How to Rebuild Intuition: back to basics
Why We Lose Touch With Our Gut (and How to Get It Back)
Episode 5: Intuitive Children, skeptical adults
Ever wonder if you were more intuitive before you grew up and life smacked you around a little?
This episode was a wild one because Heidi accidentally stumbled into the best "intuition game" ever—just sitting at dinner with her kids—and it ended up blowing her mind (and kinda breaking her heart in the best way).
It made us realize something huge:
Kids FEEL. Adults THINK.
And somewhere between being little and being "responsible grownups," most of us started doubting the one thing that actually used to come naturally: our gut.
Let’s talk about it.
What Happened at My Dinner Table (And Why It Matters)
There we were just making conversation with our kids at the dinner table…and suddenly I’m explaining chakras to my kids. (Because, obviously.)
Then it turned into a game:
→ Mom makes a face → no peeking allowed → kids guess the face
And holy shit.
They were NAILING IT.
Every single time. Without seeing my face.
But when it was their turn to make faces behind my back? I second-guessed myself. I doubted my instincts. I overthought it.
They FELT it. I thought about it.
And it hit me—
This is how we lose it.
Not because our intuition leaves us, but because we stop trusting it.
The verdict: Kids Feel First. Adults Think First.
Somewhere along the way, we all got trained:
"Be polite."
"Don't overreact."
"You're imagining things."
"Don't trust your gut unless you have proof."
And every time we brushed off a feeling?
We told our intuition to sit down and shut up.
Not because we meant to.
But because that's what growing up looked like.
How We Start Rebuilding Our Intuition
If you want to reconnect with that instinctual magic again — the kind you had as a kid — stop trying to learn it.. start feeling it.
Here’s what we’re doing (and what we dare you to try):
Feel your damn feelings.
Scream in your car. Cry over your tax bill. Jump up and down when you get a yes. Move it through.Play a mind-reading game.
Seriously.
Close your eyes.
Have your bestie or partner "send" you an emotion.
Say the first thing you feel.
(If you're wrong, who cares! If you're right, your logical brain gets a BOOST of confidence in trusting your gut!)Talk to your kids (or your inner kid).
If you have kids, validate their gut feelings.
If you don’t? Talk to your 6-year-old self in your journal. She’s still in there and may really need to hear that she was right all along (like Sissy’s story she shared in this episode)Stop gaslighting yourself.
You felt it.
You knew it.
Stop trying to logic your way out of what your gut told you.
Journal Prompts To Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Gut
What was the first time I knew something… and then doubted it?
When do I feel most disconnected from my body?
What feeling do I judge myself for having? (Anger, sadness, fear?)
If I trusted my first instinct this week, what would change?
What would 8-year-old me be proud of right now?
Continue the Conversation
We wanna know:
→ Have you ever had a weirdly intuitive moment that you ignored at first?
→ Do you still feel like you second-guess yourself more than you should?
Drop a comment or DM us @trustyourselfpodcast — or if you’re feeling brave, post your mind-reading game and tag us. 👀
(Seriously, if you film yourself doing it, we will scream like proud big sisters.)
Want More Real Talk Like This?
We send out weekly letters to our Substack fam — full of messy, magical reminders that you’re not broken, you’re just remembering.
Full Transcript
Heidi (00:01)
So it was so fun to just play around with this and see how we were intuitively tuned into each other.
For generations, women were shamed for trusting themselves, sensing things before they happened, and believing in their own power. No one encouraged them to embrace it until now. Welcome to Trust Yourself.
Okay, Sissy, I'm so, so excited to tell you about what happened last night. I wanted to call you right away, but then I was like, no, this is going to be a fabulous podcast episode.
Elise (00:37)
Yeah, and make me wait forever. I know.
Heidi (00:39)
For real, this is like the longest ever. So last night at dinner, I don't even really remember how this topic came up, but we were talking about like feelings and I kind of wanted to like lead into like seeing where they felt things in their body. And I was like, okay, like when you guys feel really loved, like when mom and dad give you a hug, like where does it feel like in your body? And they're like, my heart. And then I was like, close your eyes and tell me what color you feel. And my son Stanley goes, green.
And I was like, it's interesting that you say green because there's these things called chakras. And then I started explaining chakras to them. And I was like, your heart chakra is actually bright green. And we were talking about that. And then I was like, I'm curious to know how you feel other things. So then I started describing creativity. So I was like, okay, so when you are coloring or creating something new or coming up with new ideas,
Do you feel that in your body? And my daughter who's six, Margo, she was closing her eyes and she was like, she kind of had this funny look on her face. Like she didn't want to say it. And she was like, I feel it in my private part.
like my gosh that's correct like your sacral chakra like you feel it yeah yeah
Elise (01:58)
correct. if you're going off of the chart.
Heidi (02:02)
And I was just like, feel it where you feel it. But I was like, then I was telling her about this sacral chakra and how that's where your creativity is. And then I started explaining the third eye chakra. And then I don't remember which kid it was, but one of them goes, is that why you know that we're doing something we're not supposed to do without seeing it? And I was like, absolutely. I can see it with my third eye. And then they're like, do we have third eyes? And I was like, yeah, absolutely.
And it just turned into this game all of sudden where I was like, let's see if we can guess what each other's feeling. And so we started with just like making faces, like they were closing their eyes. And then I just made a face, like I was making like an angry face and they had their eyes closed. And I was like, okay, what am I feeling right now? And they're like, angry. And I was like, holy shit. Yeah. And then we just kept doing it. And then they got to the point where they were like,
standing behind me and then they were making faces and then I was trying to guess it.
Elise (03:01)
Because the skeptic in me was going to be like, who was peeking through their fingers?
Heidi (03:05)
Okay, so first they were doing, well actually it was the other way around. at first, so I was making the face still. So it was me making the face and they were turned around completely so they couldn't see my face. And I was making all these different kinds of faces. I was making silly faces, happy faces, sad faces, all these things and they did not look and every single fucking one was correct. Every single one. And they were getting so excited every time that they were right. They were like, let's do it again, let's do it again.
and they fucking loved it. And then I was like, okay, now I'm curious. I want to do it. And so then they stood behind me and started making faces. And what I found was so interesting was I was wrong a lot of the time. They were always right. I was wrong. But I also noticed that the way that I said it, it was like not the emotion that they were thinking, but they were making a face that I would have described as that sort of thing still too. But they were like, no, it was this. So like one of them was, I was like silly.
And they're like, no. And then I just tried to keep guessing. was like, I don't know, sad. And then of course I was like doubting myself. And then I turn around and then my son Stanley was making this face like, and he was like, I'm excited. And I was like, okay. Like I would have seen that and thought that was silly, but he was feeling excited. So it was so fun to just play around with this and see.
how we were intuitively tuned into each other. And then to make it even more interesting, this morning, Margot was telling me how her... So her friend is coming home with her after school today on the school bus. And that friend's mom texted me this morning like, she's a little nervous, but I told her everything will be fine. You'll see her after school. Just remember to text me or whatever. I was like, of course. And then, so I let Margot know and she's like, well...
I can read her mind and see if she's feeling scared. And if she's feeling scared, I can say things that'll make her feel better. And I was like, you are right. You can always use your third eye, use your intuition and read their mind or however you want to say it. And sense, like you can always sense if your friends are feeling scared or sad, like just do that just like how you did it with me. And she's like, I'm going to, because I am a mind reader now.
Elise (05:22)
Yeah
Heidi (05:25)
It was super duper fun. So I'm really excited to just keep doing this. it just, it feels so good to like just support their intuition because kids are so more in tune with their intuition than we know. And I feel like as we grow and as we get older, we start squashing it. What are your thoughts on my game?
Elise (05:48)
I thought it was interesting because parts of it, I felt like they were feeling your intuition, they were intuitively sensing your feelings and emotions. And then when you said you were getting their facial features correct or interpreting them how you thought you saw them, but not maybe their emotions, then I was thinking more of kind of the remote viewing, like you're actually seeing what their faces are making.
Which is so fascinating to me as well, but of course I'm very deep into the telepathy tapes right now. that's so good though. Love that podcast. Great. It's so great. But that's been opening my mind up more and more to especially kids and how they can sense things like you said, a lot easier than we can as we've been as adults going through a lot of.
Heidi (06:26)
Listen, everyone should listen.
Elise (06:44)
public scrutiny and societal conditioning. But I think it's interesting because if you do think back to your childhood, if you can remember that far back.
Heidi (06:55)
It's not that far.
Elise (06:57)
Okay.
I feel like I might have had some moments where I felt like I just knew something in my gut, especially about like mom and dad, right? They would come in and I just kind of sensed that there was, I don't know, maybe a heated argument and I would always feel like I need to say something or maybe not say something. And just having even mom or dad be like, no, no, don't worry about it. It's fine. But I just knew it wasn't.
Remember feeling like, I'm wrong. I was wrong. I need to stop that. Stop. I'm being silly. Right. Just being a kid. And that right there was like the start of the cycle that made me stop listening to my gut, my intuition.
Heidi (07:37)
It's fucking sad if you think about it. Like, we do this not knowing, but it's almost like we're like, this is like adult stuff. You don't need to worry about it. Like, we just try to, maybe just trying to protect them. Like, we come from it in a good place, but we don't realize like the damage we're causing.
Elise (07:57)
Well, feel like even me, I still do this to my kids. I'm still like, no, mommy's fine, even though I'm fricking stressed. But the more I realize that I can be honest with them because they are kids and they do sense that they do pick up on my emotional cues, my physical cues, everything. And if I am more open with them and be like, you know what, you're right. Mom is stressed right now, but it's not your burden to bear.
But yeah, I'm stressed. Then it's easier for them to kind of just affirm that they were sensing that correctly, and then they're not going to get stuck in that cycle of self-doubt, which is huge. I'm sure there's lots of other ways they can get stuck in a cycle of self-doubt.
Heidi (08:43)
We'll cause them some sort of trauma. Don't worry. They will still need to go to therapy. Candice, you got
Elise (08:50)
I try really hard now to just be honest. Like, yes, I am not feeling well, but my oldest, she definitely likes to care for me. She's like, mom, are you okay? I'm like, you know what? No, I kind of have a headache right now. my gosh, are you okay? Do you need Tylenol? It's so, God. No, Harriet, it's okay. So again, like it's kind of hard. Like I'm tiptoeing. I want to be honest, but I don't want to freak her out.
Heidi (09:07)
going
think you can just do it in a way where you, like you said, like you explained, you're like, I'm stressed because of all these adult things. Like it has nothing to do with you. It's just, I have a lot of things on my mind and there's really nothing you can do except for maybe we should go play or like, let's do something fun together and just like make it like not a big deal. And even just then, like maybe that's one of your like thought interrupts where it's like, you're having the stressed out moment. And then when your daughter comes to you, you can take that as a moment of like,
breathe, let it out, okay, like is it really that big of a deal or can I just like let it go and connect with my daughter or something like go do something more fun or something. But of course you can't do that every time and just be like, I'm going to forget about adulting forever, taxes, that's no big deal.
Elise (10:02)
god. Yay. That's stressful. Yeah. Well, I really like that mind game story. I kind of want to play it with Mike.
Heidi (10:08)
Oh my God, please do and record it. Like I think it was so cool. It was so, so cool. And just if I was smart enough and remembered to record it yesterday, like my face was seriously, I was like fucking blown away because it was one after another after another. I was like looking at Kent like, are you seeing this? Like, are you like, is this not blowing your mind too? He's like, that's fucking cool.
Elise (10:32)
Definitely going to have to do this myself because again, skeptic here, I want to see it for myself. I don't know, I just, I would love to do it myself. But I think it's important, even if you don't have kids, just understanding that we remember that even when we were kids that we had this intuition and we did sense things a lot easier than where we are now. I don't know, maybe part of this is developmental and having to do with how our brain develops.
and it's easier for us to suppress things.
Heidi (11:05)
You want to know my theory? I have a theory. A very rudimentary theory based off of the fact that I have children and I was once a child and this is my own study that I've done just now. Extremely scientific. Family's peaking. I feel like kids are feelers, not thinkers. They're very just like...
Elise (11:19)
Very scientific study.
Heidi (11:33)
Because think about it, like when they're mad, they don't give a shit where the fuck they are. They will throw themselves on the ground, have a tantrum, let their energy run through them, like show you their anger, show you their sadness. Like they don't think like we do. Like they never are, well, I'm in a grocery store. Maybe I shouldn't have a tantrum right now. They don't think like that, right?
Elise (11:57)
So you're saying it's okay, maybe even as an adult, I can just lay down and have a temper tantrum.
Heidi (12:03)
Maybe we should.
Okay, mean, maybe not so much. Like, we don't want to all be like... No!
Elise (12:12)
But it's true. I love that thought though, because honestly, there are so many times I want to throw a damn tantrum and then I just suppress it because I societal cues. Nope, that's very inappropriate. Don't do that. And the more I suppress it, the more frustrated I'll get. But maybe if I go into my car and scream a little bit, that'll help.
Heidi (12:32)
Yes, this is what we need to do. Like, okay, take in your surroundings. And yes, we are adults. We can be like, maybe this isn't the best place to throw a tantrum, but then go in your car, scream, go home, literally lay on your bed and kick a pillow and scream into your bed. Like we can still have tantrums. We should feel, we should allow ourselves to feel everything because it's not about suppressing every single feeling and pretending that everything's happy. God, this can go into another story that I have for you. But basically.
Elise (13:01)
Let's hear it now.
Heidi (13:02)
Okay, so I was just on a really amazing women's retreat this past weekend. It was Thursday to Sunday and I'm going into it all like, you know, I'm on this spiritual personal growth journey. Everything's great, but I'm this confident person and I show my emotions. So this is going to be easy for me to just open up and be vulnerable. Well, I didn't realize how much shit I had suppressed until we were doing this amazing
movement and dance. It's called Oola. There's a lot of Oola classes and stuff around, but it's all about like somatic movement and moving all that stuck energy out. And I ended up like bawling at the end of this. And as I was sharing everything and telling them what I was feeling and what was going on, the facilitator, Kelly, she's fucking amazing. She was like, well, earlier I had shared the story of how mom used to call us her pride and joy.
but it was always, Elise is my pride and Heidi's my joy. And so I embodied this joy and she pulled that out and was like, what if you just like thought you could only be joy and anything that wasn't joy, you just kind of suppressed. And so if you were ever feeling scared or hurt or angry or sad, like maybe you expressed it, but you also were telling yourself like, I can't feel this because I just have to be happy. And I never thought of it that way.
because I always thought like, no, I think I did express my emotions until then. Afterwards, I was like journaling and started to cry again because you just cry at retreats, I found out. But it was coming up of like all these like times where I was angry and didn't express it because I knew I wouldn't be listened to or I knew that like nobody would understand it. And so was like, damn, maybe I did just try to be positive, like to a fault where I was suppressing other things. And it's
goes back to as kids, like allowing us to feel it and allowing us not to be afraid of any emotion, right? Like you shouldn't be afraid to be angry. You shouldn't be ashamed to be sad, but yet we are sometimes, right?
Elise (15:10)
Yeah, that's so powerful. I also going to that pride and joy story. That's probably also why I felt like I had to always make mom proud no matter what. And the other emotions, suppress them. That's fine. What's only important is being perfect and making mom proud. It's not all your fault.
Heidi (15:28)
Unfortunately, right?
Yeah, it'd be so much easier if you were just like, I'm just going to make myself proud. you that takes evolving.
Elise (15:38)
No. What's great about all of this is that we're talking about really going back to childhood and being just embodying the childhood feelings again. When you get in touch with your emotions and how you truly feel, not what people want you to look like, feel like, be.
how you truly feel if the inside matches the outside, maybe that's when you're most in tune with your intuition and you can connect with that as well.
Heidi (16:08)
my god, that just reminded me of a Bluey episode. Do you know the one I'm talking about? Nope.
Elise (16:14)
Which one of the many?
Heidi (16:16)
No, no, no, no. And she's like, okay, so she gets this toy that says yes or no and bingo, bingo's the younger sibling. But basically she goes around and everybody kind of tells her what to do or tells her how she should spend her dance mode as she can give her parents a dance mode, which makes them dance no matter where they are. But at the very end of the episode, she's kind of sad. And of course, this is the moment of the big lesson. And that's when
Mom is like, bingo, does sometimes your outside voice not match your inside voice? Your inside voice wants to say no, but your outside voice says yes. My fucking deep shit. I fucking love blue.
Elise (16:59)
I wish I could be Chilly's.
Heidi (17:00)
I want to be chilling. Yeah, she's so smart and just, I just love her and the episode where she needs 20 minutes. It's humbling. It's so true. I love it. Shameless plug for Bluey for all parents, even if you don't have kids. I have friends who don't have kids who watch Bluey.
Elise (17:19)
It's a great therapeutic show.
Heidi (17:22)
absolutely. Yeah. So what I think everybody should do is I think if you have children in your life, you should play this game. But even if you don't have children in your life, I think you should remember those times when you felt the feelings and allow yourself to feel those feelings again.
Absolutely. If you do have kids and if you play this game yourself, if you record it and then post it, tag us in it. I'd love to see your videos. That'd be super, super fun. But yeah, I just think it'd be fun to just start tapping into our intuition with our children and or partner. Yeah, that'd be fun. Or friend or sister, whoever. Just start playing some fun, like mind reading games and be creative and do them however you decide to do them. But.
Elise (18:14)
Well, I think this is exactly why we started this podcast because we're not here to teach you exactly how to be intuitive. We're here to help you remember because it's been in you all along and you've just been taught to ignore it.
Heidi (18:28)
Yep. So let's get back to it. Back to basics. Back to our intuition.
Elise (18:32)
So until next time, it's your move, Sis.
Heidi (18:35)
make it count. Bye!