Intuition or Fear? How to Tell the Difference

What if intuition isn’t something mystical you have to “find,” but a frequency you can tune into — one that connects you to your higher self, the collective unconscious, and a deeper sense of knowing?

In this episode, Jess explores the fine line between intuition and fear — and how to tell the difference. Recorded as a spontaneous stream of consciousness (via voice notes), this episode dives into how our nervous system, subconscious patterns, and collective conditioning all influence the way we receive intuitive guidance.

You’ll learn:
 ✦ Why nervous system regulation is the foundation for intuitive clarity
 ✦ How to recognize the physical sensations of intuition in your body
 ✦ The role of the collective unconscious and how we tap into it through awareness
✦ How fear can be both a growth edge and a byproduct of cultural conditioning
✦ Why dismantling fear-based obedience (hello, patriarchy and religious control) is key to reconnecting with your authentic power

Jess also shares personal stories, synchronicities, and signs from the universe — from turtle messengers to repeating numbers — and how these moments can serve as confirmations from your higher self.

Listen if: You’ve ever wondered how to tell whether a “gut feeling” is fear or intuition — or if you’re ready to rebuild trust with your inner knowing and reconnect with your higher consciousness.

Let's connect! 

Find me on Substack https://substack.com/@jesscallahan or on Instagram @jesscallahan_

I offer 1:1 coaching and other tools to help you on your mind/body/soul journey. Find me online at www.jesscallahan.com 

✨ Keywords for SEO: intuition, higher self, collective unconscious, nervous system regulation, fear vs intuition, subconscious healing, spiritual psychology, energy alignment, fear-based conditioning, embodied intuition, signs from the universe, synchronicity

Transcript

Speaker: 0:04

Hey guys, welcome back. I'm gonna do something a little bit differently today. So I'm recording this podcast through a series of voice notes. And I'm doing that because I've been using voice notes a lot in my personal life, just like with friends. And you know, I've been having these like conversations about how great voice notes really are. Because I think when you're using voice notes, there's like this ability to tap into a stream of conscious thinking. It's like, you know, for me, when I record the podcast, I'm always like doing a lot of research and planning out the episodes. And, you know, I'll still do those episodes, but I think there's just something really fun about being able to just like tap into this like stream of conscious thinking. You know, when you journal and you start writing about something and you're like, you just really hit the zone where you know your hand just starts moving and you're like, wow, I didn't even realize that I was like holding that thought in my brain. Um, I think that voice notes can sort of have the same impact. So anyway, I'm just I'm sitting here recording on my phone on a voice notes app, and um yeah, we're just we're gonna go from there. So, okay. I was asked recently by a friend about my perspective on intuition versus fear. And then like, what is fear, right? Like there's a lot of different ways I think that you can look at fear. And it was a really deep question, but it was one that I hadn't really like parsed out completely. And so I talk a lot about the importance of like being able to tune into our intuition and how like when you are working from like a regulated space, that's um you just have this like ability to tap into yourself at the deepest level and make you know much more aligned decisions and um you just you have a lot more clarity on like what your path is supposed to look like because you know when things are when you're when you're moving with like the right path or with your intuition, things generally feel easier and supported. And the opposite is also true, right? Like if you are working against the right path, you'll feel blocked. And that's when things feel harder. And you know, it's not always just a matter of like working harder and having more discipline and um pushing through, you know, sometimes the those situations are really just a no. Um, you know, so it's about finding balance. But that's another reason why I think like it's I it's really important to cover the regulation stuff first. It's why we've done a lot of work here on the podcast on burnout, especially and nervous system regulation, because I think it's so easy for us to, you know, want to access our intuition, want to access our higher selves, want to be able to more easily distinguish between like what are the feelings that we're getting in our bodies? Is it intuition? Is it fear? Um, that's a question that comes up like just a lot for me in my everyday life. And I think it's just it's really important to work from a regulated space. So um yeah, so always, always, always burnout, healing burnout and nervous system regulation comes first, is paramount. Um, but okay, so intuition. I think that before we talk about the difference between intuition and fear, I want to just talk about like what is intuition. And I think it depends on how connected you are to yourself and like how like what level of consciousness, I guess, that you're operating from. Because you know, self-awareness is paramount in this process. Self-awareness is really important. I think intuition can mean different things to different people. And I'll give you an idea of what I think that means and also then you know what intuition is to me. So intuition is a gut feeling. It's knowing that you know, some something is the right choice. It's getting an instant read on someone, you know, walking into a room and feeling the vibe of a room, being a good like being someone who reads people really well. Being someone who, you know, if you ever get a gut feeling about going somewhere or doing something and you're like, oh yeah, I don't know why, but I'm not gonna do that. That's your intuition speaking. So intuition speaks through the body first, meaning um intuition can just be like this inner radar that says, that's a yes, that's a no. It helps you with the line choices. Um, but intuition can also be a much more expansive thing. Um, it's like okay. Are you familiar with the idea of the collective unconscious? So when you study consciousness, you'll find that we talk about this like layer, um, realm, if you will, of consciousness where all of us are connected. And, you know, there's questions of is consciousness um, is it, you know, are we all operating off of basically like one mind, one consciousness? And then each of us has our own reflection of that consciousness in our awareness. Like we are all individuals, but we have access to this layer called the collective unconscious. And it's sort of like this space of all knowing. And um, you know, depending on how deep you want to go, it can be the space where time is no longer linear. It can be a space where, you know, you can tap into that like felt sense of knowing to know what is going to happen in your future, right? We all have these like spiritual gifts of how how we're able to sort of like tap into this layer, whether it's um clairvoyance, clear cognizance, like it can be your ability to like see the future. Maybe it's your ability to hear um messages that just feel like they're popping in from out of nowhere, or when you maybe on like a more pragmatic level, when you just know that something is true and it's the unexplainable. I don't know why this is true, but I just know it's true. I just know it. Um, that's basically like an awareness coming from this like field called the collective unconscious, quantum consciousness, the Akashic Records, you know, whatever you want to call it. Um and, you know, at some point I think I'll dive deep into that. There's some really cool research out that supports this idea um through quantum physics. And maybe I'll share it on my Instagram feed. But, you know, I always find myself wanting to balance, um, you know, as I get as I feel the like nudge to go into these more like spiritual areas where we do we talk about being able to like tap into um working with our higher self, working with our guides. I also feel equally grounded in logic and science. And so I'm always trying to just like find the science that supports all of this and and I'll share it at some point. But anyway, um, yeah, so okay, intuition then to me is how I being my awareness, how I um connect with, communicate with, or receive messages from this like layer of the collective unconscious. So um, you know, it can be like my higher self, connecting with my higher self might be the version of me that has access to that type of awareness or knowing. So the messages for me that come through in my intuition would be, you know, I get a lot of the felt sense in my body. You know, where does intuition live in my body? And it's taken me a long time to build this awareness. And of course, like when I was living in burnout and completely dysregulated, these aren't, you know, the physical sense isn't something that I had access to. Because like even if I did, when your nervous system is dysregulated, it's really hard to tell with certainty like where a um like a ping is coming from, where a nervous system reaction is coming from, where a feeling in your body is coming from. Is it a trauma response, like a trigger response? Is it, you know, a cortisol spike that you're you know kind of repressing? Um, so but now today I know that for the most part, like I feel intuition in my like upper abdomen where my solar plexus is. That area sort of like lights up when it's an intuitive nudge. And I just like it would be easy for me to ignore it. Um, but now that I know it's there, it's hard to ignore. And, you know, I've had friends say that like when they're on the right path, they know it because they feel this like um, it's almost like a glowing feeling, like in their, like their head. They're basically like they just, it's like a tingle, maybe, or their throat constricts. Um, so knowing where intuition lives in your body and and just paying attention, like, you know, oh, what was that like ping? That was sort of like a ping of, you know, do this or don't do that, or this is a yes, or this is a no. When you start to just pay attention to those things, you can start to figure out like where they live in their bot in your body. I think that's really important. Um, the other way that I know that I like follow my intuition. So when something is a yes, it feels really expansive and light. I don't know how else to describe it, but it's like especially on like a path forward, if something feels like it is expansive and I can like even like easily get ideas and I can shift into like a flow state, then that's usually a yes. If it's a no, it feels blocked. And like in my like mind, I can't even really like look in that direction if that makes sense. Like I can't even like like shift my awareness there because it just feels blocked. Um, so okay, so those are some ways that I think intuition can show up in the body. I think there's a ton of other ways. Each of us is so different, and you know, it just it really does just start by like observing. It's it starts by observing when something feels like it is just like a knowing, a felt sense of knowing and how how it showed up, how it presented itself. But another way that intuition shows up a lot for me is through um synchronicities, so or um synchronicities or like this idea of like ease and you know when you look down a road and you're driving down like a you know a main road in town and there's all kinds of like stoplights, and you look up, and all of the lights are green, and it's like a full yes, right? Like you can just like drive through, or even better, like you're watching the lights turning green um one by one, and you know that you're gonna be able to just like drive it through with ease. That's sort of like this idea that I'm talking about, where you start to explore a path, you start to explore a project or taking some sort of road, and it just unfolds for you. When I was moving, when I, okay, so after college, I was trying to decide where I was gonna live, where I was gonna work, and you know, just like what I was gonna do with my life. And I wanted to move to Baltimore. And so in this in this instance, like kind of like the opposite was true. The path felt really hard, forced, blocked. Like, um, you know, I think that there are just times when things feel really hard, and it doesn't just mean that you're supposed to push through, work harder, overcome. Of course, there's like a balance, but when a path feels locked, when it feels way harder than it's supposed to feel, it's usually because it's a no, or there's something else that has to happen first, or there's just another opportunity on the horizon, or there's just a reason that it's supposed to be a no. And so when I was trying to move to Baltimore, I was applying for jobs, and it was like really hard just to get the interviews. And the interviews that I was getting, it was basically like I had gone to school for um media and professional communications, and I wanted to be working in public relations or marketing. And um the marketing interviews that I was getting, I was like going down to these job interviews, and what the job, like the jobs were actually to go business to business and sell like random stuff. And I don't, I like fell for it a couple of times. Like it was um like physically just like going business to business, and that's not really me, like not actually at me at all. And I don't know how I kept interpreting these jobs as something different, but I think that there was, you know, a layer of deception in how the jobs were marketed. But I went down for two interviews like that, and I got the jobs, but it was like, you know, it was like a test to be like, is this really what I want to be doing? Like, do I want to be going to Baltimore this badly? And the answer was no. And so, you know, I just I gave up on that. I was like, this is nothing's working out. This isn't working. I need to just like, I need to just reroute. And so I ended up getting my real estate license at home, which I didn't use. But when I moved home, um, you know, six or seven years later and started having my family. I did pull my real estate license out of escrow at that time and was able to um really make use of it. And, you know, that that defined the next decade of my life. So, okay, so fast forward then, and shortly after I got my real estate license, I decided that maybe I would try again. You know, like the real estate was great, but I still really just like felt this pull to pursue work in my career. And so I decided to give it another try, this time in DC. And so I applied to a few jobs and I ended up getting interviews right away. And one of them was with this public relations firm that I really wanted to work with. And I ended up, I was offered both jobs, and they were both for me like dream jobs at the time. And I um yeah, so I took the, you know, the public relations firm job, which I got because of, you know, like planning events recently and inviting media to the events, and it was just like little things that I wasn't even really thinking about, but um, it just made the path just like unfold so easily. And so anyway, I we were still using like Craigslist for roommates at the time. And I found these incredible roommates immediately. One of them is still one of my very best friends today, and we ended up finding this incredible house in a you know part of the city that we just loved. And it was just it unfolded so easily, so quickly. Um so anyway, I think that's just like an example of like when something is a yes, it has the potential to just like unfold with so much ease. And so I think that's something to really tune into when you start to feel like if something feels like it's happening with support, tune into that and figure out why it feels supported and you know what feels different than maybe like other related situations. Another way that my intuition shows up, I love um I love animal guides, and I find that I um like that they show up a lot for me on my path. And every time I look into like the spirit meaning of a certain animal, there's like a really clear message. And it's not like that you just are like driving around and you see a squirrel like crossing the road. It's I don't know, like if you've ever, it's it's like an animal shows up in a way that is really unexpected. Why, like, why is that animal there? Or an animal shows up and and I'll like see it out of the corner of my eye, and it's almost like it's just like staring at me intently. There's just this connection that happens when I know that it's um, you know, it's like a sign that I'm supposed to tune into. Like there's the other day, actually, I'm working on this project and I'm really excited about it. I'm gonna share more about it soon. And it's it's one of those things that like I'm working with a partner on it and we're having a lot of fun with it, but we both know that we're supposed to like pace ourselves. We have other stuff that we have to be working on, like we can't let everything else fall by the wayside before, you know, if we're not like we need to just sort of like pace ourselves. And, you know, I'll get really excited and I'll go all in for a while, and then I'm like, oh, I forgot to like pay attention to you know all the other things that I'm supposed to be doing. And so um I came home that like one day, and there's a turtle walking across my driveway. And, you know, we don't, we don't live near water. We live on a hill, there's no water, there's rarely turtles. I think I've seen one turtle in my yard in the 10 years that I've lived here. And this turtle wasn't in my yard. Um, it was literally like walking across my driveway where I normally park my car. Like this, just it was just like, what? I was like, why is this here? And I knew that the message was just a reminder to be, you know, slow and steady wins the race, right? Like just to be slow, thoughtful, and steady on this project. And then interestingly, my friend and partner keeps getting the same turtle messages. Um, so it's just, yeah, it's it's like a fun, playful way, I think, to connect with the universe or your guides, your intuition, however you want to look at it. But um, yeah, I really love, I love um following signs like that. Actually, she was coaching me on um, you know, asking for signs. A lot of the times I will just look for signs and they speak to me and I listen. And um, so she was like teaching me how to ask for signs, like ask certain questions and use these like tools to randomly like um generate a sign that you should get that like makes whatever your question is like a yes or a no. If you get the sign, it's a yes, right? And so she so mine was like five, five, five. And that's like the the thing that I on this like tool, I screenshot it and it was um I asked a question, and if it was a yes, it was gonna be a five, five, five. And so it was like days going by, and I was and it like wasn't showing up, and it wasn't showing up. And um, she suggested that I just ask the question in a more clear way. So I did. And as I was driving, I was like, I was on my way to to go shopping. And I was like, well, I wonder how else it could like show up in my life because I don't know, maybe I'm like being too pragmatic about like where I'm looking, like looking at addresses or um I don't know. And so I was like, well, I'm going shopping. And I guess it's possible based on what I need that like maybe my total could be like $55.55. And um, I was like, but that would be four fives. And you know, immediately I was like, well, then that would be like an extra yes. And you know, because it's just that's what my awareness is telling me. And so immediately I look to my right and there's like a real estate sign, and the last four digits on the phone number are five, five, five, five. And then like I get to the store and I'm just browsing. And at one point I like pulled up my phone, I heard my email ping go off, and I look at it, and in my email subject line, I have like a flight alert set up, and it's like your flight price is now five hundred and fifty-five dollars. And um, so it was just really cool to it's just fun to find different ways to interact with your intuition and and interact with signs and awareness. And so anyway, more on signs. I am hoping to bring this friend onto the podcast soon so she could talk a little bit more about how she uses signs, and I think you'll I think you'll find that pretty interesting. Okay, moving on to going back to that conversation I had with my friend about intuition versus fear. The next question was what is fear? And like, how do you see fear? Because when you talk about fear versus intuition, like what kind of fear do you mean? Is fear a good thing for you? Sometimes I I've you know heard you talking about fear as if it's a good thing. Is it or is you know, fear something that we have to avoid? And that was like a really interesting one for me to think about because I think I see it always, and I think at the end of the day, it's it is about like knowing yourself so well that you know what fears you're prone to, and here's what I mean by that. So I see fear, the way fear shows up in my life primarily is as a guide showing me where my growth edges are. So if I have fears like fear of using my voice, fear of being judged, fear of being imperfect or fear of being wrong, um, fear of offending someone, all of those things, like I know that those are my fears. I know that those are things that I have to work through. And I do that intentionally, but I also know that if something's showing up and it's like, like Jess, are you gonna are you gonna share this with somebody? Maybe if you share this story, it's going to change someone's life. But then I'm like, but what if I, what if, what if somebody interprets this as wrong? You know, or what if um what if somebody takes it the wrong way and they get the wrong impression of me? And I know that those are my edges. I know that when I'm like afraid of posting something or speaking publicly, or you know, anything along those lines, it's usually a growth edge. And so I know that at those times, like I go into it, you know. I I I befriend fear on my journey. I let it take a seat in the passenger seat. It's never, it's never behind the wheel. Fear is never driving my car, but I bring it along for the journey because I think that it guides me to growth, it guides me towards my like soul's purpose, it guides me to work through the things that I need to work through in order to do the things in my life that I really like feel connected to on a soul level. And so for that, in that way, I think fear is can be a really good thing. Um but you have but you do have to like to know if something like that is if you're prone to something like that. And I think in though in those ways, like an intuitive thing that you get that feels that's like bringing up fear can also be pointing you on your path to like soul growth and soul expansion. So I think that fear and intuition can really work hand in hand, but then I also just think that you have to be really aware of what other parts of your life are just like prone to fear. Like, are there certain experiences from childhood that evoke fear? Um, are there fears acquired during childhood that you're still working through, like fear of heights, fear of flying, something like that? And again, nervous system regulation comes in. Um like having this like undercurrent of fear or dread can be a sign of imbalance, and it can be like a sign of root chakra imbalance, like a safety or security, um just like imbalance in your body. So there are other things that do lead to these feelings of fear that you have to work through in you know other ways. And of course, like therapy is really important, um, working with energy healers to figure out chakra imbalances, regulating your your nervous system, that kind of thing. But I also think I think there's another type of fear that is based on conditioning. I think we've, for the most part, grown up in a world that exposes us to a tremendous amount of conditioning from the time that we are really young. And I think that a lot of the conditioning is actually like it's it's rooted in fear-based obedience. And I think that that's it's like a subconscious layer of fear that we are all working against at any given time. And okay, let me explain it like this. So I'm taking a course right now on past life regression hypnosis, and it's a form of spiritual hypnosis where you basically uh revisit past lives or the subconscious mind. You don't have to believe in reincarnation in order to, you know, participate, participate in a past life regression. It could just be that you are um just really accessing the deepest layers of your subconscious mind and letting it guide you to uncover certain themes. But the idea is that we create these like positive and negative karmic patterns um throughout our lives, and they basically shape how we are living our lives, like the ways that we're supported, the ways that we're challenged, and how we can resolve some of those like blocks, or how we can like lean into the positive complexes that we've established over time. But anyway, so that's what it is. But through this course, I've been researching the idea of reincarnation, uh, the idea that the soul is eternal and it comes back to earth through many different incarnations, right? Um okay, and so one of the things that comes up in the research is how prevalent the belief in reincarnation has been throughout history, like since human beings have been on this earth, reincarnation has been um at one point or another, like a fundamental part of most religious practices. But for one reason or another, over time it's been sort of like stripped away. And so there's a point in Christianity like that, you know, coincides with the same um, you know, rise of power among different like empires, and religious control was a rising theme at this time. And it was also the same time where women were called witches and burned at the stake for maintaining intuitive practices, um like midwifery, being an herbalist, like they weren't really witches, right? Like they were just women who, you know, in in some level or another maintained a connection with their intuition. There were some men, but it was like 80% women who were the ones that were persecuted for being a witch. But anyway, so as there's like this massive movement to teach people not to um like trust themselves through their intuition, there's also this intentional separation of the idea of reincarnation from the Christian faith on the like this is a generalization, but you know, thematically, stick with me. So one of the reasons for this is because as empires are, you know, seeking to expand their territory, they need obedience and control in order to like keep their people in order. So if you if somebody believes in reincarnation or if somebody has that like level of trust in themselves where they're able to, you know, tap into the collective unconscious and connect with their intuition and use themselves as a guide, they don't need someone in power to tell them what to do. So as reincarnation, Is stripped away from Christianity, the belief in heaven and hell is really emphasized because if they can threaten eternal damnation in a place like hell, that is a form of fear-based obedience. So if you're told that you only have this one life to live, and if you don't live it right, if you don't obey, you're going to burn in hell. It's a lot easier to control someone than it is for them to believe that like the soul is eternal and they will, you know, be back to revisit and to, you know, like rectify some of these like positive and negative, like karmic patterns that have been established. So if that makes sense, that's it's a form of fear-based obedience. And I think it's one example that I've been bumping up against a lot lately, but you know, whatever the conditioning is, whether it's patriarchal conditioning or religious conditioning, there are like like systems of white supremacy. There are so many systems that used fear-based obedience in their practice. And that's like just this uh undercurrent that uh flows through our culture that keeps people in line. And so I think that that's another area that like we each have to unpack because if it's a fear that doesn't really feel like ours, you know, I spoke a little bit about fear of speaking up, fear of offending someone through my voice, fear of saying the wrong thing. Those are fears that I know, I know they're mine. Um, but I think sometimes we bump up against these other fears and and it feels foreign, but at the same time, we're so used to just accepting it as it is that it can create this like inner conflict, inner dissonance. And so I think that's just another reason why conditioning is really, really important to start to unpack because you know, when you are conditioned, when you're when you're buying into the conditioning, um, it's just a lot easier to uh like fall into being controllable. Gabor Mate has this quote that I love, and it says, Choice begins the moment you disidentify from the mind and its conditioned patterns, the moment you become present, until you reach that point, you are unconscious. And it's basically just, you know, a nod to how much these conditioned patterns can really like dominate your life without you even really knowing it. So um I think that that's another way that fear continuously pops up for us. And it's really, really hard to spot the source of that fear if we're not fully in touch with the patterns of conditioning that we've been exposed to and the patterns that we've, for some reason or another, adopted as our own. So I think that's it. I think um we've broken down what intuition is, and you know, that intuition can be just like this felt sense in the body that tells us something's a yes or something's a no, or we can look at intuition as something more, you know, connected to this idea of like the collective unconscious and you know, seeing intuition as a way that we are able to like connect to that space or receive messages about our lives and our purpose and our path from that space. And then, you know, fear, I think like fear is something that's so deeply personal, but I see it as for the most part, like I think when we know our own fears, I think that we can see it as something that can show us our growth edges and, you know, can really be like a positive to embrace those fears and let them guide us on our path to growth. But at the same time, you know, we really have to know the fears that we're susceptible to. And like if a fear pops up and it doesn't feel like yours, or you're not sure why you have it and you're not sure how to overcome it, or, you know, that I just encourage you to lean into it with curiosity. Like, could it be a conditioned pattern that is showing up for you? You know, something that you haven't consciously thought about. It's something you haven't maybe unpacked yet, but something that you were taught along the way, whether, you know, actively taught or just something that you absorbed through just, you know, life. It's it's everywhere. Um, those are the systems that you can start to unpack and deconstruct in your own life so that you can start to identify where these fears are that are popping up that you're just like not sure what to do with. So, okay, I will, I'll be back next week. I have a really fun interview for you. I'm really excited about this one. We are going to be continuing our conversation about like intuition and the collective unconscious, but we're also going to be tapping into things like tarot and creativity. And my guest is someone who blends tarot, Reiki, and creative doodling on a healing journey. So I will look forward to seeing you guys next week. See you later.