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 are powerful. They're real, and they're needed. Start today by downloading my free energy audit at Brenda Winkle. Com for 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. Welcome to your yes filled life. My name is Brenda Winkle and I am so glad that you're here. So let's just name the moment as I'm recording. It is February 7th, 2026. We've got all kinds of things shifting in the astrology. We have all kinds of energy around us. We have the Super Bowl tomorrow. We have a lot of things happening on the political landscape in the United States. We have a lot of stress and tension and anxiety, and we're going to be talking today about how we can continue to navigate, come back to center, come back to clarity. Even when pressure feels high, it feels a lot. When decisions feel heavier than normal. And many people, especially if you have a lot of empathy, a lot of compassion. You are an empath. You are intuitive. You might be feeling foggy or tired or slow or overwhelmed, and I just want you to know that if you're feeling it right now, nothing has gone wrong.
Brenda Winkle 00:02:33 It feels wrong on a lot of levels. It feels wrong, but nothing has gone wrong here. So today we're going to talk about why clarity disappears when the stakes are high and chaos is all around us, and what can actually help it come back. And we're also going to dive into a little bit around the energy that I'm tracking around this and why that matters. And this is exactly the kind of thing that we're going to be doing together at the Intuitive Leader Retreat March 3rd through fifth in Lincoln City, Oregon. This is going to be like slowing down enough to hear yourself again when things just feel loaded. So what's happening right now in the collective is partially linked to the astrology. If you don't yet follow astrology invitation to go look it up. There's some incredible providers out there. Amy Demure is on TikTok and Instagram. She does an amazing job. Joe Figueras has been a guest on this podcast and she does an amazing job. I also really like Sabrina Lynn of Rewilding, and all of those people are great people to get some astrology wisdom from.
Brenda Winkle 00:03:53 But there's more. So my belief is. That as empaths, as people with deep intuition, deep compassion, deep empathy. We have unique medicine that the world needs, and I have known my whole life that there was something really important that I was here to do, that I am here to do, and that it was centered around this idea of guiding empaths, guiding the intuitive, guiding the feelers, the healers, the helpers. Because that's how I identify as well. And we have very sensitive nervous systems which allow us to do the important work that we do. And also it means that we're very easily influenced by the energy around us. So I started a podcast called the Table of Woo podcast, and I have gotten such consistent feedback from my clients on their session feedback forms every time I have a private client after their session, they're given a feedback forum and it's a chance for them to say what went well. If there's anything they want to adjust or address next time. And then just a comment section.
Brenda Winkle 00:05:08 And I can't tell you the number of times that someone has commented. I really liked the Table of Woo podcast. Well me too, but I also feel like I didn't have the capacity to run both shows right now, so I'm just going to weave a little bit of it into your life, and I hope that's okay. And it makes you not want to listen. That's okay too. But here's the thing. Energetically, what we're seeing is like, this is gross, but it's like the pus coming to the surface. We can't clear it completely and allow it to heal until we see it. And right now we're in the seeing it part of this journey. It's confronting. It is not fun, especially if you have any history of abuse or trauma. What's happening right now to our human bodies is a lot, because our human bodies are reliving experiences that are brought about by the collective healing that's happening right now, and it really is collective healing. So the reason you've been feeling so heavy, so tired, so foggy, is that you are actually healing the collective by being intentional about the way that you're showing up.
Speaker 2 00:06:27 Check on something.
Brenda Winkle 00:06:28 Okay. I was I was I'm smudging a little bit earlier and I felt like I still I could still feel the smoke, but, it's it's out. So anyway, I want to really assure you nothing has gone wrong here with you. You're not doing it wrong. You're not doing it badly. You're not weak. There's literally nothing that's going wrong here. We are exposing systems and structures of oppression that have been at work for a very, very, very long time. And so, of course, you're going to be impacted by what's happening in the collective, you know, around the Epstein files. You're going to be affected by what's happening politically, by the racist memes that are shown on social media. Of course, you're affected by that. And so if clarity feels a little less available to you, then normally that's not a character flaw. This is the capacity issue. And this is an overloading of the nervous system issue, not confusion, not weakness. Weakness. I don't know why I said it like that, but you get the point.
Brenda Winkle 00:07:44 So signs of overload include looping thoughts like you just keep thinking the same thoughts over and over and over again. Urgency. Feeling like you have to do something. You have to decide right now. You have to take action. But then that urgency is also counterbalanced by an intense fear of making the wrong decision and getting it wrong. And all of that is wrapped in a nice little bow of emotional exhaustion. Is that sound about right? Okay, so clarity doesn't actually disappear, but it feels like it does. It feels like it's not accessible. We feel like we're confused. And let's talk about what is happening and why. So when we're in high stakes, high pressure situations, whether it's in our personal lives, in our professional lives, in the collective, the people around us, what's happening is our bodies are picking up on all of it, especially if you're an empath your body is constantly looking for how to help. Should I absorb? Is there something I need to be aware of? And so there's like this vigilance that starts to happen on the nervous system level.
Brenda Winkle 00:09:02 It's not even something you're consciously doing. It's not you're not doing it on purpose. It's just how you're built. And so when we have these high stakes moments, it activates our urgency. It activates our own sense of needing self-protection, and we find ourselves kind of scanning for consequences. And that means that the decisions that we would normally be able to make pretty easily feel much higher stakes. And so even making a decision around what food should I make for dinner tonight can feel like, well, gosh, I don't want to. I don't want to make the wrong decision. I don't want to decide the wrong thing. I want to make sure I feel good tomorrow. I want to make sure the family is fed. So even like routine, things can feel really daunting and under pressure. What can begin to happen is people start to override themselves. So if you have noticed yourself pushing past the point of tired and you keep working or pushing past the point of being hungry, and you don't go feed yourself, or pushing past the point of being thirsty, or past the point of going to the bathroom when you have to go to the bathroom.
Brenda Winkle 00:10:14 This is a response to the pressure, and another component of this could mean that you're rushing decisions. You feel a sense of urgency, like you have to decide, and you're probably looking outward for certainty. And when we start to look outward for certainty, then all of a sudden the kinds of decisions that we were making very independently, very confidently, all of a sudden we find ourselves needing to make by committee, which, as a high achiever like you, probably feels slightly irritating. It probably feels a little like regression, but I just want to say it's not regression. It is literally your body's response to what's happening right now. And this is so, so, so important. And I want you to really hear me on this. Trying harder in these situations usually makes things a little bit worse. And when we find ourselves in that trying energy for me, I'll tell you how I recognize it. I notice myself reaching for a second, third, or even fourth cup of coffee in the day, which is not typical.
Brenda Winkle 00:11:34 I am a absolutely. I want to have a cup of coffee every day, but I can usually do like one cup and I'm okay. But when this pressure starts to build internally, I start to notice that I'm in two, three, four cups of coffee and I'm still drinking coffee at 2:30 p.m. when I go out for supposedly like a healthy drink and it's supposed to be like a mushroom coffee and it'll be like, yeah, add a shot of espresso to that. So that's one of my towels. I'm like, oh, I'm craving the caffeine to keep going through it. another tell for me is that I will notice my schedule gets busier. Like the more stressed or pressurized I feel, the more I notice myself filling my calendar with things that I need to do. And so the paradox is that the more important the decision that you're trying to make, the less thinking actually helps. Because until we create that, that felt sense of body. Safety of nervous system safety, the thinking is just in the structured mind.
Brenda Winkle 00:12:48 So I talk a lot with my clients, and I'm bringing it here to your life about the bodies of intuition. Okay, so the bodies of intuition, there are many, many maps of intuition that we could talk about. But today I'm going to talk to you about the bodies. So we have the structured mind. That's the mental body of intuition. This is important. We like our structured minds. It's where our intelligence and intellect live. They're very fast moving. And oftentimes when we're under stress, when there's pressure, when there's chaos, we are in this field of this, the mental field, we're definitely in the mind. You'll know that you're there when you say things like, I'm stuck in my head or I'm looping like, maybe you don't say that, but maybe you'll notice yourself just thinking about the same thing over and over and over again. You might notice yourself disassociating and what that can look like is. doom scrolling for hours or binge watching an entire season on Netflix? That is very commonly where we're in the mental field.
Brenda Winkle 00:13:57 Now. Again, remember I said there was more than one map? I'm not talking about the maps of nervous system right now, although we could say that's probably related to a freeze response. What we're talking about is the intuitive. So the intuitive mental body up in the head, very fast moving, is connected to intellect. It's connected to intuition. I also feel like it's very connected to masculine energy, not men but masculine energy. So it's very doing based. It's action oriented. What should I do next? The other intuitive body we're going to talk about three is the emotional body, which lives around the heart space. In my experience, a lot of times when people access the emotional body, they'll place their hands on their heart. I know that I do this too. And when we think about the emotional body, the actual energy of that is actually extended a little bit outward from the heart. It's probably, you know, 6 to 8in out from the heart. But oftentimes we feel like we can access it if we place our hands on the heart.
Brenda Winkle 00:15:04 And when we access this body, the emotional body, it's slightly slower than the mental field then the the structured mind. And so we have to actually slow ourselves down enough to have access to this intuitive center. And then there's an even deeper intuitive center, which is the intuitive body. And this happens right outside of around the belly button. And it's interesting because if we think of the map of the chakras, we would think that the deepest intuitive center would be in the third eye, which is in the head between the eyebrows. But in my experience, when we overlay the chakras with this map where the mental field is in the head, the emotional body is in the heart, and then the intuitive body is outside of the gut. It feels like we're accessing more of the body, more of the energy centers within the body. And so when we think about the intuitive body, which is located right outside that belly, if you were to say a statement like, I know in my gut that you're going to have a really different answer than something that's coming from the structured mind.
Brenda Winkle 00:16:25 But the catch is the intuitive bodies, the one outside the belly, that's the slowest moving, intuitive center if you're in constant motion, if you're in constant pressure, if you are constantly scheduled, if you're always taking things in, if you're listening to podcasts and signing up for summits and listening to, you know, music and and tapping into every free webinar, free challenge you can tap into, you will probably not have access to the information that's coming to you from that intuitive body because it's very slow, it's subtle, meaning you're going to get the information, but it's not going to be loud and flashy. It's not going to be like the running rampant thoughts that are coming to you in the structured mind. And so when I said that the more important the decision, the less thinking helps until safety is restored. What I'm speaking to is these intuitive bodies. We have to access the entire intuitive system, and there are many maps we could talk about the Claires, we could talk about the empath maps, we could talk about lots of different ones.
Brenda Winkle 00:17:36 So this is just one map, the intuitive bodies. And again, this is exactly the work that we're doing at the Intuitive Leader Retreat, and the reason we do this work together in person, in community, in connection, is because doing this level of work alone is hard, because if we're lacking a sense of nervous system safety, it can feel very vulnerable to slow down enough to allow the intuition to come in. And when you have a regulated nervous system that is holding the space for everyone and other people can relate to that, then all of a sudden this mirroring starts to happen. We know this. We know this through tons of research like for example, Institute of Heart Math does tons of research on mirror neurons which come from the heart and the brain. And when you are in a contained space with regulated nervous systems and support, it changes everything. It changes your access. It changes the depth of the intuition, which is absolutely profound. And, you know, it's probably worth mentioning, you know, or maybe you don't.
Brenda Winkle 00:18:55 You will know that both the heart and the stomach contain brain cells, actual brain cells. Fun fact so let's talk about what actually helps the clarity return, what helps it feel like you can trust what's happening in your mind? Well, let's talk about what doesn't help. First, forcing a decision, forcing yourself to be brave and just like face things. Even if you're feeling scared or triggered or upset or anxious or angry or sad and you just keep forcing, that's not going to help. And consuming more information is also not going to help. What does help is slowing the pace internally, literally allowing yourself to slow down. That's why you need more rest. That's why your body is communicating to you that you need more rest by making you more tired. And when you can give your body rest, you can hydrate, feed yourself, slow down. You're supporting yourself internally through that uncertainty. And from doing that, you're going to have more access to those little intuitive nudges. The intuition is always there and you are intuitive.
Brenda Winkle 00:20:16 Everyone is intuitive if you can slow down enough to listen. And the other thing that can really help is when you can allow yourself to feel, to notice, to tap into without having to explain or perform. In other words, clarity returns when the pressure drops, not when answers are forced. And again at the retreat, the intuitive leader retreat. This is literally the work. We're restoring that internal steadiness so your own clarity can come back online. And the reason we need your clarity right now is because you have unique medicine that only you have. You know, sometimes we tell ourselves like, this is oversaturated. This market is oversaturated. Nobody needs what I have. Nobody needs another article on Substack, and nobody needs another podcast, and no one needs another healer. Dot dot dot dot dot. And off to the races you go. But here's the thing. There is somebody that I met that said one time, have you ever noticed that there can be four fast food places on four different corners, like right across the street from each other? Like there's McDonald's, there's Burger King, there's Wendy's, and there's, I don't know, chick fil A or something right across.
Brenda Winkle 00:21:45 And they're all there and they all have enough business. It's because your unique medicine only speaks to the people that can be impacted by you. So whether you're drawn to whatever, whatever those restaurants are, and I'm not much of a fast food person personally, but you get the point that there is enough telling yourself that the market is saturated for whatever it is you want to do is scarcity. It's scarcity thinking, and I don't think it's real because your unique lived experience and your unique talents and gifts and your unique preparation makes your message truly one of a kind. So yeah, you might be doing something that's similar to what other people are doing, but we need your specific Message on it. It's normal to want support right now. I have been seeking support right now. I have been really intentional about reaching out and saying to my friends, I need some connection. Could we get together or could we go for coffee sometime soon? And there's a lot coming up for me personally about the business and about healing and about, you know, the way people are responding to what's happening in our country, in the United States.
Brenda Winkle 00:23:17 There's a lot coming up for me, and it's work. I have already done, work I continue to do. And so I'm not only reaching out to my friends for connection, but I'm reaching out to to my team and saying, hey, I need a little extra support right now because this is a lot and we are in the final weeks of the Wood Snake year in in the Lunar New Year, and I am determined to shed everything that isn't aligned for me. I am determined and so I'm reaching out and getting support from my practitioners, my healers, my therapists, my friends. And I just want to normalize that. If you have been wanting support, that is not a sign of weakness. That's actually a sign of strength. Because let me tell you, from personal experience, it takes so much more courage to reach out to somebody and say, hey, I need a little connection right now than it does just to stay home and hibernate as a Pisces. Haha. I, I can be prone to doing that occasionally.
Brenda Winkle 00:24:22 I'm an extroverted Pisces, which is a little bit weird, but at the same time I can be home for days and not reach out or see somebody unless I'm intentional about it. And that's not good for my mental health. I know that, And so with all of this instability in our country, I have absolutely been intentional about saying to my friends and and my loved ones and my practitioners and my therapists and all the things I need a little extra support. So if that's you. There's nothing wrong with you. It's not a sign of weakness. It's actually a sign of strength. And some people are going to want immersion and spaciousness and time. And if that's you, please go check out the Intuitive Leader Retreat, because that might be exactly what you need. And I'll put the link in the show notes. And in case you're not a show notes person or maybe you're driving, you can go to Brenda Winkle Retreat 2026. And at this time, this is the only in-person event that's scheduled for 2026.
Brenda Winkle 00:25:30 So if that's been on your bucket list invitation to take advantage of that. And some people I'm noticing, like what I just mentioned about myself. Some people need support right now. And so if you're navigating something acute, a decision, a transition, a moment of overwhelm, I am, for the first time in four years, offering single 60 minute sessions for clarity and regulation. This is not something that I have offered at all in the last four years. And so it's it's kind of a big deal where you can get just a single precision support session. So I'll put the link in the show notes for you. It's a calendly link. You can go right there, pick your time and check out. It's just precision support and grounded direction. The thing I want you to hear above everything is there's nothing wrong with you. You aren't broken. The way that you're responding to what's happening in the world is completely appropriate the way that you're speaking up, whatever that is, is completely appropriate. And the way that you're navigating this is appropriate because this is hitting us all in different ways.
Brenda Winkle 00:26:48 So just listen to your body, give yourself the support that you need right now, whether that's connection or rest or time alone or support. And on Wednesday, on the next podcast episode, we're going to be talking about what to do when this still doesn't help you. Think clearly without pushing your forcing yourself. So be sure to come back on Wednesday to your yes filled Life podcast. And if you could please share this with somebody that you care about, it would mean so much. Thanks for listening. Bye for now. Until next time.
