INSIGHTS ARTICLE: The 3 self-care practices to optimize your leadership mindset and emotional well-being by mastering your intuition.

Written by Sasha Lipskaia | Jun 28, 2023 11:30:00 AM

The 3 self-care practices to optimize your leadership mindset and emotional well-being by mastering your intuition

How can you feel empowered and resilient regardless of how life unfolds?

What if your intuition was vital to improving your mental, emotional, and physical well-being?

In this article, I invite you to reclaim the power of your intuition by integrating it into your mindfulness practice and internal transformation process, thus experiencing a feeling of greater authenticity and integrity in how you experience your life from this point onward.

Why an intuitive mindset means re-connecting to your authenticity and how it supports your emotional and mental health

Your transformation requires more than a "mindfulness practice" and "mindset work."

We cannot "fix the problem" from the level of consciousness that created it.

What if you could find a simple way to connect to the truest, wisest, and kindest part of yourself?

Every choice you make matters.

We live in an age of technology, and information overwhelms us and a heightened worldwide experience of stress, anxiety, and isolation.

Statistics show that stress and anxiety-related disorders are on the rise. From personal experience and professional practice, I know that many of these mental health struggles directly stem from our feeling disconnected from our authenticity, creative expression, and higher-level purpose.

Therefore, it is no surprise that you might feel unsure about what you want and need to feel healthy, whole, and confident about who you authentically are.

We need a different, more embodied way to work on our mindsets and reconnect to our authenticity, peace, inner joy, and life purpose.

Since you already have the inner guidance system to help you reveal and discern the truth of what is in the highest good from your fears, you can make empowered and wise choices that serve you and your community.

Self-actualization stems from your natural connection to yourself and the world around you.

You are already a multi-sensory, intuitive being.

Intuitive ability is not reserved for a select few

it is a sense you have always had, although it may have been suppressed, deemed irrelevant, or unreliable by your conditioning.

You were born with an intuitive navigation system, a way to perceive and interpret subtle energetic cues about your relationship with the world inside and around you, the function of which is to help you make the most aligned and healthy choices for you to live your best life.

That time you felt a sudden pang in your gut when you walked into a room and felt that something was "off?”

Or that moment when you felt chills go down your spine meeting someone that soon became an essential part of your life?

That was your intuition.

Merriam-Webster defines intuition as "the power or faculty of attaining direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference."

You may have called this inner guidance "your gut," "your higher self," or "Your heart's truth."

The terminology does not matter for our purposes here.

What matters is that you know how to reveal and act on the truth of what your intuition tells you about what you want and need and what you must focus on to create a life that is in integrity with who you are.

And to work with your intuitive technology, you must learn its language by going into your subconscious mind and, thus, your body.

Regardless of how it manifests, when you are in tune with your intuitive senses, you can suddenly reveal and “know” something without knowing how you know it. You just know it is true.

However, as it has for most of us, your social and cultural conditioning has likely made it difficult to maintain and trust your intuitive voice.

As I have learned through my transformation journey and coaching hundreds of people through theirs, the most effective way to reclaim your intuitive power is with a simple, consistent practice that integrates embodied intuitive development and mindfulness.

I invite you to try the exercises below to integrate an embodied intuitive practice into your personal development and mindset optimization work.

Since your intuitive language is unique, learning how it expresses itself in your being can dramatically shift your life.

It is time for you to reclaim this natural gift to feel like you are living your life as the most authentic and powerful expression of your potential as you optimize every aspect of your life.

Reclaiming your body is an intuitive instrument.

Reclaiming your intuitive wisdom is not an esoteric experiment.

On the contrary, quantum physics and psychosomatic research suggest that our capacity to perceive energetic information is not merely metaphysical speculation or fantasy but science.

Your ability to make choices aligned with your highest good is a skill you can practice daily.

There are numerous studies, many coming out of HeartMath Institute, demonstrating how the intuitive pathway works inside your body, linking your heart, gut, and brain via your nervous system, thus allowing you to receive and express energetic information.

We are multi-sensory beings, and as most highly successful and impactful people have claimed, our intuitive ability has often been the secret to many of our most extraordinary discoveries, inventions, and creative initiatives.

As Albert Einstein famously said: "Everything is energy, and that's all there is to it."

Developing your intuitive muscles will allow you to harness your energy in a way that empowers you to live and lead from an intuitive leader's mindset in every part of your life.

How do these intuitive mindset practices work?

By integrating mindset work with embodied, intuitive development practices, you will go right to the core of how you experience your reality: your emotional state (read: energies in motion).

Thus, as a result of coming into coherence with your authenticity and how you want to feel, you will be more likely to effectively and consistently optimize your holistic well-being and choose the right course of action to achieve your goals with integrity and purpose.

In doing the exercises outlined below, you will also develop your capacity to send, receive, interpret, and apply energetic information beyond your conditioned, conscious mind and the limitations of your perception. However, be patient with yourself!

Relearning how to properly use your intuitive faculties and discern your authentic voice from your mind will take time and patience, so give yourself grace and focus on the fact that you get to develop a more intimate and loving relationship with yourself as a result.

Your intuitive self-care and development need not be complicated, elaborate, or fancy.

It takes 10-15 minutes every day, and your commitment, courage, and desire to use what you discover during your practice as fuel to lead the rest of your day.

How to harness your intuition through embodied daily practice

How can you quickly and consistently train your intuitive capacity to receive guidance and empowerment in any area of your life?

Let's explore three embodied personal inquiry practices I have found to be most successful in helping my clients and myself tap into their truth and take consistent and inspired action on what they reveal.

These are also easy to integrate into anyone's routine and can support and even enhance any other mindfulness and spiritual development practices or rituals you might be doing.

I invite you to try the following three exercises, one per day, starting with the first one.

Eventually, if you want to see a more profound transformation or have a specific mindset issue and goal you are working on and feel stuck with, you can start practicing all three in a block of 30-45 minutes, 3-6 times a week.

As you do this, at the end of each week, spend 5-10 minutes reflecting and journaling about the changes you notice in your daily emotional state: your capacity to move through periods of stress, the quality of your relationships, and your sense of personal power and esteem.

I invite you to approach these with a beginner's mind and have fun learning about yourself as an intuitive leader.

So enjoy, play, and trust the process of discovering who you are and what you feel called to create.

I see my daily intuitive practices as a non-negotiable "spiritual gym" where you win by showing up, and I encourage you to approach this work with the same intention!

Ready? Set. Intuit. Play!

Practice 1:

Compassionate self-revelation

This practice is rooted in contemplating what is currently sabotaging your purpose or holding back your gifts.

I recommend you do it upon waking or before bed.

To begin, sit upright and take six deep breaths into your heart space through your nose and exhale through the mouth.

With each breath, feel yourself drop deeper into your heart space and focus on expanding it through the chest.

Then, imagine that you were looking down at your body from above, intending to surround your body with a deep feeling of compassion for everything you are experiencing.

Imagine that you are looking at someone you deeply admire.

Connect to the most profound sense of acceptance and unconditional love to this being inside your body.

Slowly bring your awareness back into the body.

Then, ask yourself the following five questions:

(Have them written down in front of you.)

"What truth does my heart want me to know right now?"

"What is holding me back from sharing my truth?"

"What part of me/my life feels out of integrity with my truth right now?"

"What is the gift inside of this shadow?"

"What do I need to do to transcend this to serve my purpose?"

Observe and note the ideas, images, sounds, or "physiological" experiences they evoke for you.

Once you are complete, quickly journal whatever you witness without judgment.

What you find might reveal a lot about some aspects of your life that have been nagging you for a while, while illuminating other "symptoms" that you had no idea needed your attention. What is in one is in the whole.

As you note what you need to do to get back into integrity with your highest good, connect to a feeling of deep ownership for what that means.

Be honest about your experience, and commit to acting on the guidance you received.

The more you do this practice, the more you will become inspired and curious about getting deeper into the things that seem to hold you back as they reveal more of your purpose, potential, and motivation to follow your highest truth.

Practice 2:

Embodied flow movement

This practice is a great, energizing way to get into your body's energy centers and connect to your emotional state.

To start, choose a 3-10 minute track, preferably one that you enjoy moving your body to, that does not have any specific memory associated with it, except that it makes you feel empowered to express yourself. Then, let your body move intuitively, following your inner flow and taking deep breaths while focusing on the sensations inside your body and how your mind interprets these emotions. Then, as you settle into the non-linear dance, start feeling into your gut and heart. As you move, focus on asking the following question: "How do I feel right now, and what do I need?"

Let the answers come, as they will.

The goal is to allow yourself to feel and get comfortable with being with the sensations and the questions without the need to do anything specific to fix or bypass your experience.

Touch your body, hold it, hug yourself, do whatever you feel will most soothe, and connect you to a feeling of safety, acceptance, and confidence in yourself.

Keep gently moving and ask the same questions, witnessing whatever insights and feelings arise.

There is no right or wrong, only what is true for you.

Internally commit to continue listening to your body as the day goes on.

As you wind down, gently touch yourself whenever you feel most tender, holding that part of you, maybe giving it a light stroke or massage, and smile as you thank yourself for meeting your needs at this moment.

After you finish the practice, I invite you to quickly journal or voice record your insights with an intentional commitment to keep showing up for yourself using the insights you got through the practice.

Practice 3:

Creative self-revelation journaling

This practice draws on gratitude journaling and "morning pages" (a technique I love, as taught by Julia Cameron in the "Artist's Way.")

The goal here is to spend 5-20 minutes every morning (before you "consume” any media or start interacting with the world) journaling on the following question:

"What does my purpose ask me to create today?"

The focus here is to allow your subconscious to reveal everything that might emerge from answering the specific question above which you might want to rephrase and adjust as you feel called!)

As you write, you can also doodle, write poetry and affirmations, and clarify even more questions for you to contemplate.

The intention is two-fold:

Firstly, you aim to tap into your creative flow and trust your inner voice, and secondly, you commit to getting clarity on what makes you feel on purpose during the day.

As a result of this consistent, intuitive development process, you might notice how much more confident you are in your voice and how creative and courageous you feel in your choices.

Reflecting on your progress and trusting the intuitive process are critical to your success.

As you do the above practices, take note and witness your intuitive confidence grow.

At the end of every week, reflect and note 3 instances when you heard and followed your intuitive voice, how it felt, what it revealed to you, and what you got as the result of following it!

Pay attention to how the intuitive mindset affects your physiological experience of yourself:

For example, do you feel more aware and harmonious with your emotions?

Are you more connected to feelings of peace, trust, and joy?

Do you feel more confident and inspired in the choices you are making?

Do you feel more empowered in seeing your "mistakes", challenges, and "limitations" as opportunities to reveal more of your potential and purpose?

Consider that you are learning to trust yourself every time you follow your authentic, creative voice

you are learning to trust yourself even more.

I invite you to look at your intuition as an essential part of your humanity, your unique compass to navigate the world in a way that empowers you to make choices that are always in your highest good.

Moreover, integrating this intuitive development work into your daily life will help you feel even more confident in every other activity and self-care practice you want to master.

In the way that I have come to work with it, your intuition is the technology through which you get to reveal the hidden truth about yourself so that you can choose an appropriate course of action to come into coherence and integrity with who you want to be. Anytime and anywhere.

Becoming more empowered in your intuitive mindset means learning to hear your emotional guidance and discerning its guidance from your conditioned mind.

In the coming days, whenever you think about the significant stresses and challenges in your life, ask yourself: "What is my inner guidance system trying to tell me?"

As you contemplate this, try going into one of the suggested practices, and trust that the answer will reveal itself when it is time for you to know.

Reclaiming your intuition is your birthright.

Know that this inner work will impact your world in more ways than you know.

The quality of your energy, how you feel about yourself, and your presence will create a different experience for those you care for and want to support and leave them feeling safe, loved, and inspired.

As you commit to a more profound self-care practice this year, you will lean into harnessing and honoring the incredible, intuitive technology inside your body and become more aligned with your life purpose.

This spring, may you step into your most loving, purposeful, confident, and powerful self yet.

By Sasha Lipskaia MA, ICF Acc.

www.sashalipskaia.com

View full post