“Discover why noticing yourself restores inner trust.” ~Crystal Wind

This reflection invites readers to meet themselves as they are now rather than chasing an old version of normal. It weaves body awareness with inner knowing so healing feels like relationship, not performance. Those worn down by shoulds and overwhelm may find permission here to take one small, honest step.

Read Time: 8 min | Exclusive Publication | Crystal Wind News Service | 

For a long time, I thought healing meant finding my way back to who I used to be.

I wanted to feel like myself again. I wanted to get back to “normal.”

What I eventually began to understand was that after trauma, prolonged stress, grief, loss, and major life changes, I wasn't necessarily going back to the person I had been before.

Life had changed me.

My mind and body needed time to recover, adjust, and learn what safe and steady felt like again. And I needed to discover what my normal looked like now.

That didn't happen through one big breakthrough.

It happened through awareness, curiosity, learning, practice, and a lot of very small steps.

Over time, I began paying attention differently—not only to my thoughts, but to my body, my senses, emotions, reactions, surroundings, imagination, and inner knowing.

Most importantly, I began learning how to trust myself again.

That experience has deeply influenced what I now describe as Somatic & Intuitive Wellness.

What Do I Mean by Somatic & Intuitive Wellness?

I don't use the term to describe one standardized therapy or healing modality.

For me, Somatic & Intuitive Wellness is a way of reconnecting with the whole of yourself—your body, senses, emotions, thoughts, experiences, imagination, and inner knowing—and developing the self-trust to understand and respond to what you discover.

We experience ourselves and the world through much more than our thoughts.

We see.
We hear.
We smell.
We taste.
We touch.

We experience temperature, texture, movement, pressure, tension, comfort, discomfort, heaviness, lightness, fatigue, restlessness, and countless other sensations.

We experience emotions and thoughts.

Memories and images can arise.

Our surroundings affect us.

And sometimes there is something harder to put into words—a sense that something feels right, wrong, important, familiar, or worthy of our attention.

I call that inner knowing.

All of these experiences can provide information.

The work isn't about automatically believing or interpreting every sensation.

It is about becoming curious enough to notice.

The Somatic Part: Experiencing Through the Body and Senses

Somatic awareness is sometimes described simply as “listening to your body,” but for me, it is broader than that.

Our bodies are constantly interacting with both our internal and external environments.

We can notice our heartbeat, breathing, hunger, tension, temperature, pain, fatigue, or other internal sensations. We also receive information through sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, movement, and our awareness of where our bodies are in space.

Scientific research uses terms such as interoception, exteroception, and proprioception to describe different aspects of this sensory experience.

But you don't need to know any of those words to begin noticing yourself.

You can simply become curious.

What am I feeling in my body?
What am I seeing?
What sounds am I noticing?
Is there a smell?
What does something feel like against my skin?
What happens inside me when I enter a particular environment?
Do I want to move closer or farther away?
Am I holding tension somewhere?
What feels comforting?
What feels overwhelming?

Sometimes simply noticing gives us information we hadn't realized was there.

The Intuitive Part: Exploring Inner Knowing

Intuitive wellness adds another layer.

There are times when we experience an internal sense of knowing before we can completely explain why.

But I don't believe that means every uncomfortable feeling is intuition or that every sensation should automatically be treated as truth.

Our experiences can be influenced by many things—stress, fear, memories, expectations, previous experiences, learned patterns, emotions, and unconscious biases.

That's why I believe intuition needs curiosity rather than certainty.

Instead of saying:

"I felt it, so it must be true."

We can ask:

What am I noticing?
What might be influencing this?
Have I experienced this feeling before?
Is this fear?
Is this an old pattern?
Is something important asking for my attention?
What feels true for me when I give myself enough space to listen?

Inner knowing isn't something I interpret for another person.

My role is to help create opportunities for people to explore it for themselves.

Where Self-Trust Comes In

Awareness alone isn't the destination.

Eventually, we have to decide what we're going to do with what we've discovered.

That's where self-trust becomes so important.

Self-trust doesn't mean believing we're always right.

It means developing enough relationship with ourselves to notice what we're experiencing, consider the information available to us, and trust ourselves to make a choice.

Sometimes that choice is action.
Sometimes it's asking for help.
Sometimes it's setting a boundary.
Sometimes it's resting.
Sometimes it's gathering more information.

And sometimes the wisest choice is simply:

"I'm not ready to decide yet."

That is still a choice.

What Does This Actually Look Like?

One of the clearest examples is a practice I developed as part of my Return to Self 12-Phase Healing Spiral.

I call it the Return to Self Practice:

Arrive → Notice → Support → Listen → Imagine → Choose

These six steps bring many aspects of Somatic & Intuitive Wellness together.

Arrive

Before trying to solve anything, we begin by arriving in the present moment.

Where am I?
What is happening right now?
Can I give myself a moment to simply be here before deciding what needs to happen next?

Notice

Now we become curious.

What am I noticing through my senses?
What is happening in my body?
What thoughts or emotions are present?
What am I drawn toward?
What am I pulling away from?
Is anything changing as I pay attention?

There is no requirement to immediately understand or change what we notice.

We are gathering information.

Support

Then we ask:

What would help me feel a little more supported right now?

Maybe I need to change my position.
Move my body.
Slow down.
Drink some water.
Step outside.
Wrap myself in a blanket.
Turn down the noise.
Talk to someone I trust.
Or simply acknowledge that what I'm experiencing is difficult.

Support doesn't always have to be complicated.

Listen

Once we've created a little space, we can listen more deeply.

What am I feeling?
What do I need?
What matters here?
What have I been trying not to acknowledge?
What does my inner knowing seem to be telling me?

Again, we don't have to immediately act on the answer.

We can simply listen.

Imagine

Imagination gives us somewhere else to look besides the problem directly in front of us.

What might feeling supported look like?
What would I like to experience instead?
What possibilities haven't I considered?
What might one step forward look or feel like?

Sometimes imagining something different allows us to recognize possibilities we couldn't see while we were focused entirely on surviving the present moment.

Choose

Finally, we return the decision to the person it belongs to.

You.

What feels right for me?
What do I need?
What do I have the capacity for?
What information do I still need?

And:

What is one small, manageable step I can take from here?

That's where awareness begins becoming self-trust.

Directed Intuitive Exercises: Another Way I Use This Work

I also use directed intuitive exercises that incorporate sensory experience, imagination, body awareness, reflection, and inner knowing.

Rather than telling someone exactly what they should imagine or what their experience means, I provide enough guidance to create a starting point and then allow their experience to unfold.

I might ask:

What do you see?
What can you hear?
Is there a smell?
What does the air feel like?
Is there a texture or temperature?
Does anything happen in your body?
What emotions arise?
Are you drawn toward something?
Do you want to move away from something?
Does an image, memory, word, or thought appear?
What do you sense or know?

The answers belong to the person experiencing them.

I don't tell someone what their imagery means.

A forest, doorway, color, object, sensation, or memory may mean something completely different to you than it does to me.

That's part of the point.

Rather than teaching people to look outside themselves for someone to interpret their experience, I want to help them become curious about their own.

Why I Believe Small Steps Matter

This may be one of the most important things my own healing has taught me.

When someone is already overwhelmed, giving them twenty more things they “should” be doing—even healthy things—can become another source of pressure.

Change your diet.
Exercise every day.
Sleep eight hours.
Meditate.
Journal.
Set boundaries.
Think positively.
Heal your past.
Practice gratitude.

Every one of those suggestions may have value in the right circumstances.

But capacity matters.

Sometimes a person doesn't have the capacity to overhaul their life.

Sometimes the next step is drinking a glass of water.
Opening the curtains.
Taking a shower.
Eating something nourishing.
Standing outside for five minutes.
Making an appointment.
Asking for help.
Resting.
Or simply getting through today.

A small step isn't insignificant because it is small.

Sometimes small is exactly what makes the step possible.

Healing Isn't About Becoming Who You Used to Be

This may be the lesson that changed everything for me.

For years, I wanted my old normal back.

Eventually, I realized that healing wasn't necessarily going to return me to the person I had been before life changed me.

I needed to meet myself where I was.

I needed to understand the person I was becoming.

I needed to learn what safety, steadiness, connection, meaning, and trust felt like for me now.

And I needed to stop measuring my progress against a previous version of myself.

That is why so much of my work comes back to returning to self.

Not returning to the past.

Returning to the relationship you have with yourself.

What Somatic & Intuitive Wellness Means in My Work

If I had to bring everything down to one explanation, it would be this:

Somatic & Intuitive Wellness is about experiencing the whole of yourself—using your body, senses, awareness, emotions, thoughts, imagination, and inner knowing—and developing the self-trust to understand what you're experiencing and choose how you want to respond.

I'm not here to tell you what your body means.

I'm not here to tell you what your intuition is saying.

And I'm certainly not here to tell you who you should become.

I can offer practices, questions, experiences, education, and support that help you become curious about yourself.

Because ultimately, the relationship we're strengthening is your relationship with you.

You don't have to understand everything today.

You don't have to change everything today.

And you certainly don't have to heal everything today.

Notice what is here. Support yourself where you are. Listen to what you need. And when you're ready, choose one small step.

Sometimes that is enough for today.

Love, healing, and blessings,
Twila, The Rebel Nurse

Notice what is here. Support yourself where you are. Listen to what you need. And when you're ready, choose one small step. Sometimes that is enough for today.

Disclaimer: The information in this article is presented for educational and informational purposes only. Views expressed are those of the contributing author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CrystalWind.ca, which makes no claims regarding the accuracy of any content herein.

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