← The Rachel Hollis Podcast
The Rachel Hollis Podcast
964 | 5 Signs From the Universe You Should Never Ignore
00:48:59
Upgrade to the Ad Free Premium Podcast Experience - https://rachelhollis.supercast.com Get your copy of Rachel's Book Here: Audible, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices In this episode of The Rachel Hollis Podcast, Rach explores the concept of intuition and shares five signs she never ignores when making important life decisions. She argues that the body is our most reliable guide, often sensing danger or alignment before the mind can explain it, and encourages listeners to reconnect with their physical and emotional signals through practices like journaling and self-reflection. She also discusses synchronicities as meaningful “winks” from the universe, the importance of paying attention when situations feel unnecessarily “clunky,” and how closed doors c...
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Shop packages built for your business budget with tailored connectivity solutions. Plus Spectrum Business even offers 100% US based customer support 24. 7 Visit spectrum.combusiness to learn more restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas have you ever made a decision? Like a big decision? The kind that doesn't make logical sense, the kind that you couldn't fully explain to people around you and it turned out to be exactly right. Not fine, not okay. I mean, you made a decision based on gut, based on intuition, based on something inside of yourself and it actually worked out perfectly. And in that scenario, it feels like you were guided, like you followed your intuition and you got exactly where you were supposed to get. How did you know how to do that? How did you know to listen to that voice? In fact, how'd you hear the voice in the first place? Or maybe that doesn't resonate with you at all. Maybe. Maybe you feel like you're completely disconnected from intuition. Have you ever ignored a feeling? Like, have you ever pushed past a situation or interacted with a person when everything in your body was telling you that this was wrong, that there was a major red flag, that you should not keep moving forward? But you did anyway. And then later you realized it was a massive mistake. But you had seen the signs early on. On some level, you knew, even though you couldn't name it, you knew that there was something wrong and you didn't listen. And in that scenario, it didn't work out well. It worked out terribly and you paid the price. I think that most humans have experienced both of these things, and I hope that you're Lucky enough to get to experience the results of listening to your intuition way more often than you have the other side of things. But just in case this is not something you are familiar with, I thought I would create today's episode all about this idea of intuition and how I have learned to listen to mine. And what are the signs that you should never ignore? Like if you are not super familiar with the universe or angels or guidance or God or whatever bigger thing is out there telling us what we are supposed to be doing, this conversation is for you. And I'm going to tell you right here at the top, in case you have not figured it out yet, that today's episode is definitely woo woo. And it makes sense that it's woo woo because it's me. And you know, your girl is a little woo. I think most of you are at least woo curious, you know, not. You don't have to be full hippie. But I do believe that we are guided by something bigger than us. And whatever name you give that whatever you want to call that bigger source, God, angels, spirit guides, like whatever you want to call that thing, we're going to get into it. Today I am sharing five signs, specifically five things that you can pay attention to that are signals. And when I see these things, when they show up in my life, I never ignore them. And if you are on the lookout for these things and you learn to not ignore them either, I think that you will feel life come into a bit more flow, a bit more harmony, and that maybe you start to feel less resistance inside of each and every day because you are going in the direction that you're meant to head. So these are my five signs that I never ignore. Sign number one, we're starting at the top with the most important, and that is our body. Your body is always talking to you, always. The reason that I know that our bodies are always talking to us beyond what I feel inside of myself, is that we at the most basic level are animals, right? And I want you to think of an animal that you've seen either in the wild or maybe you are like me and you love a nature documentary. Have you ever seen in those documentaries where an animal is being hunted? Like maybe it's a gazelle and it's on, you know, the open plain and it can't see the cheetah, but a cheetah is like stalking it through the grass. Have you ever seen those documentaries? And even though the animal being stalked, the prey cannot see the thing that is hunting it. All of a sudden you See that gazelle or that antelope or that deer or that wildebeest, they, like, their head comes up and they. Their ears start twitching and they're. They can sense that something is not okay long before they ever see the danger. Why? Because on a fundamental biological level, that animal has survival instincts built into it, and so do you. Your body will always tell you if something is wrong long before your brain is able to catch up with it. Your body tells you when you're in the wrong environment. It tells you when you are inside the wrong relationship. It tells you, on a first date, you get this sense inside of yourself that this guy or this girl is not the one for you or the opposite. You feel this sort of instinctual, like, man, I don't really know what's going on here, but I feel safe or I feel calm. Your body is talking to you. In science, they call this interoception. It's the ability to be aware of your internal state, but you don't need a specific word for it. Dude, you have felt it, right? You have felt anxious in your stomach or butterflies in your stomach. You felt a knot in your stomach. You have felt your chest get tight, or maybe sensations in your hands. Sometimes you walk into a room and all of a sudden you just. You feel, like, lightheaded, or maybe you feel more grounded. Your body is always talking to you. Like, have you ever been in a conversation with someone and even though you have no reason to know this, you know that they're lying to you? Like, you have no evidence in reality, but you know in your spirit that this person is not telling you the truth. Your body is always talking to you. So if that's true, then why don't we know? Why are there so many millions of people going around this world without the most basic internal guidance system helping them to make decisions? Because while our body is always talking to us, for most of our lives, we have been taught not to listen. We have been taught to ignore the signals of our body. You know, like, oh, you're hungry. Oh, you're not hungry. Like, you're fine. You're, you know, you're on a diet. You're trying not to eat too much. Like, just ignore those hunger signals. Just ignore the fact that you need to pee. Just get through the next, you know, 20 minutes, finish up this goal that you have in front of you, and then you get to go to the bathroom. You're really thirsty. Oh, you know what? We'll get water in a minute. Let's go ahead and finish this thing we are taught to push through, and we're taught to ignore our body signals in these little tiny ways that add up to much bigger ways. Or if you're a woman, how often are we taught growing up that we are not meant to be rude? Don't be rude. Don't ignore that person. Don't disrespect that older man. Don't do this. We do things that are in misalignment with what our body is telling us, and we learn to ignore these cues in a thousand different ways. The crazy thing about messages from our body is that they do not go away. They might not show up in the same form, but they don't go away. They get louder, and they start to show up in our body in bigger and more uncomfortable ways. So it's the illness that you can't explain. It's me living with vertigo for a full year. A full year. I had vertigo. I had every kind of test done. I had brain scans. I went to allergists, ear, nose, and throat doctor. Like every single thing I could possibly do for a year of living with vertigo. Constantly nauseous, constantly overwhelmed. But I couldn't stop taking care of my kids. I had two little kids at the time. I couldn't stop working. I had to keep going. But I just kept going with this constant sense of dizziness. And what's so wild is that it was never a physical thing that was wrong with my body. It was an emotional one. And it took meeting with the right person who understood that it was an emotional issue, not a physical one, to help my symptoms to go away. But I lived with this extreme situation for a full year, constantly sick to my stomach, because I could not face the reality that something was wrong in my life and that someone very close to me was very unhealthy for me. I couldn't see that truth, but my body could see it. And my body tried in every single way that it could to get the message across. And I just kept, you know, doing what we do. Shove it down deep, pretend it's not there. Your body is sending you signals when something is not right. And the cool thing is your body's also sending you signals to pay attention to good things, too. Like when your body feels at ease, when it feels at rest, when you feel lighter, when you feel more peaceful, when you feel excited. I was just talking to someone about a project I'm really excited about, and I was just sort of going off. I was, like, so pumped, and I was telling them all the things and after I finished telling them all of my ideas, they were like, I have not seen you this animated about something. Like I can't even tell you the last time that you were excited about something like this. And they're right. And even just the awareness of like, how did everything in my countenance changed when I talked about this one project? When we get a realization like that, that's when guys like put your heart, put your energy, lean in that direction. A project that makes you that happy, even if it never makes you money, even if you're never going to be on the COVID of a magazine for it. Something that lights you up to that degree. When your body, everything sort of comes online. Pay attention to that stuff, listen to your body. It is the first thing that we are taught to ignore, but is the best access you have to your intuition and your spirit. Never ignore how your body reacts to something. Your brain can tell you all kinds of things. Our brain can convince us every single, single terrible thing. It can also convince us that something's going to be great when it absolutely is not. Your brain will tell you all kinds of lies, but your body will never lie to you. You've got to slow down enough so that you can actually listen. The easiest way to do this, I've been talking to you guys about that. Just a quick daily check in. I do morning journaling every single day. I journal two pages every day. This is a practice from Julia Cameron. This not my thing. Julia Cameron's been teaching the morning pages for 30 years. But journaling two pages in the morning, doing some gratitude work, being aware of my environment, it gives me an opportunity to check in with myself. And I check in always with these bigger things. But then just a quick check, like, what does my body need today? What is my body telling me? When you ask your body a question, you get quiet and you ask that question. It's got an answer for you. And it teaches you to start being in community with your body. I know that sounds a little cheesy, but so many of us are disconnected from self. So many of us are disconnected. And you're not going to be able to just flip a light switch and all of a sudden come back into presence with your body. You're actually going to have to work on that. So if this is something that's resonating with you or if it's calling to you, you feel like you don't have a good grasp of your body's internal signals. Give yourself literally five minutes a day, get quiet, close your eyes Breathe evenly and just ask your body what it needs from you today and you'll start that relationship and start healing some of that ignoring that maybe you've been taught to do. 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Learn more@chase.com Sapphire Reserve cards issued by JP Morgan, Chase bank and a member FDIC subject to credit approval the second sign that I never ignore from the universe is synchronicity. Synchronicity. So another way that I would describe this is when the universe sort of winks at you. These are the moments when something meaningful shows up in a way that you cannot excuse as an accident. It's like these moments of serendipity. You hear a word and it sticks in your mind. And then later you see that word on a billboard and then you hear that word on the radio, right? Or you keep catching the clock at the exact same time every single day. Or you're thinking about someone that you haven't spoken with in two years and then all of a sudden they send you a text out of the blue. These are winks from the universe. It's a symbol that means something to you. Synchronicity is not going to mean something to every single person in the world, but it will mean something to you. That and when you see it, I feel like it's a nudge from the universe that, like, you have support, you are guided, you are cared for. Or maybe you had the idea for something and then all of a sudden you feel like you're hearing it everywhere. You're seeing it everywhere. To me, I feel like that's reinforcing, like, yeah, go try it. Yeah, go take tap dancing lessons. Yeah, go up and say hi to those girls at school. They're probably really nice and maybe they're just as nervous as you are to make a new friend. Synchronicity is this like wink from the universe. Now let's add a little caveat here because I do think that some people see synchronicity in ways that is stretching a little bit. It's not just like you saw something two times or three times. There's also a thing in the brain called the reticular activating system. And let me just get nerdy for one second. Your brain cannot possibly take in all of the information that's available to it at every single moment. If your brain tried to take in all of that information at every single moment, your brain would like melt and you would. It just. It's too much information. So your brain tries to filter what is important from what is not important to make it easier for you to absorb the things around you. And one of the filters in your brain is your RAs, your reticular activating system. So if you notice something like, let's say you just got a new car and you never noticed a VW Jetta before, but you just got a Jetta. And now everywhere you drive, there's a Jetta there and a Jetta there and a Jetta and you're like, I thought I got a car that nobody else hasn't, but like everybody has this car. Those cars were always there. You just never noticed them before. But now your brain has told you that this thing is important and how you're going to see it more often. That is not synchronicity. Synchronicity is you're thinking of your grandma who passed away and you're remembering how she always made you sweet tea. And then you're driving down the road and for no reason on earth, you pass by a cafe and the sign out front says, come in for a glass of sweet tea. To me that's synchronicity. To me, that's your grandma who's an angel and she's just sending you a sign that she's still here and she loves you. And she also thinks you need a little sugary caffeinated. Pick me up. You know, synchronicity has to be meaningful. It's not just repetition. It's when you see something that's aligning with you in a meaningful way beyond it just being a cool little nudge. Synchronicity matters to me because I experience more synchronicity when I am in flow, when I am walking the path that I'm meant to walk and I'm paying attention to guidance. That is when I see those things more often. That's when I feel like I'm living a more attuned life, a more aligned life. And I feel like I have signs that are showing up to be like, yes, good job. This is where you're meant to go. On the flip side, when you are heads down, when you are trying to force the funk, when you are trying to make something happen and it is not happening, when you are so fixated on your plan that you can't see anything outside of it, you stop getting those signs from the universe. And it's not because there aren't nudges and support and inspiration around you all the time. It's because you are so focused on a path that you created for yourself instead of one that's aligned that you're missing those signals. So I love synchronicity because I feel like it's a sign that I'm headed in the right direction. See, I told you guys this was going to be a woo woo one. If you're like a practical scientist, you're like, this doesn't make any. That's okay. It doesn't have to make sense to you. It makes sense to those of us who are interested. Sign number three that I never ignore is when things feel clunky. Things feel clunky. And people are not talking about this enough because there's so much information on social media that's like, here's how you make it work. Here's how you grind, here's how you hustle. Here's how you do it. Yes. Yes, babe. You know that I believe we should have goals. And you know that I believe you are capable of achieving anything. But the path to achieving the dream that you have for your life can take many forms. I am not saying don't chase the goal. I am saying be open to the path that gets you there. Because when you are pursuing a goal and every five minutes you feel like there's a roadblock, there's a detour sign, you have to stop, you have to double back, you have to go around the corner. If that's happening, I know I'm on the wrong path. That doesn't mean the goal is wrong, doesn't mean the dream is wrong. But the path to get there might not be the way that you're going to get there. It's a really specific quality of friction. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be headed in a direction. It just means like, wait, let's take a minute, let's take a beat, and let's figure Out. Why does this feel so hard? And for the record, there is a big difference between something being hard and something being clunky. I know these are. These are just my semantics and the words that I use for things, but just sit with me on this for a minute. Anything that you are trying to achieve that's worth having is going to be hard. Hard is not bad. Hard can be a good thing. It's hard to grow. It's hard to become someone new. These are hard things to do. And you have to push against some resistance to get to the other side of this thing. That. That's normal. That's not what I'm talking about when I say clunky. Clunky means that no matter what you do, the pieces don't fit together. Clunky means unnecessary stops and starts that don't make any sense. Clunky means that you are expending way too much energy and not really getting very far for how hard you are working. Clunky is the universe putting its hand on your chest and saying, sister, not this way, brother, not these people. These are not your friends. These are not your people. Here is what I have trained myself to do in those situations. When something starts to feel clunky, I don't immediately walk away, right? I do slow down, I get curious, and I ask, what is the situation trying to tell me? What am I not seeing? What could also be true here? Like, if I zoom out to 50,000ft, is there something that, like, is so obvious, but I'm not seeing it right now? Is there a reason that this isn't flowing that I should be paying attention to? Is there someone in this equation that shouldn't be here? Am I the person that shouldn't be here? And sometimes the answers to those questions is just that. I needed more information before I could move forward. Sometimes the answer is, these people are not your friends. This environment is not right for you. Sometimes the answer is, this is the right idea but the wrong time. And sometimes the answer is, no, no, dude, this is not the path. The practice is learning to distinguish between something that's just hard, but helping me to grow and something that is difficult to a degree that I should not be doing it. And the beauty is that your body knows the difference. Go back to the first thing we talked about. Go back to a situation where it absolutely did not work out. Think of like a date that you went on or a job that went sour or an apartment that ended up having a mold problem. Like, think of something that you have lived through. And it didn't work out. No matter how hard you tried, it just didn't work out. And then if you can remember, go back to, like, the first date with that guy or go back to the process of trying to get that apartment and see if you can identify. Were there any signals in your body along the way? Were there any things that, like, it was so clunky. It was so clunky. Like, you sort of feel like your guides were like, girl, no, it shouldn't be this hard to rent an apartment. But for some reason, everything just like, wouldn't go, wouldn't go, wouldn't go. But you kept pushing and you made it work. And then a year later, you understood why it was so hard and why you should have listened when it was clunky. It's not just in your head. Your body is always talking to you. And I think that when we review those situations, we tend to be able to identify the moment that our intuition tried to warn us and we ignored it. Honestly, my last book is literally this subject. The last book that came out last year is called what if you are the answer. It is 27 chapters, which is 27 questions. Each chapter is a different question that you can ask yourself to learn to be guided by your intuition. Better to learn to look at your past and sort of see. See what you didn't see. Every single thing is about intuition. And what I have found is that when I ask myself, when did you know that this was wrong? The answer was always years before I actually found the courage to admit it.
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Learn more@chase.com Sapphire Reserve cards issued by JP Morgan Chase bank and a member FDIC subject to credit approval number four. The fourth sign that I never ignore is when a door closes. When a door closes, and this one is really finicky because sometimes a door is closing and it's like do not enter. And sometimes a door is closing because you are being redirected to a different door. Which begs the question, how do we know the difference between a door that is slamming in our face and telling us do not enter and a door that shuts and it's redirecting us in another direction? So I have a couple of different ways that I personally look at this. For at least 20 years I have prayed the same prayer when it comes to work or career or business or life, which is God, slam the doors in my face if it is not for me. Like, I need God universe. I need her to make it obvious because I have such an imagination. I, I see the good in everybody. I believe everybody. When they tell me that like you know, they can do any. I'm like, of course you can. I'm, I need it to be obvious. Which is why I keep telling you like you have to listen to your body, you've gotta listen to your intuition. Cuz my brain will convince me that things are true and they're not true. So I'm like, God, please make it so obvious to me that this is not the path for me and what that has meant. I cannot even explain to you how often I have been ghosted by like work opportunities or friendships. You can't see me, but I'm using air quotes or different people in the industry where I'm like, we had such a good meeting, like I thought things were gonna go and then it just like I never hear from them again. And I do not pursue those things because I have learned that God's doing her thing. She is trying to block me. You ever heard that saying, your rejection is God's protection. I am rejected for a reason. This is not the path I'm supposed to be walking. Like I want it to be so obvious if things just completely fall. Like if it feels different than just like, oh, this project needs a little massaging, we need to nudge it along. No, I am talking like weirdly, things fall off a cliff. That's not an accident. In my mind. That is a signal to me and I think that this is only possible when you are in an abundant mindset. We make the worst fear based decisions when we are living in a scarcity mindset. If you believe that this is your one and only opportunity to be successful or your one and only opportunity to find love. Love. Or if it's not this guy, that you're probably not ever going to get married and have the family of your dreams. Like, if you tell yourself those stories, that will be true for you and you will make the worst decisions of your life. I know I'm a dramatic person. I do not think I'm being overly dramatic in telling you that when you are in a scarcity mindset, you will make choices that you will pay for for years to come. An abundant mindset knows that if something is for you, it cannot miss you. Babe, let me say it again so you really take this on board. If something is meant for you, if that job is meant for you, if that woman is meant for you, if this opportunity is meant for you, it cannot miss you. It can't miss you. You do not have to worry about trying to force it and. And, you know, prove them wrong and do the thing like, if it is for you, it will find you. If a door is slammed in my face, if it is so super obvious that this is not the path I'm supposed to go on, I listen. Now I have to follow this up because I also am the queen of talking about, if you can't get in the door, go in the window. If the window's blocked, you go down the chim. I'm all about grit. I'm all about tenacity. So how do you know the difference between something that is not for you, that's a door in your face, and something that you just need to massage, that you just need to try, that you just need to find a workaround for. I have a framework. Okay, here's my thing. If it is resistance, not like, not meant for you, but just something that feels hard, it feels like resistance. Resistance shows up when you are stepping outside of your comfort zone. It feels hard, but it will feel hard in a way that's still exciting now. Yes, exciting can feel like fear, and maybe there's doubt, but underneath all of those feelings, there is this pull, and that's still a part of you that is lit up by the possibility of what could happen here. It's like your gut knows that this is the direction you're meant to go, and it sees the obstacles in front of you as a challenge but not a verdict. How do we know if it's resistance or just a door slamming in our face? Here are my things. Number one. If it's resistance, you still get Breadcrumbs, meaning you get little wins, you get little green lights. You get those synchronicity. You get signals to keep going. You get signals that you're getting warmer. And I just feel the need. If someone is using this framework right now, and they're thinking about some guy from a dating app who's ghosting them, and they know in their gut is absolute trash, and they're like, well, he still gives me breadcrumbs. Baby, you and I both know these are not the breadcrumbs I'm talking about. Okay? He's trash, and you need to move on. You teach people how to treat you. Let's teach people that you deserve better. All right, now that we've handled Mandy's issue, let's come on back to these breadcrumbs. If it's resistance, not a no, but just a challenge, you are going to get little nudges to keep heading in that direction. You keep moving forward, even if it's little tiny bits at a time. The second way that you know to keep going is. Is if the thought of quitting makes you feel regret. Imagine walking away from this dream. Imagine that you give it up and not give it up and then come back later, but, like, give it up and never touch it again and then go forward in time. You're 85 years old. What is she gonna think about your choice to walk away right now? What is he gonna think about your choice? If the thought of quitting makes you feel regret, if you feel the loss of this thing that matters, that is a sign that you are not done with this. That even if it's hard, you're going to find a different path, you're going to pursue a different way, but that this is something that you really want to do. The third reason that you know this is resistance and not just a big know from the universe, is that the obstacles are personal. They're personal, meaning the obstacles that you are currently encountering are like imposter syndrome, fear of failure. You're procrastinating. These are not universal signs to stop. Right? These are not like, you want to be a juggler, and you broke both your hands. That's. That's a terrible example. That is all I got in my head right now. And even still, maybe your hands will heal. Maybe you'll juggle with cast. I don't know. But when it's resistance, it's things that you can tie to yourself. The fears that you have are about who you are. It's not about the universe putting things up in front of you that are like, this is not for you. In that instance, the path is right. You just need to become someone bigger who's capable of walking down that path. So those are signs that it's resistance. Now let's talk about if it's redirection. Redirection is like, this is not the door you're walking through. You got to go find a different door. You got to go in a different direction. This is not for you. Redirection is different. Redirection is the universe saying, not this way. But even in that instance, the universe is still taking you where you need to go. It's not telling you to sit down. It's just telling you not to go through that door. There's this old saying that says God has three answers. Yes, no, and not yet. Redirection is always one of the last two. It's not no to your dream. It's just not this path. It's not yet for this opportunity, because something bigger is coming for you, and you can't see it yet. So here are some signs that it's redirection, meaning, like, door slamming. If nothing is moving, if nothing is moving, like, no matter what you do, nothing is moving, not slow movement, nothing, no breadcrumbs, no small wins, Just obstacle after obstacle after obstacle. That is not resistance. That is a closed door. Number two, you feel exhausted and drained, but not lit up by the challenge. Resistance is hard. Remember we talked about that. But the hard can feel energizing. It's like in this weird way, because you're growing, growth has its own momentum. But redirection feels like you are dragging something uphill through the mud with high heels on. Like, there is no end in sight. You cannot get traction. No matter what you do, it is not working. And here's my third sign that this is not the path for you, that this is redirection. When you think about quitting, remember earlier I was talking about resistance, and it was like, when you think about quitting, you regret it, right? If it's redirection, if this is not the path for you, when you think about quitting, you feel relief. And maybe you don't want to admit that in your heart of hearts, you do not want anybody to know. But when you think about quitting, this thing, this job, this career path, this relationship, this identity that you have, when you think about quitting it, you feel relief. You feel like, oh, thank God. That is not weak. That is your body and your spirit telling you a truth that you don't want to hold space for. Yet the relief that you feel when you imagine it, that is a massive signal. And here's one more thing I want to add, because I think some of you are going to hear this resistance versus redirection thing and think, okay, but what if I keep hitting obstacles because I just don't want it enough or I just don't know enough? What if it's not a sign? What if I just need more signs, skills? And yeah, that is a real thing. Sometimes the obstacle isn't the universe saying no to you, it's the universe saying not yet. And also, here's what you need to learn in order to have that. But if you keep getting feedback from multiple different sources, if you keep getting the same critique, the same gaps over and over and over, that is information. Get the knowledge. Find the mentor. Take the course. The dream is still yours. You might just need more tools in your toolkit. Let me just add this little bit in here, because on Monday, I just dropped a fantastic episode about productivity. It's a productivity deep dive. It's how do you achieve things? How do you figure out what you're trying to aim at? And how do you do all of that without burning yourself out? That episode came out on Monday. And if you aren't part of the premium podcast community who gets those monthly Deep Dive episodes, you can still go listen to the first 25 minutes of that episode. Go back to Monday, give that a listen, and see if it's something that you feel like is for you. Every single month, I do a deep dive class for people who you don't just want to listen like you're actually, like, kind of nerdy. You're really working on something. You really want to get some traction. You're not casually working on personal development like you're really working on personal development. Premium podcast is $10 a month. For $10 a month, you get that monthly deep dive class that's in audio and on video. So if you are like me and you like to take an actual course, there's a video, there's a workbook that comes with every single month, there's a community for it, and you get all podcast episodes just like this one, completely ad free. If you don't want to listen to ads and you want to take a monthly deep dive, premium is for you. Every new class comes out the first Monday of every single month. All right, back to it. Trust the closed doors. Trust the closed doors. Trust the detours. And if you've never sat down and looked back at your Life at all of the times you thought that you were being rejected, but you were actually being redirected. That is an incredible thing for you to do. When you are done with this episode, or even right now, if you want to do it, hit pause and just allow yourself to think of all of the times in your life that you were like, oh, my God, I am in love with this boy, junior year of high school, and if he doesn't love me back, my life is over. And now you look at that boy and he's bald and he's a podiatrist, and you cannot believe that you ever were in love with that foot doctor without hair. You can't ever believe it, and you're like, thank God I didn't marry that guy. Thank God he didn't love me back. Because I wouldn't have gone to college and I wouldn't got my degree and I wouldn't have started this business and I wouldn't have met my partner and I wouldn't have these babies and I wouldn't have the life I have today if I had gotten that ridiculous dream that I was dreaming when I was 17. You probably have so many examples of this when you thought that you were being rejected, but you were actually being protected. All right. My last and final sign from the universe. I never ignore. I saved this one for last because it's, like, quiet, right? It's soft, it's little. But I actually think it's one of the most powerful things that you can listen to. And that is the peace test. When you are trying to navigate a decision, when you're asking if you should stay or if you should go, or whether to push harder or whether to release or whether something is meant for you or not. If you have listened to your body and you look for synchronicities and you've sat and asked yourself, is it clunky? Is it not if you've paid attention to is the door open or is the door closed? The final question that cuts through all the noise is, where is my peace? Not where is my excitement? Not where is my logic? Not what will help me go viral on TikTok? Not what will get me more likes or follows? Not what does my ego want me to do? Or what would impress people most? Not what would make the most financial sense. Where is my peace? Peace is not the absence of challenge. Peace is not the absence of hard. Peace is deep down in your belly, okay? You are okay. And that exists even when everything is uncertain. It is the thing that lets you sleep at night, even if you don't know the outcome, right? It's the feeling of being in alignment or being grounded or being connected to something bigger than yourself. That's peace. And if you don't have that in your life, the absence of peace is just as telling when peace is gone. Like if you're laying awake at night and your chest is tight and you're anxious and your mind is spinning, like, oh, my gosh, I know how that feels. And it is so stressful and it is so hard. But you have to see that for what it is. That is a sign. We are not meant to go through life stressed out. We are not meant to go through life filled with anxiety. And I struggle with anxiety for years and years and years. And part of the reason that I lived in that state for so long is because I thought that was normal. I thought that was normal. I grew up in a family where people struggled so much emotionally and mentally, and so it was very normalized in my community that you would just have these problems and that you couldn't deal with them or that you would do something to, like, numb yourself, right? Like, you would drink or, you know, for some people, you'd smoke pot or you do whatever to kind of, like numb yourself out so you couldn't feel the anxiety. But unfortunately, that doesn't treat the root cause. Nobody ever taught me that it wasn't normal. And so I never looked for how to heal when I experience anxiety, this opposite of peace. I just tried to get through that moment. I didn't try and understand what was being bigger, right? What was going on. Learning to navigate and get to the other side of anxiety attacks looked like years of therapy, guys. It's not a quick fix, but it is fixable. But if nobody tells you that there's a way through breath work, through trauma therapy, through I, I. The amount of therapy I've gone through. But, like, I'm on the other side of this thing. If I get occasional anxiety every once in a while and kind of pop up in me, I have these tools now that I can reach for to navigate around it. It is not a regular part of my life now. Sorry, I'm going deep on this tangent, and I know not everybody is struggling with anxiety, but I do think many of us have a version of this. The world is normalizing, being stressed out all the time. And so you think it's normal. So you just try and figure out how to get past that moment instead of understanding how life can feel better. It's especially important because if you have these things in your life that are making you feel these ways and you think it's normal, you're never going to do the work to get rid of the things that are making you feel bad. There were some real factors in my life that were leading to anxiety, that were leading to pain, that were leading to panic attacks, that were leading to drinking too much when I was younger. Like, there was real stuff in my life that I refused to face because I wasn't reaching for peace. I was just trying to manage the panic. Here's what I want you to walk away from this episode with feeling at peace, feeling grounded, feeling safe. That is information. The presence of those feelings is a big ol yes. And the absence of those feelings should be a major signal to you that something is misaligned. When you can learn to feel the difference, when you can learn to get quiet enough to actually ask the question of whether or not you feel at peace, you feel grounded, you feel calm. Not every second of every day, but the majority of your life, do you have those feelings. If not, you need to explore that. The universe is always communicating with you. Your body knows the world is full of winks when you are looking for them. The clunky feeling has something to tell you. The closed doors are trying to lead you somewhere else. And at the center of all of it is your own deep knowing. And no matter what is happening in the world, that is your birthright. Your spirit, your intuition, that is your birthright. It cannot be taken away from you. You just have to get quiet enough to hear it. If today's episode spoke to you, I hope that you'll consider sharing it with someone who might need it. You can text it to someone in your life or maybe share on your social media. I will be back soon with more conversations just like this one. Make sure you subscribe to the channel if you haven't yet. And until next time, as always, I love you and I'm rooting for you. The rachel hollis podcast is produced by me, rachel hollis. It's edited by andrew weller and jack noble.
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Hey everybody, Ted Danson here to tell you about my podcast with my longtime friend and sometimes co host Woody Harrelson. It's called where everybody knows your name and we're back for another season. I'm so excited to be joined this season by friends like John Mullaney, David Spade, Sarah Silverman, Ed Helms, and many more. You don't want to miss it. Listen to where everybody knows your name with me, Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson. Sometimes wherever you get your podcasts.
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Why have we asked our contractor we found on Angie.com to be our kid's legal guardian? Because he took such good care when redoing our basement that we knew we could trust him to care for our kids. We only met a month ago. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com.