Speaker #0Are you feeling stuck? Are you in between two or more choices and not sure what direction to go in? Today, I'm going to share my foolproof decision-making tool that has never led me astray once. It's a simple way to tap into your own intuition and trust your inner voice. Welcome to Unleash Your Inner Creative with Lauren LaGrasso. I'm Lauren LaGrasso. I'm a Webby Award-winning podcast host and producer, singer-songwriter, public speaker, and creative coach. And this show sits at the intersection of creativity, mental health, and creativity. self-development, and spirituality. It is meant to give you tools to claim your right to creativity and pursue whatever it is that's on your heart. And today, as I mentioned, I'm going to share a tool that's going to help you with any decision you have to make, big or small. It could be something as little as what you eat for dinner and something as big as who you're going to partner with on a creative project. This tool will become an invaluable and actionable way to tap into your body and your own intuitive knowing. I'll teach it to you. And at the end, I'm going to do a visualization that will walk you through how to use this on a decision that you need to make right now. Okay. So first I want to get into how I discovered this tool in the first place. It was back in 2018. I was working at SiriusXM as a producer and host. And we had this amazing intuitive healer and teacher, Michelle Meech, who was on the show. At that point, I was deciding between a job, you know, I was deciding whether I'm going to stay at SiriusXM or take this other big job. And I was telling her about it confidentially, of course. And she said to me this thing that I had never had anybody else say to me. When you think of it, when you think of doing this, taking this new job, do you contract or expand? And when she asked me that, I dropped into my body. And when I thought of taking the new job, it felt completely expansive and peaceful. And when I thought of staying where I was, it felt constricted. And I knew that. With that information, in order to grow bigger, in order to take my next right step, I had to take the leap and go to this new job in order to feel that expansion. And it ended up being a really good and important choice that got me into podcasting. And ever since then, this has been my go-to method when I'm feeling stuck, when I don't know what decision to make. It can really literally be for something as small as dinner. Sometimes I get stuck between two menu items and I literally will be like... When I think into the pot roast, do I feel expansive or contractive? When I think into the quesadilla, do I feel expansive or contractive? So it's super helpful. And again, what you do is you drop from your head into your body. And I kind of made this up because Michelle just asked me, do you contract or expand? I've taken it one step further. And I try to drop from my head into my body. Then you think of the choice before you and you feel into each option. And as you think and feel into each option, you notice what you feel in your body. And what always happens, at least for me, is one option will feel expansive, light, and inviting, while the other option feels cold, constricted, and anxiety-provoking. I will say a caveat that there are times when both feel neutral. If this happens to you when you do the exercise, what that typically means is you need more information before you can make a choice either way. Or... The timing isn't right yet to make the leap on either decision, whether it's a yes or a no. And so you need to take a little bit more time, keep feeling in, and wait until one feels expansive or contractive. This is a great way to get out of your head and into your intuition and body. Checklists or pros and cons lists are great, but they can only take you so far. Your own intuition and inner knowing are always going to be better than logic. and facts. A recent time when I used it was ending a creative partnership. And this one is kind of interesting because I was in this creative partnership for a pretty long time. And there were times when I felt this inner knowing of the constriction within me, but I ignored it. The thing about this method is once you start doing it, it will even show up when you're not specifically asking like... Should I keep working with this person or not? It will tell you even if you're not asking the questions. And so even when I wasn't consulting it, when I was with this group of people, I could feel in my body that I was constricting. I always had a twinge of contraction whenever I was around this group, but I ignored it because I loved the project we were working on together and I really believed in it. But something always felt wrong and constricted and crunchy. But recently, there was a final straw that pulled the wool from my eyes, and I really saw like, oh, I've been feeling this all along, and there's something that is no longer correct for me. And when I felt into whether continuing this project was a yes or no for me, all those little constrictions became a huge one. When I thought of continuing, it felt like sinking in on myself and like caving in my chest. And when I felt of ending the partnership, it just felt like a huge opening. Just my whole body felt peace in it, but especially in my chest, which is where I feel this constriction, contraction or expansion. So I want to take you through how to do this. I'm going to do this for a decision with two options. But if yours, what you're trying to decide between has more than that, you can always pause and then just ask yourself for the third, fourth or fifth one. So the first thing we do. in order to get into this decision-making process is get into our bodies because we're trying to get out of our heads into our bodies and into our intuition. So I have a special breath that I like to say connects you to heaven and earth. It's meant to remind you that you are a spiritual being literally made out of stardust and that you are here on this earth meant to take up space and plant your feet firmly on the ground. So what we do is we take in a breath from the sky, picture it coming in through the sky. into our heads, going down through our chests and into our stomachs. And as we breathe out, we picture the breath going through our legs, our feet, and rooting us into the earth. And when I picture it going into the earth, I literally picture the breath like roots coming out of my feet, going into the earth and like down into the core. So yes, we'll just take three of those to get us into our bodies, and then we will begin the method. So first breath in through the heavens,
Speaker #1through your head, your throat, your chest, and your stomach, and breathing out through your legs, your feet, and rooting you into the earth. And one more in through the heavens, through your head, your chest, your stomach, and out through your legs, your feet. and rooting you into the earth. And final one, breath coming in through the heavens, through your head, your throat, your chest, your stomach, and out through your legs, your feet, and rooting you into the earth. One more breath. Now really drop into your body. Picture all the energy going from your head and dropping into your body. Think of your decision. Think of it. Really feel it. Feel it in your body. Where does this decision live inside of you? Is it in your throat, your chest, your stomach, your back? Feel where this decision lives and where the wisdom lives and really go there. Breathe into that space. Now think of your first option. Feel it. Really, really feel it in your body. When you feel into it. Does it feel expansive, contractive, or neutral? Focus on it until you feel like you know and have a clear idea. Once you know, think of your second option. Feel into that. Where does it live? When you feel into your second option, does it feel expansive, contractive, or neutral? Breathe into it. When you've gotten your answer on your second option,
Speaker #0You can use this tool for anything big or small. It might even be helpful to start out with small things because there's just less pressure. I mean, deciding between whether you're going to have... you know, stew or pasta for dinner is a lot less pressure than whether or not you're going to start a new career. Once you start using this, you will notice it all over the place and it won't just be when you purposefully tune into it. It will be happening all the time and you can start to spot when something is constrictive or expansive in your regular life. Even being around certain friends or being in different groups of people, you'll notice, does this feel expansive in my body or do I want to cave in on myself when I'm around this group? It is such a powerful tool. And I'm so happy that you have it now too. I hope you enjoyed it and that you liked this episode and it was helpful to you. And just remember, you always have the answers inside of yourself. You don't have to go searching outside yourself, asking a million people for their opinion. For me, what I do is things like this, journaling, connecting with God, praying. All the answers are in yourself and in your spiritual connection. And if you're not a spiritual person, in your connection with life. you always have the answers inside of you. And it's just about getting quiet enough to hear the whispers or the screams of your body and your intuition. I do want to remind you that I do coaching. And if you like what you heard today and you're interested in working with me, I would love to support you. If you want to unleash your creativity, share your creative project with the world, and or finally go after your biggest dreams from a place of self-love and going after holistic success, I would be honored to support you. You can email me at lauren.lagrasso at gmail.com to set up a free discovery call or go to my website and click on the contact page and select coaching. I can't wait to help you unleash your inner creative and find your authentic voice. This podcast was hosted and executive produced by me, Lauren Lagrasso. Music is by Liz Full. For more information on me and the show, you can follow us at Lauren Lagrasso and at Unleash Your Inner Creative in social media. If you like what you heard today, especially if you liked this episode, Please leave a rating and review. These help so much. They help push us up the podcasting charts and people just like trust other people's reviews. I do. I love Yelp. So it would mean so much if you'd leave a review and feel free to also in your review, offer up other ideas for topics you'd like to hear me speak on, guests you'd like to hear on the podcast, any ideas you have. I want to make this a show of service. I love you. I appreciate you. And I believe in you. I'll talk with you next week.
