June 28, 2023 • 22 mins
Join me this week as I share my three favorite practices to feel more intuitive:
- Writing daily-ish (and why I believe doing something every.single.day is not better)
- Mental rehearsal + how to do it (plus a free resource)
- Little nudges (and how to set up a day of following your intuition)
These three practices are simple and free, and build your intuition muscle. You’ll also learn that the goal is to befriend yourself in the process - befriending yourself allows you to hear more deeply + clearly.
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Creative MomentumPodcast.
I'm your host, Jen Moulton, andI teach creative women how to
make their passion projectsreal, things that make a
difference in the world.
If you're ready to stop lettingyourself doubt, we'll do back
and start doing the work.
You are in the right place.
Let's get into today's episode.
ATR USB microphone-1 (00:24):
Welcome to today's episode, Three Practices
to Feel More Intuitive.
Today, I'm sharing three of myfavorite practices to feel more
intuitive.
And I also began today's podcastby sharing two quick PSAs that
are top of mind for me and thatI want everyone to know about.
(00:44):
They're just like real lifethings that are helpful to know
that I have learned, and that Iwant to tell everyone I know
about.
Let's get into today's episode.
I'm recording this for my car.
Sometimes I'm out and about andI get an idea and I really like
to capture an idea when it feelsalive, that's something I talk
about a lot.
(01:05):
I think it's important.
And so I sometimes record whenI'm in my car, cause I'm
thinking when I'm driving, andlike today, we're having our
house appraised because weswitched homeowner's insurance.
Side note, by the way, I justwant, this is like my PSA right
now.
And also a disclaimer, I am nota financial advisor, so take
(01:26):
this with a grain of salt, doyour research.
But if you own a home, Istrongly encourage you to look
into what's called an umbrellapolicy.
Long story short, if you own ahome, if you have investments,
I'm not sure what the thresholdis that it would be worth it for
you, but if you have liabilitiesthat you want protected, if
(01:48):
something tragic were to everhappen, which hopefully, of
course it doesn't, but ifsomething were to ever happen,
an umbrella policy covers youfrom the maximum insurance, I
guess, ceiling that you have foryour home, your car, whatever
you have insurance for, up toyour collective net worth.
(02:09):
So it covers that gap betweenwhat your insurance actually
covers, and your investments,your home, your rental
properties, whatever ways youmay be incorporating wealth.
So again, I am not a financialadvisor, this is not financial
advice.
But I learned this recently frommy friend Erin, who is a
financial advisor and planner,and I'm so thankful she told me
(02:34):
because I didn't know what anumbrella policy was, and I did
not know how important they areto protect yourself, when you
have assets that you wannaprotect.
So that's just a PSA, we arehaving our house appraised for
that.
So I'm out in my car with mydogs driving around.
It's a Friday, and I am justlike thinking about things.
(02:56):
And I wanted to record thisbecause it's top of mind.
Okay, and I didn't say before,when I record podcasts in my
car, on my phone, I record themrecording video of myself
talking to the camera.
I don't record it in voicememos.
Voice memo audio quality is notgreat.
In my experience, recording avideo and then separating the
(03:18):
audio in another program isgreat.
The iPhone microphone with videois exceptional.
Okay, that's my PSAs and my lifestuff, I guess.
Today I wanted to talk aboutthree of the best practices that
I have used, or three of myfavorite practices that I use,
(03:39):
to feel more intuitive.
I think that feeling intuitive,to me, is like being creative.
I think that everyone iscreative.
I think everyone is intuitive,but it's a muscle that we build,
and it's kind of a trust muscle.
It's something that we all haveaccess to, but not all of us
listen to.
And so these three practices aremy favorite ways to tap in, and
(04:03):
ways that I think are reallyaccessible to begin building
your trust muscle with yourintuition.
The first one is writing, and ifyou know anything about me and
writing, you know that I'm aproponent of daily- ish writing,
meaning you write daily- ish.
I personally am not someone thatdoes something every single day.
(04:24):
It's just not my personality.
I like variety.
I mean, there are things I doevery single day, I brush my
teeth every single day.
I sleep every single day, but Ilike to switch up things that I
do.
Sometimes I write, sometimes Iread.
Sometimes I pull an oracle card.
Sometimes I listen to an audiomeditation.
I like to do a lot of differentthings to tap into myself, to
(04:46):
nurture myself, and what I'mneeding in each moment.
But writing is something that Ihave come back to over many
years, and in the past fewyears, I really feel like I've
mastered feeling like adaily-ish writer.
That's my identity.
And I think writing daily- ish,you know, so ish, right?
Like every day-ish.
(05:07):
Every other day.
Every couple days, is awesome.
Like, why is that not as good aswriting every single day?
This is, that's a bit of atangent, but I just don't think
that doing something everysingle day is better or more
noble than doing somethingdaily- ish, because it really is
(05:27):
serving you and you're doing itfrom a place of taking care of
yourself, not a place of forceor should.
Like, I don't think that'sbetter personally.
It's taken me a while to gethere, though.
I used to think it was morenoble to do something every
single day because I feel likethat's what's preached to us,
but I don't actually agree withthat.
I think it's way better to honoryourself and what you're
(05:49):
actually needing in this momentor in the certain morning, or
the day, and do that foryourself rather than upholding
something that you do every daybecause I don't know why.
If you do do it every singleday, like your reasons for it.
I guess that would be my advice.
Okay, so the first practice thatI do that helps me tap into my
(06:12):
intuition is daily-ish writing,and here is how I think about
it.
I like to write what I'mthinking about, and I like to
write to befriend myself.
This is such a big change forme.
When I started doing things tobefriend myself, when I started
writing, when I started workingout to befriend myself, it
(06:33):
changed the way I related to itas a habit, and it helped me
build it as part of my identity.
To me, I wanna write to knowmyself better.
I wanna know what I'm thinkingabout, I want to know how I'm
feeling.
I love to start there, usually Ido start with what am I thinking
about?
What am I feeling?
(06:54):
And then that will very often,lily pad me into something else.
And then now I'm thinking aboutsomething else, or I'm making
connections with things.
To me, that's really rewarding.
And doing something because it'srewarding is a great way to
build a habit.
I very often start with somemind drama, some grumpies,
(07:16):
something that's irking me, orI'm being hard on myself about
something.
But I try not to stay there.
Because, in my experience, if Istay in writing negatively,
complaining about myself,complaining about other people,
about life situations, it makesthe process of writing kind of
negative, and then it'stherefore not something that I
(07:37):
really want to do.
So I often will start withsomething that's brewing,
bugging me, like just irking me,something I'm ruminating on,
like I just keep playing in myhead, but I try to get to the
root of what's beneath it.
What's bothering me about this?
What is talking to me aboutthis?
What might this be here to showme?
(07:59):
Why is this persisting?
Like I'm seeking a deeperrelationship with myself in my
writing, and I'm using it to bea better friend to myself.
Or to befriend myself.
That's just a great way to buildthe habit, number one, but
number two, this is a way tosource wisdom from yourself.
If something is persisting inyour life, there's probably a
(08:21):
reason for it.
And if you ask yourself goodquestions like, why might this
be hanging around for me?
And see what answers come up foryou.
It can be really interesting andyou can get really good
information just by kind ofsitting with it.
The visual I'm thinking of islike, if your friend is going
(08:43):
through something or is thinkingabout something, and you're
walking, and you sit down on abench together.
And they're talking aboutwhatever is is present for them,
your energy is that you're justsitting with them on this bench
while they share with you.
Right.
You're just being a gentlewitness and an interested party.
That's the kind of relationship,or that's the way I relate to
(09:06):
writing.
Is this idea of gentlewitnessing, just being with
myself.
That's how I see it as time tobe with myself, time to be with
what is actually already presentfor me.
And another note I have here onwriting, is that if nothing
else, it's a way for me to dumpout things I'm thinking about so
(09:27):
that I can actually hear myself.
We are not our top thoughts thatwe're thinking about all the
time.
That's just ruminations, that'spersonality, it's past
experiences, going around andaround.
We are actually that deeperwisdom that is watching and
listening and encouraging us,and writing can be a way to kind
(09:51):
of take off that top layer ofsoil, I guess, and get to that
deeper part of ourselves thathas all of the wisdom and
intuition that we could everhope for.
Writing daily ish is number one.
Number two, the second practicethat I use to feel more
intuitive is, something that'scalled mental rehearsal.
(10:15):
And there's a lot of ways to dothis.
The way that I like to do it isby listening to audios.
They're kind of likemeditations, and I actually have
created one because I'm such afan of this.
I took a training on it, acertification, and I created one
that you get for free if yousign up for my newsletter.
It's all about feeling intuitiveand being in touch with
(10:39):
yourself, and what mentalrehearsal means is literally
mental rehearsal, right?
You're rehearsing mentally whatyou want to have, be, create,
experience, et cetera.
So the audio that I've created,the one I'm talking about right
now, is all about feelingintuitive and tapping into
(11:01):
yourself and your inner wisdombefore you start making any
creative work.
You can also listen to it in themorning before you go into your
day so that you're grounded, andcentered, and in touch with
yourself.
One of my favorite parts of theaudio is, I love to think about
what is at the edge of myawareness?
(11:22):
What is speaking to me?
What is interesting in thismoment?
What kind of like threads am Istarting to pick up on?
That's really to me what theaudio is about.
That's also, to me, what feelingintuitive is about, is just like
sensing like little threads,sensing little perceptions that
might be present for you.
(11:45):
It's often not big, loud, inyour face.
I mean, sometimes it is, but inmy experience it's often not.
It's more like gentle,communicating to me in like more
subtle ways.
And we have to be listening.
We have to be paying attention.
We have to be clear so thatwe're hearing it.
(12:06):
And mental rehearsal reallyhelps me do that.
You can listen to audios, youcan also do it yourself.
It's basically, you would closeyour eyes and go into a
meditation and see yourselfoperating in the world in the
way that you want to be.
Feeling intuitive, feelingconnected, feeling clear,
feeling grounded and presentprobably is part of it.
(12:27):
At least it is for me.
Mental rehearsal can be reallypowerful because it is priming
the same neural pathways that welive out.
So in our brains, if youmentally rehearse something and
you actually do it, it's thesame neural pathway.
So we can prime the way that wewanna show up, and experience,
(12:50):
and operate in the world bydoing mental rehearsal.
And we can strengthen the neuralpathways too.
Not just prime them, butstrengthen them, so that they
are our go-tos.
So that when we sit down to makecreative work, or sit down with
a friend, or sit down to write,or whatever it might be, that
(13:10):
you're first tapping intoyourself.
Getting connected and groundedso that you're hearing your
intuition, so you're hearingyour inner wisdom before you
make, before you engage, beforeyou write.
It's a really supportive way togo about it, and you don't have
to use force, or discipline, orshoulds to do it.
(13:34):
Your practices can be reallysupportive, and gentle, and
nurturing.
You still, you know, will needto use dedication sometimes,
cause you won't feel like it.
But we can encourage ourselves.
I hope that's the message thatI'm communicating.
We can encourage ourselves, wecan go about it in supportive
ways, to feel intuitive and tomake creative work.
(13:54):
It doesn't have to be adiscipline, a shoulds, and like
I should want to do this too.
Like that doesn't need to bepart of it.
If you're interested in thatmental rehearsal audio that I've
created, you can get that bygoing to
www.jenmoulton.com/newsletterand sign up.
(14:14):
You'll get a weekly newsletterfrom me with musings and wisdom
about how to feel more intuitiveand creative and joy in your
life and in your creativepractice, and you will also
instantaneously receive thismental rehearsal audio, which
you'll be able to download.
I like to put it in Google Driveor in Dropbox, and have it on my
(14:37):
phone and just listen to itbefore making, or sometimes I
listen to it when I'm walking,or resting, et cetera.
Okay, the third way that I liketo feel more intuitive is
something that I think of aslittle nudges.
So, here's my recommendation: you give yourself space in your (14:51):
undefined
schedule.
This can be one weekday one daya week, or it could be a weekend
day.
It depends on your schedule, andyour life, and what you have
going on.
It could be something you doonce a month.
It doesn't need to be all thetime, but have an open schedule,
(15:15):
or a minimum schedule if youhave certain things that need to
get done, no problem, but justmake it minimum so that you feel
like you have space.
So you're gonna do the minimumthat you need to do on this day,
and you're gonna keep space openand see what is tugging at you.
And then when something tugs atyou, I want you to listen to it,
(15:35):
and follow it, and then see whatcomes next.
And I wanna encourage you to dowhat feels fun, indulgent, and
spacious.
So I'm gonna give you anexample, earlier today, I went
and picked up sandwiches forlunch, and as I was driving to
pick up lunch, I passed AustinFlower Company, which is this
(15:56):
beautiful independent flowershop in Austin that I used to
use flowers from them years agowhen I did freelance floral
design.
It's such a special place thatwe have here, and I was like,
I'm gonna run in there and getsome flowers.
I had unpacked our vasesrecently and I thought it just
would feel really nice to go getsome flowers.
(16:18):
And so I went in and they had somany varieties that I haven't
seen before.
They had something calledbutterfly ranunculus, they were
so pretty and I'd never evenheard of that.
I got a bunch of poppies and abunch of ranunculus, and then I
went home and I arranged them,one in a vase that I made and
one in a vase that a glassblower made that's one of my
favorite possessions ever.
(16:40):
And that was just an intuitivenudge.
That was something that soundedfun to me, and sounded
nurturing.
It sounded like just like fun inmy soul.
And so I did it, and sometimes Imight have just been like, no,
I'm not gonna do that.
They're just gonna die.
Like the flowers that I lovelast, just like usually a few
days.
(17:00):
Or I can't do that because thesandwiches are gonna get cold
while I go in there.
Or like what happened today wasthere wasn't a parking spot, so
I had to wait.
All of these like silly reasonsthat I wouldn't have done it
instead of just like I felt alittle tug to go get some
flowers, and why not do that andenjoy the experience of
(17:23):
arranging them and appreciatethem when they're in our home.
That's an example of theselittle nudges.
So I followed that.
And then, I had to leave thehouse because we had the
appraiser coming.
So I stopped and got myself aniced matcha just cause that
sounded fun today.
And then as I was driving tocome down by the lake, cause I'm
(17:46):
gonna walk my dogs around therefor a little bit, I had these
ideas to record these podcast,which normally I would not do.
I would normally record them inmy office, et cetera.
So like the details don't reallymatter except that when we
listen to these little nudges,we honor one of them, in this
case, stopping and gettingflowers.
Then another idea comes in, stopand get a matcha.
(18:08):
Then another one, walk the dogsaround the lake because I love
being around water.
Then another one, oh, before youdo that, just record these ideas
that are percolating, and maybeyou'll share them on a podcast.
And now here I am, like at 21minutes of talking to myself on
video recording this, andhopefully I'll share it with
you.
And to me, this is the essenceof creative work.
(18:30):
We think of creative work as Ihave a strict practice.
I go into my studio from 9:00 AMand I work until 11:30 AM, and
then I break for lunch from 12to one, and then I work again
from two until four, blah, blah,blah.
Right?
That's how we tend to think ofcreative work, but.
Maybe for some people it is likethat, but it doesn't have to be
(18:51):
like that.
It can be following these littlenudges.
Doing things that feel indulgentand fun and spacious, just to
make you happy.
That is the sole reason to dothem.
Not because of what they'll getfor you or what they'll create
for you, but just because youfelt a little nudge to do it,
and you decided to honor it.
And I wanna offer that byfollowing your little nudges,
(19:14):
and honoring them, you'reactually building your
relationship with yourintuition.
Because, here's the importantpart, those little nudges are
coming from somewhere.
And I bet if you really thinkabout it, when you have these
little nudges, they are notcoming from your brain thinking
(19:34):
really hard about it.
I wasn't driving to pick upsandwiches and thinking, oh,
what should I do with the vasesthat I unpacked recently?
Oh, I should stop and getflowers to fill them.
No, I wasn't thinking aboutthat.
I was just driving, and I don'teven remember what I was
thinking about, but then I feltthat little nudge to go get
flowers and I did it.
(19:56):
And that is a way to honor myintuition, honoring those little
nudges.
Because those little nudges areeverything.
And because they lead us placesthat we wouldn't go without
listening to them.
And I wanna say here that wedon't know where they will
ultimately lead us.
(20:17):
The point is not always I dosomething because I know it's
gonna lead me here.
We've all seen the graphics ofpaths being really windy and
twirly and swirly.
They kind of look like chaos.
That's how these little nudgesadd up.
We don't know where they takeus.
We don't know why always.
It doesn't always make sense,but they come to us for a
(20:38):
reason, and I just think it's soimportant to honor them.
Because when we honor them,we're honoring our little
callings, our little nudges.
And that's a way to build trust.
And the more that we listen, themore information we'll get.
And maybe the bigger it'll gettoo, I don't know.
(21:00):
But the way to get there is bystarting small and building to
the big information coming toyou.
Because you honor the littlenudges, you'll trust the big
information.
You'll trust that you'llactually be able to hear it, and
you'll trust that it's coming infor you for a reason.
And maybe you won't see whereit's leading you and you'll
(21:21):
still trust it.
And I feel like that's thepoint.
ATR USB microphone-2 (21:24):
That's what I have for you today.
I am so glad that you were hereand then we get to walk our
paths together.
See you next time.
Same time, same place.
Bye for now.
Welcome to the Creative MomentumPodcast.
I'm your host, Jen Moulton, andI teach creative women how to
make their passion projectsreal, things that make a
difference in the world.
If you're ready to stop lettingyourself doubt, we'll do back
and start doing the work.
You are in the right place.
Let's get into today's episode.
ATR USB microphone-1 (00:24):
Welcome to today's episode, Three Practices
to Feel More Intuitive.
Today, I'm sharing three of myfavorite practices to feel more
intuitive.
And I also began today's podcastby sharing two quick PSAs that
are top of mind for me and thatI want everyone to know about.
(00:44):
They're just like real lifethings that are helpful to know
that I have learned, and that Iwant to tell everyone I know
about.
Let's get into today's episode.
I'm recording this for my car.
Sometimes I'm out and about andI get an idea and I really like
to capture an idea when it feelsalive, that's something I talk
about a lot.
(01:05):
I think it's important.
And so I sometimes record whenI'm in my car, cause I'm
thinking when I'm driving, andlike today, we're having our
house appraised because weswitched homeowner's insurance.
Side note, by the way, I justwant, this is like my PSA right
now.
And also a disclaimer, I am nota financial advisor, so take
(01:26):
this with a grain of salt, doyour research.
But if you own a home, Istrongly encourage you to look
into what's called an umbrellapolicy.
Long story short, if you own ahome, if you have investments,
I'm not sure what the thresholdis that it would be worth it for
you, but if you have liabilitiesthat you want protected, if
(01:48):
something tragic were to everhappen, which hopefully, of
course it doesn't, but ifsomething were to ever happen,
an umbrella policy covers youfrom the maximum insurance, I
guess, ceiling that you have foryour home, your car, whatever
you have insurance for, up toyour collective net worth.
(02:09):
So it covers that gap betweenwhat your insurance actually
covers, and your investments,your home, your rental
properties, whatever ways youmay be incorporating wealth.
So again, I am not a financialadvisor, this is not financial
advice.
But I learned this recently frommy friend Erin, who is a
financial advisor and planner,and I'm so thankful she told me
(02:34):
because I didn't know what anumbrella policy was, and I did
not know how important they areto protect yourself, when you
have assets that you wannaprotect.
So that's just a PSA, we arehaving our house appraised for
that.
So I'm out in my car with mydogs driving around.
It's a Friday, and I am justlike thinking about things.
(02:56):
And I wanted to record thisbecause it's top of mind.
Okay, and I didn't say before,when I record podcasts in my
car, on my phone, I record themrecording video of myself
talking to the camera.
I don't record it in voicememos.
Voice memo audio quality is notgreat.
In my experience, recording avideo and then separating the
(03:18):
audio in another program isgreat.
The iPhone microphone with videois exceptional.
Okay, that's my PSAs and my lifestuff, I guess.
Today I wanted to talk aboutthree of the best practices that
I have used, or three of myfavorite practices that I use,
(03:39):
to feel more intuitive.
I think that feeling intuitive,to me, is like being creative.
I think that everyone iscreative.
I think everyone is intuitive,but it's a muscle that we build,
and it's kind of a trust muscle.
It's something that we all haveaccess to, but not all of us
listen to.
And so these three practices aremy favorite ways to tap in, and
(04:03):
ways that I think are reallyaccessible to begin building
your trust muscle with yourintuition.
The first one is writing, and ifyou know anything about me and
writing, you know that I'm aproponent of daily- ish writing,
meaning you write daily- ish.
I personally am not someone thatdoes something every single day.
(04:24):
It's just not my personality.
I like variety.
I mean, there are things I doevery single day, I brush my
teeth every single day.
I sleep every single day, but Ilike to switch up things that I
do.
Sometimes I write, sometimes Iread.
Sometimes I pull an oracle card.
Sometimes I listen to an audiomeditation.
I like to do a lot of differentthings to tap into myself, to
(04:46):
nurture myself, and what I'mneeding in each moment.
But writing is something that Ihave come back to over many
years, and in the past fewyears, I really feel like I've
mastered feeling like adaily-ish writer.
That's my identity.
And I think writing daily- ish,you know, so ish, right?
Like every day-ish.
(05:07):
Every other day.
Every couple days, is awesome.
Like, why is that not as good aswriting every single day?
This is, that's a bit of atangent, but I just don't think
that doing something everysingle day is better or more
noble than doing somethingdaily- ish, because it really is
(05:27):
serving you and you're doing itfrom a place of taking care of
yourself, not a place of forceor should.
Like, I don't think that'sbetter personally.
It's taken me a while to gethere, though.
I used to think it was morenoble to do something every
single day because I feel likethat's what's preached to us,
but I don't actually agree withthat.
I think it's way better to honoryourself and what you're
(05:49):
actually needing in this momentor in the certain morning, or
the day, and do that foryourself rather than upholding
something that you do every daybecause I don't know why.
If you do do it every singleday, like your reasons for it.
I guess that would be my advice.
Okay, so the first practice thatI do that helps me tap into my
(06:12):
intuition is daily-ish writing,and here is how I think about
it.
I like to write what I'mthinking about, and I like to
write to befriend myself.
This is such a big change forme.
When I started doing things tobefriend myself, when I started
writing, when I started workingout to befriend myself, it
(06:33):
changed the way I related to itas a habit, and it helped me
build it as part of my identity.
To me, I wanna write to knowmyself better.
I wanna know what I'm thinkingabout, I want to know how I'm
feeling.
I love to start there, usually Ido start with what am I thinking
about?
What am I feeling?
(06:54):
And then that will very often,lily pad me into something else.
And then now I'm thinking aboutsomething else, or I'm making
connections with things.
To me, that's really rewarding.
And doing something because it'srewarding is a great way to
build a habit.
I very often start with somemind drama, some grumpies,
(07:16):
something that's irking me, orI'm being hard on myself about
something.
But I try not to stay there.
Because, in my experience, if Istay in writing negatively,
complaining about myself,complaining about other people,
about life situations, it makesthe process of writing kind of
negative, and then it'stherefore not something that I
(07:37):
really want to do.
So I often will start withsomething that's brewing,
bugging me, like just irking me,something I'm ruminating on,
like I just keep playing in myhead, but I try to get to the
root of what's beneath it.
What's bothering me about this?
What is talking to me aboutthis?
What might this be here to showme?
(07:59):
Why is this persisting?
Like I'm seeking a deeperrelationship with myself in my
writing, and I'm using it to bea better friend to myself.
Or to befriend myself.
That's just a great way to buildthe habit, number one, but
number two, this is a way tosource wisdom from yourself.
If something is persisting inyour life, there's probably a
(08:21):
reason for it.
And if you ask yourself goodquestions like, why might this
be hanging around for me?
And see what answers come up foryou.
It can be really interesting andyou can get really good
information just by kind ofsitting with it.
The visual I'm thinking of islike, if your friend is going
(08:43):
through something or is thinkingabout something, and you're
walking, and you sit down on abench together.
And they're talking aboutwhatever is is present for them,
your energy is that you're justsitting with them on this bench
while they share with you.
Right.
You're just being a gentlewitness and an interested party.
That's the kind of relationship,or that's the way I relate to
(09:06):
writing.
Is this idea of gentlewitnessing, just being with
myself.
That's how I see it as time tobe with myself, time to be with
what is actually already presentfor me.
And another note I have here onwriting, is that if nothing
else, it's a way for me to dumpout things I'm thinking about so
(09:27):
that I can actually hear myself.
We are not our top thoughts thatwe're thinking about all the
time.
That's just ruminations, that'spersonality, it's past
experiences, going around andaround.
We are actually that deeperwisdom that is watching and
listening and encouraging us,and writing can be a way to kind
(09:51):
of take off that top layer ofsoil, I guess, and get to that
deeper part of ourselves thathas all of the wisdom and
intuition that we could everhope for.
Writing daily ish is number one.
Number two, the second practicethat I use to feel more
intuitive is, something that'scalled mental rehearsal.
(10:15):
And there's a lot of ways to dothis.
The way that I like to do it isby listening to audios.
They're kind of likemeditations, and I actually have
created one because I'm such afan of this.
I took a training on it, acertification, and I created one
that you get for free if yousign up for my newsletter.
It's all about feeling intuitiveand being in touch with
(10:39):
yourself, and what mentalrehearsal means is literally
mental rehearsal, right?
You're rehearsing mentally whatyou want to have, be, create,
experience, et cetera.
So the audio that I've created,the one I'm talking about right
now, is all about feelingintuitive and tapping into
(11:01):
yourself and your inner wisdombefore you start making any
creative work.
You can also listen to it in themorning before you go into your
day so that you're grounded, andcentered, and in touch with
yourself.
One of my favorite parts of theaudio is, I love to think about
what is at the edge of myawareness?
(11:22):
What is speaking to me?
What is interesting in thismoment?
What kind of like threads am Istarting to pick up on?
That's really to me what theaudio is about.
That's also, to me, what feelingintuitive is about, is just like
sensing like little threads,sensing little perceptions that
might be present for you.
(11:45):
It's often not big, loud, inyour face.
I mean, sometimes it is, but inmy experience it's often not.
It's more like gentle,communicating to me in like more
subtle ways.
And we have to be listening.
We have to be paying attention.
We have to be clear so thatwe're hearing it.
(12:06):
And mental rehearsal reallyhelps me do that.
You can listen to audios, youcan also do it yourself.
It's basically, you would closeyour eyes and go into a
meditation and see yourselfoperating in the world in the
way that you want to be.
Feeling intuitive, feelingconnected, feeling clear,
feeling grounded and presentprobably is part of it.
(12:27):
At least it is for me.
Mental rehearsal can be reallypowerful because it is priming
the same neural pathways that welive out.
So in our brains, if youmentally rehearse something and
you actually do it, it's thesame neural pathway.
So we can prime the way that wewanna show up, and experience,
(12:50):
and operate in the world bydoing mental rehearsal.
And we can strengthen the neuralpathways too.
Not just prime them, butstrengthen them, so that they
are our go-tos.
So that when we sit down to makecreative work, or sit down with
a friend, or sit down to write,or whatever it might be, that
(13:10):
you're first tapping intoyourself.
Getting connected and groundedso that you're hearing your
intuition, so you're hearingyour inner wisdom before you
make, before you engage, beforeyou write.
It's a really supportive way togo about it, and you don't have
to use force, or discipline, orshoulds to do it.
(13:34):
Your practices can be reallysupportive, and gentle, and
nurturing.
You still, you know, will needto use dedication sometimes,
cause you won't feel like it.
But we can encourage ourselves.
I hope that's the message thatI'm communicating.
We can encourage ourselves, wecan go about it in supportive
ways, to feel intuitive and tomake creative work.
(13:54):
It doesn't have to be adiscipline, a shoulds, and like
I should want to do this too.
Like that doesn't need to bepart of it.
If you're interested in thatmental rehearsal audio that I've
created, you can get that bygoing to
www.jenmoulton.com/newsletterand sign up.
(14:14):
You'll get a weekly newsletterfrom me with musings and wisdom
about how to feel more intuitiveand creative and joy in your
life and in your creativepractice, and you will also
instantaneously receive thismental rehearsal audio, which
you'll be able to download.
I like to put it in Google Driveor in Dropbox, and have it on my
(14:37):
phone and just listen to itbefore making, or sometimes I
listen to it when I'm walking,or resting, et cetera.
Okay, the third way that I liketo feel more intuitive is
something that I think of aslittle nudges.
So, here's my recommendation: you give yourself space in your (14:51):
undefined
schedule.
This can be one weekday one daya week, or it could be a weekend
day.
It depends on your schedule, andyour life, and what you have
going on.
It could be something you doonce a month.
It doesn't need to be all thetime, but have an open schedule,
(15:15):
or a minimum schedule if youhave certain things that need to
get done, no problem, but justmake it minimum so that you feel
like you have space.
So you're gonna do the minimumthat you need to do on this day,
and you're gonna keep space openand see what is tugging at you.
And then when something tugs atyou, I want you to listen to it,
(15:35):
and follow it, and then see whatcomes next.
And I wanna encourage you to dowhat feels fun, indulgent, and
spacious.
So I'm gonna give you anexample, earlier today, I went
and picked up sandwiches forlunch, and as I was driving to
pick up lunch, I passed AustinFlower Company, which is this
(15:56):
beautiful independent flowershop in Austin that I used to
use flowers from them years agowhen I did freelance floral
design.
It's such a special place thatwe have here, and I was like,
I'm gonna run in there and getsome flowers.
I had unpacked our vasesrecently and I thought it just
would feel really nice to go getsome flowers.
(16:18):
And so I went in and they had somany varieties that I haven't
seen before.
They had something calledbutterfly ranunculus, they were
so pretty and I'd never evenheard of that.
I got a bunch of poppies and abunch of ranunculus, and then I
went home and I arranged them,one in a vase that I made and
one in a vase that a glassblower made that's one of my
favorite possessions ever.
(16:40):
And that was just an intuitivenudge.
That was something that soundedfun to me, and sounded
nurturing.
It sounded like just like fun inmy soul.
And so I did it, and sometimes Imight have just been like, no,
I'm not gonna do that.
They're just gonna die.
Like the flowers that I lovelast, just like usually a few
days.
(17:00):
Or I can't do that because thesandwiches are gonna get cold
while I go in there.
Or like what happened today wasthere wasn't a parking spot, so
I had to wait.
All of these like silly reasonsthat I wouldn't have done it
instead of just like I felt alittle tug to go get some
flowers, and why not do that andenjoy the experience of
(17:23):
arranging them and appreciatethem when they're in our home.
That's an example of theselittle nudges.
So I followed that.
And then, I had to leave thehouse because we had the
appraiser coming.
So I stopped and got myself aniced matcha just cause that
sounded fun today.
And then as I was driving tocome down by the lake, cause I'm
(17:46):
gonna walk my dogs around therefor a little bit, I had these
ideas to record these podcast,which normally I would not do.
I would normally record them inmy office, et cetera.
So like the details don't reallymatter except that when we
listen to these little nudges,we honor one of them, in this
case, stopping and gettingflowers.
Then another idea comes in, stopand get a matcha.
(18:08):
Then another one, walk the dogsaround the lake because I love
being around water.
Then another one, oh, before youdo that, just record these ideas
that are percolating, and maybeyou'll share them on a podcast.
And now here I am, like at 21minutes of talking to myself on
video recording this, andhopefully I'll share it with
you.
And to me, this is the essenceof creative work.
(18:30):
We think of creative work as Ihave a strict practice.
I go into my studio from 9:00 AMand I work until 11:30 AM, and
then I break for lunch from 12to one, and then I work again
from two until four, blah, blah,blah.
Right?
That's how we tend to think ofcreative work, but.
Maybe for some people it is likethat, but it doesn't have to be
(18:51):
like that.
It can be following these littlenudges.
Doing things that feel indulgentand fun and spacious, just to
make you happy.
That is the sole reason to dothem.
Not because of what they'll getfor you or what they'll create
for you, but just because youfelt a little nudge to do it,
and you decided to honor it.
And I wanna offer that byfollowing your little nudges,
(19:14):
and honoring them, you'reactually building your
relationship with yourintuition.
Because, here's the importantpart, those little nudges are
coming from somewhere.
And I bet if you really thinkabout it, when you have these
little nudges, they are notcoming from your brain thinking
(19:34):
really hard about it.
I wasn't driving to pick upsandwiches and thinking, oh,
what should I do with the vasesthat I unpacked recently?
Oh, I should stop and getflowers to fill them.
No, I wasn't thinking aboutthat.
I was just driving, and I don'teven remember what I was
thinking about, but then I feltthat little nudge to go get
flowers and I did it.
(19:56):
And that is a way to honor myintuition, honoring those little
nudges.
Because those little nudges areeverything.
And because they lead us placesthat we wouldn't go without
listening to them.
And I wanna say here that wedon't know where they will
ultimately lead us.
(20:17):
The point is not always I dosomething because I know it's
gonna lead me here.
We've all seen the graphics ofpaths being really windy and
twirly and swirly.
They kind of look like chaos.
That's how these little nudgesadd up.
We don't know where they takeus.
We don't know why always.
It doesn't always make sense,but they come to us for a
(20:38):
reason, and I just think it's soimportant to honor them.
Because when we honor them,we're honoring our little
callings, our little nudges.
And that's a way to build trust.
And the more that we listen, themore information we'll get.
And maybe the bigger it'll gettoo, I don't know.
(21:00):
But the way to get there is bystarting small and building to
the big information coming toyou.
Because you honor the littlenudges, you'll trust the big
information.
You'll trust that you'llactually be able to hear it, and
you'll trust that it's coming infor you for a reason.
And maybe you won't see whereit's leading you and you'll
(21:21):
still trust it.
And I feel like that's thepoint.
ATR USB microphone-2 (21:24):
That's what I have for you today.
I am so glad that you were hereand then we get to walk our
paths together.
See you next time.
Same time, same place.
Bye for now.
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