Latest / Your Money, Your Rules | Financial Mastery, Wealth Mindset, Leadership Principles, Intuitive Decision-Making, Human Design / 143 | Overthinking Your Money Decisions? How to Cultivate Your Intuition and Build Self-Trust
Transcript
- 0:00Erin Gray: If you are like how I used to be, you might find yourself second guessing a lot of financial decisions or just decisions in your life in general, and it might feel exhausting.
- 0:11Erin Gray: And what I always say is this really keeps us in our head and it keeps us in circles, and ultimately what it does is it erodes our self-trust and it creates this habit of us not trusting ourselves and then us outsourcing our power to other people.
- 0:27Erin Gray: And so today, what I want to do is I want to share how I make money decisions, or actually every decision in my life, using my intuition, and I want to say that I'm not perfect at this and I've gotten a lot better than what I used to be.
- 0:40Erin Gray: So this is a practice, it is a skill set, and the more that you do it, the more that you will fine tune it and it will get easier with time.
- 0:50Erin Gray: I wanted to offer that I do have a free four part workshop series that I will link in the show notes about how each of us are wired to make decisions.
- 1:00Erin Gray: You know, ultimately it really boils down to using your intuition, tapping into your body and listening to that, and before I got there, what I had to do was use some training wheels, and I use that to really start to tap into my body and to get familiar with what it felt like to make a decision from my intuition versus my head.
- 1:36Erin Gray: And so if you are new to listening to your intuition and playing with this, I would recommend that you start with the workshop series.
- 1:45Erin Gray: That way you can understand, like how you're meant to make decisions Kind of like I use human design very loosely, but that way it will give you an idea of like how you are meant to make decisions and then you can really start leaning on your own intuition and playing with this yourself.
- 2:01Erin Gray: I always say, you know, start small.
- 2:03Erin Gray: You know, at the beginning I didn't make like life-changing decisions.
- 2:06Erin Gray: I just made decisions like where I wanted to go for dinner or what I wanted to dress or wear.
- 2:10Erin Gray: So start small, practice with this and then the more that you do it just like anything, the better you'll get Okay.
- 2:16Erin Gray: So first and foremost, I always start with pausing and checking in with my body.
- 2:20Erin Gray: You know, before any decision, not just financial I know this podcast is about money, but really it's about all areas of our life I was talking to a client the other day and he said basically, money for you is just the portal into helping people change every area of their life, and that's what I believe to be true.
- 2:43Erin Gray: People come to me with money I'm air quoting money problems but we talk about so much more than money, right, because what it's really about is developing your self-trust, developing unconditional or I should say returning to unconditional love for yourself and really trusting yourself and your intuition.
- 3:01Erin Gray: So what I do is I always tap into my body, I stop, I notice how am I feeling in my body?
- 3:08Erin Gray: Does my body feel expansive?
- 3:10Erin Gray: Does it feel relaxed?
- 3:11Erin Gray: Do I feel excited?
- 3:14Erin Gray: Or does it feel tight or anxious, or like almost like FOMO, like I'm going to, like I need to hurry up and make this decision.
- 3:20Erin Gray: And so your body, I believe, is our, our first signal.
- 3:24Erin Gray: If I am in that energy of lack or scarcity, like that FOMO, like having to hurry and rush and make a decision, I don't make any decision.
- 3:34Erin Gray: I have made too many decisions from rushed FOMO and I have such a long evidence list of what actually happened when I made it from that place, and so I really stop and I don't make a decision, because no decision that we make from lack is going to come out on the other side, abundant and expansive, like it's the energy.
- 3:57Erin Gray: It just doesn't work like that.
- 3:59Erin Gray: So I first and foremost shift my energy and tap back into my body.
- 4:04Erin Gray: So take a moment right now.
- 4:06Erin Gray: If you want to, you can pause the episode.
- 4:08Erin Gray: Take a breath Like how often do we actually check in with our bodies in the day?
- 4:12Erin Gray: How often are we actually checking in with our breath?
- 4:15Erin Gray: I mean, if you are like me, how I was, you know, several years ago, I don't even know if I even thought about my body during the day.
- 4:25Erin Gray: So, first and foremost is really tap back into your body, take a breath, notice what your body is feeling, notice when you ask yourself do I want to do this?
- 4:35Erin Gray: What does your body feel?
- 4:37Erin Gray: How does it feel when you think about that financial choice that you are wanting to make?
- 4:42Erin Gray: And then the second step that I always do is just notice the difference of where my mind is trying to run the show and when.
- 4:51Erin Gray: It's my intuition.
- 4:51Erin Gray: You know our minds.
- 4:53Erin Gray: They want to calculate, they want to justify and rationalize.
- 4:57Erin Gray: You know my mind always wants to, like, build a pros and cons list or look at the numbers.
- 5:03Erin Gray: When I say possibilities, I don't mean from an expansive place, I mean the pros and cons, what would it look like, and looking at risks, things like that.
- 5:14Erin Gray: But intuition, it is quiet, it is still, it is.
- 5:19Erin Gray: Go here, do that, check this, call this person, try this.
- 5:24Erin Gray: It's so subtle.
- 5:26Erin Gray: I hear my intuition through my right ear.
- 5:29Erin Gray: Other clients, they tell me that they feel it in their gut, or they just feel this urge or this nudge, and so the only way that you're going to know how your intuition shows up for you is if you actually play with this and you practice it.
- 5:44Erin Gray: Like the more that you practice, the more you play with this, the better that you will get at it.
- 5:48Erin Gray: So I'll give you an example.
- 5:51Erin Gray: When we were planning to move to Hawaii you know, because there are no rabies on the island, it's this extensive process that you have to go under to ship your animal over, that you have to go under to ship your animal over, and our dog had a microchip which they require every dog or animal to have, and so, after I had taken him to the vet to verify everything, I'd picked up the paperwork.
- 6:13Erin Gray: I got in the car and I looked at the paperwork and I just felt this urge to go back in and to verify that the microchip number that was on the piece of paper was actually what they had in their system.
- 6:24Erin Gray: Well, coming to find out it wasn't.
- 6:31Erin Gray: So that is just one simple way.
- 6:32Erin Gray: Like it wasn't this overarching like, go check this, do this.
- 6:33Erin Gray: It wasn't loud, it was just almost like for me.
- 6:36Erin Gray: I was remember sitting in the front seat and looking at the paperwork and being like I need to check this, and so I just went and did it and the more that I think you trust yourself, the more you lean in and you just act on that, which is so simple.
- 6:49Erin Gray: It wasn't like go go check this right now because this is, you know, it wasn't this, this, this is catastrophe.
- 6:56Erin Gray: Or you know, in my head it was just like go check this.
- 6:59Erin Gray: It was so subtle and the more that we tap in and we listen to that, the more that we create evidence and see that, when we listen to our intuition, what happens?
- 7:10Erin Gray: So I always like to, you know, take a step back and ask yourself like and myself, you know, are we making this choice from a fear, from a habit, from some type of social expectation or conditioning, or are we making this?
- 7:29Erin Gray: To me, intuition, heart's desire just feels like I want to.
- 7:34Erin Gray: This just feels good.
- 7:35Erin Gray: There isn't a reason behind it, it's just I want this.
- 7:39Erin Gray: I would love that.
- 7:41Erin Gray: That feels really good.
- 7:42Erin Gray: So really just check in and see like, are you in your mind or are you in your body?
- 7:48Erin Gray: Aka what I call your intuition.
- 7:51Erin Gray: So I do use human design loosely and to help clients tap back into their intuition.
- 7:57Erin Gray: So if you're familiar with human design, great, you can, you know, dive in.
- 8:03Erin Gray: If you're not, that's okay too.
- 8:04Erin Gray: Like I, I don't.
- 8:06Erin Gray: I don't subscribe to any somewhat system because I think systems still keep us in the box.
- 8:12Erin Gray: But I do use it in a way to empower us to slow down and to really tap into our bodies.
- 8:20Erin Gray: And I believe, the more that I lean into my intuition, nothing needs to be decided right now.
- 8:26Erin Gray: I know we're taught, especially in business, we need to make quick decisions.
- 8:30Erin Gray: But quick is so relative.
- 8:32Erin Gray: Quick can be within a week, quick can be within a couple of hours, quick can be a day, quick can be a month, like it's all relative to what someone else has done or relative to what you have done.
- 8:46Erin Gray: So I would just be really mindful of when people say you know like we need to make quick decisions.
- 8:51Erin Gray: It's like what does that even mean?
- 8:52Erin Gray: You know, I just know that I tap into my body and I know that I need to ride my wave and I need to get to a neutral point.
- 8:59Erin Gray: And I know that I need to ride my wave and I need to get to a neutral point and I know what that feels like in my body now.
- 9:02Erin Gray: And for most decisions I mean, unless they're pretty like really life changing ones for most decisions it's a week or two, and I'm not talking about like going out to eat, but like hiring someone or making a change in my business it takes a couple of weeks for me to settle in and feel solid and neutral about that.
- 9:23Erin Gray: So questions you can ask yourself like does this feel expansive in my body?
- 9:28Erin Gray: Does this feel like a heart's desire, one that I always use to tap in and like completely bypasses the mind, is if I had a hundred million dollars, would I do this?
- 9:38Erin Gray: And that for me, is so easy to just get a yes or a no answer.
- 9:43Erin Gray: Does this support my soul's work?
- 9:46Erin Gray: You know, am I doing this to prove something?
- 9:48Erin Gray: And then am I doing this or making this decision from a fear of missing out.
- 9:52Erin Gray: And so you will know, when you ask yourself these questions, how you feel in your body, if it's an intuitive place or if it's more of a head.
- 10:01Erin Gray: You know, notice how your body responds.
- 10:03Erin Gray: If there's tension, if there's resistance, if there's contraction, you know that's a signal for you to pause, to check in and to go deeper and to shift that energy.
- 10:13Erin Gray: Because if you are acting from a fear-based place, it's ultimately acting, you know, from a lack place.
- 10:18Erin Gray: So don't make a decision from that place.
- 10:21Erin Gray: Give yourself the time.
- 10:22Erin Gray: I don't think a lot of us have given ourselves enough time to make decisions and recognizing that no decision that we make from a place of fear or lack comes out.
- 10:35Erin Gray: I haven't found it yet.
- 10:37Erin Gray: It comes out like oh, that was amazing.
- 10:40Erin Gray: I can think of probably two or three examples off the top of my head where I was making it from a rush place.
- 10:45Erin Gray: It didn't end.
- 10:46Erin Gray: I always think everything happens for us and also didn't end the way that I thought it would.
- 10:51Erin Gray: So really just tap into your body.
- 10:55Erin Gray: And I think that the way that we develop our intuition is we actually have to practice right.
- 11:01Erin Gray: It is a skillset.
- 11:02Erin Gray: So many of us have turned off that intuition because maybe when we were younger we were told like we wanted.
- 11:10Erin Gray: We were asked like, where's the evidence?
- 11:12Erin Gray: Or we were told that we were for lack of a better word crazy.
- 11:15Erin Gray: So it's really turning on, tuning back in and bringing that part of us back online.
- 11:23Erin Gray: You know your nervous system.
- 11:25Erin Gray: It needs to feel safe before you can I don't want to say before you can hear your intuition, before you can, I don't want to say before you can hear your intuition.
- 11:35Erin Gray: But if we're in this constant go, go, fight, flight, rushing, survival mentality, it's hard to tap into our intuition because our bodies don't feel safe.
- 11:44Erin Gray: And when our bodies don't feel safe, we are in survival.
- 11:47Erin Gray: We're not thinking about creativeness.
- 11:49Erin Gray: We're not thinking about what are all the possibilities.
- 11:51Erin Gray: We're not thinking about how to, like you know, expand and grow our business.
- 11:55Erin Gray: We're just like in the day to day.
- 11:57Erin Gray: So really start to practice things, somatic techniques that can really tap into your body and create safety for your body to trust that it is okay to.
- 12:12Erin Gray: You know, slow down.
- 12:13Erin Gray: You know if we're always on the go, if we're always consuming all the time.
- 12:17Erin Gray: You know if you're always listening to podcasts, if you're always listening to me, if you're always, you know, on YouTube or listening to music, you're not giving yourself the space to listen to you, and that is the most important voice.
- 12:29Erin Gray: So I always recommend stillness, being bored, grounding, breath work, journaling.
- 12:37Erin Gray: I talked about releasing emotions in the previous episode with the Emotion Code book by Dr Bradley Nelson sound bath healings, walking outside, being in nature what are the ways that your body feels relaxed and calm and reconnected to yourself and your soul Like?
- 12:55Erin Gray: That's the somatic practices that I would encourage you to implement on a consistent basis so that you can really start to tap into your body and your intuition.
- 13:06Erin Gray: And then the final piece is really just to act on it.
- 13:09Erin Gray: Right is really just to act on it right.
- 13:16Erin Gray: It's to start seeing and building up this list that we have that when I act on my intuition, how does it turn out?
- 13:19Erin Gray: I had someone ask me on a podcast the other day well, how often do I make decisions in my business from intuition?
- 13:26Erin Gray: And I said all the time, and the face that he gave me was quite interesting.
- 13:30Erin Gray: He was surprised.
- 13:32Erin Gray: But I think that there's a difference of intuition and instinct.
- 13:37Erin Gray: Instinct, I think, can come from fear at times, but intuition it takes some trust and some courage in the beginning to start making decisions from our intuition.
- 14:02Erin Gray: And the more that we do it, the better we get at it, the more self-trust we will develop in ourselves, right?
- 14:08Erin Gray: So you know, think about.
- 14:10Erin Gray: And I always say start small, right.
- 14:12Erin Gray: Start with just asking yourself which way to go home, ask yourself which shirt you want to wear that day, ask yourself what do you want to make for dinner, or just something small, so that you can see that there's not what I call high stakes, right?
- 14:26Erin Gray: It's not like what change are you going to make in your business, or are you going to move across the continent?
- 14:31Erin Gray: Or you know the country, you know what are some smaller things that you can do, so that you can kind of get some evidence in your back pocket that you can refer to that when the mind wants to take over.
- 14:44Erin Gray: You can see like, look, this is when I acted on my intuition and look how well that worked out for me.
- 14:49Erin Gray: So really, just start to practice it and think about just one money decision or one decision in your life that you are thinking about or facing.
- 15:01Erin Gray: Pause and feel what you are feeling in your body when you think about one way or the other way and really get connected to how you feel in your body, ask those questions that I mentioned above and notice what your initial response is.
- 15:19Erin Gray: Remember that money it just is.
- 15:22Erin Gray: It's a tool for us to use.
- 15:24Erin Gray: Right.
- 15:25Erin Gray: We notice that money is a tool, it's something for us to use and direct how we want to circulate it right.
- 15:33Erin Gray: It's neutral, so it is meant to serve us, not control us.
- 15:38Erin Gray: And when we make decisions from our intuition, I really believe that we reclaim our power, our sovereignty, our confidence, our self-trust in ourselves, and I think we short circuit a lot of heartache when we use our intuition over our mind.
- 15:52Erin Gray: So if you are ready to learn how to trust yourself more, to trust your intuition, not just with money, but just in every area of your life, you know, feel more calm and confident in who you are and what you want, and you know to stop allowing the mind to have all of the say.
- 16:15Erin Gray: I think sometimes we can be so in our heads that we overthink and we get into this fear spiral.
- 16:22Erin Gray: Right, really start to tap back into your intuition.
- 16:25Erin Gray: I would love to support you.
- 16:26Erin Gray: You can schedule a clarity call with me just by clicking the link in the show notes and we can see if we are a good fit for each other.
- 16:34Erin Gray: Okay, as always, I'm rooting for you, I am here for you and I'll see you in the next episode.