Keeping In Touch With Your Intuition: Author Alaina Schwartz On How To Get In Touch With Your Intuition And When To Trust Your Intuition When Making Decisions
An Interview With Maria Angelova
People tend to block their Intuition when they are in stress. Being in your sympathetic nervous system allows for the voice of your Ego to drown out the voice of your Intuition. In other words, you create resistance to allowing the messages to flow. So, moving to your sympathetic nervous system when you are tuning in to your Intuition is key. It is why people have 3am genius moments, and get downloads in the shower or on a walk. They are not in resistance in those moments, so the messages come through.
Intuition is defined as the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning. Where does intuition come from? Can it be trusted? How can someone tune in to their intuition? To address these questions, we are talking to business leaders, coaches, mental health experts, authors, and anyone who is an authority on “How to Get In Touch With Your Intuition And When To Trust Your Intuition When Making Decisions.” As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alaina Schwartz.
Alaina Schwartz is an International Speaker, Best-selling Author, and Elite Performance Coach who is passionate about helping high-achievers double and triple their income and impact while working 20–30 hours a week less.
With over 25 years of experience in entrepreneurship, she is intimately familiar with the sacrifices often made for profitability. Now she uses cutting-edge tools to support her clients in making shifts at the DNA level to align with their purpose so they can move out of stress and into joyful and sustainable 7+ figure success. Because no one needs to sacrifice to have it all. www.alainaschwartz.com.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Igrew up in a lower middle-class family that put a lot of value and pressure on my education. I was driven hard by my parents to excel in school with honors. They felt I could have a different life than the struggle they continuously had in their life. Unfortunately, I, like most kids, internalized it and felt like nothing I did was good enough. I felt like I had to jump through hoops to receive love and acceptance. My pursuit of doing better was the way to avoid pain (literally and metaphorically). Eventually, it became self-perpetuating to prove to myself that I was good enough.
I picked up the limiting beliefs that money was hard to both make and keep. I watched my parents, both entrepreneurs, struggle with money and their relationship to it my whole life. I was basically taught that the way to avoid their financial pitfalls was to get a job in a career that was guaranteed success (I became a successful lawyer in the music industry for 18 years, as a result).
Most kids of parents who are working class, middle class and even professionals teach their children to focus on security and education that will get them a secure job/future. Many kids, like me, were often taught not to trust ourselves and our intuition. It is the logical, intellectual side that will create that job security, whereas our intuition will move us to our purpose.
Then I had a pivotal experience that changed who I was and the trajectory of my life forever. I had a traumatic brain injury when I was 14 years old. My mother was told I would have permanent brain damage. She didn’t believe it. She started to retrain my brain, giving me games, puzzles, challenges, tests. Gradually, my performance improved. Today we call this neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to form new neurosynaptic connections long past childhood. This experience gave me my first entre into personal development and meditation. Having come very close to dying was the first opening of my eyes to there being something deeper beyond the physical reality and led me to a life of exploring what that is.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
The truth will set you free.
This quote came from the Bible. I am not religious at all, and was even raised Jewish, yet this quote is the path to true freedom. What being able to tune into my Intuition and higher self on demand has given me is clarity on the Truth, with a capital “T”. I, like all people, grew up believing things about myself and life that were not grounded in the truth. That is the nature of self-limiting beliefs. They are inherently untrue. And the truth about us is so much greater than we imagine.
When I was in college, I had a history professor that told history from a truthful perspective, with all the greed and corruption, rather than what’s typically taught in history books. I fell in love with the truth. I grew up in a household where my parents were creative with the truth. And it was dangerous for me to speak my truth. Finding this work a few years back has liberated both me and my income. The Truth really has set me free.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
There were 2 books that made a significant impact on me when I was first starting to coach almost a decade ago. The first I discussed in this other interview we did together. https://medium.com/authority-magazine/alaina-schwartz-on-how-authenticity-and-vulnerability-pay-off-and-help-you-win-personally-and-ae576e4b32b0
The second book was Loving What Is, by Byron Katie. Before reading Loving What Is, I had done quite a bit of personal development work. I didn’t believe I projected onto other people anymore. Boy was I in for a rude awakening after reading this book. It helped me understand where I was still blaming others, still in victim mentality and not taking responsibility for having created my reality. For years, I required that my clients read it when working with me. Taking responsibility for our lives is a major key to be able to create our realities the way we desire to experience it.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Let’s begin with a definition of terms so that each of us and our readers are on the same page. What exactly does intuition mean? Can you explain?
We are spiritual beings having a human experience. There is a part of us that is eternal, infinite in nature — I will call this part of ourselves our higher selves. Every thought that has ever been or ever shall be thought already exists in the now (this is Quantum Physics). Our higher self is all knowing, as it has the ability to tap into Infinite Intelligence and all thought. When we are consciously connected to our higher selves we bring forth this intelligence in the form of our Intuition. That is why your Intuition will never steer you wrong, it is a knowing. It’s as if you are on a crowded city street trying to see up ahead from the vantage point you’re at and your higher self is perched on top of a skyscraper and can see clearly what’s ahead. It knows how you get from point A to point B with grace and ease, and one way it guides us is through our Intuition.
How would you define common sense? Are intuition and common sense related?
Common sense is generally defined as the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way and make good decisions — good sense and sound judgment. While it’s possible that Intuition could be informing a person’s common sense, it often is not.
How are they different from each other?
While you can develop both common sense and Intuition, Intuition is more of a knowing without using your intellectual faculties. Actually, using your intellect can cut your connection to your Intuition. Whereas, common sense is exercising your intellectual faculties and utilizing more conventional wisdom. Common sense uses the mind, and Intuition goes beyond the mind.
What are the positive aspects of being in touch with your intuition? Can you give a story or example to explain what you mean?
Intuition, in my opinion, is like having a built-in GPS guidance system that taps into Universal Intelligence. It’s a superpower that allows us to take aligned and intelligent action, clear limiting beliefs, and understand the right strategies for business growth and scaling.
In the professional realm, intuition plays a vital role. Let me share some examples of how it can benefit us in various aspects of work and leadership.
Intuition enables us to make decisions confidently, without second-guessing ourselves, and take actions that produce desired results, eliminating wasted time on activities that don’t produce results. It helps us recognize problems even when the situation might indicate otherwise, allowing us to address issues with clients or employees promptly. Moreover, it guides us in identifying compatible clients, employees, and business opportunities, preventing potential mismatches.
By tapping into our intuition, we can shift from constant hustle to a state of flow, where our work feels effortless and our productivity increases significantly. It enhances our leadership skills, making us better entrepreneurs, as we can trust our intuitive insights in decision-making.
Additionally, intuition has the potential to extend its benefits beyond the professional realm. It can help us clear up health issues, understand the needs of our loved ones, and navigate challenging situations with ease.
As an Elite Performance Coach, I specialize in teaching individuals how to harness their intuition as a reliable guidance system in both their personal and professional lives. I have witnessed firsthand the transformative effects of intuition.
For example, one of my clients, whom I’ll refer to as Jan, was experiencing burnout and struggling to attract high net worth (HNW) clients. By learning to tap into her intuition, Jan reclaimed her energy and reduced her work hours from 12–14 to 6–7 hours per day. Despite being in her industry for over 20 years, she didn’t receive referrals. Jan began receiving referrals for HNW clients, speaking engagements to HNW groups, and effortlessly attracting her desired clientele.
Moreover, by leveraging her intuition, Jan cleared the self-sabotaging patterns in her subconscious mind so she stopped being the bottleneck of her business and was able to stay in flow. She embraced spontaneity, moving away from the perfectionism that plagued her for years. This positive shift not only benefited her business but also improved her relationship with her son, creating a freer and easier dynamic.
Intuition truly is a remarkable tool that, when nurtured and utilized, can unlock immense potential and facilitate personal and professional growth. It’s an integral part of my coaching approach, enabling individuals to stay aligned and confident in their decision-making processes.
Are there negative aspects to being guided by intuition? Can you give a story or example to explain what you mean?
Honestly, there are no negatives to embracing your intuition. However, when people first start the journey of tuning into their intuition, they might encounter a common challenge — distinguishing between the voice of their ego and the voice of their intuition. It’s like trying to navigate through a noisy crowd at a music festival. You’re surrounded by different sounds, and at first, it’s a bit overwhelming to pinpoint the melody of your intuition amidst the noise. With practice and self-trust, discernment becomes as clear as the bassline in your favorite song.
Now, let’s talk about something that some might perceive as a negative, although I see it more as a side effect of truly following your intuition and using it to clear blocks and limiting beliefs in your subconscious mind. You become energetically sensitive to situations that you previously were able to tolerate. It’s like you’ve cranked up the volume on your intuition, and suddenly, low-vibration people and situations feel more intense. But here’s the kicker — it’s not that they’ve become objectively more intense; it’s just that you’ve heightened your sensitivity. Think of it as upgrading your intuitive senses to high-definition.
It can be a bit jarring initially. But it’s a small price to pay for the increased flow and freedom that comes from faithfully following your intuition. The rewards far outweigh any temporary discomfort because your intuition will guide you towards higher vibrational experiences and help you fine-tune your environment to align with your true self.
Can you give some guidance about when one should make a decision based on their intuition and when one should use other methods to come to a decision?
As your Intuition is bringing into your awareness Universal truth, what is actually in your highest good, there is no better way to make a decision. Now that I have said that, I will qualify it.
We all have free will. While doing what our Intuition guides us to do is always in our highest good, it does not take into account the limitations you are perceiving in a certain current circumstance (largely because they don’t really exist, even if they feel very real in the moment). It’s like having a wise sage as your business and life coach who knows that there’s a solution to every situation and that it can happen right now. As we are having a human experience, we may be too bogged down in our patterns and self-limiting beliefs to see or trust the solution. In that case, I sometimes recommend you put out the fire before healing the burns.
For example, when I first started really learning how to be completely guided by my Intuition in my business, there was a time that my higher self said that two clients were not in my highest good to enroll. I was struggling financially in that month. I hadn’t built my trust up enough yet to trust that a better fit client would be there for me if I said no to these 2 clients. To get myself out of survival (put out the fire), I enrolled both clients. It ended up working out for me because I was able to tune in and understand how to transform the dynamic with these clients so it was aligned for me. So I could both enjoy working with both of these clients as well as have a little financial cushion to make the huge pivot that my Intuition guided me to make in my business at that time.
From your experience or perspective, what are some of the common barriers that hold someone back from trusting their intuition?
I see 3 main barriers that cause people to lack trust in their Intuition.
The biggest barrier I see is the lack of self-belief. People doubt whether the messages they receive are just made up. They have not built trust with themselves (which is also a huge barrier to success), so they do not believe they are receiving real guidance. Or they don’t believe in their ability to execute successfully on the guidance.
Also, sometimes what our Intuition guides us to can be pretty far out there. It may not make logical sense. Many people are so dependent on their logical mind to make decisions that they don’t trust the message they’re receiving unless they can wrap their logical mind around it. But our higher selves sees and understands things that we do not. So something that does not make any sense to us makes perfect sense in the grand scheme.
Lastly, limiting beliefs. If you have a belief that says you have to work really hard or you will not be successful and your Intuition tells you to take the day off and go have fun, it is unlikely you will take the day off and go have fun. Yet it will be either the time off that you gave yourself that is self-loving, and may have allowed you to relax enough to download the exact solution you needed. Or maybe in doing what you love to do you meet someone who was the exact person to help you move your business forward. But you have so much fear about losing ground or getting behind if you take the day off, you do not act on the guidance.
Here is the central question of our discussion. What are five methods that someone can use to become more in touch with their intuition?
1 . People tend to block their Intuition when they are in stress. Being in your sympathetic nervous system allows for the voice of your Ego to drown out the voice of your Intuition. In other words, you create resistance to allowing the messages to flow. So, moving to your sympathetic nervous system when you are tuning in to your Intuition is key. It is why people have 3am genius moments, and get downloads in the shower or on a walk. They are not in resistance in those moments, so the messages come through.
2 . For people who do not know how to tap into their Intuition on demand, I suggest asking an empowered question and focusing on the question right before you meditate. Then, just trust you will receive the answer. Before I knew how to tap into my Intuition on demand, this is what I used to do. I would set an intention at the beginning of my meditation. I’d ask the question I wanted the answer to. (Side note — if you ask a disempowering question, you will not want the answer to it. For example, why isn’t this working? That question will give you more experience of what is not working. As opposed to asking the question, How can I make this work? You want the answer to that question.) Then I would trust I would receive the answer either during the meditation or soon after. The more you trust and are open to receiving the answer, the faster it comes. The more I practiced this technique, the faster the answers came to me. Sometimes answers can come directly, ie, you will hear a voice, or have a knowing of what to do. Other times it can be indirect, ie, you may overhear a conversation, and it’s exactly what you were looking for.
3 . Practice whatever technique you use to tune into your Intuition. People’s Intuition typically comes to them in a primary way and a secondary way. The way messages flow are 1. auditory — people hear a voice talking to them in their head, 2. visual — they see images/colors, 3. kinesthetic — they feel the message, or 4. they have a knowing — Intuition comes through like it is their own thoughts. When I first learned how to tap into my Intuition on demand, my primary was auditory and my secondary was visual. As I have been doing this for years, I now receive messages through all four ways. There are times I might ask if something is in my highest good and I’ll just feel lighter or heavier. I know the answer is coming through in feelings. When teaching this to clients, I have had some clients say they are not receiving any messages. And I know they are, so I will ask if they are seeing colors or hearing song lyrics, or something like that. One of my clients saw colors and she did not realize that was a message. Once you set the intention to receive an intuitive download, everything after that is usually a message. As she played with the colors and acknowledged she was receiving messages, she started to have feelings and knowing come through as well which helped her interpret the messages with clarity.
4 . Many people find that doing automatic writing allows them to tap into their Intuition. I have a client who does automatic writing. She sits down at her laptop, asks a question and then starts typing. Soon enough, she will get clarity on what she wanted clarity on and the message will start flowing through her fingertips. I recommend for most people to actually sit down and write instead of type, however, whichever way works for you. Even when you are learning to tap into your Intuition in other ways, writing down the messages you received helps you develop trust in your Intuition.
5 . Hire a coach who can teach you how to tap into your Intuition on demand. I have worked with a few coaches that talk about using your Intuition and tapping into your Higher Self for answers. However, the way most people teach is to build your self-awareness and work honing it through trial and error. Eventually you start learning how you receive messages. This is a super slow and hit and miss way of learning. There is a much more direct way that can help you learn how to utilize your Intuition to be the GPS in your business and life. It cuts a lot of suffering and resistance out of life quickly.
You are a person of significant influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
There are many valuable movements out there. The one that I believe brings the biggest bang for the buck in terms of the ripple effect is raising consciousness. Raising our consciousness encompasses loving ourselves more, living our purposes fully, stewarding the planet, etc. While there will always be people who choose to serve themselves first (and at the cost of everyone else), raising the frequency of the majority of people allows them to be of greater service in the world, and live in a more loving, kind and respectful way. One aspect that I am building is raising consciousness within business. Almost all of us have been raised with certain ideas about what it means to be successful and have a successful business. I am elevating the consciousness of business owners so that each entrepreneur does business in a way that is aligned with what is in their highest good, essentially, each of our authentic selves. It allows us to get out of the hustle and into flow. To be the creators of the fabulous life we came to create, claim all our gifts and talents as well as all the abundance that is our birthright. That many people living in alignment with their purpose and creating what is really possible for themselves from a highest good perspective, elevates the consciousness of the whole planet.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Rich Litvin is a coach I worked with many years ago. I’d love to have a conversation with him about Intuition.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I have a social media manager, so I don’t respond directly if people reach out to me on social media. If you want to get in contact with me directly, the best way is to grab my FREE gift here, 3 Ways to Shave 20–30 Hours Off Your Workweek While Making More Money by registering at www.alainaschwartz.com/time and I will respond directly to any email that you reply to.
Readers can follow me on any of these social media channels:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@alainaschwartz
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alainaschwartz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alaina.schwartz7
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alaina.schwartz/
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
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