What Your Body Knows That Your Mind Has Forgotten

Somewhere along the way, we stop listening to ourselves.

Society teaches us that success means climbing ladders, accumulating titles, acquiring status symbols—the luxury car, the impressive salary, the curated life that signals we have everything perfectly under control. We absorb these lessons so completely that by adulthood, we mistake other people's definitions of achievement for our own deepest knowing.

I lived this way for years. Climbing the corporate ladder. As soon as I reached one milestone I was already focused and striving for the next. It was never enough and I was never satisfied. I was hard on myself. Wanting to project an image of being the marketing expert. Highly organised. Never making mistakes. Everything always under control.

Then I did something that looked completely irrational from the outside. I stepped away from my corporate career to teach yoga and manage a high-end studio in Melbourne. Later, I did it again, this time round I was leaving my agency job to start my own consultancy, Ritual Consulting.

Both times, I chose to start at the bottom again.

The False Comfort of Following Established Paths

Most people saw these moves as steps backward. On paper, they were right.

I was trading security for uncertainty, expertise for beginner's mind, external validation for something I couldn't even name yet. The fear was real. The self-doubt was overwhelming.

But underneath all that noise was something softer, more knowing.

My ego cared about what others thought of me, about my projected sense of identity. It wanted to maintain the story that I was smart, competent, in control. My inner voice had different priorities.

The difference between these two voices became the most important distinction I ever learned to make.

Your Body's Intelligence Knows What Your Mind Forgot

We think of intelligence as something that happens in our heads. But your body carries a different kind of knowing.

You can feel it when you walk into a room and immediately sense the energy - whether there's been tension, excitement, or something left unsaid. Even when everyone's being polite and making small talk, your body picks up information your rational mind never processes.

This same intelligence speaks to you about your life choices, your relationships, your work. The problem is that our ego often drowns out this deeper, more intuitive voice.

Learning to distinguish between them changed everything for me.

My ego was loud, urgent, concerned with external validation. It spoke in terms of what others expected, what looked impressive, what felt safe.

My inner voice was quieter but more certain. It spoke in terms of energy, alignment, what felt true in my body.

The Radical Act of Tuning In

Hearing your authentic voice requires creating space away from external noise.

For me, this meant cultivating practices that connected me to my body, my breath, my intuitive knowing. Meditation, yoga, breathwork, time in nature. These weren't just wellness activities.

They were tools for remembering who I was before the world told me who to be.

When you can create space and stillness within, it becomes easier to hear your body's intelligence. You start to notice the difference between decisions that energise you and ones that drain you.

You begin to trust that deeper knowing, even when it doesn't make logical sense.

Returns to Self

Both times I chose to start over, people called it brave. But it didn't feel brave.

It felt like coming home.

Being a beginner again stripped away the titles, the pay checks, the external validation. It gave me space to reconnect with what actually mattered to me.

In those beginner moments, I discovered a deeper level of resilience, curiosity, and self-trust. I learned how to listen to my body, my energy, my intuition.

Success doesn't always look like climbing a ladder. Sometimes it looks like slowing down, getting clear, and building something aligned from the ground up.

For the first time in both transitions, I felt truly in control of my life. Not the kind of control that comes from managing external circumstances, but the deeper control that comes from living on your own terms.

The Conditioning We Don't See

Becoming a mother reminded me of something I'd forgotten. Children approach new things with natural fearlessness. They haven't yet learned to prioritise safety over curiosity, approval over authenticity.

But we're conditioned by society, by friends and families, by peers. This happens so slowly over time that we don't even realise it's happening.

We take on other people's fears and expectations as our own. We learn to value what looks impressive over what feels true.

By the time we're adults, returning to our authentic selves feels radical. But we're not becoming someone new.

We're remembering who we were before we learned to ignore what felt true.

The Practice of Authentic Choice

Learning to make decisions from your authentic self is a practice, not a destination.

Start by noticing the difference between your ego's voice and your inner knowing. Your ego will sound urgent, comparative, concerned with external validation.

Your deeper voice will feel quieter but more certain. It speaks in terms of energy and alignment rather than logic and strategy.

Create regular space for stillness. Whether through meditation, time in nature, or simply breathing consciously, give yourself opportunities to tune in to what's happening inside.

Pay attention to your body's responses to different choices. Notice which options energise you and which ones drain you, even if they look good on paper.

Be prepared to start at the bottom again. The path back to yourself rarely looks like progress in conventional terms.

But choosing to start again on your own terms can be one of the most powerful things you ever do.

There's a kind of freedom that only comes from letting go of what you thought you were supposed to do. It's the freedom to build something that's truly yours, aligned with who you actually are rather than who you think you should be.

Your authentic self isn't something you need to create. It's something you need to remember.

And sometimes, the most radical thing you can do is simply come home to yourself.