31. Intuition vs intellect as told through a story of birth

Intuition versus intellect?  How do they play along?  Which one to turn to?  What about when the path becomes loose and unscripted?  All questions answered on today’s Own Your Intuition show— through a crazy snapshot from the birth of my daughter.  Also, midwives— and a fabulous film on them.  If you’ve been feeling shaky, upended, or ungrounded lately—this is an episode for you. 

Show Notes

 I’d like to watch the “Give Light” film!  

Here’s the website: www.givelight.info

Here’s the link to stream it through May 11th: https://TiNYuRL.CoM/GIVELIGHT23

 Heck ya—I’d like the first bit of Aimée’s book for free.  Click here to get it! 

 Yes, tell me!  How the heck do I tell the difference between the voice of my intuition and my “fear-based” ideas?  Download the free audio here.

 I’m an empath!  Find out more here! 

 For more about Aimée, her work, readings, speaking, or classes visit www.AimeeCartier.com. 

 Aimée on Instagram

Aimée on Facebook

Transcript

Intuition versus intellect?  How do they play along?  Which one to turn to?  What about when the path becomes loose and unscripted?  All questions answered on today’s Own Your Intuition show— through a crazy snapshot from the birth of my daughter.  Also, midwives— and a fabulous film on them.  If you’ve been feeling shaky, upended, or ungrounded lately—this is an episode for you.  

MUSIC  **Ayla Nereo, "All of this" song clip**

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Do you crave clarity and insight?  Do you sense that your intuition is trying to tell you important things, but you have a hard time trusting it?  Do you want access to your own internal  wisdom, and to understand how it operates so that you can guide your life in ways that are meaningful and satisfying?   

Well then, welcome, I’m glad you are here.

 I’m your host, Aimée Cartier.  I’ve been a professional psychic, since around 2007.   I’m the author of the book, “Getting Answers: Using Your Intuition to Discover Your Best Life.”  I’ve been teaching others to understand and use their own intuitive and empathic abilities for more than a decade.  

 Join me each week for true stories and tools that will inspire you to take seriously, your own inner knowing—that internal sense that you have uniquely tailored to YOU and designed to not only set you on the roads that are best for you but also help you avoid the ones that are treacherous.  

 It’s time for you to OWN YOUR INTUITION.

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Welcome everyone!  I’m so glad you are here.  I know you could be ANYWHERE in your listening mind—so I want you to know that I truly appreciate your showing up HERE.  This show is FOR YOU!  I’ve been teaching students for years (since 2015, when I started my Intuition University programs) to understand, access, and then rely upon their intuition, as happens naturally once you experience how good it is.  But I write this show for those of you who haven’t studied with me yet or who don’t yet know what an incredible resource you’ve got inside.  So thanks for being here!

 I love hearing from you all of course!  And I got this email recently from Maggie.  She said, “I genuinely love your podcast. Amazing info and insight that really helps me! Also as an extra bonus, you have the BEST radio/podcast voice. It’s such a delight.”

 Awww—thank you Maggie.  Words from you listeners means the world to me.  I truly treasure them!  I’m so glad it’s landing for all of you—it’s literally why I do it!

 So thank you!

 Okay—let’s dig in—to my daughter’s birth.  

 On a day in March a decade ago I was sitting in the warm water of the hospital tub in deep labor.  Those are the moments that I would best describe as profoundly internal.  I had my eyes closed.  I was likely groaning.  From my perspective there was very little that existed in the world aside from my body, this baby moving its way through my body, and my mind.  There was only the three of us! (body, mind, baby).

 During my labor with my second child, I was sent to the local university hospital.  (I had hoped to have my baby at home—but ended up needing to labor in the hospital.)  What that meant for me, was that the “doctor” was actually still in training because I was at the University hospital.  She was heavy on book learning and shy on experience.  Us birthing moms were her training ground.

 While I was laboring in the tub, the woman/the “doctor” or the “doctor still in training” or the woman I eventually came to think of in my mind as “faux doctor” (faux means “fake” in French) came into the room to check on me.  Without any real understanding or gentleness of touch, she jammed her instrument into and over my belly, obviously giant protruding belly since there was a baby in there, to check on the baby.  It hurt actually.  

 Then, she declared suddenly in a loud, pitched and panicked voice: “The baby is breach!” 

 Remember I said that I was in deep labor?  So during this whole situation—from Faux Doc entering the room, jamming her machine against my taut protruding stomach, interrupting the flow of the three of us (my body, mind, and baby) I had hardly opened my eyes during that whole thing.

 Still, I remember vividly the energy of her panicked high-pitched declaration, given just inches away from my face.  I also remember the slow internal blink that came afterward for me.  Still with my eyes closed I remember thinking, “Well, that’s not what I expected.”  Then, “… Wait, is that true?… No.  That is not true.  The baby is not breach.”

 This is Aimée Cartier.  You are listening to the Own Your Intuition Show and today we are talking about the role of intuition verses intellect AND advice for transitional/wonky times.  We are doing so through the lens of the birth of my second child BECAUSE midwifery awareness day is this month and Mother’s Day is coming up!  Seemed like a good time to pull out these stories.  And birth is obviously a time of big transition.

 Okay, back to the story.

 Remember that I also said I had been hoping to have my baby at home?  What is important about this, was that my mid-wife had also come with me to the hospital.  (Thank Goodness!)  She was crouched down on the floor on the other side of the bathroom watching the whole scene—(care for me having been obviously given over to the hospital staff).  When I received my internal response that no, my baby was NOT in fact breach, I opened my eyes.  With barely a turn of my head I locked eyes with my mid-wife, Gail.  In a heartbeat, and with zero words at all, she confirmed for me what I knew to be true: my baby was in the perfect head down position—making her way earthside.  (Though I didn’t know she was a girl yet!) 

 If Gail moved her head at all in that moment to confirm my thought, it was minimal—like barely detectible.  To my memory, she moved no muscles at all.  All of this—this whole entire exchange with Gail— took place in the amount of time it can take two eyes to pierce into each other.  Laser sharp, certain, and quick, our minds spoke to one another without words.  Getting her confirmation that my assessment was correct, I rotated my head back slightly to where it had been, and shut my eyes again to dive back into the work required of me in that moment: moving a baby down a birth canal.

 I let the “faux-doctor” go about her panicked business.  It did not take me, even for a second out of mine.  Eventually she got the “real doctor” or her supervisor.  Who used the machine with MUCH MORE finesse—not actually causing me pain at all—before declaring—“That’s the baby’s bum, not the head.  This baby is not breach.  It’s ready to be born.”

 Gosh I could tell you so many more stories about those 6 hours with Faux-Doctor!  I’ll spare you though!   

 But what I will tell you is that in this story— “faux doctor” symbolizes using the intellect alone.  She had ALL the book smarts.  In her mind she was paging through them constantly to see if everything added up.  If everything was going according to the script.  FYI—there aren’t scripts for babies being born.  Just like the scripts for life—they are very loose and require presence and attention to navigate.

 In this story, my mid-wife symbolizes using your intuition.  She had all the book smarts too.  She had done her schooling, her research, her study.  She had checked my baby’s position only a few hours earlier (without a machine).  She also used something else: her intuition.  In those moments of supporting women in labor she relied heavily on her internal guidance/ her inner knowing.  It gave her the ability, to keep all the important details in mind, but also assess the situation IN REAL TIME, staying congruent with what was actually happening—even if it didn’t align with the script.

 Later, after other bits of crazy advice and scare tactics from “faux doctor,” when I looked to her for guidance, Gail would tell me simply, “Trust your body.  You’re doing fine.”  And I was. 

 So, it’s important to know that when your intellect takes its proper place, as supporting guidance— while you pay attention to what your intuition tells you is actually happening— even if it doesn’t follow the “exact script” you thought it might or should or were told about, or read in a book— you are guided again and again to your version of “doin’ fine,” as Gail said to me that day.

 Which in my case, that day involved naturally birthing a healthy and sound baby girl.

 So if you find the script not-aligning right now—take some deep breaths—relax as best you can—and know that the (metaphoric) baby will find its way out—and it’s going to be a MUCH better journey if you can remember as you go that you’re actually doing just fine—even if it hurts, even when you feel like you don’t know what you are doing, even if someone else is shouting at you that you’re doing it all wrong!

 There is something else important to me in this story—it’s for giving birth—and life.  Who you are surrounded by makes a big difference—while you are having a baby—and while you are living your life!  In addition to my husband of course, I had Gail and my friend Megan there with me that day!  Megan (who had already birthed three babies herself) drove all the way from Portland that morning when I called her to say, “The baby is on the way!” to be at the birth of my daughter.  (Though we didn’t know she was a girl until we saw her.)  Megan was also like a bulldog that day (but only in appropriate moments) to the faux doctor.  I still remember one moment when “Faux” was trying to scare me into doing something that I didn’t need to do.  Blissfully, I don’t remember exactly what it was—I do remember her saying something alarming and Megan turning to her and saying, “Don’t ever say that to a woman in labor!  You don’t try to scare a birthing mother.  Fear has no place in a birthing room!”  

 So friends, if you feel you are in transition right now, it’s okay.  There have been a lot of crazy things happening astrologically—two recent eclipses that tend to shake things up and incite tears!  So if you are feeling it, please know, you are not alone and it’s okay.  In my practice of seeing clients for psychic readings when I keep hearing the same thing from clients and friends alike—and I’ve been hearing about the tumult adrift right now—I know there is something bigger at play here.  (Like the eclipses I just mentioned.)  I frequently find that heartening to know—even though the details look different for everyone—we’ve all been in the mixer lately!  It's okay!  It’s going to be fine.  It reminds me of that saying I heard a long time ago—and I can’t even remember where I heard it—but it goes something like, “Everything works out in the end.  If it hasn’t worked out.  It’s not the end.”

 So let me be your Megan—in my birth story—and tell you—fear has no place here.  It’s actually not helpful in any room—it certainly doesn’t allow you to hear your own intuitive knowing.

 So, if the eclipses or life has you feeling weird or under intense pressure (like a woman in labor) I highly recommend that you surround yourself only with the best people.  Those who have your back, who get you, and/or will let tears stream down your face while you speak and just hand you a tissue and give you a hug in response!  Tend to your nervous system.  I recently learned about a practice called havening.  As it was taught to me, one method is running your fingertips lightly over your arms and hand skin slowly.  It signals safety to your nervous system.  When I googled it to see if I could find some good links for you all I also saw it recommended as running your hands down your arms (shoulders to elbows) and this practioner suggested while you are doing that you also think about whatever was upsetting to you.  You do this—running the hands down until you experience a lessoning of whatever tension you are feeling or whatever feeling of being afraid or whatever the expression of that particular emotion—but that you keep doing that havening until you feel a lessoning of that experiences.  And that you finish by repeating the words, (again while you are still doing this shoulder to elbow rub.  You finish by saying:  “safe, peaceful, hopeful, calm, safe, peaceful, hopeful, calm.” It’s a good technique for mitigating stress and calming your nervous system.  Try it, see how you feel.  You can do it anywhere.

 This is Aimée Cartier and you are listening to the Own Your Intuition show.

 This episode was inspired by several things including a film I recently saw called, “Give Light.”  A film brought to the island where I live by Vashon Midwifery—so a shout out to them as well.  And a few others that brought the film to us.  It’s a film about midwifery around the world.  It was so well done and inspiring.  And in honor of Midwife Awareness Day the filmmaker is offering a virtual screening of the movie.  It’s only available until May 11th —so you’ve got to get over there and register to see it stat.  Because you have like 48 hours from when this radio show and podcast originally publishes.  If you go to www.givelight.info you will see all the details!  I’ll put a link to register to see it in the show notes as well.  

 I didn’t realize this but many people don’t even know what a midwife does.  A midwife is responsible for the care of a pregnant mother both pre and after birth.  She also helps the women deliver the baby.  As opposed to a hospital doctor, who you may only see during the labor, the midwife’s care is continued even after the child is born—providing care and insight during this tender time.  Some even do newborn care.  Women have been giving birth safely with the help of other women since humans existed—that’s why I turned to a midwife for the birth of both of my children.  And I have often said, “I couldn’t have done it without her!”  Gail would say that’s not true.  But I can tell you—her support was IMMEASURABLE.  I frequently still send her birthday cards every year—that’s what a positive impact she made on our family!

 So, go see the film: “Give Light.”  And if you are on the island where I live and in need of midwifery care check out Vashon Midwifery.

 And if you are not in position to need a midwife right now, like many of us, including myself.  I want you to still be tender with yourself, especially if you feel like you are in a big transition—calm your nervous system, quiet the fears—your intuition is there, guiding you softly, like the piercing eyes of a friend across the room at just the right time. 

 All my love—see you next time.

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Friends, I LOVE getting your emails and texts about how the Own Your Intuition show is positively impacting you!  It means the world.  AND can you tell everyone else too by rating it and writing a review where you get your podcasts?  I hear these are very important!

 Looking for MORE on how to naturally tune into your intuition?  I’ve got lots of free resources on my website: aimeecartier.com.  Including the beginning of my book, “Getting Answers” for free, and a download that will help you tell the difference between your intuition and your fear-based ideas.  “How do I KNOW it’s my intuition speaking to me?” is a question I hear a lot.  It’s easy.  Get the download to find out how.

 You can find out more about me, my books, my readings, and my teaching at www.AimeeCartier.com

 All my love!