As the world around us seems chaotic, noisy and stressful, do you find yourself craving just a moment of silence and connection? 

When I first sat down for this interview I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with my son, Landon and since bringing him into the world during a global pandemic—my life has been a little more hectic than usual.I wanted to reshare this interview with author, speaker and intuitive, Jill Willard to help make this time a bit easier.

Jill is trained in healing, wellness and listening modalities. We discuss exactly how to fill that seemingly endless, busy buzz with quiet, meditative energy that in turn, helps to hone our intuition. Her wisdom and expertise focus mainly on the connections between our brains, bodies and choices. She specializes in understanding all parts of the brain as well as helping those stuck in old thinking patterns clear their minds and move their lives forward.

In this fascinating interview, Jill shares her own personal journey about learning to trust her instincts and intuition, while also offering valuable insight on how to connect with ours.

Instinct versus intuition. Jill talks about the gut brain, which is that earthly, ego-driven dense matter that signals our flight or fight response. These signals come from the back of the brain. By contrast, the front part of the brain, which you might know as the third eye, is the window to our intuition and not part of the ego at all. Our intuitive brain is non-emotional and non-personal. 

As we age and our brains come into full mature form at 25 years old, we begin to develop higher interdependence and interconnectedness. At this time, we learn how to work for the collective rather than just looking out for ourselves. This is when we begin to think about marriage, starting a family and unity.

Upon being introduced to spirituality and religion, I often found myself having to seek outwardly to access God. This is the traditional, masculine left brain that separates us from God, whose universal language is fear based and ego driven.  

But an intuitive like Jill knows that it’s vitally important to learn to look inward and access our right, feminine brain, which begins to bring God’s light and energy into form and focus. And it is our midbrain, or limbic system, Jill explains, that serves as the bridge between heaven and earth. When we use this part of our brain and look inward, we can connect to God. 

Despite the alarm bells that may go off in our brains, we often don’t listen to our instincts. This is also how our light in the world sometimes shows up—dimmed instead of bright, vibrant and telling. Jill discusses how today, masculine and feminine energies increasingly come together as a whole–in workplace settings and in life. Because men and women both have instincts and intuition. 

A mother’s instinct and a woman’s intuition are very real. We women have a high intuition for bonding and nurturing. While it’s not talked about as often, men have intuition too. Men have a high intuition for protection. When the two come together, we have a more well rounded, balanced sensibility that allows us to channel our intuition from all parts of the brain—left, right and middle. 

Watch the interview to understand the different parts of the brain and how they are interconnected.