E20: How to KNOW What You Already Know with Shauna VanBogart

You already know more than you think you do. The problem is we've been taught to distrust it.

Shauna VanBogart is an intuitive mentor and coach who helps women understand themselves at a level most of us have never been given permission to explore. In this conversation we talk about what intuition actually is, why so many women have learned to ignore it, and what it looks like to start trusting the knowing that's been there all along.

What We Talk About In This Episode

• What intuition really is — and why Shauna calls it pattern recognition
• How she helped me finish my book by identifying what was actually blocking me
• Why women are more connected to intuition than they realize — and why they've been taught to dismiss it
• The photo read: how Shauna connects with someone's energy through photographs
• The difference between soul tired, emotional tired, and physical tired — and why it matters
• What it means to restore the body-mind connection when life has pulled you away from it
• Why the most ambitious women often minimize the very thing that would help them most
• Simple daily practices for staying connected to your own inner knowing

Connect with Shauna VanBogart:
https://shaunavanbogart.com
Follow her on Instagram: @shaunavanbogart
Read her insights on Substack: shaunavanbogart.substack.com

Get Angie's Book: Girl in the Spotlight — available in print and audio 

Subscribe to Angie's weekly letter Hello Friday

Instagram: @angiemizzell

Transcript

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Shauna (00:00)
And a lot of times we sever our knowing that intuition because the sensitivity lives in our DNA as women.

It is a knowing that you can't provide context to in the moment. It's just a knowing, but it's a very strong knowing. And so it gets discarded. It's called crazy. It's the opposite of intellect in a lot of ways. there's a lot of women walking around like, I knew it. Like I knew it. And like you've had those moments where you just got a hit and maybe you couldn't act on it because other people wouldn't get on board or you just didn't because you were like, maybe I'm just, I don't know. It was just like a thing that came in. I don't know. I don't believe it. But, and then it plays out and you're like, I was right.

Angie Mizzell (00:41)
Hey everyone, it's Angie Mizzell and welcome to More Like You. Today's guest is my highly intuitive friend, Shauna Van Bogart. Shauna's gonna tell us how she uses her gifts, her knowledge, and her experience to help women know what they know. Listen in.

Angie Mizzell (00:58)
Start by telling my friends who listen to the podcast who you are and what you do.

Shauna (01:03)
Well, I am Shauna VanBogart, and I work predominantly with women, leaders, business owners, in a variety of capacities. I am sort of a professional mentor. I'm a little bit of a coach. I'm an intuitive. I help women really understand themselves better, what's going on within them and outside of them, help them make sense of it and really helping people optimize their sense of self leadership in life. And I have a toolbox full of a lot of tools in which I do that. And I work with people one to one. I do intuitive sessions, I do group programs, but all of it really is under the umbrella of personal and professional growth.

Angie Mizzell (01:49)
Yes, and I have always, when I'm describing you, I definitely feel like you are a mentor, you are a coach, and just highly intuitive. And that is the gift you're bringing to your work to help women or business leaders just figure out what's next. Because sometimes we're blocked and sometimes you see things that...

We can't see ourselves because we're so close to it.

Shauna (02:15)
Yeah.

Angie Mizzell (02:16)
actually my readers and audience may recognize this because when I finally wrote my book and finished my book, it was because of a conversation that I had with you. I booked a clarity call And within, I can't remember, Shauna was that a 30 minute call or was it an hour?

Shauna (02:38)
I think it was 30 minutes.

Angie Mizzell (02:39)
I think it was 30 minutes and in that short conversation you were able to identify what was keeping me blocked. Now I did come to the call with somewhat of a specific issue. I remember saying to you my book is two thirds of the way done. Like I'm so close and I am not finishing it and I don't

Shauna (02:42)
Yeah.

Angie Mizzell (03:06)
really know why I'm not finishing it. And I had a couple of ideas in mind and I don't think you immediately knew the answer, but it was something through that conversation that you identified, you had said, you've experienced a lot of loss in your life. And there's something in your subconscious that knows that when you've finished the book, it's gonna feel like a loss. And there's something in your mind going, not another loss, not another loss.

Shauna (03:30)
Yeah.

Angie Mizzell (03:36)
But instead of that making me sad, I was like, wait, I'll just need to grieve the loss. And then I'll move on because I've experienced so much loss that I actually understand grief and I know that I can. And it was just like, and then I just blocked out the time. I just blocked out the time and finished it. It was amazing, but I would have never figured that out on my own. So I have to ask you, in that moment, how much of it was you know me?


Angie Mizzell (04:13)
you were picking up on what I was saying. So if I had been a stranger, I'm always curious as to, because you were able to glean something very quickly, because I've done a couple of these calls with you, that really may take months if you're working with somebody else. So how do you do it?

Shauna (04:17)
Well, I've been doing it a long time, a long time. And for me, it's pattern recognition. And that's really what intuition is to me. It's a whole other data infrastructure that you're able to tap into. You can practice it. ⁓ You can learn to listen really deeply. And there's a whole field of information out here and I also know people. I've been dealing with people very intimately since day one. And so I understand unconscious patterns. I understand a complex. I understand psychological frameworks. You know, I've studied this stuff for a long time, but I've also applied it in my own life and seen the results in my clients, of course. And so, you know, a lot of it is experience. Very little of it is knowing you. In fact, you know, it almost is better if I don't know you because, That's just my personal experience of you, which is not going to be helpful in a client session. I mean, hardly helpful. I don't know how helpful it really could be at all, if I'm being honest. So ⁓ none of that was really knowing you. was more just this ability that I have to sort of step into someone's field and kind of feel my way around. If you're an empath, you totally understand what I mean. You can pick up on sensations and ⁓ attitudes and even emotions that are happening within someone.

or you enter a room and you can feel what's going on in a room. I've just been able to wield that on a very detailed level. And so ⁓ it was first owning that I have this empathic nature and I'm highly sensitive as a person just to begin with, which most intuitives and empaths are. knowing like, okay, I'm feeling something here. then, I mean, years of studying emotional intelligence, years of mapping emotions and sensations to those emotions. I mean, it's just like a ⁓ dictionary that I hold within me because I'm willing to explore every emotional signature within myself. And then when I feel it in other people, I don't have the ego's narrative of it, but I certainly know what that is. So, you know, they might be saying I'm nervous and I'm like, that's fear. Or they may be saying that, you know, this is fear. And I'm like, no, actually, that's excitement. ⁓ They're so nuanced. it's a lot. mean, I've just been doing it a long time. But really, at its basic core, it's just pattern recognition.

Angie Mizzell (06:48)

Recently, you have offered photo reads. And I wanna talk about this because you have said publicly and in the conversations that this was a stretch for you because you had your own trepidation about saying, send me a photo and I'm gonna be able to look at that photo and answer some questions for you.

Okay, so first of all, explain what a photo read is.

Shauna (07:25)
Yes. So I am so adept at reading people that I've gotten to the point where through their photos, and I'm not even, to be honest, not even looking at the photos themselves. It's not like I'm studying the photos. I'm not studying anything. It's just through the photos, I'm able to connect with a person. And when I connect, there's a story that emerges from a person's energy. And I can feel the energy through the photos.

That's just my way of intuitively bridging that connection. So people send me three to five photos via email with very specific instructions and I pull them up on my computer. They're not present and I turn my camera on almost immediately. I maybe spend 15 seconds with the photos and when I turn my camera on I go, basically give them, you watch me in real time, get in their field and basically tell them and share what I'm feeling and sensing within them.

but with the context of everything I know psychologically and about the unconscious and everything else. And it's been an incredible journey putting this out to the world because first of all, it was kind of just a party trick as some of my friends called it. And then to actually put it out there and have it be so well received was kind of mind blowing for me. And then just to see where it stands now almost two years later. ⁓

It's incredibly transformational. And if anything, I'm immensely validated by the fact that a lot of times we don't need five months, six months of therapy, six years of therapy, although I'm a big advocate in please go do it. But sometimes what's needed is simple acknowledgement, like someone seeing us, someone seeing us on those deep levels. And a lot of times the messages that I get back in return are like, no one would know these things about me. ⁓

Not even my best friend, not even my spouse. How do you know what's going on inside of me? And I learned so much. I I learn about the interconnectedness of all of this and that there's really, as unique as we are, we all share these common patterns. And so the more that I do it, the easier that it gets. But yeah, it's very unconventional and it's been wildly successful.

I've had a lot of people say that this was better than months worth of therapy because you get it in 30 minutes and you get it from someone who is conveying it with non-judgment because I have to be in a non-judgmental space to do it and with a heart wide open because I'm in the human experience too and people just want to be seen and acknowledged.

Angie Mizzell (09:59)
Yeah, so let's go back to it being a party trick. What was going on there, that this was just something you were almost doing for fun and you didn't even necessarily realize it was a thing at first.

Shauna (10:09)

 So there was a little bit of girlfriends of mine who were single, and they're dating. And I'm like, let me see his photo. And then just stuff would, I would just know stuff. And through other friendships and colleagues and professional connections of mine who are intuitive, their constant validation of like, how do you think you know that stuff, Shauna? Kind of like getting me to recognize the intuition that has existed ⁓ was part of that.

And so it started as dating, dating, like, this guy seems to have this, or this woman seems to have this, just picking up on information. And it was just kind of like a fun thing. And then there were a couple times where maybe someone would show me someone. I remember a time my mom had showed me a photo of a woman. And I feel sensations in my body, too. I can feel energy moving in my body or different things. And I felt the sensation of being on a roller coaster. And that's very nuanced too. I feel a lot down here in the lower stomach and sometimes it's fear, sometimes it's nerves, sometimes it's excitement, but it's all down in that same area. And so I know how to discern the difference between it. And I was like, this is very specifically like being on a roller coaster and it's fun. It's thrilling. It's the feeling of thrill. And after I got done like sharing that, my mom pulled up a Facebook post that this woman had recently posted and...

It was her describing her love of roller coasters and how she was touring around the country, going on all the big roller coasters. so I get that validation, and it's kind of like undeniable. Something's happening, right? And this is over and over and over and over. And so finally, was also with the help of people around me coaxing me, Shauna, you need to do something with this. And of course, was like, I'm going to ruin my reputation. I'm going to ruin my credibility.

that's like a psychic on the internet, like what's going on here? You know, so like I had a lot of my own judgment, a lot of my own resistance to it. ⁓ But then the circumstances just kind of played out and I was just like, you know what, I have to give it a shot. just, you know, something calls you and it just kept pulling at me and pulling at me. And I'm so glad that I listened, but moving through the resistance was a journey for sure.

Angie Mizzell (12:08)
are you ever able to tell somebody what's going to happen? That's not exactly what you're doing or can you?

Shauna (12:34)

No, it's not like that. ⁓ There is, yeah, it's a knowing and it's more, you my specialty is really helping people make sense of what's happening inside of them. And most of the time we're not quite the best accurate assessors of what's happening inside of us. ⁓ And we just have blind spots. And so, you know, my specialty is really like being a human blind spot detector and an unconscious pattern identifier.

Angie Mizzell (12:39)
That's right. There's a difference. It's a subtle knowing that you're picking up on.

Shauna (13:07)
And then I know how to also break those patterns too, which is, know, lot of times, you know, intuitive awareness is one piece, but then what do I do with that? And so I kind of blend both of those worlds together with all of my past experience. And when it comes to future stuff, I can sense opportunity. So when I'm working with, you know, CEOs, founders, business leaders, they're trying to make a decision. I can sort of feel into just what feels, I don't know how to, it's always tricky articulating it, but what feels alive, what feels opportunistic. And I see it on a runway in my mind. And that runway sort of has three areas. One is like, it's not even on the runway. And then there's a field of possibility, and then there's a field of probability. And so I can kind of tell where things are at. Is it a possibility, or is it a probability, which is like more strongly perhaps this could play out? But free will exists, and free will changes and morphs and shifts all the time. So, you know, to say that this is going to happen would be a little misguided from my take because, you know, we all possess that free will and then there's collective free will. you know, I do kind of I can very much give guidance on this feels very rich and ripe for opportunity. So, you know, I would pursue this. It just feels vibrant, you know, and this kind of just feels stagnant and you could make it happen. But then we just need to take a different approach. And here's how I would approach that.

Does that make sense? So it's a little bit of forecasting.

Angie Mizzell (14:36)
Yes, and this makes a lot of sense. So when we recently had a conversation, I was coming to you with questions about my work Should I focus on this? Should I focus on this? Or these are the five things I'm working on. Should all of these things be on my plate? And that is actually not where the conversation went in terms of a clear answer to that question. What you picked up on was all of the judgment I was bringing to my work in general. I was just having thoughts and I was cutting myself off. was shutting off my own intuition and my creativity and

I started to tune into I'm feeling a spark, but for some reason I just talked myself out of it. And now I'm focusing on something else that I think I should be focusing on. And I just as a short little experiment, I just stopped doing that. Because I create a lot of content. I'm also letting my intuition help me bounce in and out of things I should be working on and.

It's just interesting how it has, shifted my energy and my level of productivity, I'm producing more but I'm not focused on production as much as I am creation. And that is very unique to me and my work as a writer but I think the way you picked up on the judgment I was bringing because we get a lot of advice. There's a lot of business models. There's a lot of things.

And we're trying to make whatever we're doing work. And I just don't think I realize, well, the reason all this feels hard is because I'm trying to do a bunch of things that don't work for me.

Shauna (16:23)
Yeah, yeah, think, I mean, you hit on so much there. That's so great because the intuition piece is fantastic. We need it. But we also need the production piece and the execution. And people tend to be heavy in that because we pride it as a society on being productive. And that's our value is being productive versus being creative, even though it takes creators to innovate and to foster growth and to create change and all of that.

but what we really value in ourselves and as a culture is production. so it's complex, you know? Like it really is intricate and it gets really intricate in our own psyches. And so it has to be a blend of both. There's this beautiful harmony between intuiting what needs to happen or being in this flow of your life where you understand life is communicating to you, or at least it's trying to, are you listening? And working with intuition that way.

And then picking up the tools of cognition and practicality and execution when you need to. And ⁓ sometimes people can live too heavily in intuition, and then there's no execution. You know what I mean? There's no follow through. And they're just all moving by the wind and feeling an emotion. But they're not anchored in this other piece. And so really, these two things have to be in harmony. I don't like to use the word balance because it's not 50-50. It really depends on what's going on. ⁓ And that's all about, you know, that's all about self-leadership. To me, the building blocks of self-leadership are to be able to integrate both sides of ourselves. And I find most people tend to be lopsided a little bit. And most women tend to minimize and diminish their intuition, their sense of creativity, or their recognition of those things. So a lot of times when women walk through my door, mean, these are ambitious, go-getting driven, you know.

Like, you're out there taking action. There's no lack of action. But to me, the action is the easiest part. When you're clear, you move. And you know that. When you know, like when you have that North Star in your periphery, you move mountains. But it's hard when you don't have that in your periphery. And then that's where we may need to just find someone to help us find that again. Or what's in our way from latching to it and all of that.

Angie Mizzell (18:20)

Well, and I had originally said that I was just tired and you were trying to figure out the source of the tired or what kind of tired and I think women can relate to feeling tired and there are a lot of factors so maybe we can get to the different things that you see women coming to you what the kinds of tired that they are but
you correctly assessed that for me it was like 85 % mental spiritual and that needed the boost. Like the issue was more around that and the productivity and what should I be doing and that was only 15 % of it. because I am a spiritual person, I it was almost again just the awareness of this is where it's shutting down, I just tuned back into it and it's and then it it was right there, you know, and that was so. 

let's talk about the women that you work with? are there, let's start with the tired because women are gonna be like, yes, me, can I go take a nap now? And you have two little ones now and that's a whole other layer, but what kinds, forms of tired do you see?

Shauna (19:54)
Yeah, so let me step back for a moment. So when I'm gauging energy levels, which is what I'm doing there, and I'm looking at exhaustion and tired, I'm feeling into energy as it exists emotionally, spiritually, and physically. And I can feel like, this is predominantly physical exhaustion. Perhaps there's some things we need to focus on within the body, physiologically, biologically, right? So we need to go problem solve that.

A lot of times for women, it's soul tired, it's emotional exhaustion. And they can all play together, obviously. So one can affect the other side. But when women, and I learned this from an amazing mentor of mine as well, who I spent two years with deep diving into the unconscious. And what I learned through that process with him is that women very much so need to be connected to the unconscious.

Because in there is where your creativity lives, your intuition lives, your sense of self-expression, and particularly mothers, right? We get into the mundane day-to-day things that have to happen. We get into that routine. There's so much structure. There's so much production, busyness, and all of that, that those things sort of get edged out. I mean, this is like textbook, right? And so it's.

Then when that sort of soul exhaustion sets in, which really is just a symptom of disconnecting ourselves from our own sense of self-expression, because we're just so busy taking care of life, taking care of little ones, taking care of the job, serving. There's very little being taken care of in our life. There's very little allowing energy to come in and fill us. And we can't wait for that.

We've got to go out and sort of do that on our own. And I don't mean like fill your own cup, but find ways creatively you can engage with life. Go find the things that sort of give you life force energy. Go find things that connect you to your body. Get you below the neck and out of your head. Because you need to restore that body mind connection, right? And so a lot of times that soul tired is also symptomatic of a broken body mind connection.

And I don't mean just go work out. I mean, are you really listening to what's happening inside of your body? And a lot of times, when life is lifing, and we're busy, and we have kids, we're not listening to what's in our body. We're focused on what needs to happen next or the five things that need to happen next. So it's really symptomatic of just existing from the mind purely. ⁓ Again, another thing that our society prides and

that exhaustion will start to go away when the soul exhaustion and the emotional exhaustion, when you start listening and connecting to the body again. And that can be done through all the ways I've just mentioned.

Angie Mizzell (22:51)
And so how much of your conversation is this sort of bigger picture stuff and then do you leave them with action steps? I know you left me with a few, but how much of it is, okay, now this is what you need to do to get into that place of being.

Shauna (23:08)
 I mean, depends. It depends what's going down, right? It depends what the situation is. Because sometimes someone will come in, and again, I'm sort of listening, assessing, feeling into, and it's, maybe this is a journey they're about to embark on. So we need to have a bigger discussion as to what's happening here, what this looks like. And then I would sort of like, you know, write a metaphorical script of like, OK, here's what I would do. Here's the medicine. Like, here's what I would prescribe.

Sometimes though it's incredibly tactical. Like sometimes it's they're coming in going, I think there's a block. And I'm like, no, no, no, you don't have a block actually. You're clear. This is all execution. And then it becomes a very heavy action oriented conversation ⁓ of mapping out a strategic plan. So my favorite thing about my job is it's incredibly dynamic in that way. I'm just a very quick study of what needs to happen and what problems need to be solved here and with what specific solutions.

for this specific instance in all the context that's here. so sometimes like the calls, again, 90 % of the time I'm helping them map out a whole new offering for their business, or we're talking about employee interpersonal relations, and it's very strategic. And then sometimes it's all deep dive inner child conversations and healing mother wounds or father wounds or something like that. So I have a very broad sort of repertoire.

that I work with here, and I love it for that. So it's highly personalized. Nothing is templated, although there are some very common patterns. So it makes it easy to kind of pull a potion off the wall or pull a tool off the wall and go, here's what we need right now for this instance.

Angie Mizzell (24:53)
So I just had a vision, but it's just my own vision. I'm not saying a vision for you. so you mostly work with either solopreneurs or small business owners. Do you work with like larger scale corporations or how big do you go? Because my vision was like, you could take this so big, like all the way to the people running our country, our major corporations. Like if you could really get in and intuitively go, this is what you need to do. And you could single-handedly change the world. This was my vision. So it's you, Shauna. You're the one. You're the chosen one.

Shauna (25:29)
wow. It's It's me. Just over here. Just over here in my office. I'm here. You know, I think that's also been the challenge of my journey is that I recognize the value in it and where it can be applied. And it also has to feel right to me personally, which feels a little selfish, right? But like I have to know where I get the best results.

I think I feel really safe with small business owners, but small business owners is a pretty wide audience. mean, when I work with founders, I have women in male-dominated industries. I have women in environmental cleanup and healthcare on big levels running multimillion dollar firms. ⁓ Whether someone would call that small business, I would ⁓ or not, but I'm not doing any high-level corporate stuff. I think what gets in my way with that sometimes is...

How do I get through the rules and regulations? Is there enough flexibility? Is there enough flexibility to play? Because some of this requires stepping out of the structure and allowing the person I'm working with to just be in an experimental space. And sometimes that's just not conducive, perhaps, to that environment. Or it's a story I tell myself.

Angie Mizzell (26:45)
I think you bring up an important point because I do think it's very valid to stay in areas where you feel safe and that's not the same as staying in a comfort zone because like you said, you know right now where you work best and sometimes it's almost like even me asking you the question and even though I was joking, take it bigger. Go bigger. You know, sometimes the impact we make, doesn't have to be bigger. But there is something about recognizing the impact you make in the room that you're currently in and don't push yourself out of it just because you think you're supposed to or that's the path to success. ⁓ I do think part of being effective is knowing where you're effective. And then if that needs to change, just change it up. But you need to have clarity around this is who I'm working with and this is how I'm doing it. And being able to be in the driver's seat of that is really powerful.

Shauna (27:56)
Well, I think that's where it's always being in tune with the conversation that's happening between you and life. Because yes, I have my own directives, and I know, but I also am paying attention, and I follow patterns. And when I see a pattern of people showing up asking me relationship questions, let's say, I pay attention to that. Why all of a sudden do I have a recurring amount of people coming to me asking about this? And so I lean into that, and I pay attention to that, and I give myself space to kind of go here. The tools work you know, in all of these applications. And basically everything that I'm doing really is about relationship. I mean, I'm assessing energy as it relates to your relationship with your book. You know, what's, feeling into the relationship you have to the writing process and what's happening there. What's there that's like in the way, you know, I'm feeling into the relationship people have with money, growth, success, their partner, their literal people in their lives. So everything to me is relationship.

And that's how I work the way I do. So really, I could serve. I can serve in a very broad way, because I have a very specific approach, which makes it hard to figure out, like, gosh, where do I take this next? And then also, while I do, and I'm very effective one to one, I'm also very effective in the tools that I teach when I do group programs. ⁓ luckily, I have the kind of flexibility in my career to kind of move in and out of spaces, depending on what's going on in my life and my schedule. I don't have time for one-to-ones right now, or I do. So yeah, there's a lot of puzzle pieces to kind of put together at any given time.

Angie Mizzell (29:29)
Well, so we talked a little bit about the tired. What are some other themes, broad spectrum, that you see women especially? It doesn't have to be women, but mostly thinking about women here, that keep them blocked and disconnected from their intuition?

Shauna (29:32)
So your energy tells a story, right? And it's going to tell a story about your energy levels, the tired, the exhaustion. But it's also going to tell a story about your sense of value and your sense of worthiness, your sense of wholeness, your sense of weakness, your sense of strength. So if you kind of look at strengths and weaknesses in any of the words that would be put underneath that, your energy is going to convey that. ⁓ Big ones, though, for women tend to be in the wholeness and worthiness categories. What were the things that have disconnected them from their sense of their worthiness and their wholeness? And when you are only operating as a woman from your mind and thinking that everything has to be done through intellect versus having that intuitive piece on there, you are only operating with part of yourself. And it will be very difficult for you to have a strong sense of attachment to your wholeness and to your sense of worth. And a lot of times we sever our knowing that intuition because it's unsafe. ⁓ The sensitivity lives in our DNA as women. We were burned at the stake for all of the healing modalities we brought to the table ⁓ back in the day. There's just a lot wrapped up with that side of it because as much as we can back it up with data, and it's been studied for a very long time. It is a knowing that you can't provide context to in the moment. It's just a knowing, but it's a very strong knowing. And so it gets discarded. It's called crazy. It's the opposite of intellect in a lot of ways. And so that really deteriorates for women their sense of value and wholeness, because there's a lot of women walking around like, I knew it.

Like I knew it. And like you've had those moments where you just got a hit and maybe you couldn't act on it because other people wouldn't get on board or you just didn't because you were like, maybe I'm just, I don't know. It was just like a thing that came in. I don't know. I don't believe it. But, and then it plays out and you're like, I was right. And this happens, it's not just women, but it just tends to be women are connected to it more than men are I find. ⁓ But that, really is a big one.

And so I talk a lot about feminine energy, masculine energy, not gender, but just what those two energy centers mean. ⁓ women finding the harmony in balancing out their masculine energy, which is all drive determination with this other side of themselves. Because they want to be whole and worthy. And they want to emanate that. Especially as a leader, you want to be able to be the most genuine, magnetic version of yourself you can be to have the of influence you want. So you know being whole and worthy is going to be pretty magnetic.

Angie Mizzell (32:37)
so what are some of the things that we can do in our day-to-day life to tap into, stay connected to our intuition, our inner knowing, and our wholeness? There's daily practices.

Shauna (32:48)
So restoring the connection and then maintaining the connection to what's happening below the neck is really important. And so what I mean by that is when you feel something, which is kind of like odd to think about because we're moving so fast, but when you feel something, really pausing and slowing down and taking moments throughout the day to check in and go, what am I feeling? Like, what is that? And describing it.

I know that sounds, I don't know, unproductive or fluffy or whatever. That's how it would sound to me maybe 10, 15 years ago. That has been one of the most crucial skills in my life in general, getting to know myself and not just through my intellect. And so even just setting, if you want to get really specific about it, setting a timer on your phone and just set it random times, five times a day.

And when that timer goes off, just sitting for a moment, it's almost a form of meditation and asking yourself what's happening in my body right now. Just noticing even where you feel tense, where you feel tight, what emotion am I feeling right now? Is it just numbness? Is it joy? Is it nerves? Am I anxious right now? Just checking in would be a huge start. A huge start. Because most of the time, we are ignoring what's happening and we're over, we're ignoring cues. We're ignoring signals our body is sending us to take care of ourselves and otherwise and also signals about what's happening outside of us. So that would be something that would be really huge. 

we're getting information all the time. You're discarding it. And so part of this is not turning up intuition so much as it is shifting your perspective of it. There's so much information that comes into our periphery. We probably just think they're random thoughts. But a lot of times, it's intuition. And so any form of mindfulness is going to turn the dial up on your intuition. Mindfulness is simply just observing, what thoughts am I having in any given moment?

And also, what feelings am I having in any given moment? The more that you observe just throughout the day, taking those times, let's say you're in conversation with your husband or your spouse or your kids and you're noticing you're tensing up, just slowing it down and multitasking a bit. You're in the experience, but you're also mindfully observing what's happening within you. And anything that you can do to change reactions to responses is also going to profoundly help you stay connected to your body and your intuition as well. Slowing down the moment to create just enough pause to go, can feel myself wanting to react right now. I'm going to take two seconds, and I'm going to choose a response that's different. You're breaking a pattern right there. So that's a big one, too.

Angie Mizzell (35:38)
I still catch myself sometimes on the tail end of a reaction going, wow, that happened so fast.

Shauna (35:48)
Yeah, so fast.

Angie Mizzell (35:51)
but then I try to file that experience away so that maybe I'll be less reactive the next time. ⁓ I know, right? But the simple way for me that I have applied what you're saying is the simple feeling of usually if I'm trying to make a decision, but if something feels light or heavy.

So I've just started to notice that central feeling of tightness or expansiveness that I can sense that in my body. And I also, I have a lot of thoughts. I I've realized not everybody hears this running dialogue in their head, but my thoughts are audible. So I'm having thoughts all day and I'm just, I don't even realize it. But the wise ones or the intuitive ones, I've started to notice they come through differently. They sound different and they feel different. But I only realized that, of course, in hindsight after going, wait, I did have a thought about that. And so sometimes you just have to practice and then look back and go, ⁓ like you said, I knew it. I knew it.

And maybe you didn't act on it in the moment, but you can look back and go, I was right. to me, that builds some confidence around trusting ourselves because...

Shauna (37:23)
You have to be wrong.

You have to be able to be wrong, because it is a practice. I was convinced my second baby, we saved the gender for delivery, so it was a surprise, convinced it was going to be a boy. I would have bet the house it was going to be a boy, and out she came. And I was like, and I called myself an intuitive. Talk about a moment. But it's a practice. It is not perfection, and it never should be, because it's not what it's about.

Intuition really is just another layer of context to inform the decision-making process. It doesn't mean you always get it right. It's just another layer of context. ⁓ And what I will say, I love the light and heavy thing. I use that as well. And I use that with clients. It's sort of to me like phase one, because it gets you in tune with your body. So I love it for that purpose. However, the discernment is like the second phase, because sometimes things feel heavy that are for us.

but it feels heavy because we have an unconscious pattern in play that's self-protective. ⁓ Or sometimes something feels light and we think that it's right and it's fine to follow it. I believe all moves are the right moves to a degree philosophically. But ⁓ it may just be the path of least resistance for your unconscious subconscious system. And so when you understand that your system is built to protect you,

It's not a good gauge of threats, though. And that's where we need to have the intellect and the mind to discern, OK, this does feel heavy. But is it because it's actually heavy, or is it because there's a pattern in place from 20 years ago that has told me it's heavy? And so if you are bumping up against the same circumstances over and over, then that's maybe where we need to go, OK, you know what? We need to explore that heavy thing, because it may be the thing you actually have to trudge through. So it is a good gauge. But there is like a whole other side to that that's worth exploring that I wouldn't want people to miss the very things that are for them just by that metric alone.

Angie Mizzell (39:27)
And that would be a good example of when it is time to reach out to a coach or a mentor or a therapist or something. ⁓ And I've done so much work internally that I really do try to work things out on my own for as long as I can. And if I start to go, this is feeling really hard and I'm stuck in a loop. so it really is helpful to remember you don't have to do it alone. 

I wanted to ask you how has being a mother changed you? And what I mean, I mean you can go anywhere you want to go with this, but in relation especially to the work you do, do you see things differently? has it changed anything about ⁓ how you perceive your own intuition and how you help other people?

Shauna (39:55)
Mmm gosh, that's such a fun question. I love it. I love talking about motherhood so much. ⁓ mean, yeah, it's it's changed me in all of the best ways and ⁓ And also, you know, I've had to rise to that occasion to allow it to change me and go with it which is the hard part because you're shifting out of an identity into a new one and There's a lot of fear that comes up with that, you know And and I found that to be a little bit more challenging with the second one than the first one to be honest ⁓

But as far as the intuition piece, Mother's intuition came on the line for me pregnant with the first one because I knew she was going to be breech which she was, and I knew she wasn't going to turn. And they wanted me to explore turning her. And I was like, she's not going to turn. I just know. And then ⁓ when we delivered via Caesarian, she had her foot stuck in my pelvis and then one, and so she wasn't going to be able to turn, you know? And so there's, and there's so many as mothers can attest to so many experiences where you just have that mother's intuition. So if anything, it's incredibly validating. but also these tiny little mirrors of our life and our psyche and all of our own conditioning. I mean, talk about ripe for personal growth and my attitude about it is sort of, you know, I'm going to step into it or I'm going to resist it.

And the resistance is going to break at some point. I'm going to burn out by resisting the resistance. And so it's like, as my girls age, they will drudge up stuff. I really believe that. As your children age, it's going to bump up against when you were that age with your parents and anything there to look at. And so for me, they're like tiny little portals to growth. Is it easy?

No, it's really challenging and incredibly vulnerable and you got to be willing to face some pretty honest truths. And I'm so thankful I have the foundation of that going into this. But that's just my attitude. I want it to mold me and allow me to grow and move the needle in ways that they will then take and move the needle even more when they grow up is my goal. It's hard to not get into the perfection of
perfectionism of it though, as a mom. I don't know if you feel that, but like you wanna just be the best human you can be for them. And it's hard to just, some things you just gotta let be.

Angie Mizzell (42:44)
when I had my first, I just imagined being so in love with his child and it being perfect. And actually I was that in love with him. But I was so suddenly aware of my limitations. I was so tired and I was feeling like, please go to sleep. Like, please just I want to put you down. And I felt guilt around just the simple physical exhaustion.

I had already left my career in television news, so I had this awareness that our identity shifts and I was in a new identity as a mother. And I also feel like I had a sense of self outside of being a mother. And yet I still felt like I was losing myself in some way. 

Shauna

You know it's going to change you. And even when it's happening, know theoretically. You've read enough theoretically to understand. You've got to just go with it. It's going to be amazing. we're talking about a very sophisticated system. And when I say the system, I'm talking about the nervous system, the unconscious, the intuition, our body. It holds this stuff. I mean, it is built to stay in its comfort zone and to resist change in a lot of ways.

And so even when we theoretically know it, the execution of it, man, is hard because it feels like a real loss. I I felt like my career motherhood. And it's like, I know, I don't have to choose between the two. But in your body, I mean, you can really sometimes feel that threat. And so, again, all of it to me is just like a wonderful tool. mean, being a mom has made me so much more human, which I so appreciate.

It has softened me. ⁓ It has opened my heart in the biggest way across the board. And for that, I am just forever thankful and grateful. And all of that, all of that absolutely increases my ability to channel and be intuitive and tapped in and all of that, ⁓ but just better serve my clients. And right now, it's funny you ask this question because I'm looking through a lot of old programming that I did pre-kids. And I still agree, thankfully, with almost everything I'm teaching.

But I would do it differently now, being a mom, because I understand the limitations. And I didn't then. And so it is nice to be able to have that, I guess, in my scope, because I do understand your time is limited, your energy is limited, and your brain is not the same. So thank God for intuition and those feminine qualities, because we need to lean on those a little bit more.

Angie Mizzell (45:25)
Amen. So Shauna, tell everyone where they can find you and if you have any new programs or how they can work with you, things that are going on right now, just let everybody know what they need to know before we go.

Shauna (45:39)
So you can find me at shaunavanbogart I am on Substack. Shauna Van Bogart. I don't know the link to that. And then I'm on Instagram as shaunavanbogart as well. Sort of, you know, some people call it the gateway drug to my world is the photo reads. So if you go to my website, you will see photo reads and usually it's on waitlist and then I open them a handful of times a year to do them. So you can get on the waitlist to explore what that may look like. But that's the best way to kind of
get in this space and start doing this work.

Angie Mizzell (46:12)
Well, thank you, friend, for joining me today. I always love our conversations and just to bring everybody into our worlds and the way our minds work. And I love telling everybody about the work that you do because you truly are special and you have a gift. And I'm so glad that you're sharing it with all of us. So thank you.

Shauna (46:31)
Thank you.

Bye, friend.

Angie Mizzell (46:33)
Thanks for listening to More Like You. Part of living a more authentic life is learning to trust yourself, that inner knowing. And I hope this conversation with Shauna I gave you permission to do just that. If this episode resonated with you, be sure to hit subscribe or follow and leave a review. And if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, take a screenshot and share it on Instagram and tag me at angiemizzell

I love to hear from listeners. And if you want to stay connected, subscribe to Hello Friday. It's my weekly dose of inspiration and encouragement delivered straight to your inbox. Just head to angiemizzell.com to sign up. Thanks again for being here. I'll see you next time on More Like You.