WITH ANDREA CRISP
Performance of Strength
WHY RECEIVING FEELS HARD
In this episode of The Soul Aligned Podcast, Andrea explores why so many of us struggle to slow down, be fully present, and trust that we are safe even when we are not constantly producing.
Through personal stories, nervous system insights, and Human Design wisdom, this conversation gently uncovers the deeper fears beneath constant busyness and the pressure to always be “doing.” Andrea shares her experience of learning to soften into stillness during a recent trip to Florida, how presence reconnects us to intuition and creativity, and why alignment often begins when we stop forcing.
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, anxious, or stuck in survival mode, this episode is an invitation to exhale, reconnect to yourself, and remember that you do not need to earn rest, peace, or alignment.
ABOUT ANDREA
Andrea Crisp is a certified coach, author, and guide supporting intuitive women in reconnecting with their inner knowing so they can live, lead, and create from a place of deep alignment.
Her work weaves together nervous system regulation, somatic awareness, mindset, and energetic practices—creating space for women to expand into greater ease, clarity, self-trust, and authentic expression.
“Stillness has a way of revealing what constant busyness helps us avoid.” Andrea Crisp
IN THIS EPISODE
Why stillness can feel uncomfortable for high achieving women
How survival mode disconnects us from our intuition.
The connection between nervous system and alignment.
CONNECT WITH ANDREA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreacrispcoach
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSoulAlignedPodcast
Website: https://www.andreacrip.ca
Insight Timer: Cashflow Nervous System Reset for Entrepreneurs
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In this episode, we explore why so many of us struggle to slow down, to be fully present,
and trust that we're safe even when we're not constantly producing. I share my experience of
learning to soften into presence during my recent trip to Florida, how nervous system regulation
impacts intuition and manifestation, and why human design can help us understand the unique ways we
access alignment, trust, and receiving. Welcome to the Soul Aligned Podcast.
I'm Andrea Crisp, coach, author, and guide, and I support intuitive women in reconnecting with
their inner knowing so they can live, lead, and create from a place of deep alignment.
My own path has been one of unraveling, of releasing old identities, healing patterns,
and learning to trust the wisdom within. This space is an invitation to return to yourself.
to explore the inner work, the nervous system, and the energetic shifts that allow your life to
unfold with more ease, clarity, and truth. So take a breath and let's begin.
Hello, friend. I am so glad that you are joining me. This has been such a fun launch into the Soul
Aligned podcast. I still... I'm just buzzing with the energy.
I'm so grateful that you have tuned in, that you have downloaded, that you have watched the YouTube
videos. It just completely has made me feel like my heart is so full.
And today I want to talk to you just about that presence that so often we're missing in our lives.
kind of this feeling that I have needed in the past little bit and how I'm reconnecting with my own
presence. I'm learning to tune into my body. I'm learning to create that stillness,
that safety. And I want to start today's episode by asking you a question.
So the question is, do you ever feel like you constantly need to be entertained or productive,
maybe consuming information or even scrolling online, like maybe one of those things just stood out
to you. I know for me, it's being productive. And obviously,
it's also scrolling online, because at the end of the day, sometimes it's like, you just want to
check out and you just kind of want to just read and see what other people are doing and not think
about what you need to be doing. And anytime there's a moment of silence, or stillness,
or there's nothing that you're actually doing, there's like that temptation to reach for your
phone. Now, I've been realizing lately that whenever I'm in that energy,
which has been a lot in my life, it's usually because I'm avoiding something. And maybe you can
relate to that or maybe resisting the next level. And that's also something that I have been in,
like it's like between moving from one identity to the next. So why are we afraid to be still and
to be fully present? Well, the reason is because most of us are avoiding stillness,
because that is when we're faced with maybe the uncertainty that we might be avoiding.
a feeling that we're not really in control of our lives, that things aren't working out the way
that we want them to. Maybe even like feeling lonely or feeling left out or not belonging.
But there's usually some underlying emotion that's just waiting to like emerge.
Maybe it's like that feeling of sadness or grief or loss. For me,
it was exhaustion. Some of it was frustration. But maybe for you, it is like that tension or that
feeling of just like, I just don't know what to do. Stillness has a way of revealing what constant
busyness helps us avoid. Now, most of you know that I spend usually about three weeks in Florida.
So back in April. I went to visit my folks who are snowbirds and I spent the time with them in
Panama City Beach. And I was really, really look forward to going and spending time there.
And for me, it had been a really long, really difficult winter. And when I got there,
I was really excited to be there, but I had also just hurt my back. I was not,
you know. really happy that I had had to shovel right before I left,
which is why I tweaked my back. And I found myself when I was spending that first few days trying
to decompress that I was actually not allowing myself to really rest or really relax.
And I found myself trying to fill the time and just do all the things that I really enjoy doing,
like going to the beach and going to the pool and going for walks. And actually, I found that I was
like, trying to do too much. even though I was on vacation. And doing all of that actually didn't
even feel very good, because it actually was more stressful than had I just done nothing like slept
in or just sat around. And I basically had carried my need of productivity and of doing things from
like real life into my holiday. Often we carry the unconscious patterns with us,
even when we think we're escaping them. And I had let that like badge of productivity become who I
was. And when I had to stop and when I had to just let go and just relax,
it actually felt unsafe to enjoy myself and to just be in Florida and just have fun and not do
anything.
like almost 10 to fully let my body rest. And funny enough,
that's actually when my back released is around day 10. So I was really,
really wound up. I was really, really tense. And for me, that back injury,
when I started feeling better, I was like, okay, well now I can, you know, rest and relax and I
shouldn't really push it too much because I really need to be able to get better. And so I wasn't
really moving at the pace that I normally would. I wasn't walking as much as I normally would. I
just kind of chilled out. I would go to the beach, but not walk the beach. I would go to the
conservation park, but I wouldn't like go crazy walking around. I just had to learn how to slow and
to listen. And I realized how uncomfortable it is for me.
to not do anything. It's so funny. I'm just, as I'm recording this, I remember one of the gentlemen
that I would meet at the conservation park and he's an older gentleman and he would be there with
his dog Finley and he would stop and talk to you. And it was like, really?
It showed me. what presence is actually like, to just stop and have a conversation and talk about
what's going on in the world and talk about the weather and talk about where I'm from, and just to
be fully there, fully present in the conversation. And it was around that time that I encountered,
his name is Richard, that I started to actually like release and just be present.
And for me, it was stopping in the conservation park and just listening to the birds and looking at
the trees and feeling the leaves and feeling the bark and feeling just that warm air on my skin.
Now, we all live in a culture where all we know is this like constant doing,
constant chasing. And it's almost like that we're living in this energy right now that's very
frantic. And when we're living in that way, it creates this baseline in our nervous system.
So our nervous system gets used to living like that. It gets used to operating in a way that is
like hurried and frantic and a bit chaotic. So when our nervous system gets used to being in that
mode, I maybe call it like a survival mode, then our thoughts naturally revolve around there's not
enough time, there's not enough money, there's not enough of this or that or I'm not enough.
Maybe, you know, worrying that we have to do something or that we're not going to, you know,
make friends fast enough, or we're not going to get to where we want to go in our business fast
enough. And we're always trying to chase what it is that we want. And that brings on a myriad of
other things that we can worry about and start to ruminate over. And that constant,
constant obsessing keeps us disconnected. So it's like this vicious cycle,
right? So like we start thinking about one thing and then the next thing you know, we're thinking
about something else and then we're worrying and then we're anxious. And it really disconnects our
body from our intuition. And really from calling in what we want in our lives,
calling in what we desire. Now, the irony of all of this is that the more we try to force ourselves
to create momentum, the slower things often move.
And I was just having a conversation with my friend Binu the other day. And she was sharing with me
that she's also in a season where she is being asked to slow down.
And sometimes that can look like something happening in our lives,
like a circumstance shows up or an illness shows up, or maybe for me,
it was my back. But when we allow ourselves to be fully present and to like create.
some stillness in our lives, then we have access to our intuition.
We get those downloads, we get those intuitive nudges. And that's when the creativity comes.
And that's when the opportunities start to open up. And for me,
that has been exactly what has needed to happen for me because I think I have been on this like
hamster wheel of trying to make things happen, trying to do things and not getting anywhere.
And when I got to Florida and I just finally relaxed,
I let go of control. I just released it. All of a sudden I was present.
I was still. And all of a sudden I started getting those intuitive nudges again.
Now, I wanted to share with you today that being present can look different for all of us.
When I first learned about human design and I dove into it, it gave me the language and
understanding of how we experience alignment and presence differently. And I would have never
thought this because I thought, well, of course. me being present is going to look the same as
everyone else. But that's not true. What I love the most about human design is that it reminds us
that there's not one way. There's not one correct path. There's not one main experience.
It is all unique to how we are wired in our design.
So presence is going to look and feel different depending on how you're designed.
So I want to talk a little bit about some of our design today and talk about our types and how we
all experience presence a little bit differently. So you may know what your type is for me.
I'm a generator. And so I experience presence through my sacral response.
So presence really is all about tuning into what my body is feeling in the present moment.
So if I'm overthinking, then I can be completely disconnected from what my body is telling me.
And so for me, really, it's all about getting quiet, getting still,
allowing myself to deeply connect to my body.
And I like to go into nature to do that. Sometimes it's having a shower. Sometimes it's sitting in
the sauna. Sometimes it's listening to music. But all the time,
it is always about feeling fully into my body.
And when I'm present, it creates this really incredible,
powerful magnetic energy. So if you're a generator. that has a sacral response,
then you might feel the same way. You might feel like, Oh, when I need to know something,
I'm going to have to get still, I'm gonna have to get quiet in nature. Maybe just,
you know, get completely removed from everybody else and be on your own.
and allow yourself to just really feel into your body. Maybe do some breath work,
maybe do some tapping, maybe go for a walk, whatever it is that allows you to tune in.
And the same goes for manifesting generators as well that have sacral response.
Now for the many gens that have, or generators that have an emotional authority,
now the clarity for them, the presence comes with time and not creating a sense of urgency because
for them, it's really all about allowing themselves to move through whatever it is that they're
feeling and to not react emotionally to maybe what's going on in their lives,
but to actually feel through it. And it's about allowing themselves to feel the emotions that are
coming up within them, which is so interesting to me because I don't experience it that way.
So when I started to learn that about an emotional authority, I was like,
wow, that's so fascinating to me, because I can really see it in my friends and family members that
are an emotional authority, because they do experience life through how they feel and their
emotions, whereas I feel it through a sensation in my body.
And sometimes it feels very subtle. And so there's a big difference there in how we all experience
presence. For a projector, and I have so many projector friends, presence is really about allowing
themselves to stop proving and overworking and allowing themselves to just really get still and
validate themselves. Because when they... like they're worthy,
then that's when their recognition comes. That's when they feel most deeply connected to
themselves. But it's not by chasing or forcing or pushing, but it really is about kind of getting
that trust, that self-trust and about learning that it's okay to go inward and it's okay to find
the answers from within. Manifestors the presence that they experience is really about reconnecting
to those urges, like those authentic, creative urges.
And something's just going to come up and it's just going to be there. So maybe it's getting
creative. Maybe it is all about having that really,
really magnetic, beautiful energy. And knowing that not everything that they are feeling that they
need to do is aligned for them, but that when they create that time and space for themselves to
have fun, to enjoy life, to be creative, then they're going to know what feels aligned.
And reflectors, which they're... very few in the world,
but there are some need that spaciousness because they are absorbing and reflecting back,
right? So they need spaciousness in their environment. They need to gain awareness of what it is
that they need over time. And presence really helps them discern what energy is theirs.
and what maybe belongs to someone else. And when we learn to be still,
when we learn to tune in, when we learn to understand our energy, and how we navigate our own
intuition, that's when we know what is for us. And when we know what is for us,
that is when we're going to call in what we desire because we're going to feel into those desires
as emotional authorities. We're going to connect to those intuitive nudges as generators.
We're going to know what to initiate as a manifester. We're going to know how to tune inward as a
projector. And we're going to know how to create space as a reflector. So just this morning.
Someone in my community had messaged me and she was telling me that she had been trying to force
things in her life. And the moment she let that go and she started to create more space in her
life, the ideas started to flow again. And she stopped trying to make it happen and allowed her
nervous system to just regulate. and really feel into what it is that she truly wanted.
Now, I think we underestimate the power of being still, of being present,
because it feels like it's too simple, right? It feels like, well, I should have to do more,
right? Like I should need more strategy. When really, our soul's asking for less pressure.
And it's asking for that. deep alignment and not just more to do and more to prove and more to be
productive about. So it's really all about creating space and creating that stillness for the
intuition to drop in so that we know what is that next aligned step and really trusting in
ourselves and trusting in divine guidance. And I know for me, like when I think about when I was in
Florida, it really was about you know, turning to God and saying, okay, like I really don't have
the answers. And I know that they're going to come when the time is right in divine timing and in
divine order. So for me personally, I've been on a path to learning how to like just rest,
to just be at peace and to know that when I'm present,
when I'm sitting in presence, That is when I become available for what God wants to speak to me,
what intuitive nudges want to land. And I'm way more open to know when there are aligned
opportunities for me and not chasing ones that really aren't for me.
And I know when you're still and when you create presence in your own life, you're going to
experience the same. So next time you feel like you're moving into those anxious thoughts,
maybe you're trying to escape, you're reaching for your phone, you're finding yourself at the end
of the day, turning on Netflix, binging like three, four episodes of a show. I just invite you to
take a moment to do one thing. This thing totally changed my life.
And you can do it in 30 seconds. And it's literally just to turn everything off for 30 seconds.
And you don't even have to do it longer than that often. And just breathe. You don't even have to
change your breathing pattern. Just breathe. Be quiet for 30 seconds.
Because sometimes that's all it really takes. And maybe even place one hand on your heart,
one hand on your belly, and just ask yourself, is there anything that I need to know right now?
Is there anything that I'm avoiding? And what would it look like to trust instead of force?
Maybe the life you desire is not created through more proving,
through more effort and through more force, but becoming still and feeling safe enough to receive
what is truly, truly meant for you. Friend,
thank you for being with me. I'm so glad that you're tuning in to the Soul Align podcast.
I hope that this helped you understand how you create presence in your life as a manifester,
as a many gen, as a manifester, as a projector, and as a reflector.
And if this episode supported you, I just... really encourage you to share it with somebody who's
on their own journey to really find their own soul alignment. And leave a rating and review to help
the podcast grow. And if you live in the US, I would love for you to screenshot and send it to me
so I could see it and I can thank you in person. And you can connect with me on Instagram at
AndreaCrispCoach or AndreaCrisp.ca is where you can find me on the web.
If this episode stirred something in you, let’s take it further. Book a connection call and we’ll explore what’s coming up for you, and how we can work together to support your next level.
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