Is It Intuition Or A Trauma Response?

How To Shift From Survival To Self-Trust

Photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash

You were born with an inner knowing.

But over time, you likely learned to be the wrinkle smoother rather than the feather ruffler.

I know I did.

Being small kept me safer than saying my truth.

But in order to shrink, we shut off vital parts of ourselves—starting with intuition.

We silenced the questions. Hid our discomfort. Repressed the inner rebellion.

The world didn’t teach us how to trust our bodies. In fact, you were probably punished for trying to—especially as women. We were taught early that self-abandonment is a virtue done in the name of sacrifice.

“The loss of connection to our gut feelings is the most tragic consequence of trauma. Healing means reclaiming the right to trust what we know deep inside.”

-Dr. Gabor Mate, Scattered Minds

I hear women often say,

“Is this my real voice or the trauma speaking?”

A trauma response isn’t weakness. It’s your nervous system trying to protect you.

Our nervous systems are brilliant. They scan for danger and hold memories. They adapt but sometimes have difficulty updating without help.

So, what once kept you safe is now keeping you stuck.

We become:

• Afraid to leap

• Unwilling to trust

• Resistant to the expansion our soul craves

We curate, perform, and mask up. We forget how to trust the tiny voice within. The voice that never left you.

She’s just buried under years of staying safe.

The war between your two voices

When a woman begins awakening, it’s a messy, sacred sight. Like being born again and seeing for the first time.

And it’s overwhelming.

She begins to listen to herself again. She starts to feel the call to expand, to speak, and question whose voice has been running her life.

But as she takes steps forward, another louder voice rises:

"DON’T TRUST. THIS IS DANGEROUS! REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME YOU TOOK A RISK?”

One voice whispers freedom. The other screams fear.

So how do we know what’s real?

5 Ways to Know If It’s Trauma or Intuition:

1. Trauma is loud, fast, and urgent. Intuition is quiet and firm.

2. Trauma comes with panic or shutdown. Intuition feels calm, even when it’s hard.

3. Trauma is rooted in protection. Intuition is rooted in expansion.

4. Trauma says “DON’T MOVE.” Intuition says, “This isn’t aligned.”

5. Trauma shrinks you. Intuition strengthens your inner trust.

When it’s a trauma response, fear can rear its head in the form of:

• Tight chest

• Shallow breath

• Racing heart

• Tunnel vision

• Urge to run, freeze, or please

When this happens, you’re not thinking from your wise self. You’re in survival mode. More likely to react and make decisions out of fear.

And no amount of mindset work will override an unregulated body.

How to step out of survival mode:

Practice the pause: Ground Your body

1. When the trigger hits, place your hand on your chest or belly.

2. Breathe slowly. Inhale for 4. Hold for 4. Exhale for 6.

3. Whisper: "This is fear speaking but I am safe right now."

4. Ask: "Is this dangerous or just different?

This moment of pause brings your pre-frontal cortex, your calm decision making center, back online. And this is how your inner wise woman returns.

“When women reconnect with their wild nature, their intuition—the knowing without knowing how — returns like a long-lost friend.”

-Clarissa Pinkola Estés, “Women Who Run With the Wolves”

Questions to guide you:

• Am I listening and acting from fear or love?

• Does this habit, relationship, or activity contract my body or relax and open it?

• Am I controlling or surrendering?

Healing is Learning to stay with the hard feeling.

Let it rise and move through you. Don’t react. Observe. This won’t happen overnight, but we have the power to soothe our bodies back to safety.

When we know how.

I often say something like, “I’m noticing my heart racing and that I feel anxious right now.”

I used to live in a prison of fear. It felt like my brain constantly hijacked my body.

Until I understood how to ground and start practicing:

• Regulating during parenting triggers

• Pausing before reacting

• Gradually exposing myself to small discomforts that helped me grow

• Naming fear and staying with it rather than running

• Building boundaries that supported my body’s safety

• Letting healthy love in

And slowly, from safety, I began to trust myself again.

You are not broken, Love. And your fear is not your enemy.

The real work?

Making your body feel like a loving home—making inner trust familiar.

And the real you? Homegirl’s in there just waiting for safety.

And baby, she’s on her way back.