Hello, it's me! *screams in my Cardi B voice*
Sliding into your inboxes on what I hope is a cozy Sunday evening for you. This morning I ended my weekly reflection in my journal with, “Q4, is that you?!” and honestly idk how we got here already. It's the end of September and looking back on this year it feels like nothing and everything happened.
At the start of 2025 I was recovering from severe burn out, not teaching any yoga at all, and dating a man ten years older than me who I knew was not my man. Nine months later, I'm teaching at three different yoga studios, starting a life coach training in two weeks, and slowly but surely learning to navigate my life in a way that allows for me to make space for everything I care about without burning out. And that's on living life in alignment. That being said, if you're feeling stuck or overwhelmed right now for whatever reason, know that everything is temporary. Things will shift and change and you will acclimate — as long as you honor how you feel and follow your intuition.
Earlier this month I started a theme in my yoga classes focused on finding the courage to trust your inner guidance. Many of us come to our yoga mats to connect more closely with ourselves, but when we get to that place, the moment where we hear our inner voice most clearly, it's a little scary. After all, what am I supposed to do? Fearlessly follow the directions of a voice laced with none other than inner knowing? That sounds crazy to me and it probably does to you too. It's why it can be so hard to trust what your intuition is telling you. It requires an unbelievable amount of self-validation and belief that most of us don't have. In order to fully leverage your intuition, you have to have 100% faith in yourself and your feelings. You're not relying on anyone else to validate, just you. That's a tough thing to do.
Learning to follow my own intuition has been a journey. It's taken a lot for me to listen the first time before being too far gone, but over time I do think I've nailed one part of it. For me, intuition can be a feeling based on energy I may have naturally picked up without a true cause to think that way. Other times it's based on facts that I've been avoiding and not wanting to give real meaning to. In either case, I've come to know both kinds very intimately, and lately I've been working on the second part of tapping into my intuition: actually following through without having it all figured out.
By now, I know how to cut most things at the first sign of trouble when I'm not too deep into the situation. What I still struggle with is acting on things that I know are best for me without having a safety net underneath me. I don't go anywhere without my parachute, chile. Everything I do is meticulously planned and practiced before I actually go do it. As much as y'all have seen me do over the years, I guarantee you there's a very long document somewhere detailing out exactly what I'm going to do and how to do it.
I don't hate this way of doing things. Honestly it's why I tend to succeed so much — I really know how to think things through and then act on them. That being said, if I don't have it all figured out, chances are I'm not taking that risk even if I know something doesn't make me feel good. Let's take the start of this year for example. I was suffering the consequences of not saying no sooner and making space for what I really wanted and needed. There was a whole lot of self-betrayal going on.
The thing about intuition is that if you ignore it for long enough, certain things start to shift. I, for one, am more susceptible to anxiety and depression. I start to feel dragged down and unhappy. Everything suddenly feels awful and that's usually how I know I'm not living in alignment with my intuition. It nags and nags until I finally give in, then I feel better. It took me a second to tap back in and move in a way that felt best for me after the first few months of this year, but now I'm here and honestly feeling better than ever.
The past month I've been teaching this idea in my yoga classes. That going inside and connecting to that inner voice is the first step, the second is having the courage to trust in what you inherently know, even when you don't have all the facts and plans and evidence lined up. That's where we take it to the next level of work. It's a really important step — you know why?
Because that's when you let the magic of the Universe reach out and catch you.
Earlier this week I started taking little baby steps towards releasing things with no safety net simply because my inner voice had gotten too damn loud. After overworking for the past few months, I finally gave something up and wrote in an email that I was planning to let go of something else very soon. Energetically, neither were really right for me and it felt like a relief to finally decide. Immediately, within 24 hours, I got an offer for an opportunity that I'd been wanting for a really long time. Just like that. All I needed to do was trust myself and free up my energy enough to let the Universe do its thing.
Imagine what it would feel like to lean so far into your intuition that suddenly a little magic takes place. It's happened to me here and there, and I'm not going to lie — I want more of it. When I wrote my scholarship essays for my life coach training a few months ago, I was more honest than I'd ever been about where I see my life going and why I wanted to become a life coach. I spoke from the heart, and it landed me a scholarship for much more than I expected. When you follow your innate wisdom, the Universe will reward you. Again and again and again.
As we move into the last quarter of the year, I'm not going to tell you to lock in (y'all shoulda been done that!). Instead I'll offer this: practice trusting yourself without having the answers to all your questions. Jump without knowing exactly where you're going to go. Follow what feels right and take note of how things unfold when you do so.
Learn how to trust fall — and let the Universe catch you.