The Intelligence We’ve Been Told to Hide
- Alison E. Berman
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Last week, while I was eating lunch, an eight-year-old boy approached my table. He told me he was selling art and asked if I would like to make a purchase. He didn’t ask with hesitation. He asked as though my saying yes was inevitable. As though our exchange had already happened, and all I had to do was step into it.
I’ve been thinking about that moment and how life often responds most powerfully to us when we choose to lead with energetic authenticity. And how that energy is a form of inner intelligence, yet one that many of us have been conditioned to hide.
What then happens when we mute our intuition, or tuck away the truth of who we really are, and instead lead with a diluted version of ourselves?
In holding back our authenticity, we ultimately block ourselves from allowing life (and others) to meet us where we dream of going.
Our energy isn’t just an abstract idea; it’s intimately connected to the state of our nervous system, whether we’re acting from stress and contraction, or from coherence and flow.
The Intelligence We’ve Been Told to Hide
I’ve come to realize: we have to name what’s missing if we want to equip leaders and teams with the tools to counterbalance draining, always-on work environments.
One of the greatest dangers of work environments that don’t promote intuitive intelligence is the fragmentation they create between mind, body, and spirit. When we operate only from the mind, we can’t hear the early signals from our bodies when they ask us to tend to them or slow down.
Unchecked, overtaxed minds eventually manifest as stress in the body. Over time, when we remain trapped in this overstimulated, fight-or-flight state, the nervous system begins to wire itself into a chronic stress and threat response.
As I’ve started to share my own experience with how chronic stress impacted my nervous system, I’ve been struck by how many others are voicing the same need for help that I once felt.
Our Nervous Systems Aren’t Equipped for the World We’ve Built
Our brains are wildly overtaxed. Our nervous systems are stretched so thin by the pace of information, the speed of technological advance, and the layered (often impossible) expectation that we remain mentally sound, emotionally balanced, and productive in this new 24/7 environment of pressure and input.
But how are we supposed to do this? How are we meant to stay centered and healthy in this new, always-on world?
No one has taught us the tools needed to meet this reality. And no one has lived through a period quite like this one.
The Age of AI Demands Intuitive Leadership as an Antidote
At work, most teams are now required to engage with AI. Many of us are building custom GPTs and agents to replace teammates or prior freelancers. I’ve done this too, and while my new AI teammates became undeniably useful, I felt less and less embodied, and more and more pushed to move at its pace.
The faster I tried to work, the more disconnected I felt from my body, my emotions, and even my critical thinking.
AI, when not used mindfully, can be profoundly dysregulating for our brains.
AI rewards speed, scale, and logic, but often overlooks the basic needs of us humans that occupy non-robotic bodies. We need to pause, breathe, eat, move, and connect with other non-robotic folks in the real world. We need to share a breath, share a meal, share a laugh, sometimes a cry, with other humans out in the world.
AI is a powerful tool. But it demands that we pair it with physical and mental practices as an antidote to its effects.
When we push too hard, scary things happen.
Stress takes root in our bodies and shows up as inflammation, headaches, burnout, anxiety, depression, and fatigue.
The majority of successful businesses have been built by leaders driving growth through this fight-or-flight type response. They establish cultures on that same frequency—sympathetic nervous system dominance—often unaware they are operating in survival mode. Others are painfully aware, yet lack the tools to shift into a different way of being.
Our circuitry can’t sustain this pace. We all know this at an intuitive and somatic level.
From Survival Mode to Regulation
When we move out of survival mode, we create the conditions for deeper parts of ourselves to emerge: our intuition, vision, and creative intelligence.
That’s the energy I felt from the boy with the art. His nervous system wasn’t broadcasting fear. It was broadcasting coherence. He was already living in the future he believed in. One where I would say yes. And because he held that state so clearly, I felt inspired to meet him there.
This is what becomes possible when we train our nervous systems to stay grounded, even as we reach for something new.
Joe Dispenza speaks about this in Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, where he writes about thinking, feeling, and acting as if the future you long for is already underway.
In DNRS, it’s called “acting greater than how you feel,” rehearsing new, empowered responses in place of old survival patterns. Even when the body wants to shut down or spiral, this practice helps us gently steer it toward something else.
Visualization is one of the most powerful tools for cultivating this skill.
It allows us to slow down and create internal safety while imagining a new outcome. Through repeated visualization, we activate greater neuroplasticity in our brains, which supports the development of new positive neural pathways.
In visualization, we begin aligning both our mind and body with the future we want, rather than rehearsing fear-based outcomes.
Visualizations take time. They require stillness. When practiced consistently, especially in the early morning when the brain is most receptive, they plant seeds for the future we’re calling in.
Visualizations teach us to strengthen the muscle of our intuitive intelligence so that it (and not fear) can guide our actions.
A 7-Minute Practice: Visualize the Future, Speak It As Now
Set a timer for seven minutes.
Close your eyes, and bring to mind a future experience you deeply desire: a moment of success, a dream project coming to life, a meaningful trip, a day in your ideal routine. Let yourself step into that scene as if it’s happening now. Begin to speak from that version of you, in the present tense, and describe the details out loud, what you see, feel, and hear.
Example:
“I am leading our team offsite, and it’s a beautiful, warm day. As I begin speaking, my body is calm, my mind is clear, and my delivery is impeccable. During lunch, I feel a calm confidence about the impact I made and go for a quick walk to reflect before the next session to recharge my mind and body. I hear the wind moving through the trees. I feel a peacefulness within as I walk back into the meeting room.”
This is one way we can begin training our intuitive intelligence to take up more space in our lives.
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