005 You’re Not Too Sensitive You’re Intuitive

Dr Toni Reilly explores intuition as your built-in “human GPS” and explains why sensitivity isn’t a flaw, but heightened perception. She defines intuition as subtle inner guidance that arrives before reasoning, feels calm and light, doesn’t pressure you, and supports decisions in everyday life. The episode contrasts intuition with fear, showing how fear feels loud, urgent, heavy, and spirals into assumptions, while intuition offers clear, quiet direction. 

Toni shares stories of intuitive warnings and training moments, from her mother sensing a snake and being told to stop before an accident, to hearing a specific meeting date, forgetting cornflour at the supermarket, and turning down a different street to unexpectedly see an old friend. She explains intuition’s different “clear senses” (feelings, thoughts, images, knowing) with no hierarchy, and offers a takeaway She invites listener questions and mentions practising in Everyday Mediumship Circle.

00:00 You’re Not Too Sensitive - Why Intuition Matters

01:15 Your Inner GPS: What Intuition Is (and Isn’t)

03:08 Everyday Proof: When Intuition Shows Up Before Logic

04:08 Sensitivity = Perception: Reading Energy, Tone & Atmosphere

05:51 Intuition vs Fear: The Key Differences

09:14 Fear Disguised as Intuition: Email & Dating Scenarios

12:57 How Intuition Communicates: Clairsenses & Your Unique Style

16:34 Real-Life Intuition Stories: Cornflour, Awakening & Creative Flow

20:31 Strengthen Your Intuition: Practice, Patterns & a Simple Takeaway

23:15 Final Story

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

You're not too sensitive, you're intuitive. I'm Dr Toni Reilly. This is the SoulLife Psychology podcast where you will learn to understand yourself through emotional awareness and soul connection. Over the last few episodes, we've spoken about awakening, about emotional bruises and repeating patterns, and we covered integration. This all falls under the category of living life, where all of our growth processes happen in the midst of everyday living. We need the triggers that life causes and the joyous experiences to counterbalance the phase. It's experiential. The school of life gets pretty bloody wild. Life can get so messy. We can get so messy and yet still function as parents, as partners, as daughters and sisters and brothers, and we can still function as friends. And you can still work. In some cases, you might be a business owner. You can still do your business. It's really a phenomenal achievement. Let's talk about something that can make life easier. I like to call it your most valuable ally in life, the thing that unconditionally has your back. It's your very own human GPS for life. You were born with it, it's your intuition. Intuition is not mystical or new age, it's a natural faculty. It's inherent within every single person, and it's already there in you. This episode is about why intuition is more trustworthy than logic. And why sensitivity is not a flaw. Let's begin. So here's what intuition really is: it is inner guidance. It's information that comes to you before reasoning takes over. You just feel something, you sense something, or you simply know something and you didn't imagine it. You perceived it. Intuition is not disruptive, it doesn't force itself, it presents information and then it waits. Gives you a chance to process and make a decision. Everyone has intuition. Some people notice it more easily than others, and some fear it. It's not. Others did learn to listen. So when your intuition is understood, life becomes easier to navigate. It can offer direction, but it's always working in your favor. That's the key. Have you ever had a feeling about something or just knew, but you didn't yet have proof, but the proof showed up? So it might have been a decision that saved you time or stress, or a person you felt something about them. Maybe you felt you couldn't trust them, but you couldn't explain why. And then later you come to understand why you had that feeling. Or maybe there's a moment that you ignored and later regretted, like, oh, can be something really small. Like you felt to turn left on the way home, but you usually go straight ahead. So you went straight ahead and then you end up in a traffic jam. Took you longer to get home. So intuition, it's bringing you information. Not always uh huge things in life, can be just little everyday things that make life easier. Let's talk about sensitivity and perception. Sensitive people perceive more information, they sense energy, they sense tone, they pick up on moods, they can sense atmosphere. Think about have you ever felt affected by a room, maybe drained after being around certain people or places? Like maybe in a shopping center, suddenly your energy is drained, or maybe sometimes it's people that you're around, or a certain person who potentially isn't in a great space, and you feel drained by them. Any time you might have felt impacted without knowing why. That's perception. Now, sensitivity means your system is attuned, you take in more data, take in more information, and I tell you this: there's no such thing as being too sensitive. You're perceptive, you're intuitive. If anyone ever says you're too sensitive in the future, you say, No, I'm intuitive. Own it. Have you ever walked into a place and felt your body change? Like maybe the temperature even changes, or you just get a sense that something's going on in the room. Um, or maybe you can hear a pin drop, but you know something's gone down. I want to talk to you about why intuition sometimes gets confused with fear so that you can make the distinction. Many people struggle with their intuition because they don't trust it. Sometimes that's because it's so subtle in its delivery to you. Now, intuition doesn't put any pressure on you. None. It doesn't force you to take action, it passes on the guidance and it leaves it with you. What you do from there is up to you. Let me tell you a couple of stories from my mama. When I first was, oh no, the whole years I've been working with Intuition, I talked to my mama about them. So there was a time where she would be calling me up because she had a story to tell me. And here's two of them. I'll keep them short. So my mama lives rurally and she works on her farm. So she's down gardening this day in this, maybe around her water tank or something. And it says in her head, there's a snake there. She can't see a snake, and she's thinking, No, there's not. Sure enough, snake slithers past. That was the first one. The second one was um she was out with one of those packs on her back, um, pumping solution onto weeds to kill them. Anyway, she's pump pumping, and she hears, stop. That's gonna go in your eye. So she thinks to herself, just push it down, and then I'll stop. As she pushed it down, squidder in the eye. So these are examples of how your intuition will train you to listen. Okay, okay, don't freak out. You probably don't have to have a snake. My mama's used to snakes, but um it'll it'll come to you in your way. But anyway, fear is very different. Fear is kind of loud. And what I mean by loud is it forces emotions, you can feel it. Maybe it makes your head really freaking hectic with a bunch of thoughts going around. It makes things feel urgent, like you need to react, or maybe it makes you react before you even think that is fear. Sometimes you can mistake that fear as intuition, but there's a very clear difference because while fear will feel heavy, maybe even you get anxious. It's a very common sense that goes with it, but intuition is very calm, it feels light, and that's the difference you can train yourself to start to recognize. This fear versus intuition is why we spoke about awareness first in this podcast series. Because when you have awareness, intuition has some room to move so that you can recognize it for what it is. And what is it? Your built-in guide for life. Let me give you an example of fear pretending to be intuition or confusing you, thinking it's intuition. Let's give an example here. Let's say you receive an email, it's a short email, pretty neutral, no clear tone, but within seconds your mind starts making up stories or filling in gaps with assumptions. Oh, they must be thinking this. Oh, they've sent me this email because of that. That is fear. But what you might keep doing is read into the wording, maybe replaying previous conversations you've had with them. Maybe you start constructing outcomes, which is I call it making shit up in your head. All of this falls under the category of fear. You might even start to get pressure in your body, this tightening or anxiety, a sense that you need to respond right now. Maybe you feel like you need to defend yourself, but there's not even anything to depend defend, but your thoughts spiral. If I don't reply to this now, it will escalate. Or if I don't fix this, I'll lose something. This is urgency, this is noise, and that is fear. Fear's pretty clear. Let me give you an intuition example. Let's say you receive the same email, you read it once, a simple internal response arrives saying, wait. No story, no making shit up in your head, no spiraling, no emotional charge, just clarity. So what you do, maybe you mark it as unread, or you close your laptop and wait as directed, and you continue your day. And later, more information arrives, the situation resolves. That is intuition. You see the clear difference? Let's have another example of fear in a different scenario. Let's say you meet someone new, they're impressive, confident, engagey, you're a little bit taken with them. Within hours, you're planning ahead. You're magic imagining what could be, imagining outcomes, projecting a future. And suddenly there's this urgency to secure the connection, maybe to define it. Who are you to this person? And you're trying to decide what it means. Your body probably feels activated, restless, alert. That's fear attaching itself to potential. You're wanting a certain outcome, and this is not smooth. That's fear. In the same scenario, when you default to intuition, it might look like this. You meet the same person, you enjoy the interaction, take it for what it is, a lovely interaction. And a quiet internal note registers. Take your time. There's no urgency. And then what happens is you feel that you don't need to be cray cray. You're not projecting out, you're not making up uh outcomes that you desire. You just leave it where it is. That's intuition. Let's talk about how intuition communicates. Intuition communicates via your senses. Sixth sense, Claire senses, ESP. They're senses that you can't see. For some people it's a feeling or an emotion. For others, it's a thought that drops in louder than their everyday thoughts. For others, it's an image, seeing an image. For some, it's a memory that comes up or a sudden knowing. You may notice that one of these ways is how it works for you. There's no hierarchy here. There's no better way to receive your guidance, and there's no worse way. What matters is that you recognize how your system receives and interprets the information. That is where trust begins and self-confidence grows. It's phenomenal how it works for you when you trust your intuition. My intuition comes through most often as clear audience, which is inner hearing. So for me, it's a thought in my head, it's in my voice, sounds like one of my usual lots of thoughts. But sometimes it drops in over daily thoughts. So let me give you a story. I once heard 18 of May when I was planning a meeting abroad. It was so clear when I was in negotiation with the person I was going to meet for the date, May 18 was the only date that they could have the meeting. So it was a way that my intuition was training me to listen and to trust because it gave me a specific scenario that the intuition was correct on. When you start to listen to your information and guidance, you'll start to default to trusting it. It feels good. Now, intuition shows up in everyday moments. It might be where you hesitate slightly, you might feel a pull towards something to do something. It might come as a sense of uneasiness or a sense of ease. It might be an inexplicable urge to take action. Or maybe it's just clear knowing without explanation. You just know. When intuition is ignored, life can feel complicated. But when it's acknowledged, things tend to move more simply. I don't guarantee that they'll move perfectly, but they will move with more clarity. And as your self-trust grows, decisions just become easier. You just feel more confident with what you're doing day to day. I can tell you a story. This is so basic, but it's an example of an everyday life moment. Just recently, a week or two ago, I was at the supermarket, and as I'm walking down an aisle grabbing my things, my eyes literally were drawn onto the shelf to uh a box of corn flour. Well, I ignored it, kept walking, getting all my things on my list. When I got home and I'm preparing this recipe that I had gone to the shop to get things to make, um, I realized I didn't have any corn flour. But I didn't listen when I literally was guided to it in the store. Don't happens sometimes. And you know what? Let's go back even further. For me, until I was in my 30s, I didn't even know what intuition was. Or more accurately, I didn't really know that it had a name. It certainly wasn't part of my vocabulary. I pretty much relied on logic or reason, and you know what made sense on paper. I can remember a few times where my sense was so strong and I listened to it, but predominantly I was logical. At a major turning point in my life, which is when my marriage broke up, I worked with someone who helped me understand how my intuition worked. I was so amazed, I couldn't believe the strength of it, and I could see, I was shocked in the best way. I was so excited, I couldn't believe how accurate it was. And when I listened to it, everything just felt like I don't know, there was no resistance. But the times when I ignored it, sure enough, a challenge would arise. But I think experiencing that contrast is what changed everything. I was awakened to my intuition, and that changed me. It changed how I understood myself, and it changed how I understood life. So sometimes my inner guidance was purely practical, sometimes it was creative, sometimes my inner guidance was really surprising, going against what you really truly thought would happen. Thought that's the key. But my intuition. Same as yours will be. Always supportive. I was in awe of it and I'm still in awe of it. It is the coolest then. Anyway, let me tell you a little bit about my creative stream because it's a form of intuition. My creative stream is super strong. I can write for hours, speak, even really intensively, without a script or without planning, can do at spur of the moment. The stream comes in. I can also program computers, hyperfocus in and stream what has to happen. I can work with someone, which is what I have done for the last 20 years, like outlining their life map or sharing intuitive insights, because my stream is so strong. And I bet yours is too. I also sometimes can achieve what feels like a week's worth of tasks in one day when my creative stream is on. She's so strong. Amazing. Really feel so lucky to have it. Um, let's talk a little bit about strengthening your intuition or strengthening intuition in general. Intuition becomes clearer when you recognize how it communicates with you. Look at it like learning a new language. Some people find it easier to notice their intuition like when they're quiet or in still times, such as just before you're falling asleep, or just as you're waking up and you haven't got right into the day yet. Or maybe you are reflective and you do relax, and this is a good time for you to access your intuition. For others who are also naturally attuned, they might receive information really easily without needing to be in any particular state. I am seeing less of a need for meditation and quieting the mind for the young people now, especially born since the 2000s. Amazing. It's just that we're wired a bit differently. It's fantastic. But honestly, there is no correct way. The most important part of learning about your intuition is that you learn your way of receiving and interpreting the information. Something that helped me in a big way early on was I d joined a development circle. And it escalated my intuition so much. I started to notice patterns, maybe like numbers and you know, signs. I I also used to test my intuition on small things like what color car will park next to me? Who's gonna win the football game? And then I'd remember and check who'd won. Can't guarantee I was always right, but you know, I gave it a go. I was testing my intuition. Um, let's have a practical takeaway. What I'd like you to do over the next few days is notice what comes to you first. So is it a feeling? Is it a knowing? Is it an image? Or is it a thought that seems different to your usual thinking? I want you to take note. You maybe want to jot it down if you are keeping track, but the biggest thing to do is just acknowledge it. Because when you're recognizing what's happening and how you respond or receive, this builds trust in your ability to perceive and interpret your intuition. So simple. One last story has come to me to tell you, just as an example of listening to your intuition. This happened a couple of years ago. I was out walking and I was going on a usual path that I would walk around, and I got the strongest feeling to turn right down this street. So I went off my path. I walked down the street, and I saw a friend who I hadn't seen in years, and I was so excited to see her. So you can see how if you listen to that pull or that thought, that it leads you to something. In this case, running into a friend, and it was just wonderful. I just want to remind you that you can ask questions. There's a link to a form in the show notes. You can ask questions, you can share your thoughts that I can incorporate into future episodes. Just something really important to remember is that intuition is less about developing something new and much more about recognizing what's already there. If you feel called to explore your intuition more deeply, we do practice this work inside the everyday mediumship circle with a beautiful group of intuitive people, many of whom used to doubt or even hid their abilities. You're welcome to um look into that. There's links in the show notes. Thank you for being here. If this work resonates, please subscribe or follow and stay connected, whichever platform you're listening on. And remember, awareness is the ultimate activism. See you in the next show. What's the definition of a sanity?