Fear, Intuition, and the Whisper I’m Learning to Trust
Every day since leaving my corporate role to build my coaching practice, I wake up with fear.
For me it lives in my belly, like a gentle hook pulling just below my right ovary. It’s not dramatic, more like a persistent tug. For most of my life I tried to push it away. Now I’m learning to befriend it, to sit with it, breathe with it, and ask what it’s trying to protect. To see it as a marker that something important is unfolding.
Falling in Love with What You Hate
It reminds me of the triangle pose in hotpod yoga. When I first started, I used to loathe that posture. The heat pressing in, sweat dripping, the breath tight as though I was wedged between two panes of glass. Twisting, straining, trying to expand into a space that felt too small.
And yet, the more I practiced, the more something shifted. Following the breath. Growing taller with each inhale, twisting deeper with each exhale. And then, quietly, without an announcement or a fanfare, I realised: triangle had become my favourite pose.
The discomfort itself had become a marker of meaning. Because why would I keep returning if it didn’t matter? Why endure, unless something important was unfolding beneath the surface?
That’s when it clicked: this is also how I can relate to fear. Not as a stop sign, but as a signal that I’m stretching into something that matters.
Sitting With Fear as a Marker of Importance
Fear, like the triangle pose, stretches me. It challenges me. But if I stay with it - one breath longer, one moment more - it transforms. It becomes a signal that something meaningful is happening. A sign that intuition may be speaking beneath the noise.
Fear vs. Intuition – What’s the Difference?
Here’s the tricky part: fear and intuition feel similar. Both show up in the body first.
Fear is the body’s alarm system—your amygdala ringing the bell. It feels urgent, tight, constricting.
Intuition is the body’s pattern recognition, built from experience. It feels calmer, more like a steady whisper pointing the way forward.
Both live in the same circuitry, but differ in tone. Fear screams. Intuition whispers.
Fear usually says: “Stop. Stay safe.”
Intuition usually says: “Go here. Try this.”
As Laura Huang puts it:
“Train ourselves to listen to what whispers, not what screams.”
Practices for Listening Beneath the Noise
If fear and intuition speak through the same channel in the body, then the work is learning how to tune the frequency - to notice which voice is present in the moment. These simple practices help you pause, sense, and distinguish the alarm of fear from the compass of intuition.
Flip the Coin
Take a decision you’re struggling with, anything from: Should I say yes to this opportunity? to Do I stay in my job or take the leap? Assign one option to heads and the other to tails. Flip the coin as if you’ll follow its verdict. Then notice your immediate reaction when it lands - is it relief, disappointment, dread, excitement? Afterward, place one hand on your chest and one on your belly. Take a slow breath and ask: “Is this fear bracing me, or intuition pointing me forward?”
Posture Practice
Next time fear shows up, recall triangle pose: the heat, the squeeze, the breath working against resistance. Rather than rushing away, see if you can hold the sensation for just one more breath. In that pause, ask: “Could this tension be a marker of importance - evidence that something meaningful is unfolding?”
Voice Your Fear
Give fear a voice on the page. Write down exactly what it’s saying: “Don’t risk this. You might fail. Stay safe.” Thank it sincerely, it’s only trying to protect you. Then ask: “What does my intuition know that fear cannot see?” Listen for the quieter answer. Often it comes as a simple sentence, steady and unforced.
Choosing to Stretch Into What Matters
In leadership, fear often arrives in moments of risk, change, or visibility. If we follow only fear, we retreat. If we lean into the discomfort, we discover capacity, creativity, and courage we didn’t know we had.
As Antonio Damasio reminds us:
“We are not thinking machines that feel; we are feeling machines that think.”
Until the Whisper Emerges
Since stepping out on my own, fear hasn’t gone away. It shows up daily, tugging at my belly. But like triangle pose, I’m learning that staying with the discomfort is itself a marker of importance. One breath at a time, one second longer, until the whisper of intuition becomes clear enough to follow.
Here’s to meeting fear like a posture we once resisted - holding it long enough to discover that inside the discomfort lies capacity, meaning, and the whisper of intuition guiding us forward.
With gentle tug of fear and the whisper of intuition,
Dag
If you’re a leader, founder, or team learning to navigate the daily presence of fear and want to learn when it’s a guardrail and when it’s intuition pointing you forward, let’s talk.
I help people access clarity, courage, and creativity through embodied leadership practices - from breathwork and somatic awareness to presence, intuition, and sustainable performance. Together, we’ll create the brave space you need to meet fear with curiosity, listen for the whisper of intuition, and lead with confidence and integrity.
📅 Book a Coaching Session: Book a discovery call here.
📧 Email me: coaching@dagmaraaldridge.com
