Understanding The Role Of Intuition In Inspired Action

In this talk,

I was interviewed by somebody who wanted to know how can we use intuition to take inspired action.

I'll add the questions in between my answers.

Enjoy this talk and I hope you find your own intuition and inspired action spark.

What I've seen on this journey for myself and for the people that I've worked with,

Whether they be in prison,

Whether they're leading organisations,

Whether they're in the community,

Whatever it is,

Is that everyone has access to this intuitive understanding.

Every single person has access to that from birth.

Messages through the system that we call the three principles every day,

All day long.

Some people take that and run with it and then there's all these creations and why do some not?

And that's been something that I've reflected on for a long time.

And where I've got to right now is it's the action part that gets missed off.

So we get those nudges all day long but we don't follow them.

So the next thing doesn't come and the creative output doesn't come and the book doesn't get written and the business doesn't get started and,

You know,

The paintings don't get painted because we're not following the obvious nudges.

So why is that?

And I think that's because it's not what people expect.

So people expect some sort of life-changing,

Massive bolt of lightning to come into their mind and they,

Fully formed,

Know what they're going to be doing.

In actual fact,

It appears like clean out the toolshed.

And you're like,

Clean out the toolshed?

I'm not cleaning out the toolshed.

Clean out the toolshed comes up all the time.

Clean out the toolshed.

You just don't clean out the toolshed.

Life doesn't give up on us if we don't clean out the toolshed but it sees that we're just not developing a sort of intuitive intelligence.

And to write a book,

For instance,

It doesn't come into your head.

For some people it does but I would say they are a few.

It comes as a little nudge like write a blog or go on a writing class.

What happened for me was sort out your paperwork from prison and put it into some sort of order.

It didn't really mean anything to me but I sorted it all out and then down the line,

Oh,

That was really useful because the writing coach said,

Yeah,

You've got some materials here.

You could write a book.

So it didn't even look like write a book to start with but because I have developed the muscle of following the nudges,

I don't care where they lead.

I just follow the nudges and then things get created.

To me,

I think that's as simple as it gets is that everyone has it but some people aren't following the daily nudges so they lose out on themselves because they need to do that first and that leads to all these other amazing things.

How do you distinguish between a nudge and a rattle of thought?

There's two things there.

The first thing is the nudges are very quiet,

Very simple and almost boring.

They have no justification.

I have got a very busy head.

I'm a multi-passionate so I'm always got hundreds of things on the go and I'll think of something and then I'll have all sorts of vision about that and ideas about that and so on.

That's not a nudge.

The nudge is way quieter.

The nudge is more like go to Aldi and I go to Aldi and I find that going to Aldi is this beautiful experience and I have this amazing experience and I get a car park in space and all these things happen and then when I get in the car at the end of my shopping trip,

I suddenly think,

Oh,

I can run this programme.

But the nudge was the going to Aldi because actually I needed the space and the non-distraction to hear the bigger nudge which came down the line.

So to me,

They start with a very,

Very simple,

Almost boring,

Just do this,

Just do that.

The second part is and sometimes they make me feel uncomfortable.

So the nudge might be not what I'm expecting to do right now.

So a nudge I had was I'd been working in the prison for quite some time and I had a new gig at Nottingham Prison and I had a team of facilitators and I was putting together the project and I thought,

Oh,

The way to grow my business is for me to step back and not deliver and let my team deliver.

And so I put together this whole project where the team was delivering and so on.

And in the middle of doing it and it kept being difficult and I kept having problems and in the middle of doing it,

The nudge was,

You've got to do it.

And I thought,

I don't want to.

I've got these other big plans.

Like,

What do you mean I've got to do it?

But it was so obvious and so clear.

So I don't like the nudges all the time,

But they're very obvious.

So I ended up doing it,

You know,

And then,

And then,

You know,

The rest follows.

But oftentimes the nudges are something that are a little outside my comfort zone or I don't really want to do or they seem irrelevant.

And so that makes it clearer to me that,

Oh,

OK,

This must be something I need to get on.

Life always wants us to live our biggest selves.

You can't grow.

You can't create without uncomfortability.

Now look at the,

Look at the many beautiful creations of the world that didn't come about with just feeling good in the moment and doing what you like.

And they didn't come about from inaction either.

I think that's a big thing that's missing in the conversation is,

And we have to take action.

Is there an overarching direction that the nudges are going in?

So it certainly appears like that.

And,

And it seems to me that I picked up a couple of things from what you were saying there.

So one was that life serves us whichever direction we're going in.

So we get,

We get the nudges,

Even if it's not the direction that the best direction we could be in.

Life serves us and stuff comes up to serve you along that route.

So the prison work,

Which was completely different work for me,

That occurred and I got lots of nudges and I got,

And I was very uncomfortable and I got helped along that route.

But then the prison work ended,

But my intellect hadn't ended.

So I still thought I was the prison lady.

And,

And it took me a while to catch up with the nudges,

Which was saying,

You know,

Write a book or start this direction or do this or do that.

And,

And so I see that there's,

There's like a higher purpose.

There is the best way that you can serve.

And no matter what we do,

We're,

We're,

We're leaning towards that with our intention and we'll get help.

But the more that we can strip back and go,

Okay,

What,

What is this?

An example is I,

When I was working in prison,

I found it really hard and,

And just exhausting.

And after a few months I was in the bath with the scented candles and,

And I thought,

I know I'm meant to be doing this right now,

But why is it so hard?

What am I missing?

And then I got the next piece.

But what I realised afterwards is I wasn't missing anything.

I had to experience that.

That was part of the journey is for me to experience that part of my growth was for me to experience that.

I'm not doing so well with this answer,

But I feel like I can't decide on the direction that I have to let life decide on that direction.

And it will serve me whichever direction I go in.

But the more that I lean back and listen,

I'll see.

And I'll give you an up to date examples.

January last year,

I decided that I actually want to get rich.

I decided,

That's it,

I've done everything else.

I've written a book,

I've started a social enterprise,

You know,

I've done all these things.

It's time to get rich.

And I can think of all sorts of reasons why I should get rich and how I can help the world and all of that bologna.

But it felt fun.

It felt fun to see,

Can I turn my powerful mind in this direction?

What happens?

And in the last 14,

15 months,

What's happened along that journey is,

First of all,

I thought,

Oh,

Digital content,

That's what's going to take me in that direction.

But it didn't really get there because I had the book to finish.

So I finished the book,

Ran the crowd funder.

And then this year,

Like,

Let's concentrate on the digital content.

And then out of the blue,

A different opportunity came along,

Which actually ties in all of those different pieces and feels completely perfect to me right now.

And it's out of my comfort zone.

And it's difficult,

But I'm loving it.

And who knows,

If that's it,

But that's the direction I'll go in until I hear something else,

Not until I find it hard or not until I get tripped up,

Until I hear something else that's saying,

Ah,

No,

Here,

You need this now.

So what is missing?

Now,

When I look back,

That difficult period,

The exhaustion,

The doing it on my own,

Etc,

That needed to be part of the journey.

At the time,

I thought,

What am I missing?

And I got an answer and,

And the next evolution occurred.

But,

But on reflection,

I see that that was also necessary.

There was a massive growth spur in that,

In that difficulty,

If you like.

How do you get a rock solid trust in intuition?

I do literally have to learn it over and over again.

There were some pivotal moments,

The trust comes.

So the end of the answer is the trust comes from taking action.

You cannot bypass that bit.

You don't get the trust first.

You don't get anything first,

You have to take the action.

Like it's just hands down,

You have to do it.

And you can start really simply,

You know,

By drinking water when,

When you hear the notes to drink water.

The trust came for me,

Because I got to see over and over again,

That when I didn't trust that,

Things didn't work out so good.

And when I did,

It worked out.

And I,

I,

It was in the book about when I was 40 years old,

I was having a hysterectomy,

And my dad was on the phone.

And he wasn't going was on the phone.

And he wasn't going to come and visit me.

And it was all loads of BS.

And I didn't know anything about the principles.

But I remember putting the phone down and looking in the mirror and saying,

What are you doing?

Like,

Yeah,

I'm sorry about the thumb.

What are you doing with your life?

Like you've let this man completely rule your life.

He doesn't even like you.

And of course,

Now I know that was an insight.

I didn't know what insight was.

But now I know that was an insight was an internal shift that woke me up.

Literally,

I stopped attracting violent people,

I stopped attracting abusive people,

I started to sort of like myself a little bit,

You know,

Like,

The outside changed,

Because the inside changed.

Now,

I didn't know how that worked.

But I saw it in action.

And because I saw it in action,

It was like,

Oh,

What the principles gave me was an explanation.

Oh,

It's happening all the time.

I just thought it was random or when I was a good girl,

Or,

You know,

Like I was brought up a Catholic,

So I had all that Catholic guilt with me.

But I could really see that.

And my journey with the principles and prison,

Which really go together,

Seeing the men and seeing the changes and seeing what was happening,

I could see living out through them.

And so I started to be able to say,

It's true for them,

It's true for me.

And,

And then watching how that,

How that worked out,

And how that panned out.

I do have an absolute infallible trust now.

Because I've seen so often,

That it's just true,

That that nothing bad happens to me if I don't listen.

It's a lesson.

And that's great.

But if I do listen,

Things are so much right,

A bigger,

Better,

More loving,

More flowing,

Even when it's tough,

More flowing.

What about when the going gets tough?

I started a running group in 2020.

I've never ran in my life,

For all sorts of reasons.

I'm not the right shape,

And you know,

All of that stuff.

And then in 2020,

During lockdown,

I started a running group,

And we started a virtual running group.

And one of the women on the running group said,

After some time,

I've just realised,

I kept thinking,

I kept running,

Thinking,

But it's so hard.

But it's so hard.

How does Mama Jane make it not hard?

Like,

How,

How is she make?

How can she's enjoying it?

And I can't enjoy it.

And she said,

I've just realised,

It's hard for you,

Too.

But you don't care.

And I said,

Yeah,

Like,

I can do hard.

Hard's just part of life.

It's not about easy and the good feeling and so on.

Hard's okay.

It's just part of what you do.

But I don't have to suffer with the hard.

I can just say,

Okay,

This,

This is hard,

But I'm going to go and enjoy it anyway.

I'm going to get on with it anyway.

I'm going to push through anyway,

Whatever it is.

And there is a there is a balance of when you're pushing uphill,

And so on.

And that's something that you get to learn.

But you get in line with your question.

As you develop the follow the nudge muscle,

You get more sensitive,

Don't you?

You get more sensitive to if you're off or on.

If it's hard,

Because it's just hard,

Because you're growing,

Or if it's hard,

Because you're pushing water up a hill,

You start to get more sensitive,

But you can't do that until you follow the nudges.

So is it that we do stuff?

Can we see a pattern emerge?

We're all born mini scientists,

In our own ways.

Yes,

There may be more action somewhere,

Less action somewhere else.

But we're all born mini scientists.

When when we're babies,

We try things out,

We experiment,

We do these round things go in these square holes.

And what do these hands doing?

Oh,

Look at that I can walk in,

You know,

I can use my voice and I can learn and I can talk and everything.

So really,

Up until the age of five,

We're little mini scientists exploring our world and learning and taking action.

Some babies quicker and faster and everything else than others.

And some of that,

But everyone,

All of them are mini scientists.

And then society,

Condition thinking,

Everything else just sort of squishes that out of us.

And we forget.

What about bounce back ability?

I want to let people know that that bounce back ability is available to everyone.

So it looks a certain way for me.

And it might look a different way for other people,

But we all have it.

And for sure.

Allowing that bounce back ability to grow within us and to lean into that is part of the journey and part of seeing.

I guess.

I mean,

I have been knocked off my feet,

You know,

I have been sort of knocked over and and thought that I wouldn't get back up again,

But.

Life always wants you to get back up,

So it always gives you an excuse to do that.

So,

You know,

A little a little thread to to to follow.

I've I've worked with many people with suicidal ideation and severe depression and so on,

And I know that they don't see the thread sometimes,

You know,

Often for a long time.

But it is there.

It is there and that ability,

It never leaves us,

You know,

Like they say about riding a bike.

And once you take that little nudge and you take that little part of that thread a little bit,

It leads you to the next step.

How do you get in to working in prisons?

I never wanted to work in prison.

That wasn't what I wanted to do at all.

I'll tell you this journey because it will help you see what the nudges are,

Because there's some nudges before that.

That's the that's the thing.

It's not a case of I've had many consultations with people in the last 10 years telling them how to get in prisons,

Giving them my research papers.

I'm co-author of four research papers,

Giving them a road map,

Etc.

And what I've come to reason is that,

Yeah,

We can have that conversation.

But that really isn't the question.

The question is what what's occurring to you right now that you need to follow?

Because it never occurred to me that that's what I was going to be doing.

I thought I'd be on like Hawaii,

You know,

Giving workshops in Hawaii or something.

I met someone who had been in prison,

In and out of prison,

Who was three years in recovery from alcohol and heroin addiction.

And I thought he was really inspiring.

So I ended up volunteering on his board of directors to help him build a social enterprise,

Teaching people how to make films,

Not teaching them the principles,

Nothing like that.

Just I liked him and I wanted to help him.

So we had many conversations.

Because of him,

He used to do home detoxes for the local addicts,

As they call them in his area.

I met lots of addicts.

I fell in love with them.

I thought they were absolutely amazing.

I could see that they didn't think that they were amazing.

I feel like they taught me the principles because I could absolutely see everything within them and how they were holding themselves back and how when they didn't hold themselves back,

They were capable of anything.

And 18 months later,

I was running groups for people with addictions.

I didn't know what I was doing.

I really didn't.

It was horrible,

Actually.

I was really nervous.

And but people kept asking me to do stuff.

So I did it.

And then I said to this chap,

You know,

Someone who works at the prison,

Maybe you could introduce me.

And he introduced me and I went along and did a meeting and I knew I wanted to work there.

But I didn't know that until I was there.

And so when people ask me,

It looks like there's some sort of path that you have to follow or some qualification that you have to get or whatever.

And I mean,

I completely messed up the whole thing.

I didn't know what I was talking about.

I nearly didn't get the gig.

But as it happens,

The substance misuse manager had read Richard Carlson's book,

Stop Thinking,

Start Living.

So he went,

This sounds like this Sid Banks fella.

It sounds like he must have known Richard Carlson.

And he's got a sign on his wall,

Stop Thinking,

Start Living.

And because of that,

He gave me a go.

So I couldn't have planned that.

He asked me to do a proposal for a 12 week course.

There's another element to the nudges and what we've talked about,

Which is at every single step of the way,

I was grateful for where I was at.

Every single time.

So getting a meeting to me,

That was amazing.

I didn't at that time,

I was so innocent in my following.

I didn't think,

Oh,

I've got a meeting and that means I'm going to work in every prison in the UK.

I just went,

Wow,

I've got a meeting with someone in prison.

That's amazing.

And every step.

And he said,

Can you write a proposal?

I sent in a proposal.

And he rang me up and he said,

Great proposal.

The mental health team love it,

But the psychologists don't.

We need way more evidence.

Could you write a proposal for 12 months?

Could you write a business case for coming and working in here for 12 months?

Because what I didn't know was there was an underspend in the local council and they had to spend it on a drug related programme.

And I said,

Yeah,

Of course,

You know,

I was absolutely delighted and I didn't know what a business case was.

So the next thing is I email him and said,

What sort of headings would you have in the business case?

And he said,

What sort of headings would you have in the business case?

Anyway,

I wrote the business case and I realised that there was no research in the principles and especially not in prison.

And the famous person who's done prison work is Cathy Casey and they never evidence her work.

And I got in touch with the prison.

I said,

Can it be a research project?

And they went,

Well,

Of course,

You've got to evidence what you're doing.

They just thought that that's what I would do.

And I presented a proposal for 12 months and I won a £90,

000 contract.

To deliver the three principles into prison for a year.

So I hired a load of facilitators and that's what we did.

I never had that intention that that was so far away from the girl who sat in the prison gatehouse going.

I don't know why I'm here,

But I really know that I want to be here.

I just literally followed the nudges.

So there'll be nudges in your life,

Viv,

And they might not look like working in prison,

But whatever they are,

You've got to follow them.

And it may be that you don't work in prison,

But that you're led in some other path,

Which is just as meaningful.

What about the role of motivation?

Motivation is a result from taking action.

Just keep following that and keep it simple.

I created a workbook last year as part of just what I was doing and I'd never created a lead magnet before.

So I created a lead magnet and I tend to go all in.

So,

You know,

When all in,

I'm creating this massive booklet and it's amazing actually.

And I realised that I'd like,

Oh,

I've gone a bit overboard here.

You know,

I've created this amazing thing.

Nobody's ever going to need to work with me because they can just get my booklet.

But 12 months on,

I'm now using that as the foundation for a programme that I'm running.

It's all ingredients.

So if you get that,

Like do it,

Create that workbook for those children,

See what happens next.

Might not land there,

But what you learn by creating it helps you for the next thing.

I hope you've enjoyed this mini interview about the role of intuition and inspired action.

If you'd like to learn more,

You may enjoy my course,

Awakening Intuition for Busy People,

Or check out some of the playlists in my profile.

Thank you so much for listening.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and if there are any new insights sparked for you.

Lots of love.