Why You Can’t Tell If It’s Intuition or Anxiety (And It’s Exhausting)

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In this Weekly Recharge reflection, Renae shares a realization that surfaced during meditation: somewhere along the way, many of her everyday decisions had quietly shifted from intuition to anxiety.

Not in dramatic ways — but in subtle, reasonable choices that slowly prioritize comfort, predictability, and control over growth and connection.

In this short reflection, she explores how the nervous system often disguises anxiety as “maturity” or logical decision-making, and how high achievers can end up overriding their intuition without even realizing it.

Through personal stories — from spontaneous road trips to Nashville with a violin to navigating decisions today as an entrepreneur and performer — Renae reflects on what it means to reconnect with the version of yourself that once trusted instinct more than fear.

You’ll also hear a simple nervous system awareness exercise to help you notice whether your next decision is coming from anxiety or intuition.

Sometimes the person your nervous system is asking you to become again… is someone you’ve already been.

In this reflection:

• The subtle ways anxiety begins influencing everyday decisions
• Why the nervous system prefers predictability and perceived safety
• How intuition often calls us toward growth and connection
• A personal story about trusting instinct earlier in life
• A simple question to help you recognize anxiety vs intuition in decision making

Transcript

Anxiety vs Intuition

Reclaiming the Adventurous Self

Leaning Into Uncertainty

Weekly Challenge and Next Steps

Speaker 0:00

Hello, and welcome to the weekly recharge. I'm Renae, founder of Wayward Wellness Coaching. And if you stumbled across this bonus episode from my Hustle Rebels podcast, I want to officially welcome you and invite you to subscribe to my newsletter, The Weekly Recharge. It comes out every Wednesday, and I'll have the link in the show notes. Alrighty. Now that that's handled, let's get into it. Sometimes the biggest shifts in our lives don't come from dramatic moments. They show up in the quiet everyday choices that we make without even realizing why. Here's what we'll cover this week. How anxiety quietly disguises itself as logical decision making, why your nervous system naturally chooses comfort and predictability, the subtle difference between anxiety-driven decisions and intuitive ones, the version of yourself your nervous system might be calling back, and a simple nervous system awareness challenge that you could try out this week. This week I kept going back and forth about what I wanted to write about, and nothing really landed. Then, during a meditation, something popped up that made me stop for a second. Lately, a lot of my decisions have been coming from anxiety, not intuition. It was incredibly subtle and evolved over the years. It looks like completely reasonable decisions. Just masked as maturing. Which honestly makes it harder to notice. Because it looks like this. Deciding not to go to boxing because my back has been sore. And besides, that's two hours that I could be working on something anyway. Or having a drink at a gig, even though I already made the decision to stop doing that. It actually makes it harder for me to hear the tone clearly and it loosens my voice in a way that weakens my performance. But everything is chaotic, we are running late, Nick's flustered, the room feels tense, so I tell myself one drink will just calm my nerves. Or something small, like deciding I'll just upgrade my seat on a flight because there's an extra leg room one open, even though I told myself before, wherever my seat ended up, I would sit there and trust the opportunity to connect with someone. None of these are huge decisions, but they all have one thing in common. Every single time, I override my intuition. Anxiety is persuasive, and the nervous system loves comfort and predictability. So when anxiety shows up, the brain starts building perfectly logical arguments for choices that feel safer. But intuition usually asks something different. It asks you to lean into growth, to stay open, to connect, because that's where the real opportunities live. So I asked myself, did I mature or did I lose a piece of myself to conditioning? And if I'm being honest, I used to listen to my intuition all of the time. Back when I was younger, I just called it being adventurous, but the truth is I was just trusting my instincts. I'd randomly decide to drive 13 hours down to Nashville for the weekend with my violin and busk on the streets for gas money. Who cares if I hit a little snow along the way and slept in my car at the gas station? Did I tell anyone I was doing that? Absolutely not. And yes, one time I ran over a nail and had to call my parents for money for a tire and a hotel before heading off to see my sister in Virginia. At least now I can afford the tire in a hotel myself. But back then I had to be resilient. I had to be resourceful. There wasn't an option to just spend money to make things easier. So I trusted my gut. And honestly, some of the best experiences of my life came from those decisions. Somewhere along the way, though, I was conditioned to believe that version of myself was just young and reckless. Well, I can agree that it was a little reckless, but I also convinced myself that being in my 30s meant being more calculated, more controlled, and more practical. But lately my nervous system has been calling that version of me back. The one who trusted her intuition. The one who knew that growth doesn't usually happen in a perfectly controlled environment. The one who understood that connection and opportunity often show up when you stop trying to engineer every possible outcome. At the end of March, I'm going to a conference, and for the first time in a while, I'm leaning back into that version of myself. I'm flying in a day early, and I don't have the hotel figured out yet. For the one day, let's not go crazy. The rest of the trip is well planned. And the current old version of Renee would be making plans right now to make sure I would have an answer for Nick on deck for where I'll be staying, because in order to cure my anxiety, I need to cure his anxiety, therefore I'd be making a decision from anxiety. So you get the cycle. But honestly, worst case scenario, I'll just find one that night, like I used to. And if I told you the full story of how I ended up moving to Massachusetts, you'd probably think I was crazy too. But maybe that's the point. Sometimes the version of yourself your nervous system is asking you to become again is someone you've already been. So here's this week's nervous system challenge. For the next few days, try something simple. When you're making a decision, pause and ask yourself one question. Is this decision coming from intuition or anxiety? Anxiety usually pulls you toward comfort, control, and avoidance. Intuition usually nudges you toward growth, curiosity, and connection. The trick isn't forcing anything. It's simply just noticing. Because the more you listen to intuition, the quieter anxiety tends to get. And this week on Hustle Rebels Podcast. So if this topic resonated, you can head over to my Hustle Rebels podcast to catch the latest episode. Last week's episode dug into how invisible effort and recognition actually regulate the nervous system more than people realize. And if you're in leadership, why this is incredibly important for a functioning workplace environment. Thursday's episode continues this conversation with Steve Besson, where we talk about the invisible injury in high pressure professions and the importance of treating it just like visible injury. The link is in the newsletter where you can listen to the latest episode. As always, I appreciate you guys and I'm always here if you have any questions or even want to chat. Share the weekly recharge with a friend so they can be regulated just like you. See you guys next week.