Brenda Winkle 00:00:01 Welcome to your yes filled life. I'm Brenda Winkle, energetic leadership guide, psychic, medium and somatic coach for ambitious leaders who know their gifts are real and who want to stand fully in them. Here you'll learn how to trust your intuition, embody your vision, and step into the freedom you've been creating, all without chasing more certifications or carrying stuff that does not belong to you. Every week, I'll share powerful practices and conversations with thought leaders and changemakers that help you transform your vision into embodied confidence. Claim your gifts without apology and lead with both clarity and freedom. Because your gifts aren't cute, they're powerful. They're real, and they're needed. Start today by downloading my free energy audit at Brenda Winkle forward slash audit. It's the exact tool I use to track what's fueling me and what's draining me. It will help you discern between that hit of achievement and true joy, so that you can lead with more clarity and impact. This is your space to stop proving, start embodying and live fully in your gifts.
Brenda Winkle 00:01:16 Welcome to your yes filled life. Hello and welcome to your yes filled life. I'm your host, Brenda Winkle, Energetic Leadership guide, psychic medium and somatic coach for ambitious, intuitive leaders feelers intuitive who feel everything and who are finally ready to claim their gifts instead of getting overwhelmed by them. And today, I want to tell you a story about why. Hello and welcome to your yes filled life. I'm your host, Brenda Winkle Energetic Leadership guide, psychic, medium and somatic coach for ambitious, intuitive leaders, feelers, empaths, intuitive who feel everything and who are finally ready to claim their gifts instead of getting overwhelmed by them. And we're going to be talking today about how your intuition is the method. Your intuition is the medicine. Your intuition is the thing you've been searching for. But first, I want to tell you a story about one of my very favorite book series and limited TV series. It's called Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I discovered this book several of the book series actually several years ago.
Brenda Winkle 00:02:42 at the time, I was still working as a glamour photographer. Now, keep in mind, I was still teaching full time, but I hadn't opened my Reiki business yet. So this was prior to 2015, and I was in my glamour photography business. I did all kinds of things. I did family photos, I did pet photography, I did wedding photography, and I ended on women's glamour photography. And so I would hire makeup artists and hair dye hairstylists, and sometimes it would be the same person, sometimes they'd be different, and they would come to my house and they would treat my clients to a beautiful glamour session. And then we'd do photos. And during one of these sessions, a book came up and it was Discovery of Witches. So I checked out the book from the library, and I was so hooked that then I downloaded the audio series of the book. I listened to it when the second book in the series came out, I think it was called Shadow of Night. I read that, and then the third book came out.
Brenda Winkle 00:03:48 I think that anyway, it's called the All Souls trilogy. I was hooked, I was absolutely fascinated by this book series. I read it over and over and over again. I couldn't get enough of this book series, and I would just start with book number one. I read it from beginning to end, and then I'd go on to book number two and then book number three. And then when I felt like I needed a shift out of that book, I would go get the CDs, like the book on CD back from those days. Remember those days? some of those are still in those days, but I would get the book on CD, and then I would listen again to the same series. And I was absolutely fascinated and in love with this whole book series, and I didn't quite understand why. I knew that I've always been fascinated by stories that included witches and vampires and romance and sort of this feminist bent on on stories about, you know, women doing really cool things in the world.
Brenda Winkle 00:04:51 And so I knew that. But I there was something about the whole series that absolutely captured my imagination and my attention, and I couldn't exactly tell what it was until the book series came out as a limited TV series. And of course, you know, I had to subscribe to the channel that had this limited TV series because at the time it was only coming out in one place. So I made a subscription to that channel, and I decided I was just going to watch this series. I think it was like season. It was three seasons, like three books. And so I did that three different times. I'm telling you, it was borderline obsession with this series, The Discovery of Witches. Anyway, when the second season came out, which was all about the second book, I discovered why there was something about how Diana, who is the main character, she had been unknowingly. A witch with magical abilities but had not discovered them. And I'm going to be very careful not to give you any spoilers in case you want to read this for yourself and you haven't read it.
Brenda Winkle 00:06:08 She discovered that she had these abilities, and then she discovers along the way that the reason that she can't do the the magic spells the way that everyone has been teaching her. It just literally blows up in her face. She can't do it is because she's not meant to follow other people's spells. She's meant to create her own. And this hit me because I feel like that applies to me. In my whole life, I have felt like I can learn from other people's frameworks. I can learn from other people's templates, but I'm not able to really execute on it in a meaningful way until I make it my own. And this was true for me as a teacher when I was in the classroom. It was true for me as a choir director, as a musician, there's something that happens for me when I make something completely my own, that that's when the alchemy comes forward. That's when the true transmission that comes through me arrives. That's when transformation happens. It's when I stop relying on the frameworks and the templates of other people.
Brenda Winkle 00:07:27 This has been true my whole life, and it's a big part of the reason why I don't enjoy rules, I respect them, I, I respect them. I mean, I was a public educator for 26 years, so I understand rules. I can function within them, but I don't prefer them. And it's also why, as I've grown and developed as a healer, as a Reiki master, a theta healing practitioner, a somatic coach, a breathwork facilitator, a psychic medium, a tarot card reader. It's also why sometimes I felt limited and frustrated by my modalities, because I can see things in a way that's different from the way other people see things. And my guess is, if you're drawn to this podcast, there's a part of you that relates deeply to this that you can learn from other people's templates, but you need to make things your own, and that's your own unique magic. That's how you've been able to do the things that are most transformational in your own life, right? So you get the template, you get the framework, and then you create from that place and you make it completely your own.
Brenda Winkle 00:08:41 I mean, that is the yes filled life, right where it's following your own internal. Yes. And it sometimes means that we need to color outside of the lines. And I've been thinking about this so much. This year, 2025, has brought me to my knees over and over and over again. I naively thought that when my dad died in August of 2024, that I would be doing a healing journey around the grief of his death for at least 12 months. I was prepared for that, and I expected that. And, you know, to a certain extent, I think that that's what happened. But there are so many other things that have happened in 2025 that I did not see coming. And my bet is the same thing or something similar has happened to you, maybe not related to your dad or your family, but 2025 has been a year of truth telling. It has been a very revealing year of what's real, what's authentic, what's aligned, and the part of the journey of 2025 that I was not at all prepared for is how much shedding I would need to do.
Brenda Winkle 00:10:06 I mean, I knew going into the year of the Yin would snake that there'd be shedding. That's the whole energy of the yin would snake right snake shed. So I expected that. I thought I was ready for that. I thought I was going to be shedding things like self-doubt and habits that no longer serve me and thinking patterns and beliefs. Right. I thought that's what I would be shedding. And I was prepared for that. What I was not prepared for is all of the ways that 2025 has broken me open And it's broken me open in. What I can see now are really profound, cool ways. But wow, it was rough. It was rough. You know, my two closest friends and my relationship just kind of changed abruptly. It didn't blow up in smoke. Nothing bad happened. It just ended. It just disappeared. Almost like it had never been there. And these were two of my closest friends. I spoke to them every day, so that was a major loss. My dog listen to my throat chakra close.
Brenda Winkle 00:11:27 My dog had a major incident which helped me to shed, helped me to shed the whatever was covering my eyes to truly see. He was anxious and in pain, and that was where his reactivity was coming from, which led me through a really painful process of recognition and staying home while I worked with him to get him trained. But in the process, not only is he doing so much better, and he's so much more relaxed and he's happier and I'm happier, but I made an incredible friend along the way named Gia. And guess what? Gia is coming on the podcast. She is going to be here on the very next episode. So make sure that you are subscribed because you're not going to want to miss this episode. Gia is going to talk to us all about the things that we all should know about our dogs, things that we can watch for, things that we can do that are simple, easy shifts that will change the life for you and your dog. And then we also jam about friendship and travel and living unconventional lives, because you're going to want to hear about the life that she's just now started in a whole new way.
Brenda Winkle 00:12:42 I just I don't want to tell you too much more, because I don't want to spoil it for you, but you're going to want to listen to this episode. So that happened, and that was a really painful process. But it had a beautiful outcome because not only is Bentley doing better, but I have a new friend in Gia. And so those were two of the things that happened. And that takes us to march, right? Oh my gosh. So we're now in December as I'm recording this, and let me tell you that the rest of 2025 has had just as big of lessons and shedding as this, you know, structures and systems that I had in place for the last four or 10 or 12 years have absolutely crumbled, but it's caused me to really go inward and dig deep and figure out what feels aligned, what is energetically rich, what feels good. And I'm coming out. I'm still in this integration process again, just like I promised you. I was going to share the the wound as well as the scar.
Brenda Winkle 00:13:40 I'm not fully integrated on this yet, so I'll be talking more about it soon. But I'm coming to realize all of the ways that I was allowing people to not treat me in the way I want to be treated, and take advantage of me in ways that I was really co-signing on. And I'm cleaning that up and that feels so messy. Oh my gosh, it feels so messy because these are relationships that I care deeply about, but they are not serving me and they're probably not serving that other person either. And so there's still some cleaning that is happening in that. And, you know, I've shared openly about a mentor that I needed to part ways with. And that came this year, too. I mean, I don't mean to, you know, bleed all over you. But this is all to say, if you've been in it for 2025 and you've had some really hard lessons. Me too. And the biggest lesson that I have learned in 2025 is the templates and frameworks that we have been using that we have been taught to use are actually the very same things that are keeping us stuck.
Brenda Winkle 00:14:54 So let's dive in from there. Now, depending on what your field of expertise in is in, I bet you can relate to this. You go to school whether that's college or grad school or trainings or certifications, and you learn all the things. You get the quote unquote expertise, you get the training, and then you go to apply the training. And after a very relatively short time, you start to realize that you have intuitive nudges coming through about how you might get better results if you do this thing or that thing, or don't do this other thing. You might have impressions that come through, or you sort of know or see or sense or feel things that no one has told you or taught you how to feel, see, sense, or know are there, and you are left wondering how do you bridge the gap between maintaining the ethical integrity of what you've been taught to? Being able to follow your own intuitive guidance where you stray from the template. Where you stray from the framework. And that's what we're talking about right now.
Brenda Winkle 00:16:13 So I remember I started teaching in 1996, and I was very proud of my bachelor's degree, and I was also very arrogant And I figured that since I had, you know, achieved this degree. And I was raised in a family of musicians, and I had been part of music education for my entire life, that it was going to be a really easy transition for me to move into being a music educator full time, myself in the public schools. Wow. Was I wrong? I was so wrong. And I remember by the time December had hit that I was so angry at my college. I felt like I learned nothing that I actually needed. And so by the time the second semester rolled around that year, I was moving in a different way from the templates and the frameworks that I had been taught, because no one could have prepared me for the garter snake stuck in a cool whip bowl surrounded by a group of eighth grade boys. No one could have prepared me for the denatured alcohol that was poured into my water jug during class, and a kid told me and literally saved my life before I drank it.
Brenda Winkle 00:17:38 No one could have told me how to handle writing on a bus with the band, because I was K through 12. Band and choir, speech and drama at this little school. No one could have told me what it was like to ride on a bus with the band to a competition and having it go quite poorly, and then writing back the whole way. The students in the bus chanting we want and I won't say the name, but their former director the whole way, like an hour and a half drive. We want this guy. We want this guy. No one could have prepared me for that. There was no training, there was no textbook, there was no template for that. So it took me digging deep and finding my own intuitive guidance, my own inner guidance, connecting with my spirit guides, with my higher self, with my mentors and saying, okay, so this is not in the book. Now what? And so I learned as a very new teacher that I could not follow the frameworks because I literally couldn't.
Brenda Winkle 00:18:49 And my guess is, no matter what kind of training you've received, there was probably a moment just like that for you. We're in your training. You're like, wow, the things that I've learned, they are not supporting me right now. So I've been thinking about how I want to serve, and I absolutely am getting messages that I need to be stepping more into my mentorship role, where I'm teaching and leading and guiding other mentors, coaches, healers. And so I've been thinking about this concept of how do we maintain the ethical standards and the integrity of the thing that we're doing? And also, how do we lean into being able to do that, following our own intuitive nudges and our own intuitive guidance? And I don't know about you, but for me, it often comes as a quiet knowing, like there's something I'm sensing here, but I don't yet know what to do with it. That's how it started for me. And let me see if this resonates for you. You can feel things in people before they ever say a word.
Brenda Winkle 00:19:56 You can read energy in a text. You know the energy with which it was written. You can feel it. No one has to tell you. You notice energetic shifts in a room or in a conversation or even on a social media post. But you can't always explain them. And you know that you're reading something, but you don't want to overstep or project or cause any harm. Well, everything we're talking about today in this podcast episode is going to set you up to change that. Because here's the thing you're not missing more modalities. I mean, you might be you might want to fill in the gaps here and there, but that's not really the issue. What you're missing is a method working with your intuition and your body, and the information is already there. So let's talk about the deep desire that you're probably experiencing right now. You probably want to facilitate deeper breakthroughs in less time for your clients, for your patients, for the people that you work with. And you want to be able to trust that you can choose the right tool in the right moment instead of like having to follow a script or a list of boxes to check, because it just wastes time.
Brenda Winkle 00:21:12 And there's a part of you that already knows. Well, that is not going to work in this situation. So you want to trust what you see. You want to trust what you hear. Trust what you know in real time. You're not trying to become somebody else. You're not trying to overstep boundaries. You're not trying to break integrity with the system with which you've learned. But you are trying to do what you're being guided to do. And then the doubts arrive, right? You start to wonder, gosh, what if I'm doing this wrong? What if I overstep? Is someone going to call me out? Am I going to get in trouble? Is somebody going to say to me, oh, you're not the fill in the blank that I thought you were, because you went off map, so to speak, and then you wonder, gosh, what if I'm misreading this? What if I've gotten it all wrong? And underneath those questions is a very real ethical concern, which is you don't want to cause harm.
Brenda Winkle 00:22:11 I get it now. That's not you being insecure. That's you being deeply ethical and there's a difference. And no wonder this feels like insecurity when everything that you're being taught right now, if you're paying attention on social media or you've been in these trainings, is that it has to be this way, it has to be this template. It has to be this framework. It has to be this list, or else you're doing it wrong. Well, what I want to offer you is this there's a way to bring your intuition, your somatic and your energy work into something, something clear so you know what you're doing and why. Something confident so you can trust exactly what you're reading. And when I say reading, I mean like reading in a situation, reading in a room, reading in a in a session and something that is capacity building for you and for your clients. And best of all, it doesn't require you to abandon your current modality, but it will ask you to refine and deepen the way that you work.
Brenda Winkle 00:23:19 Okay, I promise myself I'm not going to stop this recording, but I really need a drink of water. Okay, so thanks for taking a drink with me. Maybe that's a reminder for you to take a drink, too. Now let's talk about why your intuition might feel unreliable. Most intuitive practitioners I work with are not struggling because they don't have intuition. And by the way, this applies to you whether you're a healer or a coach or a facilitator, or a physician or a nurse or a dog trainer, it applies to you, okay, because you are using your intuition to do your good work. And so again, most of the practitioners that I struggle are. Let me back that up. Most of the practitioners I work with are not struggling because they don't have intuition. They're struggling because they're overloaded with energy that's not theirs, and it's difficult to discern what someone else might be projecting into them energetically and what they actually feel, or they don't have a somatic language to notice what's happening in the body.
Brenda Winkle 00:24:27 Like, it's hard to notice what you're noticing if you don't know how to describe what you're noticing or sensing or feeling. And the third reason that it might be that intuitive practitioners are struggling is they've never been taught how to distinguish intuition from projection. So projection is where you might be working on something in yourself, and then you see it in everybody else around you. This often happens with people when they're brand new in personal development work, where you discover something about yourself, and next thing you know, you see it in everybody that you know, it's happened to all of us, by the way. I'm not immune from that either. I know that that was definitely the case. So, like, as you discover. Maybe you have some codependent habits. You discover codependency in everyone, and you try to diagnose them and tell them all about their codependency. Or maybe it's that you discover you have some deep intuitive capabilities, and next thing you know, you're projecting on everyone about their intuitive abilities, even if they don't have any.
Brenda Winkle 00:25:28 So projection is where you're working with something, you're integrating something, and then you project it outwardly to see it everywhere else until it's integrated. So in a session, what might happen is you suddenly feel a tightness in your chest, like it often happens in the heart for people. I'm not talking about your literal heart muscle. I'm talking about like energetically in the heart, in the chest. So your client will say something about grief or sadness about something, and then you think that you're feeling their grief in your body. You think that that might be what is the the pressure or the presence on the heart space? But part of you wonders is this mine? Is this from my own story? And if it's too similar, it can absolutely be your story. That's what projection is. When without a clear method of discerning what's yours and what's not, your brain starts to spin and your nervous system ramps up and your intuition will actually get buried under anxiety, and then you start trying to, quote unquote, figure it out in your mind, the figure it out.
Brenda Winkle 00:26:39 Whenever I move into figure it out mode, I know for sure that I have disconnected from my intuition because my mental field, my brain, my intellect, my intelligence. That will be the part of me that wants to figure it out. My intuition already knows there's a certainty. It's quiet, it's subtle, it's smooth. But if there's no figure it out energy. And here's the thing I really want you to understand. This is not because you're unskilled or untrained. You are skilled. You are trained. You're probably very well educated. But this is because no one has ever taught you how to read the field with precision. No one's ever taught you what it's like to read someone's energy, or to work with somatic cues as a map. Not as a mystery. And no one's probably taught you how to communicate intuitive information in a sovereignty first. Trauma aware way to make sure that you're not projecting. And this is the gap that most modalities leave. So something's happening in my throat chakra. Now let me take another sip of water.
Brenda Winkle 00:27:51 Let's see. Let me feel. What is it that I need to say? Okay, so what's happening? When this process happens, I have some notes, and now I'm going off notes. So get ready for the ramble. what's happening when this happens for you is you're shutting down your inner voice. And when you shut down your inner voice, it might be something about your own body that you're ignoring. And here's the problem. For many of us, if we're ignoring something, a sensation, a thought, a feeling and emotion that comes through, it will find a way out. It'll find a way out by making us sick. Or we'll even develop a physical symptom. Like maybe all of a sudden you have an ache so severe in your ankle that you develop a limp. Even though two minutes ago you were absolutely fine with no ankle pain. And if you have chronic illness, when you start to listen to what your body is saying instead of treating the symptoms. And this goes for all of us, by the way, something magic unlocks And this ties right back in to everything that we're talking about.
Brenda Winkle 00:29:05 Because if we're ignoring what is coming through our bodies, we're disconnecting from the major source of our intuition. Yes, it comes from your third eye. It absolutely does come from your third eye, but it also comes from every other place in your body. It's called body wisdom. Right. So let's deepen into what intuitive somatic work actually looks like. Soma is the Greek word for body. So when we talk about somatic work, we're talking about work within the body. So imagine you're in a session and as you're sitting across from somebody, whether it's virtually or in person, you notice that your client's breath becomes more shallow. And then you notice that you're tracking a little bit of heaviness around their heart space, and then you might see an image flashed through your mind. Maybe it's a scene. Like you can see something and that's will happen for a certain number of you, where you'll actually see a scene for other people. It'll be something that represents something that maybe you see a door that's open, or maybe you can see very clearly how some situation is connected to another, maybe able to look like a rope, but instead of panicking or overthinking it, or ignoring it, or trying to figure it out, or blurting out a projection, you're able to pause and attune.
Brenda Winkle 00:30:30 And that would look and sound like I'm noticing that you tightened a little bit as you talk about this. What are you feeling right now? Where are you feeling it? And then you will invite their own somatic awareness. What do you notice? And as we speak the language of the body, the language of the body is different from the language of the mind. The language of the body is going to speak in colors, shapes, sensations, textures, sounds, images. It's not going to speak in clear thoughts and it may not speak in language. So when you ask someone to describe what they're experiencing, give them permission to experience it in any way that comes through the body. And if they're stuck in structured mind, which people do get stuck in structured mind, you can ask. Well, on a scale of 1 to 10, how intense does this feel? And then maybe you can bring in breath or sound or movement or energy work to shift that pattern with them, and then you reflect it ethically.
Brenda Winkle 00:31:33 And what that means is you'll get permission to share. And that will sound like, you know, something's coming through for me right now. Is it okay to share? And then you can explain? Well, here's what I keep getting a sense of. There's like a door half open. Does that make sense? Does that bring up anything for you? And then notice what we're doing here and what we're not doing here. What we are doing here is we're reading the field without diagnosing, and we are not putting words in their mouth. We're giving them space to respond and space to create their own things. Okay, so you're naming intuitive information in language that protects sovereignty not only for you but for your client. This is called intuitive somatic facilitation. It is not about being an all seeing oracle. That's a tremendous responsibility that none of us want. And by the way, that's not ethical. It is about being deeply attuned and a justice aligned practitioner who knows how to work with what what is already happening in the body and the field.
Brenda Winkle 00:32:44 Now, when I say a justice aligned practitioner, here's what I mean. If you're not being intentional about examining Meaning your biases and the lens through which you see the world. It's really easy to miss some very important things. And when we're dealing with people who have experienced any kind of hardship or trauma related to racism or misogyny or gender misidentification, there can be real trauma that we can trigger if we are not being intentional about doing our own inner work, to understand how our biases affect how we show up in session. That's what being a justice aligned practitioner means. So I want to describe something really exciting for you that I have created. Now, this is a space for healers and practitioners who are ready for this next level. It's called the Intuitive Somatic Healer certification. This is a six week live advanced training for experienced practitioners who want to integrate intuition, sovereignty and energy with precision, who want to hold sessions that feel structured and yet allow for flow, for intuition, that are deeply ethical and highly effective and transformational.
Brenda Winkle 00:34:10 And for people who want to support clients getting deeper results in less time. This certification is for you. If you've already trained in at least one modality and you know if you're not sure if your modality counts. Just send me a DM or send me an email. Because what I'm really looking for here is that you have worked with clients before, and that you care deeply about justice and safety, and this is also for you. If you know you're receiving intuitive information in sessions and you want a method to work with it, you're also going to learn how to read intuitive information from your client's body and field, how to trust what you see since here. And no, without overstepping or projecting. You'll learn how to use somatic tools like sound, breath, movement for real time transformation, and you'll learn how to facilitate gentle but powerful energetic cleansing. I have to pause because I don't know if you can hear this, but my texts are going crazy right now. My family chat is blown up. You're also going to learn how to communicate intuitively in trauma aware sovereignty first ways, and you're going to learn a repeatable session structure that you can lean on, but not feel like you have to stay stuck in that framework every week.
Brenda Winkle 00:35:32 Inside this program, you're going to practice. That's right. It's not just like learning. It's not a course. It's a way for you to practice what we're doing. You'll be practicing with someone else inside the container every single week. Part of the time we learn, part of the time you practice. You're not just going to learn this method, you're going to embody it. And because of that, every single week your confidence is going to grow. So if you've been thinking as you've been listening, wow, this is me. This this feels just like me. I already feel so much in my sessions with people. I'm ready to trust it and refine how I use it. Then this is your invitation. The Intuitive Somatic Healer certification is officially open as of today for the founding cohort. If you're an experienced practitioner building upwards of 0 to $15,000 a month in your practice, and you want deeper client results in less time through intuitive clarity, somatic precision, and ethical energetic facilitation. This is for you.
Brenda Winkle 00:36:37 Now, if you're currently making more than $15,000 a month in your business, you're absolutely welcome to join us inside this certification because you could probably benefit from it too. And I'm also going to be doing a little bit of coaching around how to get your business up to the $15,000 per month mark. And so if that might feel repetitive for you, just know that that's that's kind of what we're doing now. If your whole system is saying, I really want to do this and I need a whole body system reset, then invitation to consider coming to the reset retreat will be live three days oceanfront in Lincoln City, Oregon, where we're going to focus on nervous system resets, energetic sovereignty and clarity for your next chapter as you build from 0 to $15,000 a month in your business. So no matter which you choose or nothing, you're not behind. You're not too sensitive, you are not too much your gifted. And this next level of refinement is literally that it's refinement, not reinvention. And if you're listening to this and you're like, I don't want to be a practitioner, I'm not a practitioner, but I really want to work with you and to experience this, then that that can happen.
Brenda Winkle 00:37:58 I do have four spots open beginning in January for private one on one clients. So just send me an email Brenda at Brenda Winkle. Com or DM me and let me know that's what you want. Now next week on the podcast, we have Gia from Thinking Canine. I cannot wait for you to meet her. It's going to be so good. Make sure you're subscribed. If you enjoyed this, would you please consider sharing it with a friend and especially someone who you know is highly intuitive, really gifted, a healer, a practitioner, someone that you love, care about, and respect because it could be exactly what they're looking for. Thank you so much for listening. Bye for now. Until next time.
