Anxiety vs Intuition

Can you tell the difference between anxiety and intuition? Most of us struggle to distinguish them, and that confusion makes us doubt ourselves completely. Today's edition explores how anxiety steals self-trust through catastrophic thinking, and how to find your way back to believing you can cope.

Today’s Quick Overview:

🔬 Science Spotlight: Circadian rhythm risk signal…
🗣 Therapist Corner: Self-trust under anxiety…
📰 Mental Health News: Teen risk, older adult cognition…
🫂 Community Voices: A small joy returns…

Let's notice the progress you're making that doesn't look like progress:

This week, what did you do that past-you wouldn't have been able to do? Rest without guilt? Say no without over-explaining? Keep going without berating yourself? Recognize that growth and progress. Just because it's quiet doesn't mean it's small. You're becoming someone different, one choice at a time.

One voice is fear-based, the other is pattern recognition; how clearly can you distinguish anxiety from intuition?

Shadow Work Wheel

Download your free Shadow Work Wheel, a powerful guide that maps six areas of inner exploration, from triggers and the inner critic to unmet needs and integration. Print it or save it to your phone to support your self-discovery journey with gentle reflection and daily practice.

Anxiety and Self-Trust: Why Your Brain Tells You Everything Will Go Wrong

Answered by: Bridget Boursiquot, MSW, LICSW

Even before your mind tells a story about what might happen next, your body has already reacted. Racing heart, sweaty palms, clenched jaw. That's not signaling failure. It's your nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do.

Understanding Anxiety as Protection

Anxiety is not a flaw. It's a protection system from ancient times that kept us alive. Adrenaline sharpened focus and helped with fight or flight. Sweaty palms made it easier to slip away from predators. Today, our nervous system doesn't know the difference between a sabertooth tiger and a difficult conversation, a bad relationship, or giving a speech. It simply reacts to perceived threat.

When anxiety shows up now, it often does so through catastrophic thinking. The brain jumps to the worst-case scenario, not because you're dramatic but because it's trying to regain control. Imagining the worst helps the brain prepare and feel safer in the moment, but the cost is high. We start to doubt ourselves, mistrust instincts, and lose confidence in our ability to cope.

Anxiety vs. Intuition

An important distinction is between anxiety and intuition. Anxiety is loud, urgent, repetitive, and fear-based. It asks endless "what if" questions and pushes for certainty. Intuition is quieter and grounded in lived experience and pattern recognition. People call it a gut feeling, but it's really the brain processing information faster than conscious thought, based on past experience—especially when anxiety isn't in charge.

How Anxiety Steals Self-Trust

Anxiety pulls us away from self-trust by over-intellectualizing and catastrophizing. A task like driving can spiral into "What if I forget my seatbelt, cause an accident, get pulled over, and forget my license?" Inevitable disaster. An equally extreme counterexample might be driving perfectly, crowds applauding, and the police giving you a trophy. Anxiety convinces us that the catastrophic version is more likely, when outcomes often live in the middle. When positive thinking feels out of reach, stick to facts: I've driven many times, arrived safely, and never caused an accident. Facts bring us out of prediction and back to the present moment.

Rebuilding Self-Trust

The way back to self-trust from anxiety is showing up for ourselves reliably, especially when we notice avoidance, people-pleasing, or shutting down. A helpful place to start is an internal check-in. Notice your body, scan your emotions, and ask what needs attention. Connect self-care directly to that need. Rest if tired, reach out if lonely, breathe if overwhelmed. These acts are self-respect, a pillar of self-trust. Sometimes we slip, and that's okay. Trust builds when we notice without shame and return to care. Practicing this consistently, even in small ways tied to routines like brushing your teeth, reminds the nervous system we won't abandon ourselves and gradually rebuilds trust from the inside out.

Rebuilding self-trust doesn't mean "fake it 'til you make it." It means noticing the pattern, responding with intention, and meeting yourself with compassion. Self-trust grows each time we pause, meet our needs, and cope, even when anxiety is present. Anxiety may always speak to us, but when we know how to respond, we stay in the driver's seat.

Bridget Boursiquot is a licensed clinical social worker who works with adults and couples navigating anxiety, overwhelm, and patterns that impact self-trust. She is the owner of Bridge to Healthyself, a telehealth therapy practice grounded in neuroscience, practical tools, and compassionate care. Learn more at bridgetohealthyself.com

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Your Body Clock Weakness May Signal Dementia Risk

Read the Study

The Research: A study tracked 2,183 older adults (average age 79) who wore heart monitors for about 12 days to measure their rest-activity patterns. After three years, 176 developed dementia. Those with the weakest circadian rhythms had nearly 2.5 times the dementia risk compared to those with the strongest rhythms. Each drop in rhythm strength was linked to a 54% increase in dementia risk.

Timing also mattered. People whose daily activity peaked at 2:15 p.m. or later faced 45% higher dementia risk than those whose activity peaked earlier.

Why It Matters: Your body clock is a master regulator controlling hormone release, digestion, and long-term brain health. This study offers a potentially measurable early warning sign. Circadian rhythm strength can be tracked with wearable monitors, making it a practical screening tool for identifying high-risk individuals years before symptoms appear.

Try It Today: If you're concerned about cognitive health as you age, protecting your circadian rhythm is something you can act on now, and it doesn't require medication or expensive interventions. Unlike genetic risk factors you can't change, circadian rhythms respond to behavioral interventions.

You don't need to wait for research to start protecting your body clock. The changes that strengthen circadian rhythms are the same habits that improve sleep, mood, and overall health right now.

I can direct toward myself the same compassion I naturally offer others. I deserve the kindness I so freely give away.

Think of one person you showed care to this week. Now recognize that you possess that capacity for gentleness and could choose to turn it inward too.

It's okay to treat yourself with the same consideration you give everyone else. You're not being selfish; you're finally being fair.

Notice one moment when you're hard on yourself. Then ask: "Would I speak this way to someone I care about?" If the answer is no, rephrase what you said with the kindness you'd offer them. Practice being on your own side.

My Kid Asked Me Why I Never Sing Anymore"

Shared by Beth, 35

I was folding laundry when my six-year-old daughter asked me why I stopped singing.

I didn't know what she meant at first. She said I used to sing all the time, like in the car, making dinner, doing dishes, just random songs throughout the day. But she couldn't remember the last time she heard me sing. I tried to think of when I'd last sung anything and came up blank. Not in the shower, not in the car, nowhere. When did that happen?

I used to be that person. Music constantly, dancing in the kitchen, making up silly songs about whatever we were doing. My daughter remembered that version of me, but I'd completely forgotten she existed.

Somewhere in the past year or two, I guess I’d just stopped. Life got heavier. Work stress, money worries, the general weight of trying to keep everything together. I didn't make a conscious decision to stop singing. I just gradually became someone who didn't do that anymore.

My daughter asking about it really hit me. Not just about the singing, but about all the small joyful things I'd let slip away without noticing. When did I stop dancing while cooking? When did I stop making jokes? When did I become this efficient, joyless version of myself just moving through tasks?

That night, I put on music while making dinner. My daughter's face lit up when I started singing along, badly and off-key like always. She joined in, and we were ridiculous together.

I'm not suddenly fixed or anything. Life is still stressful and heavy sometimes. But I'm trying to notice when I'm letting joy quietly disappear. Sometimes it takes a kid pointing out what you've lost to realize you want it back.

Share Your Story

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Evening Reset: Notice, Write, Settle

Picture a fountain in the center of a town square, water flowing freely to everyone who approaches with a cup. All day long, people come and drink. The fountain never hesitates, never judges who deserves water and who doesn't. It simply gives. But the person tending the fountain never drinks themselves, convinced the water is meant for others. Tonight, you can recognize that compassion works the same way. It doesn't run out when you include yourself. The source is abundant enough for everyone, including you.

Spend three minutes writing: How do I treat the people I care about when they're struggling, and what would change if I offered myself that same quality of care?

Close your notebook and ask yourself: Where did I withhold kindness from myself today while freely giving it to others? What stops me from believing I deserve the same care I offer? How can I practice one act of self-compassion tomorrow that mirrors how I treat people I love?

Podcast: Learning to Trust Yourself – How to Stop Self-Abandonment

Listen: Learning to Trust Yourself: How to Stop Self-Abandonment | Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

Psychologist Rick Hanson explains that self-trust comes down to knowing you can be counted on: you'll do the right thing even when it's hard, and you'll cope with adversity when it shows up. The key insight is separating what's actually you from what's your temperament, physiology, or past trauma.

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Coming Monday: Why some people can't stop making the same bad choices, with research revealing that high cue sensitivity combined with inability to update learned associations keeps brains locked onto environmental triggers even when circumstances change.

Researched and edited by Natasha. Designed with love by Kaye.

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*The Daily Wellness shares educational content only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice and diagnosis. Please consult a licensed provider for personalized care.