On Intuition, Part 1: Connection, Stillness, Chronic Stress and Embodiment
I was talking to a dear friend — a fellow mom, a teacher, and a lifetime learner — about intuition. She is on a journey to bolster her connection with intuition, to filter out external noise, and to tap into her inner knowing. She shared her process of decluttering her home, routines, and mind, clearing the distractions to hear the subtle signals of embodied clarity. I shared my thoughts as a somatic psychologist, a nervous-system nerd, and a self-identified intuitive.
So, what factors impact our intuitive process? What are some of the ingredients in strengthening, reconnecting with, or connecting for the first time with your intuition? What role do chronic stress and trauma play in the intuitive process?
Intuition Hinges on Connection
We start with the premise that intuition hinges on connection. We can’t sense our intuition if we aren’t connected. To intuit, we need to slow down and connect with ourselves. We need to connect with our senses, our bodies, and all parts of the self — with curiosity, interest, and compassion. We need to connect with our environment, the collective, and spirit, as it exists all around us and through us. We need to shift from doing to being.
The Role of Environment
What’s the role of our physical environment? My friend’s intuition about clearing the clutter in her home and behavioral routines is spot on. See what I did there? She (and you) already know deep inside what you need to thrive. Your intuition is whole and intact, waiting for you to access it. We must clear the clutter to sense it freshly. In other words, we need a clear lens to truly see.
A calm and clear environment helps our nervous system settle, which allows our attention to flow inward. A regulated nervous system primes us for deep connection. According to Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 2011), our mind-body systems are constantly sensing our outer environment through a process called neuroception, whether we are aware of it or not. In this process, we are continually assessing whether we are safe.
Outer chaos = more attention goes outward to catalogue stimuli and make decisions about them. This lands us in “activated doing” rather than “settled being.” Chaotic, overstimulating, and busy environments constantly activate our nervous system. In contrast, a peaceful, organized environment allows our nervous system to settle into safety, a green zone of connection, play, and creativity.
This is why so many of us feel calm, open, and inspired in nature.
This isn’t a plug for minimalism, nor am I suggesting that you abandon your design preferences. As a relative maximalist, I love my décor, especially that which carries significance, aesthetic value, or inspiration. What I invite you to consider is:
How functional, comfortable, accessible, and comforting is your space?
Where in your space do you constantly get distracted, agitated, or burdened with decision-making fatigue?
Are your daily actions based on your values, or do you tend to get chronically distracted, act on impulse, or “put out fires” because you lack clarity about what’s important?
Can clarity regarding personal purpose streamline your life?
Stillness, Withdrawal, and Pratyahara
Is there ambient noise you can control, turn down, or eliminate? Do you have the habit of constantly playing background media or sound? Can you create gaps between these stimuli, give your mind-body system a break from external overstimulation, and allow attention to flow inward?
Yogic philosophy, an ancient system for personal development and liberation, calls the process of conscious withdrawal of energy from the senses pratyahara (Patañjali, ca. 400/1990). When we practice pratyahara, we reduce outer noise, create space between stimulus and response, cultivate mindfulness and presence — we pause, clear, and listen.
From doing to being. From external distraction to inner listening.
The journey inward is a journey into a universe of knowing. It is through our body that we access spirit and timeless, wise, direct knowing.
“What is most personal, is most universal.” — Carl Rogers
Embodiment, Self-Compassion, and Intuition
Stillness and embodiment give rise to intuition. Intuition flows when you create the space inside yourself to receive — with openness, ease, and without pressure. When you cultivate a kind, curious, and compassionate relationship with yourself, you pave the way for wisdom to be sensed directly.
Pause and consider:
Do you relate to yourself with curiosity and interest?
Or does a harsh inner critic dominate your inner dialogue?
Do you pay attention to the whispers of sensations telling you you’re hungry, tired, depleted, or overstimulated — and then take gentle action to meet your needs, returning you to alignment and vitality?
Or do you wait until those whispers turn into loud screams of starvation, exhaustion, panic, despair, or injury — and then struggle to bounce back to baseline, let alone aliveness?
Do you regularly check in with your body sensations? Or only when something hurts or feels uncomfortable?
Stress, Trauma, and Nervous System States
Let’s return to the premise that intuition hinges on connection and explore what might interfere with it.
Stress, unprocessed trauma, and constant over-activity put our nervous system into sympathetic activation — think anxiety, fight or flight. Let’s call this the yellow zone. Too many stressors, challenges, and activators without intentional, regular return to rest eventually put our nervous system into dorsal vagal shutdown — think depression. Let’s call this the red zone.
Green zone: safety, trust, flexibility, aliveness, openness, and connection.
Yellow zone: activation, readiness for action, self-defense, narrowed external focus, and competition.
Red zone: shut-down, amotivation, loss of hope, closing, and giving up.
Connection happens in the green zone. Intuition emerges out of connection. Thus, the more time we spend in the green zone, the more opportunities we create to access intuition.
Ask yourself:
How much time do you spend in the green zone?
What settings, activities, or relationships help you drop into relaxed being?
How much time do you spend in nature? In boredom? In stillness? In what Penney Peirce calls “insignificance”?
Where can you slow down and create a pause?
When can you get still and open to inspiration, rather than force action?
What is getting in the way of your ability to slow down, pause the doing, and settle into stillness?
Trauma’s Role in Intuitive Disconnection
For some, the answer may be related to unhealed trauma.
Trauma creates inner disconnection: dissociation, fragmentation, lack of safety, self-distrust, and low self-worth. Trauma also creates outer disconnection: ruptured relationality, distrust of others, competitiveness, and other power/control-related behaviors (Herman, 1992). Trauma affects the body (van der Kolk, 2014) and can rewire the functioning of our autonomic nervous system (Levine, 1997).
People living with the effects of unintegrated trauma often report feeling “stuck on on” (i.e., the yellow zone) or “stuck on off” (i.e., the red zone). They report that no matter how much they try to get into the green zone, their body or mind won’t allow them to slow down and relax.
It’s as if the mind-body system doesn’t realize the trauma is over, expects to be harmed again, and is constantly scanning and preparing for self-defense. The body-mind system stays in the yellow and red zones, even when there is no immediate threat or need to act, prepare, brace, or defend. Sometimes we call this constant motion productivity. We may experience this stare so chronically that we may even begin to identify with it and refer to ourselves as busy bodies or go getters. And while there is nothing wrong with being ambitious, the inability to turn off the gas, pause, rest and recover (i.e., remaining in the yellow zone chronically) can lead to the development of chronic illness (Sapolsky, 2004).
Thus, trauma healing is often a part of the intuitive reconnection journey. We need to recalibrate the nervous system so that we can leave the yellow and red zones and readily drop into the green zone. We need healing experiences that help us to find safety, calm, and aliveness. We need gentle and paced support to reconnect with our bodies, rebuild self-trust, repair trust in relationships, and expand into the collective.
Embodiment: The Bridge to Intuition
Embodiment is the foundation of wellness, vitality, and personal sovereignty.
Embodiment is the bridge between physical and subtle realms, between form and energy, and between personal and universal. Embodiment creates access to intuition; and intuition allows us to manifest our visions through embodied action.
There is a playful and timeless relationship between embodiment and intuition: they are like warp and weft.
Closing
Are you curious to learn more about embodiment, trauma healing, nervous system recalibration, or intuitive reconnection? Therapy at Embodied Way is here to help.
Embodied Way offers integrative somatic therapy and consultation for trauma healing, nervous system support, deepening connection, and intuitive alignment. Our science-supported and soul-centered approach is here to welcome all parts of you and accompany you on the transformational journey from deep healing into expansion into your true purpose.
Reach out for a free consultation today. I can’t wait to meet you.
📚 References
Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence—from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books.
Levine, P. A. (1997). Waking the tiger: Healing trauma. North Atlantic Books.
Patañjali. (1990). The yoga sutras of Patanjali (S. Prabhavananda & C. Isherwood, Trans.). Vedanta Press. (Original work published ca. 400 CE)
Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.
Sapolsky, R. M. (2004). Why zebras don’t get ulcers: The acclaimed guide to stress, stress-related diseases, and coping (3rd ed.). Holt Paperbacks.
van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.
© 2025 Julia Kaplinska, PhD, PLLC. All rights reserved.
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Kaplinska, J. (2025). On intuition, part 1: Connection, stillness, chronic stress, and embodiment. Embodied Way Blog. https://[your-website-url-here]
