How to Tell the Difference Between Fear and Intuition (8 Signs It's Intuition, Not Fear)

For the deep feelers and soul-led beings who sometimes overthink — this one's for you, my loves.

One of the most common questions I hear from people on a healing or awakening journey is this: “How do I know if this is fear… or if it’s actually my intuition?”

It’s such a beautiful question to ask, because it means you’re listening. You’re paying attention to your inner world. But when you’re highly sensitive, feeling overwhelmed, or in the midst of big life changes, the inner voices can become loud and discerning what’s true can feel nearly impossible. You might find yourself looping in doubt, frozen in indecision, or feeling torn between what feels true and what feels safe.

So how do you tell the difference?

Here’s what I want you to remember, my love…

Your intuition is your soul’s language. It’s the voice of your highest self — calm, clear, loving, and timeless.

Fear, on the other hand, is the voice rooted in survival and the need to feel safe. It’s protective, urgent, and often times loud.

Both are valid. Both are part of your inner-world. But only one is here to guide you into your greatest healing, growth, and expansion in this lifetime. Only one will leave you feeling truly empowered and free.

In this post, I’m sharing with you 8 powerful ways to know when it’s your intuition speaking — and not fear. These aren’t rules, but guides to help you remember. They’ll help you soften, come home to your body, and tune into the deeper truth that’s always been within you.

Let’s begin...

1) Intuition is free of time.

Fear may sound like “You have to do this now” or “It’s now or never.”

But intuition is timeless. It never rushes. Your intuition is your connection to your soul and your soul knows there is always more time. Always another doorway. Always another sunrise. To our souls, time is infinite. Your soul exists in the dimension beyond time and space. Although you feel the pressures of living in linear time, to your soul isn’t all an illusion. And there is no pressure.

Even in this lifetime, your intuition knows that tomorrow is just as holy as today. So, intuition doesn’t push or pressure — it invites.

Your intuition is your reminder that there are infinite opportunities. That you can’t get it wrong — you can only get it right. And that you’ll never miss your boat, because your boat will never leave without you.

When you ask intuition whether you should do something or not it might gently say, "Yes, today is a beautiful day for this”. But it will never tell you it’s your last, or only, chance. Intuition doesn’t use time as a way to nudge you forward. Intuition feels like an open meadow, not a closing door.

2) Intuition will sound "quiet" — it speaks in whispers.

Intuition will never yell or be loud to be heard.

Fear, on the other hand, is often loud. It shouts and demands to be heard. It can sound like a thousand thoughts all competing for your attention at once — a mental storm that leaves your mind spinning and your nervous system reeling.

Fear will yell, pitch a fit, and do whatever is necessary for you to hear it. And it won’t stop until you listen.

But intuition? Intuition will never raise its voice.

It doesn’t push or panic. It won’t chase you down. It speaks only in the stillness … in the space between breaths, in the soft knowing that whispers just beneath the surface.

This is why it's so important to create space to slow down, tune in, and listen. Often. Because if you’re not slowing down and tuning in, you may miss it.

When your nervous system is activated or overwhelmed, which fear often causes, it’s nearly impossible to drop beneath the mind and hear the quiet, gentle whispers of your soul. This is where the magic of tapping comes in — helping you clear the noise, soften the body, and return to the calm, quiet wisdom that’s always whispering. I created The Clearing Codes for this very reason — too help you reconnect with the deep, intuitive clarity that’s always been guiding you.

3) Intuition will feel like softness, gentleness, and relaxation in your body.

Fear often feels tight and frantic. It will feel like tension in your body. It activates your muscles … tightening your jaw, clenching your leg muscles, and pulling your shoulders up towards your ears. It makes everything feel a little more braced and tight — like your body is preparing for something that hasn’t even happened yet.

But intuition feels like a deep exhale.

It softens and melts and opens…

When you’re connected with your intuition, your muscles relax. Your shoulders lower. Your jaw unclenches. Your chest softens. Your breath deepens. You may even sigh without realizing it — as if your body has let go of something it didn’t know it was holding.

Your intuition lives in softness. In ease. In the gentle relaxation that comes when your body deeply believes, “I am safe.”

4) Intuition opens your heart. 

Fear closes it. It contracts, tightens, and builds walls. It whispers, “Be careful. Don’t let too much in.” When fear is leading, you feel defensive and your heart-space often responds by closing — like a doorway shutting and locking to protect itself.

But intuition? It opens the portal.

When you’re connected with your intuition, your heart doesn’t just stay open — you begin to live and breathe and witness through it. It feels safe enough to soften. Your defenses melt away. Your energy expands. You become more receptive to love, to truth, to life.

So, when you feel your heart tightening or bracing — or you feel yourself putting up walls — it might not be an intuitive “no”. It might simply be an old fear asking you you to witness it, to release it, to let it go. So that you can set yourself free and live from an open, expansive trust in the unfolding of your life.

5) Intuition will often guide you beyond your comfort zone.

Fear will try to keep you inside it.

Fear clings to what feels known, even if that knowing feels too small, or uncomfortable. Fear is trying to protect you and keep you safe, and it will do that by trying to convince you to stay in spaces that feel familiar.

But to your intuition … you are always, infinitely safe.

Your intuition is your connection to your soul. It is rooted in the truth that you are an infinite, expansive being here to live your truest, most expansive lifetime yet. You came here to stretch, to expand, to open, to remember…

So, your intuition will gently guide you into the places where your growth lives, even when they feel tender, edgy, or unfamiliar. And those places will inevitably feel uncomfortable at times. Discomfort, my love, is not a sign you’re on the wrong path. It is often the threshold of transformation.

Intuition won’t force you out of your comfort zone. But it will whisper, “There’s something beautiful waiting for you just beyond this edge.” The choice, my love, will always be yours.

6) Intuition is not grounded in logic, nor will it try to make logical sense.

Intuition rarely makes logical sense. It just feeeeels right. It doesn’t make a list of pros and cons and oftentimes doesn’t align with what makes the most sense to your mind. It often arrives without warning or explanation — that sudden sense of “I don’t know why, but I know I have to.” And even though it makes no sense to the mind, it feels undeniably true in your body. That’s how you know. Because your body is your bridge to your intuition … and you will always feel an immediate opening and calm in your body when a clear intuitive “yes” flows through.

Not only does intuition rarely make logical sense, but intuition also will not try to use logic to convince you.

Fear, on the other hand, while it may or may not be grounded in logic WILL try to use logic to convince you to do or not do something. It thrives on the mind’s desire for certainty and control. Fear will build a whole case to convince you … reminding you of past outcomes, painting worse-case scenarios, and offering you just enough logic to keep you stuck in what’s familiar.

But where fear tries to convince you, intuition simply whispers. It doesn’t need to be understood to be trusted. It only asks that you soften and listen and trust the powerful yet subtle rhythmic pulse of knowing within you.

7) Intuition will never "pressure" or try to convince you.

Your intuition is here to guide you toward your highest expression, but it will never try to push, convince, or coerce you to get there. It knows you’ll arrive in divine timing, on your own terms, in your own way. Your intuition knows that no matter which path you choose, you’ll always end up where your soul desires to go, whether it unfolds today, next year, or in another lifetime. Intuition deeply honors your free will in this lifetime and will never try to pressure or convince you. So, if it feels like pressure … it's not your intuition, my love.

So if what you're feeling feels like urgency, pressure, or an anxious push … it’s not your intuition speaking. That’s fear. While fear is not your enemy, it will try to pressure and convince you, weaving stories and worst-case scenarios to try to protect you. It’s the voice that clings to control in hopes of keeping you safe, even if that safety is actually a cage.

Fear is simply an energetic experience that your body is having. It's a subconscious process designed to keep you safe and alive. Although it often just keeps you stuck looping in old patterns in this life dream.

Intuition, on the other hand, is divine guidance, guiding you forward like an open doorway … no pressure, no timeline, no necessity. Just a powerful, open-hearted peaceful presence and trust.

8) Intuition's guidance will feel simple.

It won’t arrive with an 8-step plan or an elaborate thesis. It will arrive like a single thread of truth … soft, direct, and clear. Often so simple that your mind might want to brush it off. But remember: the most sacred wisdom of this life is cloaked in simplicity. That quiet inner-knowing, that subtle nudge, that inner whisper of “yes, this way” — that’s your intuition.

Fear, on the other hand, tends to feel noisy and complex as it moves through you. It feels like spiraling... like overthinking. It tries to calculate every possible outcome before allowing you to take a single step.

But intuition? Intuition invites you forward with ease. No overthinking. Just a gentle sense of “ah, this feels right” and a deep exhale.

Your intuition is always there, my love — quietly guiding you through this life journey with so much love and ease and trust. I hope these signs helped illuminate the difference between fear and intuition in a way that feels both grounding and expansive, clarifying and affirming. The truth is, your intuitive knowing never leaves you. It’s simply there, waiting for the moment when you decide to listen.

This post actually came from one of the lessons inside my course Channeling Intuition — a self-paced journey I created to help you reconnect with your intuition and receive its guidance more clearly. Inside the course, I teach you how to use channeled writing, EFT Tapping, and gentle self-hypnosis to tune into your soul’s voice, decipher fear from truth, and build a relationship with your inner wisdom that feels natural, daily, and deeply supportive.

If this post sparked something within you — if you felt a remembering, a “yes, this is what I’ve been needing” — and you’re desiring to deepen your connection with your soul’s wisdom, Channeling Intuition might be an incredibly aligned next step for you.

✨ Click here to explore Channeling Intuition and begin your journey.

Trust yourself, my love. You’re already on the path, my love. Now it’s simply about learning how to hear your own soul’s voice a little more clearly.