At the Speed of Your Nervous System

Join me this week as I share about how to stop making decisions from external pressure, and begin making decisions and choices based on your nervous system (using your inner knowing). 

Sometimes we gain awareness around something and our nervous system truly needs time to integrate that information but society tells us to move fast, go go go. 

Here’s what’s possible when you move at the speed of your nervous system:

• Learnings and education and lessons that are available within ourselves
• Integrate, feel into, and process whatever we might need to before we make the external switch
• Trust that that unfolding process is valuable for me/you/us
• Live as a practice of our values rather than hustle culture
• Fully intact nervous system, mental health, physical health as you move towards this thing

Show Notes

Want to begin a journaling habit? The Daily Writing Prompts are supportive and thoughtful prompts to discover what you believe is possible for you, what you want, and what's in the way right now. Learn more HERE

If you want to feel intuitive in your creative practice, AND tap into your one-in-eight-billion perspective and contribution, head to www.jenmoulton.com/newsletter and get my Intuitive Creation Audio. You’ll receive an audio that teaches you a unique process to reliably tap in BEFORE you make any creative work so you can overcome procrastination, overwhelm, and where-do-i-start-itis. 

Get the transcript and full show notes HERE

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Episode Transcript

Scarlett 2i2 USB (00:24):
Welcome to today's episode, At the Speed of
Your Nervous System.
I have been thinking a lotlately about the pressure that
we feel and that may also beexerted upon us too.
Make quick decisions or once youknow, something that you need to

(00:46):
act on it right away, orimplement it, or make the
change, or howeverthis looks.
And I've really been questioningthat because sometimes we gain
awareness around something andour nervous system truly needs
time to integrate thatinformation.
And I think if you're moving atthe pace that our culture kind

(01:08):
of dictates to us, it's like assoon as you know something, you
should do it, you should makethe change, you should enact it,
you should implement it.
But I think that when we dothat, when we kind of sign up
and do it at the speed thatwe're told to do something, we
can bypass a lot of reallyimportant information.
And maybe even learnings andeducation and lessons that are

(01:31):
available within ourselves.
When we move at the speed of ournervous system, meaning, we may
know something for ourselves, wemay have learned something,
something might've clicked intoplace, we might have the next
piece of information and maybewe choose to sit with it and let
that integrate.
And I know I'm speaking vaguelyhere, but I want this to be

(01:53):
broad.
And I think it applies to a lotof things.
And I will give you an examplein a minute, but for right now,
I'm going to keep it broad andvague.
When we know something forourselves, and we give ourselves
the space to move at a pace thatfeels safe in our bodies, we are
able to really integrate, andfeel into, and process whatever

(02:19):
we might need to before we makethe external switch.
It's kind of like you allow itto be real in your body, you
kind of have already gonethrough the transition within
yourself, and then you make theexternal change.
I think what we're often trainedto do is the opposite: once we
know something, we need to takethe action, we need to push

(02:40):
ourselves, force, move withurgency, make the change, and
then it often takes time foryour body to catch up.
It takes time for you to feelsafe in your nervous system
again.
Because the experience was toojarring.
It was too sudden.
It might've been too quick ormaybe there was some really
important emotional informationor other information in there

(03:01):
that got bypassed or skippedover because you just had to
move.
You had to do it.
It had to be done.
However, that sounds.
One of the things that I've beenworking on within myself is
really honoring my nervoussystem and moving at the speed
of my nervous system.
And that has required me workingwith any external pressure I

(03:23):
feel to make a change or makethe decision.
With this idea that like, maybeI'm falling behind or maybe I'm
missing out on something elsebecause I'm not moving fast
enough.
Like these negative consequencesthat we believe will happen if
we don't act as soon as we knowwhat it is that we want to or

(03:44):
feel called to do next.
I think it's possible and rightnow I'm thinking it's
supportive, I'm stillexperimenting with this, to move
at the speed of my nervoussystem and trust that that
unfolding process is valuablefor me, that being in an

(04:06):
uncomfortable growth place formaybe longer than my mind wants
to be there is really offeringsome important information or
growth or clues that is meant tobe part of my path.
And of course my mind wants toskip over that, right, that
cause it's kind ofuncomfortable.

(04:27):
But I've really started toquestion that.
I think that this is built onthe most recent Episode 51,
Meditation as a Lifestyle.
I think that that's a reallygood compliment to this, this
idea that we can live as apractice of our values rather
than hustle culture, survivalmode, I just got to do this, I

(04:49):
got to get through this, I needto create this or achieve it.
And I disregard the personalcost until that catches up to
me, which of course it does inthe future.
That's the way that I haveoperated for a really long time.
And I was kind of aware of itand kind of not, and I'm still
figuring this out.
I'm sure you can hear that in myvoice.

(05:12):
I'm still figuring out what thismeans to me and how to actually
do this.
I'm still working with it kindof as a practice right now, it's
not a habit yet.
But being okay with havinginformation, having a hunch,
having a glimmer of something.
Or maybe even a lot of clarityabout something, and letting
that just marinate inside of meuntil my nervous system has

(05:36):
processed it, and then I'm like,okay I'm ready to go.
Like I'm ready, fully intactmyself, my nervous system, my
mental health, my physicalhealth.
All of that is ready to movetowards this thing.
That is what that means to me,what it means to move at the
speed of my nervous system.
Again, compared to I knewsomething intellectually, this

(06:00):
is in the past what I practicedand I would run towards it, and
I would sacrifice my mentalhealth, my nervous system, and
sometimes my physical health inorder to achieve it.
Because I was like, who cares?
I need to do this thing becausethat's what I'm feeling called
to do right now, and that is theway that I operated for like a
very, very long time.
Okay, I'm going to share anexample.

(06:21):
I'm not going to share thedetails because I'm, like I
said, I'm still in this.
But this year, for severalmonths, I felt very unclear
about something pretty major inmy life.
I couldn't make a decision.
I could see it from both sides.
I just didn't know.
And I felt a lot of uncertainty.
And I definitely could have madea decision from an ego place or

(06:44):
an intellectual place, and inthe past, I totally would've.
But instead I chose to sit in anunknown place for several months
where I was just like, I don'tknow.
I'm not sure yet.
And I let my nervous systemcalibrate and I didn't force
myself to know more than I knew,and I wasn't putting pressure on

(07:05):
myself to figure anything out.
And then, maybe about a monthago, yeah, it was just like
literally a month ago, I hadclarity and I just was like,
okay, I know what the next stepis.
I know what the next decisionis.
And by that point, everythingwas online.

(07:27):
My nervous system had mostlycalibrated to this decision.
My physical health is there.
My mental health is there and Ifeel ready to move towards this
thing.
I have some grief about thedecision and changes that are
going to be made, and I willdefinitely be sharing about this
just not right now.
So this is vague, but just knowthat it'll make sense soon once

(07:50):
I start sharing about it.
This is one of the firstdecisions I've made from this
place of moving at the speed ofmy nervous system.
I think another way I could saythis is honoring the pace or the
speed of my nervous system.
And I'm really curious to seehow this plays out because it's

(08:10):
a total, it feels like a totalgamble.
It's an unknown.
I don't have all the pieces ofthe puzzle yet.
I just have the next step, whichI got clarity on and I allowed
to be there for so long thatonce I knew I was like, okay,
I'm good.
I'm ready to move.
If I wouldn't have been in thatunknown place for as long as I
was, I don't think I would havemoved as fast as I have.

(08:32):
I would've spent more time likeI'm talking about here, letting
that settle in.
Letting it marinate until itdidn't feel like it was really
triggering for me, or made mereally tense, or like maybe even
terrified me.
That is not the place that Iwant to operate from, that's not
aligned with my values and Ijust don't want to anymore.

(08:55):
It doesn't feel good.
Now I'm aware of it, I shouldsay I wasn't aware of it before.
So I'm at the place where I'mfeel so curious about where this
is going to lead me, thisclarity that I have, that I
didn't foresee coming.
And that was only availablebecause I sat with it until I

(09:16):
had a knowing.
Until I could make the decisionfrom a place of my inner
knowing, it was not anintellectual decision.
And no matter how it goes, Ifeel so good about the fact that
I am moving at the speed of mynervous system.
That I'm making a pretty bigdecision from this place.
And that I have the awarenessnow to do that.

(09:41):
I mean, that's such a big partof it.
It's not even realizing that youmay not be honoring your nervous
system or that I was nothonoring my nervous system in my
decision making before.
And realizing that as much as isavailable to us, right, because
that is different for everyoneand it really changes depending
on the circumstances that it'savailable to us to make the

(10:02):
decision or make changes orintegrate something new at the
speed of your nervous system.
You can know something and justkind of hold that information
while your nervous systemcalibrates to it.
I don't know about you, but thatis like game changing to me
even.
It's kind of like blowing mymind right now as I think about

(10:23):
it.
And I've been thinking aboutthis for a while.
That that is available to us.
And I'm really curious to seewhat comes out of making
decisions from that place.
I have a feeling that it's willbe different and probably more
gratifying than making them froma more intellectual place, which
I have definitely done in thepast.

(10:44):
A question that I want to offerhere that I think is

complimentary is (10:47):
what does it look like for you, right this is
specific to each of us, whatdoes it look like to live
self-trust as a practice?
I think that self-trust is a bigpart of this'at your, that the
speed of your nervous system'because you need to trust that
you are moving at the pace thatis right for you.

(11:09):
So again, the question is, whatdoes it look like to live
self-trust as a practice?
That might be complimentaryhere.
That is what I have for youtoday.
I am so glad that you were hereand that we get to walk our
paths together.
See you next time.
Same time, same place.
Bye for now.