Trust to Expand: Following What Your Body Already Knows with excerpts from my Camino.
- Polly Behringer
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
How Intuition Deepens When You Learn to Trust Yourself
There comes a point in healing where awareness begins to feel clearer.
You’ve slowed down enough to notice.You’ve started recognizing the patterns.You’ve allowed yourself to feel what has been sitting beneath the surface.
And somewhere within all of that noticing, a quieter question begins to emerge:
Can I trust what I’m feeling?
Can I trust the pause?The inner nudge? The subtle knowing that arrives before logic has time to explain it?
Me, the sleeping state and Moldavite
Moldavite, my dream weaver... my sleep traveler. I don't know what Moldavite does. I just took a few minutes while putting together this blog to find out. Moldavite is green, tektite glass formed by a meteorite impact in southern Germany about 15 million years ago.
And here I was taping it with medical tape to my forehead. I was gifted this piece and another one from two different people for my birthday. I was entering my 50th year and while things seems to line up; my normal life needed a deep clean. I needed to purge the beliefs I was using as a compass.
I don't know why I taped it to my forehead; I just felt I needed to. I leaned into the YES... and when I do... something beautiful happens. There have been distinct times in my life looking back at photos that I did this. When I share I use to sleep with Moldavite taped to my forehead, people would be taken back... asking me if it felt too strong or just simply in awe that I would do something so insane because of the vibrational strength of Moldavite.
For many of us, trusting ourselves can feel unfamiliar. Not because we lack intuition—but because we’ve spent years learning to override it.
Your Body Often Knows Before Your Mind Does
Before the mind creates a story, the body responds.
Sometimes it feels like expansion.A softening in the chest.
A full breath.
A sense of calm or clarity that arrives without needing explanation.
Other times it feels like constriction...
Tension.
Heaviness.
A pull to step back.
An internal signal that something feels off.
These responses are subtle—but powerful.
What the Heck are You doing, Polly?
I could hear him asking. I was laid - splayed out next to an 8ft triangle with crystals surrounding me. This was during a time after studying at an ashram on the banks of the James River and before heading off to Colorado... broke & broken to deepen my training in trauma release.
In 2018, I laid down under the soft glow of an 8 foot structure strung with copper and lights... I laid in silence. Crystals surrounding me... I reached over placing selenite in a copper spiral on my forehead.
Selenite is a translucent crystal known for purity, mental clarity, and spiritual connection. Its name comes from the Greek moon goddess, Selene, reflecting its soft, luminous glow. It's also highly valued for its ability to clear negative energy and cleanse other crystals... I didn't know this at the time...
And I didn't know this is the very crystal that would draw me back every year to host a retreat... built on a selenite mound.
It was on this mound decades earlier on an Astronomy field trip for extra credit in a college course I was failing. Starring up at the stars, I stood in absolute wonderment starstruck seeing the spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy... So vast... 3,500 lightyears wide and 20,000 lightyears long, this arm reached across the sky and down to me... linking me to moments I could not at the time understand.
This is the same vision that would lead me to walk the Frances Route, Camino de Santiago. The Frances Route mirrors the terrestrial path pilgrims have traveled across Northern Spain for a 1,000 years.
Our body, the Processing Unit
Your body is constantly taking in information, processing experience, and offering feedback. The nervous system often recognizes what is safe, misaligned, nourishing, or draining before the mind catches up.
And yet many of us were taught not to listen.
To push through.
To question ourselves.
To seek answers outside of ourselves before checking in within.
Over time, this disconnect can make it hard to know what our own inner voice sounds like. When we lose connection to trusting our gut and not trusting the outcome knowing not all outcomes may feel beautiful at the time... We lose ourselves.
Regulating Your Nervous System Aids in Trusting Yourself
Regulating your nervous system is key to trusting yourself in areas that you may not feel a bond to. Some us of us have amazing business sense. Some have an intuitive knowing about addictions and traumas. So can spot a red flag and some can mistake a red flag from a green flag. when we disconnect from ourselves and move through life unregulated... We're making decisions we may not be able to trust.
Rebuilding Self-Trust Is Part of Healing
Healing isn’t only about releasing old patterns. It’s also about rebuilding trust with yourself.
Trust in:
what you feel
what you notice
what your body is communicating
what feels aligned—even if you can’t fully explain why
This kind of trust doesn’t happen overnight.
It’s built slowly.
Through small moments where you pause and listen.
When you honor your need for rest.
When you speak honestly.
When you say no when something feels off.
When you say yes to something that feels expansive—even if it feels unfamiliar.
Each time you listen inward and respond with care, trust deepens.
Intuition Is Often Quiet
We often expect intuition to feel dramatic or obvious.
But more often, intuition is subtle.
It’s the quiet knowing that keeps returning.
The feeling you can’t shake.
The repeated pull toward something.
The moment your body softens when something feels right.
The moment your energy shifts when something doesn’t.
Intuition rarely shouts.
It whispers.
Which is why slowing down matters.
Because when life feels loud, rushed, or overwhelming, those whispers can be hard to hear.
But when you create space…
When the body feels safer…
When the nervous system settles…
Your inner knowing becomes easier to recognize.
Trust Grows in the Pause
Trust doesn’t always begin with certainty.
Sometimes it begins with willingness.
A willingness to pause before reacting.
To listen before deciding.
To notice what’s happening beneath the noise.
To ask:
What feels true for me right now?What is my body telling me?What feels expansive—and what feels contracting?
You may not always get a clear answer immediately.
That’s okay.
Trust isn’t about rushing clarity.
It’s about staying connected long enough to hear what’s underneath.
Once I arrived in Burgos, Spain...walking over 200+ km... I decided to dump my pack... I had already left items behind since arriving in Spain... But now, I decided to buy a small pack... and leave 2/3 of my pack behind.... What I believed I needed was only weighing me down... It was slowing my pace... and the burden of every little ounce added up and was felt. I ended up with barely nothing and felt the better for it.
Hornillos del Camino... my next stop after Burgos. A lighter pack with a lighter outlook on life. I met some amazing people in this hostel... we walked for a while together and then like myself... continued alone.
Expansion Often Feels Vulnerable
Growth doesn’t always feel comfortable.
Sometimes what is right for you still feels unfamiliar.
And unfamiliar can feel vulnerable.
There may be moments where trusting yourself means:
setting a boundary you’ve never set before
choosing rest instead of productivity
walking away from something that no longer feels aligned
saying yes to something your mind doesn’t fully understand yet
Expansion often asks us to leave what is familiar.
And that can feel activating.
But activation doesn’t always mean “wrong.”
Sometimes it simply means:
You’re standing at the edge of something new.
Walking on to my next stop... not a room or bed planned out. Albergues (hostels for pilgrims) were showing no vacancy... I stopped along the route for a San Miguel beer... some easy conversation before eateries closed for siesta. I walked in... got the last bed next that led me next to Mimi, a woman my age... tall, European that I had met in Pamplona hundreds of miles back.
After my shower, I laid down and caught the exact moment my oldest walked across stage earning her associates degree. Among hundreds of people, time zone differences... and 'luck' of the draw... I caught her just as she walked up.
When we let go of what weighs us down... the universe responds.
Returning to What Your Body Already Knows
You do not need to force intuition.
You do not need to search outside of yourself for every answer.
Your body carries wisdom.
Your nervous system carries information.
Your emotions carry insight.
And your inner knowing is always available when you create enough space to hear it.
Healing often begins with awareness.
But expansion begins with trust.
Trust in your body.Trust in your timing.
Trust in what keeps calling you forward.
Even if it arrives quietly.
Even if it doesn’t make sense yet.
Even if it asks you to move differently than you have before.
Pause.
Listen.
Trust... what your body already knows.
And allow that trust to become the beginning of your expansion.
I hope you...
enjoyed this blog... It may appear as if I took you on a whirlwind journey. But I'm trusting my gut with this... I'm trusting there are messages in this blog especially for you... and you... and you too.
If you think someone would enjoy this blog, please share it with them or on your social media for others to find.
Sincerely,
Polly Behringer
Comments