Intuitive Insights: Harnessing the Power of Intuition + Creativity in Everyday Life
Hosted by Meghan McDonough, your No BS “Woo-Woo” Coach: Intuitive Insights is a transformative podcast. Meghan is an Intuitive Life coach who’s passion is to guide you to use your intuition and creativity for a more purpose-filled life. The podcast draws inspiration from various sources such as ancient wisdom texts, yoga, philosophical teachings, intuitive readings, interviews and personal anecdotes. Along with reflections on the intuitive messages, practical tips, exercises, and actionable steps are provided to help listeners incorporate personal growth and mindfulness into their daily lives. The aim is to empower listeners to create a more fulfilling and purposeful life knowing “You.Are.Intuitive!”
Read along https://magnetizeyourlight.blogspot.com/?m=1 @magnetizeyourlight and www.magnetizeyourlight.com
Intuitive Insights: Harnessing the Power of Intuition + Creativity in Everyday Life
Sailing Towards Our Intuition with Michelle Casazza
Have you ever felt that quiet nudge from within, only to ignore it and face the consequences? Michelle Casaza knows this feeling all too well. After years in the high-pressure finance world with a "get shit done" mentality, her body and spirit were screaming for change—until the universe literally sent fire, water, and wind to get her attention.
Michelle joins Megan McDonough to share how one whispered word—"balance"—completely transformed her life path. She expertly distinguishes between the voice of intuition and the noise of fear, offering practical wisdom on recognizing when your soul is speaking. "My intuition never has emotional attachment," Michelle explains, "and it never comes from a place of anxiety or fear."
This conversation delves into profound yet accessible territory as Michelle reveals how cooking a simple Tuscan kale pesto helped her make a life-changing decision with clarity and confidence. Her story of ignoring intuitive guidance about a relationship until experiencing dramatic signs from nature serves as a powerful reminder that our inner wisdom always knows—even when we're not ready to listen.
For anyone feeling disconnected from their inner guidance system, Michelle shares how her sailing retreats help women reconnect with their divine feminine energy, creating space for intuition to flourish. She beautifully articulates how vulnerability in community settings creates healing ripple effects that extend far beyond the individual.
Whether you're intuition-curious or looking to deepen your connection with your inner wisdom, this episode offers a refreshing perspective on trusting yourself at the deepest level. Ready to hear what your soul has been trying to tell you?
You can find Michelle and her amazing sailing retreat and more at: https://www.joinmatria.com/
To receive your own personal Intuitive Soul Reading and personalized workbook visit: https://magnetizeyourlight.com/intuition
Hi, welcome to intuitive insights. I am your host, megan McDonough. I have a guest with me today to explore further how we can use our intuition in our lives daily. I have Michelle Casaza. Michelle is an intuitive business and life coach who empowers women. She raises the consciousness of the women through the divine feminine, so welcome.
Speaker 2:Hi. Thank you, megan. Hello, it's so good to be here. I'm so happy to chat with you today about intuition.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and so we had discussed a little bit before about the volume at which intuition can play a part in conversation with ourselves. Right, yes. But first I have two questions to ask. Great You're like what is this? What is intuition to you? How do you define intuition?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I, I would have said a few years ago oh, it's your gut instinct, right? It's like that neuron call says your gut, right, right? I think that it's. It's more than that. It's being tuned in to your inner self, to who you truly are, and it's listening to that voice that comes up, those little whispers, those nudges, and honoring that. That is your intuition. It's that like connection to self and connect to others that we honor, Absolutely, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And then the second question is is how do you use it in your life? And then I have a question I want to go back on with that but how do you use intuition in your life?
Speaker 2:Well, now I use it all the time. Yeah, you said this beautiful framework recently and I hope that you can repeat it at some point today. But just about how some people don't even know that this is a thing, they're not listening. Others are hearing but they're not responding. And then some people are hearing, understanding and responding right. So how do I use it today, the way that I'm living life now, after my own personal transformation, I listen all the time.
Speaker 2:I ask her questions. In all the time I ask her questions, I connect back to myself for guidance, whether it's asking really, really anything. But I'll give you some examples From what color nail polish am I feeling right now? To a good business partner. I ask questions that range that spectrum because really we know right. When I work work with women the first thing I always hear is I don't know right, and within minutes I get her to the point where she says no, I actually do know. I was, I was afraid to say it or I was afraid to listen to that voice, and so I use it all the time. I check in with her all the time. Sometimes it's a voice, sometimes it's a feeling, sometimes it's really loud, sometimes it's quiet. But I learned over time and I'm still learning how to harness that voice, because it's an inner compass, it's a guide and it really helps us stay aligned with who we are and what we're here to do.
Speaker 1:Yes, I like to think of it like the soul is the driver of the skin suit we're living in in this kind of dense 3D world that we're trying to not get attached to but navigate through.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And so the soul knows the journey and the mission for this lifetime. And when you check in with the soul, which is your intuition I believe the voice of the intuition then if you had a.
Speaker 1:You know it's like, do, should we take a left here or right, and the soul's like this one doesn't matter. Do you know what I mean? Like it really, um, it really does. You know, uh, if you're open to listening to it. And then, more importantly, like you were saying, with your women, like they always know, but they, I think, intuitively, well, intuitively, innately, we're more intuitive as women. I'm not saying men aren't, but it's just.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's because we're allowed to be meaning like, we're allowed to let our emotions flow through us. As children, we're allowed to like, explore creatively as children. You know, we get away from that and we start doubting it in the structure of like, say, the corporate world where you came from, or just like being in communities. You know where we're afraid of what you know, so that it's not only just hearing it, but it's having the courage to follow through Right. And having said that, I would love for you to, if you don't mind, chat a little bit about how you found the courage to follow through and to leave corporate world and follow your intuition into what you're, the work you're doing now yes, yes, I love that you brought up the word courage, because you have everything we do.
Speaker 2:Um, we have a choice in what and how we do it and so when this intuition comes up, you you choose. Are you going to listen or not? Um, and that has been a theme for me of choosing, uh and and seeing the repercussions of my choices of either listening or not listening to that intuition, but to answer your question. So a little background. I was in corporate for about 12 years in the finance startup space. I'm a CPA by trade, so it was a very masculine, very intense place. My motto was get shit done. That was it right and I did. I got a lot of shit done and I burned out and this was the first full year of the pandemic.
Speaker 2:We're all like in that work from home and heavy things were dark and I had already been burnt out before the pandemic and I was about to leave my job. But then I stayed for that safety during that very uncertain time and I was sitting on a Zoom call about who knows what tech thing that wasn't working and it's all very intense and I'm kind of zoning out and all of a sudden I hear the word balance spoken to me, not from somebody on the zoom. There was nobody else in my home, it just came through and I remember looking like who said that what did you mean? Could you give me more? And it wasn't the first time I had been spoken to in that way, but it was the first time.
Speaker 2:The message was like clearly for me and uh, and very direct. It was just like immediately I just felt very shook, like oh, and so, you know, I kind of went on with my days questioning like what did that mean? What was that message? Because at the time I had already really disliked the phrase work-life balance. I just felt it was unfair expectation for women, who also want families and lives and children, to have to find a work life balance. Like it just never made sense to me. So I knew it wasn't that. I didn't know what it was, and so over time I started to. I decided that I was going to align my time with things that I loved, and so first thing was well, what do I love it?
Speaker 2:wasn't easy to that question at the time, because I was so out of balance. My entire life was my job, from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed. It was all about that career, and so I had to think about it, and what came to me was I loved travel, I loved sailing and I loved food, and so, long story short, I ended up leaving my job, starting to work for a sailing travel company that worked with these beautiful chefs, and so those three things were ticked off by this company and I thought I was going to take two weeks off. I ended up pivoting my entire life.
Speaker 2:I have not gone back to corporate, and so that was an example of when I, over time, slowly integrated that message from my intuition, from really from God, from source, that was nudging me to do something different, to change, and it wasn't overnight. That one was not an overnight decision. I have others that were. It was an overtime, and it was one of the first times that I was really learning to listen to myself. I heard that and I said I know, intuitively, there's something that has to change.
Speaker 2:I was waking up, dreading my entire day, like that is no way to live, but it seemed normal because everyone else in my life at the time was working really hard. It's like in the and yeah, for me it really changed my life and it really opened up my world. My heart, my way of thinking, my way of living. Everything changed because of that decision, because of that word balance. And it wasn't just my career choice, it was I started to learn how to treat my body better, because my body was out of balance, my hormones were out of balance. It led me to meditate, because I needed to not just get shit done but live and flow, and so really, it was this domino effect that happened after making that decision that you know, one choice leads you to the next leads you to the next. That changed my entire life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what was I? I was going to ask you something about, oh, the voice, the volume of the voice. So, speak to me. You called her, you called her, you called me intuition, which I love. Um, talk to me a little bit more about discerning what is your intuition, what is, what is she, what is her voice, and how you came to cultivate it and understand it and know what's wrong, what's not?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, I'll answer the she question, or the she point first, because I do feel that you know you mentioned women are are very highly intuitive, and you're right, as are men. Men do have this gift, we all do. Women are creators of life. We have our source of creation within us, and so we are connected on an even deeper level to God, to creator, to source. And when I think, like, what is my intuition? Yeah, it's me, but it's really my soul, therefore, my connection to God, it is the God within me. Yeah, it is all those things, and for me it just naturally is a shape, it's my feminine power, it's my feminine essence, that feminine energy, and I do believe that our intuition, whether we're a man or a woman, our intuition is a feminine energy within us.
Speaker 2:It's that creation, that intuition.
Speaker 1:It's the energy you don't have to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, so that's exactly how I think about it, and your question was how do I know that it's intuition and not something else?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Because, even on my intuitive journey and I I feel like so, the word intuition or intuitive is thrown around a lot, right. So, like you know, like this app is an intuitive, this website is an intuitive, you know like, and an intuitive in that framework to me means more like facile or easy or flows, right. So, um, but other things that flow through us are things like emotions and fears, which are emotions, and, uh, yes, because our mind is always, you know, if it's not trained to um, quell itself, it vibrates like crazy with lots of thoughts. So, um, for me, the discernment has come that my intuition never has emotional attachment, meaning, whether or not I do the thing, there's no emotion attached to the yes or no, and it never has fear at all, it's never coming from a place of anxiety or fear.
Speaker 1:so, um, and when I have those feelings, those gut feelings, you know those instinct feelings which I feel the instinct and intuition work together.
Speaker 1:but the instinct is based in the body and the survival of the body, which is transient, right, it's delicate, it needs to be protected so fear is a part of that, whereas the intuition is a part of the soul, which is, um, everlasting, it's permanent right, it's in my mind, and, and so there is no need to protect the thing that will be broken. Yeah, you know. So, um, the fear is, uh, a way of saying oh, that's my fear, that's not my intuition. So, that's how I learned to communicate with um, with my soul, my intuition. So how you know what was your journey with that? Was it similar or different, or it's?
Speaker 2:very similar, and the end point of my journey is knowing how to create space to allow that intuition to come through without emotion. Right, we have to be a clear channel to be able to hear, but the beginning of my journey was actually being in the emotions and those emotions blocking me from being the clear, from hearing my own guide, my own source. So the the example I'll share is I. I was, I was in a early days of a really beautiful relationship, but I was living in fear. Yeah, he was a lot older than me, and so my fear was could this even work? Will he be around the things that I want my partner to be around for? And there was so much fear that I was about to explode with tears all the time, and so I couldn't think is this my partner?
Speaker 2:Because I was in fear and this beautiful gift from one of my mentors. And she said the gift was an invitation to cry, an invitation to process that fear, that grief. And she said put on a sad movie, just let yourself cry. And so I did it with him. I said we're going to watch a sad movie and we're going to cry. I'm we're gonna watch a sad movie and we're gonna cry. I'm gonna really, really cry. And I did it and it's like there were, there were more tissues than I've ever seen. It was flowing out of me. This, all of the emotions that were blocking me were coming out. And the next thing I woke up feeling like a new woman so clear, so open.
Speaker 2:I still had the question. The question was not answered yet. But the anxiety was gone, the fear was gone, the grief was gone and I was clear, and so I was then able to live each day with love, not fear, and trust that the answer would come to me.
Speaker 2:Yes, trust. It allowed me to be present in the relationship and feel into it. Is this my partner? Is this my person? And the intuition came yeah, and I think that's a really beautiful story because we so with the two. I'll share a little bit more context. The two of us are sailors, and so we were living on board a boat for the summer together and in my mind, this was my time to make the decision. I'll know, right In this time, I'll know we hadn't planned to be on board for about three months together, and I tell you it was maybe week three. Yeah, and my intuition, the cry, was like week zero, it was like, right before we moved on board, I hear, I hear it. And I said, no, I'm not ready, I'm not ready to listen and I continued on, and I continued on.
Speaker 2:It was probably week five that voice came so loudly. It said the answer is no, he's not your person. And I said I'm still not ready. We had this plan. I had these three months planned. I still not ready. We had this plan, I had these three months planned. I'm not ready. And the craziest things happened for me Within the span of two days. We had on board we had a flood, we left our hatches open and we had water in the boat. Everything was soaking wet. Next night we had a fire in the galley. Thank God maintained. The next day we tore a sail from the wind. So we had all the elements. We had waddle, we had fire, we had air.
Speaker 1:The next.
Speaker 2:And I said okay, intuition, I hear you, I will listen yeah.
Speaker 2:Because I don't want to be damaged Anymore Around. I will listen because I don't want to be damaged anymore. Yes, and so I listened and I ended up similar to that cry. I said I need to go home, I need to sleep, I need to be in space to really really know if I'm going to make this decision. Came home and I did what's always helped me to connect back to my intuition. I created and, for me, my way of creating in the kitchen, I cooked and, very simply, everybody. I cooked a meal.
Speaker 1:Beautiful meal. What'd you make? What'd you make? Come on, you got to tell us.
Speaker 2:I made a beautiful Tuscan kale pesto pasta. I was halfway through making this pesto pasta.
Speaker 2:It was. I was halfway through making this pesto. I'll remember the green right in front of me which allowed my mind to stop right. There was no thinking is this the right decision? What should I do? None of that was there, because I was. My mind was in the food, it was in the creation, it was my hands right, so it was in the body. And that moment is when the intuition came so clearly and I said I'm ready to listen, he's not my person.
Speaker 2:And in that moment it wasn't sadness, it wasn't fear, it wasn't anxiety of will I find my person? It wasn't any. None of that was there. Yeah, it was a knowing. It was a very calm, clear, quiet. Even at that point, the voice was quiet because it was just maybe being served like here here's your answer, right? And I was ready for it. I was like okay, yes, I will receive that and follow that intuition. It's not to say the emotions didn't come. Of course. Living that out then having to end that relationship, of course, was hard. We are humans. The emotions were there when I had to follow through on the decision, as they will be, but I always came back to the knowing and the trust in myself. That said, this is what's right for me, this is what's best for my higher purpose, and this is what's true to who I am. So I never, wavered.
Speaker 2:It was a very hard decision, but I never wavered because it was an intuitive decision. It was aligned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, aligned, that's the right word. Yeah, yeah, I um. So one of my focuses is creativity and intuition as being entry points. Yes, so to reconnect to the creativity when you get stuck, you go through intuition, or opening a vessel, and then the opposite if you're intuition is stuck, we go through creative room to get back. And the other thing you said to so beautifully, one that you gave yourself permission for it, but it always reminds me of when I lived in LA. In the winter, you know, get really hazy, foggy and you could barely see the mountains, smoggy, but then a big rain would come and right after the rain, the mountains were like crystal clear. Yes, and I always think of that, like when people freak out about crying, I'm like, no, clear it, so you can hear it. Yeah, you know right, oh, I know, can hear it. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2:That's a beautiful image that you've just shared from nature of, yeah, that confusion, that murkiness that we live in. That's not a good place to be in and actually, even from like a brain health perspective, to live in that uncertainty is a tax on your brain. Like you don't want to be in that space on so many levels. And so when you can clear that, give yourself permission to feel what it is that you're feeling, honor, that emotion. Right, like I was scared. There was fear there, but that fear was also blocking the right choice for me. It was blocking the intuition. So I had to work through it. Yeah, right, I may have still landed in the same place of ending the relationship, but I wouldn't have felt confident in my decision had I not worked through that fear, because my intention was always to move forward with love and not fear. Right, we had to clear the fear. We had to clear it, clear it, clear it so we could hear it, hear it, hear it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I love, I love that you said too that, because okay. So I also believe that we're all on a spiritual path, right, whether or not we know it or not. And if you're listening, you can work with your spiritual path and go. You know, like, listen to your do we go left or right with the intuition, but if you're not listening and you gave a perfect example of that your intuition, the universe, whatever you want to, it'll be like I'm gonna get your attention. You know, and I love how you were, like it was earth, earth, it was air, I mean not earth, it was air and water and and and. Um, oh God, what was the other one? It was water, air, fire, fire. You're like, yeah, no more, I don't want to.
Speaker 1:You know, like, seeing it in that perspective, like I've always looked at it, like nature will get your attention, the universe will get your attention. If you are off track, nature will get your attention, the universe will get your attention. If you are off track and that usually looks like it not usually, but it can look like like a bad accident or or something. You know, it really just shifts you out of whatever fog you're in. Um, but looking at it through the, the, the veil of, you know, environmental energies. You know is just beautiful. I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I've mentioned sailing a few times, but it's really been such a gift for me on my journey, because I always feel most connected to my intuition when I'm on the water. Because you are, you are as in nature as you can be. You are just surrounded by the elements all the time, and I I've had multiple experiences on the water where my intuition has come up and alerted me of danger. Right, it's alerted me of something that we're approaching, that we need to, you know, shift or change. And, um, when I once I I realized that I also opened that up as a channel for other intuitive hits to come through.
Speaker 2:Because, really, when you and this is a great lesson for anyone who's on this path and wondering, am I intuitive? Like you said, we're all soul's journey, we are all intuitives. Right, there are ways to nurture that, to allow it to come through, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to say I am open to hearing my intuition Very simple, opening up that channel. And so I opened that channel for myself, and I know that being by the water makes me more connected, so it's a way for me to just feel into that. It's like when an actor is learning an accent, they have a phrase that helps them click back into that accent, and so for me, it's going for a walk by the water. It helps me connect back to myself, to my intuition, and so, yeah, I live by the water, I go in the water as much as possible. Anytime I travel, I'm like, okay, where's the water? I have to go find her. You know that's.
Speaker 1:As much as I like. My sister lived in the mountains for a while in Colorado and I loved it there, but I was like where's the water? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And for some people in Chicago.
Speaker 1:I need to be my husband. And oh, oh, oh, I forgot the one thing it doesn't matter. Okay, we're going right into this amazing thing that you've created for women with your two passions, which is the sailing tour. Right, is that correct? Speak to me about that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean sailing was such a huge part of my transformation back to self after being in a corporate environment, a masculine dominated environment, and week, and we sail in beautiful, beautiful locations and we bring in some really beautiful practices. There's movement, there's meditation, there's really healthy food that's going to just allow come that, you know that clear channel for yourself. There's connection exercises and it's this really transformative week where you know you step on board with sometimes a little fear, right, Like it's a, it's an adventurous experience. You're, you're going to be out in the elements, right, and there's. It's always an adventure when you step on a boat and so we actually grow by facing those fears, everything from you know what's it going to be like to be on a boat for a week to. Am I afraid of the winter? Like there's just so many things that come up. We work through that as a metaphor for working through fears in our life overall.
Speaker 2:And it's this beautiful way for women to connect back to the divine, feminine, our feminine side, which is really our creative, our intuitive, our life force within us, so that when we return and some women are returning back to their corporate jobs, some women are returning to their own business that they're running we return in balance, right Deep in this trip in the feminines, we can come back and get back to that. Hey, now I'm in my day-to-day, I can get things done. I'm getting things done because they're aligned, because I'm in balance, because it's more, you know a fuller picture of who I am as a person. So it's all about balance. It's about facing our fears and to develop, growing in community.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful and I can imagine that being together in such a sharing some things. I have always phrased that vulnerability is your superpower, and when you share it you not only empower yourself, but you empower others as well. And so I can imagine being in a space where these women were facing their fears, which lends to vulnerability, breathes some beautiful, like deep-leaded connections, you know, long-lasting connections.
Speaker 2:It really does and there's nothing like, there's nothing like being in sisterhood in a really beautiful, supported way, and that's really what this is, and yeah, it's so funny. Do you ever? Do you ever find yourself like telling someone a story and then you say like I don't know why I'm telling you this daily? All right, and to your point about like, when we're vulnerable, when we share, we actually help others. Well, when we're sharing our story, even if we don't know it, we're teaching somebody else in that space, someone else needs to hear some part of your story and it could be an entire.
Speaker 2:Unlock them, yes, unlock and like. That is the beauty of being in community, in these really beautiful spaces, because you might think that you're healing yourself. You're actually healing others as well, 100%, and everyone that you're going to go back to your life and interact with. It's going to have a ripple effect that you are not even going to be able to fully understand, and that's the beauty of it absolutely.
Speaker 1:There's a when I, when I do readings, I have this analogy, but I think it totally speaks to what you're speaking about right now, which is when I do an intuitive reading. I call them soul talk, where I'm looking at your soul and you know, like I said to you before, like either they're not listening you know, to their soul or to their intuitive voice. They hear it but they don't want to do anything about it because they're scared or just don't even know they have it. Do you know what I saying? Like it's just like all of it. You know, we've been to all of those places, right?
Speaker 1:So I just look at it like I'm just telling you what your soul is asking you to hear, right, but in doing that, it's like I look at it like I am speaking to you through like a pane of glass, so that the message is for you, but the reflection I also see of me in there, the message is also for me. So what I hear is also for me and you. So it's like and that's and that's what the beauty of vulnerable sharing is, that intuitive sharing really is beautiful bonds of connection, absolutely, michelle. How can people find you and your beautiful retreat?
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you. You can find me at joinmatriacom it's J-O-I-N-M-A-T-R-I-Acom, and you'll find the retreats there and I'll also offer a fun quiz. Join matriarchcom forward slash quiz to find out what kind of matriarch are you. Matriarch is inspired by really the power and the wisdom that women hold, and it's an invitation to connect to that wisdom now, and that's another way of talking about your intuition. We all have it, so I invite you to connect there, and I'm also on Instagram at joinmatria.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. Thank you so much for coming. This is great. I love talking to you. I know it's fabulous. I love talking to you. I know this is just wonderful and I might have to go on that trip with you.
Speaker 2:I would love to have you.
Speaker 1:I would love to do that.
Speaker 2:I love sailing and my sailing journey, like I did not see that I just it was always like the girl trying to sail. I can never find the people who went on to sail with me. It was really hard. And then, finally, I found people who sailed, who I was like wait, my friends too. And in that moment I found this female captain who just inspired the heck out of me. I mean, she credible, and she was a me. I mean she was incredible and she was a little younger than me, which was really cool too, because it became this thing of like, of course, like, of course women can do this. What's wrong with me? Like I just hadn't seen the examples? So I get so much joy out of getting women on board boats, building their confidence of being on board a boat and allowing me to feel this beautiful connection to the sea and the water and, um, I hope to have you there, megan.
Speaker 1:I'll see you on the water. I know All right. Well, take care and um talk to you soon.
