Can’t decide? Try this.

Episode 1, where I first mention these tools

Watch the episode on YouTube here

How to ground in the body. 2:26

Tuning into the body and listening to it. 4:00

Picking up the body’s cues. 6:12

How to read a yes or no. 8:04

Subtle differences, and the one thing to focus on when choosing.  9:21

How to tap your body’s wisdom. (Start small.) 11:29

Building trust pathways with the body. 13:51

Ready to have a deeper conversation about body and soul, sacred leadership, and our collective evolution? Welcome to the Wise Body, Ancient Soul Podcast with me, your host, Charisse Sisou.

In today’s episode, I revisit a tool I introduced in the first episode. This time with a bit more detail and some additional tips in terms of how to really ground the body so that we can more clearly hear its messages and access our intuition. Enjoy.

Stuck in indecision? Try this. This is a tool I use all the time to just really get past all of our should’s and would’s and could’s and thought-pattern things to get to the core of “Is this a yes, or is this a no?” If the decision that you’re looking at is a little bit more complicated than a yes or no, I’m going to give you a tool to adapt this for that as well. 

Here it is in a nutshell. I’m a “Yes” girl. Shiny thing? I go, “Yes.” I’m a quick start. I’m a joiner-upper. I follow great and influential people, so I’m constantly getting, “Hey, want to sign up for my program? Want to join my thing?” I always feel that pull because there’s a reason why I’m following them. There’s something in what they’re offering like, “That’d be really good.” 

Here is how you get past, “Am I joining this for reasons other than, ‘Yes, this is exactly 100% what I need right now in my business and life.’”

First things first, get quiet. I’ve got my feet solidly on the ground. It’s helpful. You’re going to stand for this. Then just take a moment to really get in the body and quiet the mind. How the heck do you do that? Simple, breathe. Re-root through your feet. What I mean by that is feel the ground, feel the floor underneath your feet. If you’re in a place where you can kick off your shoes and get barefoot, great. If not, don’t worry, it’s not necessary, but it just adds another layer of visceral connectedness. 

What we’re really wanting to do is just—there’s a part of us that’s always connected with the Earth. You may call it your earth star or that chakra that’s below the body but six inches into the ground that’s connecting us there. You may simply just identify it as that part of us that’s connected with all of life, connecting down through your feet, and breathing. 

If you want to add that extra yumminess of alignment, connect with your soul star as well. This is the chakra, that energy center that’s just a little bit above the body. When I really tune in and go along and align my earth star and my soul star, I just drop into this place that’s less influenced by the busyness and the chatter.

I also like to put a hand on my heart or my heart chakra and a hand on my belly or my—you can put it on your solar plexus if you want or down more over your womb space. It really doesn’t matter. The idea here is like connecting with the body, connecting with the earth, connecting with this point above us. This is really about connecting with all parts of our soul, including the parts that may not be in our physical body.

Once you feel a little bit of a stillness, a little bit of a quiet, a little bit of a calm, now you ask yourself the question. In my example, I’m going to ask, “Do I join this coaching program I was just reading about? Will this really fill me up? Is this my next step?” Then I just simply tune into the body and wait for it to respond. I got the same response twice because I just asked myself this question off-camera.

What you’re paying attention to is does your body sway gently forward or sway gently backward. What you may have seen is I, real subtly, sway gently backward. Try it yourself. Really sit into that decision. Let it come into your body and go. Is this the right step for me? The sway may be subtle. 

You can also pay attention to other things like, “Does my energy do a little [sound effect]? Is there a flush? Is there a chill? Are there goosebumps? Am I getting some confirmation in the body like, ‘Yes,’ or does my energy go like [sound effect]? Is there like a quieting, almost like someone is turning down the volume?” It can be really subtle, but we have a tendency where when we want something, we lean into it. We don’t want something, we pull away. 

Any body language expert will tell you that. If you’re in a conversation with someone and you’re not liking it, we’re going to pull away, we’re going to protract, we might cross our legs, we might angle our body away. We’ll pull away from that versus lean into it. Where if we’re really connecting with someone, you’ll be open, your body language will be open, you’ll be leaning in. It’s a thing that our body does naturally.

“Okay, great, Charisse, I’m going to try that. Yes or no. Oh my God, this is so helpful.” You don’t always have your shopping buddy with you to be, “Hey, what do you think of these pants?” Here’s another hint. When you’re out shopping with a buddy, and that moment when you’re like, “Oh my God, what do you think of this?” And they go, “Hmm, I don’t know. I don’t really like it.” You have that feeling where you’re like, “Okay, last time I ask you…” 

That just gave you your answer. You were asking their opinion but not really asking their opinion. You were asking them to validate the opinion you’d already formed. Had they been as enthusiastic as you were about that piece, you’d be like, “Yeah, you know,” but because they weren’t, maybe you felt a little annoyed or a little bit like, “Who asked you?” Except you just did. Again, it’s because the answer is already there. We already know the answer, but often we have chatter. In that example of the store, “Oh, but it’s on sale. Oh, but blah blah blah.” We might have other things going on of why I should make this investment. 

What about if it’s a little bit more complicated than a yes or no? This is a tool I learned a long time ago. I also love it. You take the, let’s say, two alternatives. I’ve never tried it with three. I really tried to narrow it down to two options. Basically, whatever that decision is—of these two options—you write a short phrase on each of the two pieces of paper. Almost everything does come down to a yes or no. But let’s say that I can’t do yes or no because my life is just so much more sophisticated and clever and complicated than that. I get it because I, too, am a complex goddess. 

Write that option on one piece of paper, write the option on the other piece of paper, and you’re going to do the same thing. You’re going to stand on that piece of paper. You’re going to get quiet and calm and breathe and just tune in. “Am I leaning forward? Am I leaning back? Is there a little frisson of excitement or do I feel a wa wa?” 

It can be really subtle. For me, sometimes it’ll just be like, when I get on the option, that’s really not what I desire, or is not my next step right now. I tend to dream and when the ideas come in, they come in plentifully. My immediate thing is like, “I want to do everything at once.” We can’t. We could try, but it would scatter our energies. What I’ve found is to pick that one thing, max three things. Here’s where I’m going to put my focus. Then above that, it just starts to get really scattered. 

You’re going to start standing on that piece of paper. Hands on your body. Breathing. How is my body feeling on this option versus the other option? Really feel it. Notice the subtle differences when you put them side by side like that. That’s when you really start to notice. “Oh, I noticed that when I got on, when I stepped on this one, I felt a little constriction in my chest. What was that about? When I stepped on this one, my heartbeat went like [sound effect] and maybe sped up a little bit.” 

It’s not about which one is creating fear in the body because often, our big dreams will create some eek, and that is normal. It’s really just tuning into where it feels like that ease, like that “Yum,” like that “Yes.” This may very well be something that you need to practice. If this is a completely new tool for you, don’t use this tool for the biggest decision you need to make in your life right now. Start small. This idea is tapping your body’s wisdom to help for clarity on that decision. 

First and foremost, the thing that you need to know about the body is she will not steer you wrong. Here is your truth. There’s no fooling the body. We get a lot of programming that leads us to detach from the body, dissociate from the body, ignore the body, put the body last. Often when we start to get into these tools that are like, “You mean maybe my body could help me make decisions in my business?” 

Heck to the yes. What I can tell you is every time I ignore my body’s wisdom, that’s when I make mistakes because this is your connection with your intuition. 

Yes, and maybe out of practice, we may have gotten used to discounting those communications from the bodies, the surges of emotion, the fluttering of sensation. We may have learned to tune those out. Practice with the little things. Do I want a blueberry or a strawberry? Low-stakes shit. Keep it simple. You’re at the grocery store. “Do I want a clementine, or do I want a passion fruit?” Whatever you’re deciding, play with that. I do this by touching and feeling all the produce because I love to do that. I love to smell it. Of course, I have my tactics. I want that melon to be heavier than it looks; that’s ripe and juicy. I tune in to what my body is saying yes to.

Good stuff. I’m curious. Try this out. Let me know how it goes for you. I want to hear what did you try, what decisions, what aha’s did you have. What I have found is that the more that I trust what’s arising from the body versus what I’m imposing on the situation, the more flow I have, the more ease I have, the more clarity I have. 

It also builds these trust pathways with the body. We’ve gotten a lot of messaging around being betrayed by our bodies or our bodies turning against us. No. This is your loyal consort. With you from first breath to last. She would never turn against you. What is it that she is longing to communicate with you? What messages might you be discounting or not hearing because of that love-hate relationship or a distancing relationship? 

I’m excited to hear where you go with this. From my heart to yours, I love you. Take what you need and pass it on.

Thanks for joining me on Wise Body, Ancient Soul. I hope it reminds you how powerful and magical you truly are. If you’re looking to connect more deeply with the wisdom your body and soul carry, it would be my honor to guide you. 

Check out my website to learn how else we can play together. And if you feel so moved, kindly subscribe, rate, and review this podcast, so more juicy light bringers like you can hear these transmissions. Here’s to your joy and wild success. 

From my heart to yours, I love you. Take what you need and pass it on.