately followed by every negotiation my brain could throw at it.
The four seconds before the doubt shows up
The doubts arrive faaaast! Once you get to feel that full body yes, the doubts and negotiation starts almost immediately. And for me, it sounded like: "But I don't follow through. I have a lot of ideas, but I don't finish them. Is this gonna be another half-completed project?"
I didn't know at the time, but that was my ego talking, the part of me that wants to protect me, my identity, my track record… Now, when it comes to intuition, it comes from a place of love.
Intuition shows up clear, calm, like it's not being forced. In contrast, anxiety and intrusive thoughts show up loud, chaotic, and negotiating — trying to keep you safe from a pain you haven't even experienced yet.
I think about how much of my life I've spent letting the loud, chaotic voice win a negotiation it was never actually qualified to have an opinion in.
I need proof for everything
I used to work at a company where I was surrounded by some of the smartest, most data-driven people I've ever met. And I loved it there — this is no shade to them. But I remember, specifically in leadership development, feeling actual shame when I couldn't explain the why behind something I knew, in my gut, was right.
Someone would ask for the ROI, the stats, the proof, and I'd have to say, "I don't have that for you." And I'd walk away feeling like an outsider. Like I wasn't smart enough because I couldn't prove what I already knew.
It took me a long time to reframe that. Intuition isn't woo, it's quantum physics — there's real science behind it. I think of intuition as a superpower every living thing gets, just like the way animals get claws or shields. Intuition is built into us to keep us alive and focused on what matters to us.
Data complicates things
So I recently threw my smart ring in the garbage and I have zero regrets.
I noticed that the longer I wore it, I found myself checking the numbers on the app first, instead of actually checking in with my own body. For example, I'd have a great night's sleep, feel fantastic, open the app, see a 70, and suddenly feel disappointed — like the device knew something about my body that my body didn't.
And I'm not against data, there's a place for it. But I feel most of us are training ourselves to trust a gold star, an app, over our own knowing. And every time we do that, our intuition muscle gets a little weaker.
Want more of this?
Your intuition is rarely the loudest voice in the room — it arrives fast, calm, which is why we're quick to shut it down and start negotiating. While our ego, the anxiety and intrusive thoughts get very loud because they're trying to protect you from old pain. But loud doesn't mean that it's true.
So if you've had a full body yes lately — about a job, a relationship, a random Tuesday idea that made no logical sense — and you've spent the last four seconds since then arguing yourself out of it, I'd gently ask: which voice are you actually listening to? This entire conversation — the full body yes, the difference between intuition and anxiety, and the wild, honest story of how Courtney built The Bodhi Effect out of five miscarriages and one impossible schedule — is Episode 151.
