🧠Weekly MindSweep No. 186 | Curated Conversation | Self-Trust
August 2025
*Week 186: Curated Conversation: Self-Trust
Week 187: Mind Your Business: Self-Trust
Week 188: Manage Your Mind: Self Trust
Week 189: What’s On My Mind: Self-Trust
Let’s sweep the brain…
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In the MindSweep this week:
Curated Conversation with curated GIF’s & puns (for your entertainment).
Jamie’s Second Brain Corner: Links to references. Need a map? I’ve got you!
What’s I’m Reading - What’s I’m Reading - Awakening the Brain by Charlotte A. Tomaino Ph.D.
Collaborations with Terri Hamilton (Thursday) & Shannon Giordano and the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce
My face đź’ś and a link to schedule your free consultation.
The Power of Self-Trust: From Overdrive to Alignment
It was just another Tuesday at my desk, my mind numb and my fingers hovering above the keys, frozen in time. Phone notifications pinged like a fire alarm, shrill and repetitive, warning me of a danger I couldn't see but could feel in every part of my body.
I was employed, praised, and productive. But I wasn't okay.
I remember trying to find soothing music, testing white noise apps, and inhaling lavender every hour in desperate attempts to catch my breath. There was a tightness in my throat and chest that I diagnosed as "something wrong with me" or "something I needed to fix or work on."
Emails were piling in. My heart was racing. But in the back of my mind, a quiet but insistent whisper rose above the noise:
You can't keep doing this.
It wasn't quite burnout, not yet anyway. It was a deeper realization. I was betraying myself to meet expectations I never really agreed to in the first place.
That whisper, "you can't keep doing this," was my first clear message from self-trust.
Let’s sweep the brain…
🎬 Rather watch or listen instead of read? Now you can!
👉 Click here to Listen
The decision to leave wasn't immediate. There was no dramatic two-week's notice, no mic drop, no impulsive escape to another country. It was during a global pandemic, after all.
The fact that the world came to a screeching halt offered a rare opportunity. I had space to pause and consider that things could be different.
Wait... I can learn how to breathe differently?
It was in those glimpses of light that I began to ask different questions:
What if I didn't need to work harder, just differently?
What if I weren't broken, but instead built for something else?
What if my brain and body weren't the problem, but the blueprint I kept forcing myself into was?
And that's when I left.
Not just a job, but the culture of the grind and the metrics. The societal myth that urgency equals importance. I left behind the belief that over-extension is the cost of credibility and started building something new.
A business that works with my brain instead of against it, and a life aligned with my values instead of someone else's agenda.
So, What Is Self-Trust?
Let's get one thing clear. Self-trust is not about having it all figured out.
It is about tuning in, again and again, and allowing your inner knowing to guide you, even when it doesn't make perfect sense to the outside world.
Self-trust is choosing your voice over the noise.
It is the stillness beneath the shoulds and the pause before the yes.
It is the moment when you realize, 'I already know,' and then you honor it.
Self-trust is the practice of believing your own inner compass, even when doubt creeps in, even when the map feels incomplete, and especially when others would choose differently.
It is not about perfection. It is about permission.
Permission to follow what feels aligned.
The autonomy to choose for yourself, to say yes with confidence and no without guilt.
The power to lead with integrity instead of insecurity.
You don't earn self-trust. You build it, choice by choice.
The Neuroscience of Inner Knowing
We often talk about "gut feelings" like they're a little mystical, but they are deeply neurological. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex helps us process emotion and memory together. It blends instinct, experience, and logic. When you "just know," your brain is recognizing a pattern faster than you can articulate it. [1]
That is why we sometimes feel clarity in our bodies before our minds can explain it. Your body remembers, your nervous system speaks, and your intuition listens.
But to hear it, you have to make space.
So, Why Is It So Hard?
Because society teaches and trains us out of it. From a young age, we are taught that answers exist outside of ourselves:
Teachers have the gradebook
Bosses have the goals
Experts have the data
Influencers have the "should"
For neurodivergent individuals, especially, the message is often 'mask first, trust later.'
We internalize the idea that we are unreliable narrators of our own story. The more we self-monitor, the more disconnected we feel from that inner signal. Add in the noise of hustle culture, productivity shame, and the belief that faster is better, and it's no wonder we question ourselves.
Self-trust asks us to slow down when the world rewards speed.
The Power of the Pause
This is where it shifts.
In past Curated Conversations, we often explore the power of the pause. It recently appeared in discussions about Discernment, Decision-Making, and Confidence. That space between stimulus and response is where trust grows. When we pause, we notice:
The tension in our shoulders
The clenching of our jaw
The quiet yes or no behind the noise
That pause is where self-trust whispers, you already know. And for once, we listen.
Self-trust doesn't always feel confident. Sometimes it feels like butterflies. Sometimes it feels like relief. Sometimes it feels like grief. But it never feels like betrayal. When we trust ourselves, we feel whole, even when the choice is hard.
It is the exhale after a truth you have been holding in, the grounded stillness in your gut when something is right, and the moment your body says, thank you for listening.
If you're here, you likely value service, integrity, creativity, and human-centered work. And those values can sometimes make self-trust harder. When we care deeply, we want to get it right. But self-trust does not mean ignoring others. It means not abandoning yourself for them.
The more we practice self-trust, the clearer we become. And clarity is a gift to ourselves and to others.
You do not arrive at self-trust as if it were a certification or a milestone. You practice it every day.
When you cancel something that's out of alignment
When you take a risk that feels true
When you listen to your body before your calendar
When you say, this may not make sense to anyone else, but it makes sense to me
It takes incredible confidence to walk away from the stability of working for someone else. To say, I believe in myself enough to build something of my own. But here is the part no one tells you. The moment you leave external structure, the inner critics often get louder, and the patterns you hoped you left behind? Sometimes they follow you, just dressed in different clothes.
You might start recreating old dynamics without realizing it:
Overbooking yourself to prove you are productive
Saying yes to misaligned clients out of fear or scarcity
Doubting your pricing, your pace, or your process
It is still self-trust work, just at a different level. Because the pressure is no longer coming from a boss. It is coming from the stories we carry.
And this is where awareness becomes your anchor. You can begin noticing:
When a yes feels like self-betrayal
When urgency starts to override alignment
When you are managing perception more than protecting peace
Ask yourself:
Am I building a business that honors my truth and makes me proud, or just one that looks good online?
Am I recreating the system I left, just with a new title?
Self-trust is not just what gets us out of the old pattern. It is what keeps us from repeating it.
That day at my desk was the first day I stopped trying to outperform my nervous system and started listening to it.
And from that one decision, that one pause, came a cascade of other choices:
To leave a system that never made room for me
To build a business that honors my brain
To trust the quiet voice that says, this is who you are and how you work best
I didn't wait until I was confident to leave what I perceived as the safety of a job working for someone else. I moved forward because I trusted the knowing that I could and would do what was best for me.
That is what self-trust is, at its core.
You do not need to have it all figured out. You just need to start listening. You already know.
My questions for you this week :
Where in your life are you overriding your inner knowing?
What does self-trust feel like in your body, and how do you know when you’ve lost it?
✨ Ready to Trust Yourself in Business?
If this conversation sparked something in you — a pause, a knowing, a “that’s me,” let’s talk. I support heart-centered, creative entrepreneurs build businesses that actually work with their brains, not against them.
No more outsourcing your intuition. No more building by someone else’s blueprint.
If you're ready to get clear, find your rhythm, and lead with self-trust, I offer a free 1:1 chat to explore whether a MindSweep Mapping Session is right for you: www.chickbookcreative.com/mind-sweep
Already know where you need to work on your business?
Book a free consultation to learn how I can support you and your business.
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Jamie’s Second Brain Corner:
[1] Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex
[x] Did someone say MindSweep MAP?! Learn more about my Personalized MindSweep Mapping Process
MONDAY: 8 am - Curated Conversation - Zoom
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What I’m reading
Awakening the Brain
Author: Charlotte A Tomaino, Ph.D.
Thank you to Angela Capinera from Your Mind In Bloom LLC for this recommendation!
Exploring the powerful link between the spiritual and the physical, Awakening the Brain teaches you to awaken and develop your own spiritual mind.
An awakened brain allows you to live from the optimal brain state, discover your broadest range of skills, and unleash the growth and potential that too often lies dormant.
Drawing from her unique background as a neuropsychologist and former nun, Charlotte Tomaino explores the impact of belief and spirituality on the actual function and structure of the brain. Through effective, hands-on exercises, Tomaino gives us the tools to expand our consciousness, raise our awareness, and fully use the power of the brain to create the life we desire.
As a clinical neuropsychologist, Tomaino has helped hundreds of patients develop practical solutions for the loss of brain function due to trauma.
Find it where you browse for books.
Collaborations!
Join us Friday, September 5th, at the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce for this two-hour interactive business community experience.
We'll discuss ways to cultivate business through Sales, Marketing, and Communication methods that support relationship building, showing up authentically, and connecting deeper with colleagues and the people you serve.
9-11 am - Open discussion, community support, brainstorming ideas
Join me in meeting business owners in our community. You'll leave with new tools to help you make connections and build your business!
Free; Registration is required: REGISTRATION.
Mindful Connections
Connecting like-hearted entrepreneurs to build relationships, offering support, understanding their passions, and sharing their names in rooms of opportunity.
Join us Thursdays, 12-1 pm EST.
12:00 - Take 5—a guided meditation with Terri Hamilton of Positively Terri to ground your week with peace and focus.
12:05-1 pm Round-table Share
Who you are
The gifts you bring to the world
Who you serve
The answer to a Curated question to spark conversation,
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In other news…
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