Know it in Your Bones

There is a difference between knowing something and knowing it in your bones.

One is knowledge. It’s something you’ve been taught, something you’ve read, or something you can repeat back with confidence. It lives mostly in the mind and often comes with explanation and logic.

The other is something entirely different.

It’s lived. It’s felt. It’s embodied in a way that doesn’t require proof or validation. When you know something in your bones, there is no debate and no second-guessing. You don’t feel the need to convince yourself or anyone else, because the certainty is already there. It doesn’t come from the mind; it comes from somewhere much deeper- wisdom that we all have access to. 

For a long time, I operated almost entirely from the first kind of knowing. I could learn quickly, perform well, say the right things, and follow a path that made sense on paper. In my corporate career, that served me. It helped me succeed and build a life that looked good from the outside. But there were moments, quieter ones, where something inside me didn’t feel fully aligned. At the time, I didn’t trust that feeling and ignored it for years, and I did what many of us do. I overrode it and kept moving forward.

One of the clearest examples for me was when I decided to step out of my corporate career. I lost my job, one that I truly loved, through an acquisition. I immediately had interviews, offers, and possibilities, but inside, something had shifted. It wasn’t loud or dramatic. It didn’t come with a fully formed plan or a neat explanation I could share with others. It was quiet, almost subtle, but it was steady and persistent. It was a knowing, not in my head, but in my body. It was time to leave the safety of a J.O.B and start my own business- I just knew it in my bones, and the key?

I listened. 

I remember trying to explain it to people and feeling like my words didn’t quite land. It didn’t make sense in a traditional way, and there were moments where I questioned myself and wondered if I was making the wrong decision. But the deeper knowing never went away. I knew that ignoring it was no longer an option (another in-the-bones moment), and I listened. When you truly know something in your bones, pushing it aside comes at a cost, and it feels like going against the grain. But if you resist, it remains there, becoming you, and over time, it becomes harder to ignore.

The more I’ve slowed down over the years, the more I’ve been able to recognize it. When I get out of my head and into my body, it becomes easier to feel the difference between a thought and a truth. It often feels calm and clear. And very different from the noise of the mind.

This is where energy becomes so important. When we are operating in a constant state of doing, reacting, and managing, it’s difficult to access this deeper layer of knowing. The mind gets loud, and we start to rely on external input rather than internal clarity.

But when we create space—through stillness, time in nature, or simply pausing long enough to breathe—we begin to notice something else. A different signal. One that isn’t driven by fear, expectation, or conditioning.

It comes from listening within. 

Most people don’t talk about this distinction, but once you experience it, you begin to recognize it more and more. You start to see the difference between these two kinds of knowing, and over time, you begin to trust it. It takes practice and distinction. 

That’s where the real shift happens and where your most aligned decisions come from.

With presence,