In this episode of Untamed Grace, Jeromy sits down with Nanette Foster for a deeply honest conversation about religious conditioning, intuition, church hurt, and learning to trust yourself again after fear-based faith. Raised in a deeply fundamentalist environment shaped by control, certainty, and distrust of the self, Nanette shares her personal journey through spiritual deconstruction, healing, and what she calls “rewilding”—the slow process of returning to the person God actually created you to be beneath layers of shame, performance, and conditioning. Maybe healing begins the moment you stop treating yourself like the enemy, and begin to trust yourself again...or perhaps, for the very first time.
What happens when you grow up being taught that your inner voice is dangerous?
In this episode of Untamed Grace, Jeromy sits down with Nanette Foster for a deeply honest conversation about religious conditioning, intuition, church hurt, and learning to trust yourself again after fear-based faith.
Raised in a deeply fundamentalist environment shaped by control, certainty, and distrust of the self, Nanette shares her personal journey through spiritual deconstruction, healing, and what she calls “rewilding”—the slow process of returning to the person God actually created you to be beneath layers of shame, performance, and conditioning.
Together, they explore:
This episode is especially for those navigating:
Nanette reframes intuition not as rebellion against God—but as a God-given inner guidance system designed to lead us toward wholeness, wisdom, and deeper spiritual alignment.
If you’ve ever felt disconnected from yourself…
if you’ve been taught your questions, desires, or instincts were dangerous…
or if you’re trying to rebuild self-trust after toxic religion—
this conversation offers language, permission, and hope.
Because maybe healing begins the moment you stop treating yourself like the enemy, and begin to trust yourself again...or perhaps, for the very first time.
Untitled - May 16, 2026
00:00:00 Nanette Foster: In order for us to really honor our own intuitive design, not only do we lean into accepting it, but we also lean into becoming a student of it. And if we lean into becoming a student of it, we're developing this relationship with our intuition, which is extremely powerful, but it also puts us in the position where we need to honor ourselves and not just take a back seat.
A lot of us were taught how to obey… but not how to trust ourselves.
We were taught certainty over curiosity, compliance over intuition, and fear over inner peace. So what happens when you start questioning those systems—and begin reconnecting with your own inner voice again?
Today’s guest is Nanette Foster, and this conversation goes deep into intuition, healing, spiritual trust, and learning how to feel safe inside yourself again.
I’m your host, Jeromy Johnson, and you’re listening to Untamed Grace.
00:00:28 Jeromy Johnson: Hey everyone. Today I am joined by Nanette Foster. She is the author of the best selling book Intuitive by Design. And congratulations, by the way, Nanette, for being a best seller. That's pretty cool. So Nanette is an intuitive leadership coach and flow specialist. You can find her on the net foster dot com, and she helps people reconnect with their intuition. And some of you may be thinking like, there was a lot of us that were taught to suppress our intuition and religious environments, but she's trying to help people reconnect and what that might actually look like to partner with God in a creative work of life. So welcome, Nanette. Glad you're here.
00:01:09 Nanette Foster: Yeah. Thank you, Jeremy, and thank you so much for having me on. I'm so excited.
00:01:15 Jeromy Johnson: Thank you. This is such an important conversation. There are many things that are important. This gets to the heart of the issue. Mhm. But before we dive in on your website, you mentioned that you only chew half pieces of gum. Are you like, are you afraid of commitment? Like the whole thing? You just do half or what's going on there? No, I.
00:01:37 Nanette Foster: I, you know, I have a small mouth. So if I have whole pieces of gum, it's like, wow. It's like I look like a cow chewing its cud and it's kind of gross.
00:01:49 Jeromy Johnson: Remember the big league chew that came in just bags of gum? And you would kids would just shove the whole thing in their mouth.
00:01:57 Nanette Foster: Yes, I do remember that. I also remember it was mimicking tobacco use, which is awesome.
00:02:02 Jeromy Johnson: And oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they put it like between their lips.
00:02:06 Nanette Foster: Exactly. Because it was baseball themed and it was like, you know, they'd have the char tobacco right there. And then that was mimicking that. And then I also remember the bubble tape.
00:02:16 Jeromy Johnson: So they just keep on rolling it, right?
00:02:20 Nanette Foster: Yes.
00:02:20 Jeromy Johnson: You just keep.
00:02:21 Nanette Foster: Going and going.
00:02:21 Jeromy Johnson: And.
00:02:21 Nanette Foster: Going. Hold of that a few times and I'm like, nope, no, no.
00:02:26 Jeromy Johnson: And you also love survivor, which yeah. Are you watching? Um, you're assuming you're watching.
00:02:31 Nanette Foster: Yes, I'm watching season fifty. I love it.
00:02:34 Jeromy Johnson: I know I'm watching it with my daughter right now. And we're just, we're loving it. Like reconnecting with all the people we've watched our entire lives. So yeah, so that's fun.
00:02:43 Nanette Foster: And actually how I found you in the podcast, even though we are in a group together. I found out shortly after, um, I found it because you had interviewed Leslie niece. Yes. And I saw it pop up on something and I was like, oh, that's interesting. And so I went and listened and was super encouraged to love hearing from her.
00:03:05 Jeromy Johnson: Good. Yeah. She was, uh, she was a lot of fun. I was actually on her podcast as well because I share a lot of my stories. So if those of you are listening and you're curious about my story, just find that episode by Leslie Neiss and you'll find out a lot more about my story. Enough about my story, and I want to hear a little bit about your story, because before we dive into this, this intuition and trusting our, our gut, you got here for a reason. You've gone through a journey to get to this place to where not only are you trusting your own gut, your own intuition, your own inner voice, but you're teaching others to do that.
00:03:39 Nanette Foster: Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:40 Jeromy Johnson: Can you walk us through your story and where you came from?
00:03:43 Nanette Foster: So a lot of people very quickly assume that because I talk so much about intuition, it really is a core, deep message that I carry and love to release both in, in life and in leadership. And, and I'm even very interested in what intuition means for shifting the leadership paradigm to healthier leadership. But a lot of people think, well, you must have come from more of like new age or, uh, you know, universal consciousness kind of space. I did not. I came from the polar opposite end.
00:04:19 Jeromy Johnson: Okay.
00:04:19 Nanette Foster: I was raised deep in fundamentalism in middle America. Um, I grew up in Missouri and lived in a small town and then out in the country and went to a very small Bible church. So very conservative theologically. Also, like women did not speak in front of people. So it was like very conservative.
00:04:46 Jeromy Johnson: That's my story too. And the first church I went to that had women elders, I was like, what? I know, right? AM I doing here? Yeah. Okay.
00:04:54 Nanette Foster: So yes, yes.
00:04:56 Jeromy Johnson: Women can't speak. Awesome. Yeah.
00:04:58 Nanette Foster: But but ironically, my mother, my grandmother, very, very strong personalities that ran their household. So there was a lot of mixed messaging that happened in my life. Um, but one of the things that kind of even led to that part happened shortly before I was born. And that's that my parents were in a cult.
00:05:19 Jeromy Johnson: Oh.
00:05:20 Nanette Foster: And they got into this cult thinking that it was a church, like a more of a mainstream type of church. And they were in college down in Springfield, Missouri, and they ended up moving to the East Coast with this group. And my grandparents went and dragged my mom and her twin sister back to Missouri, and they left and went back.
00:05:45 Nanette Foster: And my parents got married while they were in it. And so did my aunt and uncle. My parents discovered that there were some things that were very wrong and very off, and they ended up leaving in their mid twenties. And a couple of years before I was born, my aunt and uncle, who are, by the way, intellectually brilliant humans, stayed in this cult for thirty years.
00:06:11 Jeromy Johnson: Wow. Thirty years?
00:06:13 Nanette Foster: Yes. And my uncle finally had a hand in bringing it down after he found out about a ton of abuse that had been going on. So I won't tell that full story, but that shortly preceded my birth. Wow.
00:06:27 Jeromy Johnson: Right?
00:06:29 Nanette Foster: And sometimes I'll say I am a I am a byproduct of a cult because it definitely spilled over a couple of different directions. But one of those actually does have to do with trusting yourself. Because my parents were young, they were out on their own for the first time. They end up getting sucked into this cult. Then one of the messages that they took away from this is we can't trust ourselves to even pick a church.
00:06:58 Jeromy Johnson: Well, yeah. Yeah.
00:07:00 Nanette Foster: So they end up going to my grandparents little Bible church. And that is where I went as a kid. Um, all the way, almost all the way through high school.
00:07:10 Jeromy Johnson: So you guys went to one church your entire childhood, you said went through pretty much through high school.
00:07:16 Nanette Foster: Grew up somewhere else, and there was a short stint that we went to a different Bible church, but it was really just for a couple of years. And then they went back. I grew up in an environment that certainly, um, the church environment certainly did not encourage intuition or even even connecting with Holy Spirit and being spirit led.
00:07:40 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah. That's true. Kind of that more conservative Bible churches, the spirits a little more subdued.
00:07:45 Nanette Foster: Yes, a lot more subdued.
00:07:48 Jeromy Johnson: Like we actually didn't go with a lot.
00:07:51 Nanette Foster: Not only did we not raise hands in our, um, hymns, only Bible church, we did not clap because that was considered irreverent.
00:08:00 Jeromy Johnson: Did you sway?
00:08:02 Nanette Foster: Uh, maybe. I do remember falling asleep once.
00:08:08 Nanette Foster: Sunday night church because we went every time the church was open and I hit my head on the back of the pew, and the pastor from the pulpit was like, Nanette, are you okay?
00:08:18 Jeromy Johnson: Wow. Last time you did that. Yes it was.
00:08:23 Nanette Foster: Oh, man. So fast forward. Um, I went to a fundamentalist Bible college that was connected with our church. Um, met my now ex-husband there who was a youth minister. Then he turned stand up comedian, uh, went through an early midlife crisis and decided he didn't want to be a husband or a father. Thankfully, we didn't have kids. And, uh, after being married for nine years, I went through a divorce. And in the wake of that, moved up here to Kodiak, Alaska, thinking I was coming for the summer. Here I am almost fourteen years later.
00:09:03 Jeromy Johnson: Awesome.
00:09:04 Nanette Foster: And I will say life two point zero is a lot more free and a lot more fun, a lot more adventurous. And I've gone through some different layers of what I call rewilding. It's not that I don't relate at all to the idea of deconstruction or deconstruction reconstruction, depending on who you're talking to and how they're describing it. But for me, it has been a return to my core, and I consider that rewilding and a huge part of that is recognizing and actively releasing a lot of the conditioning and alignment with systems that no longer serve or in many cases, never served. You know? Yeah. Um, the greater purpose of me being on this planet or who I am designed to be. Right. So a lot of it has been self-discovery. Mhm. But not self-discovery from just like a generalized standpoint. I actually want to know Who God intended me to be, intentionally created me to be. I want to know that person, and I want to release anything that is not her.
00:10:15 Jeromy Johnson: Interesting, interesting. What is your process of knowing who the true Nanette is that God intended and who is not the true Nanette that God did not intend? And those parts that you're releasing?
00:10:29 Nanette Foster: Well, the first thing is just even allowing myself to go on that journey, because being raised in that very strict, rigid type of environment, one of the core tenets of that style of faith is die to self.
00:10:45 Jeromy Johnson: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:10:46 Nanette Foster: So the idea of self-discovery is discouraged. And because it's not about discovery, you know, it's like, no, what would Jesus do? Right? Like going back to that like classic nineties wwJd. Yeah. Place. And it's like, actually, that's the wrong question because it really comes down to we are not separated. Right?
00:11:12 Jeromy Johnson: I agree with that.
00:11:13 Nanette Foster: I think that that oneness is something that we don't even we haven't even scratched the surface of what that really means. So leaning into this idea that I was actually divinely created, pure and good and lovely and really genuinely a masterpiece, and that walking this planet comes with this accumulation of stuff, right? The human experience is messy and allowing myself to a be okay with the messy parts, right? Because I had a very performative raising as well. I was a gymnast and I was homeschooled. And there was just like, you know, it was the oldest. And I was just very performance oriented.
00:12:04 Jeromy Johnson: Wow. A lot of expectations.
00:12:06 Nanette Foster: Yeah. I showed horses lots of performance that really worked its way into how I think. Mhm. This really has just been one layer at a time and it's taken. Gosh, I think I first started this when I was in Bible college and I'm still just constantly going through, oh, here's another layer coming off. Just recently, I had a full on nervous system freak out because I went to book a flight to do a weekend trip that was just for me and I couldn't, I didn't have anybody else or anything else to share the benefit with. It was literally just for me. There was a part of my subconscious that was like, this is not safe. This is not how we do things. You are like.
00:12:55 Jeromy Johnson: Wow.
00:12:56 Nanette Foster: The internal hierarchy where your self is lower and you're not allowed to like you're not allowed to do that. And I was.
00:13:03 Jeromy Johnson: Like, like, you don't have permission to just take a trip for your own personal enjoyment.
00:13:07 Nanette Foster: Yes, exactly. And I was kind of, I was surprised by it because I've done so much work, but I but I'm also not because I know that there are these little things that pop up, right? Yeah. So I got curious about it and I was like, that's very interesting. So where I'm at right now is recognizing how my Midwestern raising and what it looks like to just like be a good girl who takes care of other people and then falls in line, right? That's like this really, really deep through line of my subconscious. And right now, I'm actively and intentionally rewiring that part of my brain.
00:13:43 Jeromy Johnson: There's so many people that probably connect with that statement, just be a good girl or be a good boy, toe the line and help other people out. And those are all good things. But I feel like when that's your identity, it was mine. And I think part of it was just the theology that was that was handed down to me. like this idea of original separation from God. Yeah. This idea that that yourself is evil, it's vile. It's wicked. Mhm. It is disgusting to God. It cannot be trusted. Yeah. Um, in that sense, intuition was treated as as dangerous or even deceptive. Very.
00:14:19 Nanette Foster: Yeah.
00:14:20 Jeromy Johnson: So why, why do you think that, that these communities, these communities of faith, why do you think this theology often suppresses intuition instead of encourage and develop it?
00:14:30 Nanette Foster: Well, a lot a lot of these, I call them systems. Okay. And I know that those systems have theology attached to them and even driving them a lot of the, a lot of the time. Um, but I think of things largely in terms of systems and systems require control. One of the greatest forms of control is fear. And what I have seen is that very specifically a fear of mystery, a fear of uncertainty, a fear of exploration and actually a value for certainty itself. So certainty even becomes a form of idolatry, if you will. That's why in my background, the Bible, knowing the Bible. Dissecting the Bible and and really adopting an interpretation that's been handed to you.
00:15:22 Jeromy Johnson: Yes.
00:15:22 Nanette Foster: Um, even though it's being, you know, they'll say, oh, okay, it's rightly dividing, but you're not allowed to process of actually rightly dividing. You have this very specific formula handed to you with how to interpret scripture. And then that is taught. And then your job is to be a student, to be a disciple, to learn, and then to emulate, to assimilate, and then to emulate that.
00:15:46 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah. Very true.
00:15:47 Nanette Foster: Yeah. And so the system itself is dependent on compliance, and it is driven by fear of stepping outside of that compliance. And so if you shift to an internal navigation, you can't control somebody's internal navigation system. The only thing you can control is the narrative. And if the idea is learning what to think, not how to think, then that is actually what allows the system to continue.
00:16:22 Jeromy Johnson: And that's a big difference. Telling you what to think rather than teaching you how to think. Yeah. Big, big difference.
00:16:28 Nanette Foster: And it's perpetuated in other areas. This is not just a religion thing.
00:16:32 Jeromy Johnson: No. You look at politics, you look at.
00:16:34 Nanette Foster: Education.
00:16:34 Jeromy Johnson: Education. You look at science. Right, right. Yeah. I don't think this is intentional by the churches. They're not saying they're going right. I think most of them are going, how do we control this congregation? How do we get them to to toe the line to be in line? How do we get them like they're not sitting there doing that? It's just this thing that exists that just keeps perpetually being handed down and handed down. And it's almost like, yeah, become a life of its own. This anti intuition system, right?
00:17:04 Nanette Foster: Yeah. That's a good.
00:17:05 Jeromy Johnson: Point. Yeah.
00:17:07 Nanette Foster: It's true. And it's perpetuated a few different ways. It's really easy to tell people that they can't trust themselves because all of us have these moments that we can look at and say, oh, I messed up. Yeah, I guess I can't, I guess I don't make good decisions, right?
00:17:26 Jeromy Johnson: Like your parents.
00:17:27 Nanette Foster: Like my parents. Exactly. So then, of course, in this system that wants to bring them in and keep them safe and, you know, but it's actually a cage, right? So it's like, oh, no, we're going to come in, we're gonna, we're gonna feed you, we're going to water you. We're going to give you a safe place where you don't have to be, you know, out in this deceptive world. But it comes with bars in a closed door. It's just part of how the conditioning works in our minds, right? But it's all from the standpoint and this narrative of wanting to keep us safe and specifically safe from deception. You hit the nail on the head with that one. That is a big one. And so when people say.
00:18:13 Jeromy Johnson: Because the enemy is a deceiver, right? And he lies to you.
00:18:16 Nanette Foster: Yes. And the battles in your mind, even even that, even the idea of an inner battle, it actually creates this inner conflict and it pits us against ourselves. So I looked this up earlier and like, I know that there's some science on self rejection and low self worth. Right. So when you're trained to dismiss yourself and only to like read scripture, or even if you're in a more like a more charismatic stream where you're hearing from God or you're hearing from a prophet or you're, you know, whatever it is there is this division.
00:18:56 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah.
00:18:57 Nanette Foster: And the and the concept that this division really is based on is like, what's going on inside of you cannot be trusted. So you have to look outside of you to trusted sources. And those are your measuring sticks. That idea will lead us to self-rejection. It will lead us to low self-worth. And here's scientifically what happens. There are both emotional and physical consequences.
00:19:23 Jeromy Johnson: Okay?
00:19:24 Nanette Foster: It results in depression, anxiety, chronic stress, which by the way, affects every system of your body, every system of your body, um, and a weakened immune function.
00:19:38 Nanette Foster: And why wouldn't it weaken our immune function if we can't figure out if we are for or against ourselves?
00:19:45 Jeromy Johnson: That is fascinating. Your immune system is even attacking yourself because it doesn't trust yourself.
00:19:51 Nanette Foster: Yeah. I mean, and Jesus even said it. He said, you know, if if you have a kingdom. That's against itself. How is it going to stand
00:20:00 Nanette Foster: And we have an inner system, right? We we are not one one off, you know, beings. We, you know, whether you want to break it into three chunks and say, oh, well, your spirit, soul and body or whether you want to look at us as just being really multifaceted. We are not these simplistic beings. From my perspective, we are actually primarily spirit beings and we're living this earth existence. Or you could even say we are immortals living a mortal life, and we're going through this experience, but it is actually a small part of our total existence. And it's so easy for us to just get focused on what's right in front of us. Yeah.
00:20:50 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah.
00:20:50 Nanette Foster: And I would say it's easier to explore the natural world than it is to explore our inner world. And part of the reason is because we've we haven't been given that permission, especially if you grew up in the church or grew up in an environment that distrusted internal navigation.
00:21:08 Jeromy Johnson: And at the same time, you're taught to trust the Holy Spirit and to follow the Holy Spirit's guide, which almost seems code for intuition, but like differently, right? Like, yeah, but we're not going to call it that. We're gonna call it. And so you people, oh, well, God told me this. God told me to do this, or I was praying in front of this cow and the cow burped. And I felt like God was telling me that this is the yes, that I need to marry this person, right?
00:21:40 Nanette Foster: Yeah, actually. So I never even used the word intuition after I had a real active relationship with Holy Spirit, which is part of my story after I moved to Kodiak in particular. Um, it really like my, my creativity came alive. My relationship with the Holy Spirit was really ignited and grew. I started operating in, you know, what we might term the prophetic. But I was given rules of engagement for that. So that was a whole new thing like that. I was given to learn, right. And like pointed to certain trainers and different stuff like that. And it still wasn't.
00:22:19 Jeromy Johnson: Who gave you rules of engagement or your.
00:22:24 Nanette Foster: No, no.
00:22:25 Jeromy Johnson: Where did that come from?
00:22:25 Nanette Foster: The rules of engagement? No, I was thinking more of, uh, like church. Right. Um, or even the, the prophetic culture. Right. So it was like I started, I started going to this church here in town. We called it flag church because they have like silk worship flags. And I loved that. I actually was at a point where that was extremely freeing for me to worship in that way. That's cool. And to like, have that experience. It was a really lovely, sweet time and space. And then I started just seeing things in my imagination and then talking, you know, with church leadership about it and then being taught, oh, you know, that's the that's the prophetic and, you know, and then they get excited. And then anyway, so it was, it was fun. And I got to really grow and explore in that area and also in, um, dialoguing with God and not just monologue praying and that sort of thing. So I was like, I love Holy Spirit so much. This is such a wonderful part of my life. Now, I was on this walk with a friend and she was just exploring spiritual things. She is not religious. She's never, you know, like didn't grow up in church, but she was getting really curious about spiritual stuff. And so she was like, hey, I keep hearing about this Holy Spirit thing. Can you talk to me about that? And I was so excited. So I was explaining about Holy Spirit. Yeah. And, and at the end of our walk, she turns and looks at me and she's like, that's so interesting. It kind of sounds like intuition. And I was like.
00:23:56 Jeromy Johnson: No.
00:23:59 Nanette Foster: You're missing the point. This is a person, you know. So I was so funny. So to me, it was like the mere suggestion of intuition was like, well, instead of honoring the person of Holy Spirit whom I love, even if I even use the word intuition, it's going to be dishonoring. And that was just, I would say that's consistent with my conditioning.
00:24:28 Jeromy Johnson: Like an insult to God almost.
00:24:31 Nanette Foster: Yes, an insult to God. And I remember not very long after that, I just started seeing intuition everywhere, hearing it everywhere. Wow. And really, through my intuition, even though at the time I had not explored it enough to recognize I was being drawn down that road. And then through dialoguing, um, Holy Spirit actually said, look up intuition. Go go deeper on it. Let's go deeper on this topic.
00:25:02 Jeromy Johnson: So the thing that you thought was disrespectful and dishonoring to God, God was actually leading you into. Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:11 Nanette Foster: Exactly. Exactly. And it was, it was so cool. And, um, I will tell you, it was extremely difficult to find anything on intuition that agreed with, you know, it was like everybody's idea of intuition is different. So I tried Ted talks and there would be like this one that was talking about, about intuition from a, hey, this is, this is how your subconscious speaks to you. And so it was all about all of your experiences that are saved up in your subconscious. And then your intuition is the, your subconscious kind of pushing that to the front. And that's your experience of intuition. And then I saw the next one I looked at, which was also a Ted talk. There was this woman who was very bohemian, very like flowy and very clearly like more along the woo woo side of things. Who was like, this is your spirit talking to you? This is. And it was like all spiritual.
00:26:05 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah.
00:26:06 Nanette Foster: And I really feel like it's more than all of that.
00:26:11 Jeromy Johnson: So how would you, how would you define intuition than that?
00:26:14 Nanette Foster: RA. Okay. I do, I do actually have a definition of, of intuition. I have one that I use in faith circles that because it's a little bit more specific. Okay. So here's what I've got. Intuition is an inner guidance system given by God to connect us with his heart and to direct us to our destiny. Mhm. There is a directional flow to intuition. There is a purpose for intuition. It is also inter-dimensional.
00:26:43 Jeromy Johnson: What do you mean?
00:26:44 Nanette Foster: What I mean by that is intuition is spiritual, is soulful, is physical. We feel it in our body, right? We feel it in our body. We can sense it sometimes in our emotional center. So everybody experiences intuition differently. So a, everybody has intuition. Every single one of us, even those who are wired more as rational thinkers, have intuition. Now, some people are wired highly intuitively, meaning they actually lead with intuition as their primary internal operating system, their primary decision, like they're designed to make decisions primarily based on their intuition.
00:27:29 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah. Like the Myers-Briggs breakdown, right. Like high, high, high high intuition.
00:27:33 Nanette Foster: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
00:27:35 Jeromy Johnson: So or and is it in?
00:27:36 Nanette Foster: It's in. Yeah.
00:27:37 Jeromy Johnson: Is it. Yes.
00:27:38 Nanette Foster: Yeah. So it's in or S. So S stands for sensing meaning your five senses And being more external, evidence based with decision making. And that. And about seventy five percent of people are designed to first check and see what's going on with the external evidence, and then their intuition will help confirm that to them. Okay, flip that for people who are highly intuitive, which would be the N on the Myers-Briggs. Um, for those of us, myself included, who are.
00:28:11 Jeromy Johnson: And here.
00:28:11 Nanette Foster: You two. Okay.
00:28:12 Jeromy Johnson: So high end. Yes. So we're, we're within the twenty five percent. We're, we're the.
00:28:16 Nanette Foster: twenty five ish percentile.
00:28:18 Jeromy Johnson: But the best twenty five percent, obviously. Yeah. Let's be honest here.
00:28:23 Nanette Foster: Uh, uh, but but for those listening, um, who hear two people who are highly intuitive and they're like, well, maybe I'm not. And is that, can I still follow my intuition? The answer is yes, you can. You can still follow your intuition. For those of us who are highly intuitive, what it means is that you are built for your intuition to be the primary operating system of that internal navigation, and then you can confirm things with external evidence. Does that that resonates for you? Jeremy.
00:28:57 Jeromy Johnson: It totally does. Where you're like, I have, I have this feeling this is the right decision. I see this at work all the time. Like this is the right decision. Mhm. I don't know why. I don't know why, but I just feel like this is the way we should go. And but I've learned. Let's dig deeper into this. Let's look at some more stuff and confirm it. Right. I guess to a certain degree, yeah.
00:29:18 Nanette Foster: Yeah. Like the higher, the higher the consequence of going one way or the other with your decision, the more important it is, but that you also risk overthinking. So through practice, you learn your sweet spot. Yeah, I'm feeling it. Um, I'm looking for confirmation or I'm looking for that next step, or I'm looking for something that just kind of clicks and I'm like, yes, now I'm going to move forward.
00:29:42 Jeromy Johnson: Like our growth was to engage more of the the sensory right and not just rely fully on the intuition.
00:29:50 Nanette Foster: It can be, but most of the time with highly intuitive people, we've also had our intuition vilified or just, you know, like.
00:29:58 Jeromy Johnson: You know. Yes. So yeah.
00:30:00 Nanette Foster: So we can suppress our intuition as much as, as somebody who's not as intuitive. I say that it finds its way. Okay. So even if somebody has largely shut down their intuition, if they're really wired intuitively, they're just constantly trying to come up with language for the reason they're making decisions, because we're trying to prove to those in our lives who are expecting to know, like why we're deciding to do the things we're deciding to do. I give you this example. I go to move up here to Alaska, and of course, everybody wants to know what led to that, to that move. Oh, what made you decide to do that? You know? And I'm.
00:30:42 Jeromy Johnson: Like.
00:30:43 Nanette Foster: I just felt it that it was the right thing. You know, nobody wants to hear that.
00:30:49 Jeromy Johnson: No. Give me some reasons. Yeah. Give me the reason.
00:30:51 Nanette Foster: This and this here's the real, real story. The real, real story is I was like, no, I want to go somewhere tropical. And this job popped up when I was searching and I was like, that's not tropical. I'm not going for the next three weeks. Alaska was everywhere. So one of the things that is common for highly intuitive people is we, we will become attentive to patterns. So we'll notice when something's repeating itself, especially if it's unusual, something's out of place that catches our attention. Maybe not the first time, maybe not even the second time. Right? But eventually we start catching on. I, you know, now it's a fun story to be like in the final straw was I turn on the television. I never watch The Weather Channel because my mom obsesses over weather and I make it a point not to ever watch The Weather Channel. So I turn on the TV, which only I use. It was on the Weather Channel. It was Coast Guard Alaska, and it was in Kodiak. And I was like, fine, I will call a sub.
00:31:54 Jeromy Johnson: Fine. It was only supposed to be for a summer, but here we are. Here we are.
00:31:59 Nanette Foster: So part of it is just getting comfortable being okay with people not getting how we think I. It doesn't matter.
00:32:06 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah.
00:32:07 Nanette Foster: In fact, most of the time it's nobody's business why I do things anyway.
00:32:12 Jeromy Johnson: It's it's honestly true. Like we don't owe anyone necessarily a reason. Um, was there a moment and I'm curious, was there a moment in your life where you totally ignored your intuition? Later you realize I was trying to guide you, but maybe, like, shit hit the fan and it got hard or something broke, or you hurt someone. What? And if so, like, what did that experience teach you? Can you share one?
00:32:35 Nanette Foster: I'm going to share one that I actually think will be really relatable to people. So this is actually just a few years ago. All right. I already know that my intuition is important. I already understand a lot of how it operates. And so it's not like I've rejected my intuition at this point. I ended up getting sick. And very quickly, I had this sense of knowing that it was strep throat. Like I just was like, I have strep. I end up calling and okay, so this was, this must have been closer to Covid because they were really wanting us to call before we went into the doctor. So I ended up calling and talking with a nurse and she talked me out of it. It was like I instantly knew. But after I talked to her and she asked me questions, she's like, I don't think that's what it is. I think it's just a virus, you know, wait it out. Right. So I went a full other week. In the meantime, it didn't get better. It got worse. Yeah. And I ended up going in, got swabbed. And they're like, I like, I don't think it is. And I'm like, okay, guess what it was. I'm like, man, one of the areas I can still default to like, oh, well, this authoritative, authoritative person said this thing, right?
00:33:51 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:52 Nanette Foster: And like in my gut, I'm like, I know what this is. Even though it didn't have all of the classic symptoms that they were looking for. So that was one where I was kind of kicking myself. I mean, it wasn't like the worst of the worst, but it is relatable because we will we are trained. Those in authority above put authority, those in authority above our inner authority.
00:34:18 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that isn't that odd? That seems odd to me. But I think sometimes we enjoy that. We just enjoy relaxing, being told what to do, not thinking right. Like that sounds really nice.
00:34:33 Nanette Foster: Sometimes it takes work and sometimes you end up coming up against resistance. And that's not always fun too. Yeah. So honor our own intuitive design. Not only do we honor our own intuitive design, not only do we lean into accepting it, and if we lean into becoming lean into becoming a student of it, we're developing this becoming a student of our intuition. We're developing this relationship with our intuition, which is extremely powerful, but it also puts us in the position where not just we need to honor ourselves and not just take a back seat. There is responsibility involved with it.
00:35:13 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah. And some people don't want that.
00:35:15 Nanette Foster: I know some people don't want that responsibility. Yeah.
00:35:18 Jeromy Johnson: Just basically self-trust when it comes down to it, that's what we're talking about. Talking about self-trust and how do you how do you rebuild Self-trust after decades of being told by systems, by religious systems that the self is evil because that's what you're told the self is evil. Die to yourself. Don't trust yourself and not to trust your own inner voice. How do you. How do you rebuild that after so long of being told you're wicked?
00:35:44 Nanette Foster: The reality is that our our brains are very involved with this and our brains are absolutely amazing. They are capable of so much. They have two primary jobs. One is to keep us safe and one is to be as efficient as possible. Okay. And so that efficiency starts by making very quick decisions, like determinations when we're kids, about what is true and what is not true, how we operate and how we operate safely. And then your brain will cut as many corners as possible and basically just go to this default setting as often as it can, because that is what is considered efficient and safe. So when we start having an interest in the topic. That's the beginning. And sometimes even that can feel scary. So the idea that maybe I am actually a value. God doesn't need to see the filter of Jesus in order to love me. Yeah, right.
00:36:55 Jeromy Johnson: It's huge.
00:36:56 Nanette Foster: So small incremental steps is how I process now. I will say some people do better with like ripping the Band-Aid off. Ultimately, do better with ripping the Band-Aid off. It can be really, really hard. I tend to go in chunks. Okay. What I want to recommend is whatever that small thing is, maybe you're noticing that something inside of you is balking hard. That is your brain saying, I do not want to change. It doesn't mean that that is your intuition. Okay. So the thing with intuition is there are things that will mimic it. So the things that run on your intuition are wisdom, discernment. External wisdom in the sense of what you have learned, what you have experienced will apply itself into your intuition as well. Okay. And Holy Spirit actually is the living water that is running on the river of your intuition. Okay. That's a metaphor. It's not a perfect one, but it's a good one. Okay. There's this directional flow. There are these things that deposit into your intuition, and Holy Spirit is present there. So in its purest form, your intuition is good. Very good. In fact, it will guide you. It is reliable.
00:38:15 Jeromy Johnson: And it will guide you into goodness.
00:38:17 Nanette Foster: It will guide you into goodness. Yes it will. It will guide you into what is actually aligned for you and the way you have been designed by God. What happens, though, is that fear mimics wisdom. Impulse mimics inspiration and judgment mimics discernment. So you have these what I call intuition imposters that like to show up, try to trick you into thinking that it's your intuition. They will closely resemble your intuition because there are similar sensations. The more intimately acquainted you get with your intuition, the better you can tell the imposters from the real deal.
00:38:56 Jeromy Johnson: So this just comes a lot with experience of just learning to discern between those two voices and experience.
00:39:03 Nanette Foster: It's a journey.
00:39:04 Jeromy Johnson: Uh. Equates mistakes. Yeah.
00:39:07 Nanette Foster: So this is why I have clients, because what I actually do with my clients is we uncover these different elements of their own unique intuition blueprint, because different people feel intuition differently. Okay. Some people feel it as more of a gut almost all the time. Other people will feel it like I feel it very subtly, but but also distinctly as a current. I'll know what I'm going with the current and I'll know when something's off. For other people, it's like this push pull of a magnetic force, you know, it's like either you feel drawn or you feel repelled, or maybe you are inexplicably disconnected from something that otherwise you would think you would want to pursue or a person that you're like, oh, it would be a great opportunity to get to know this person. But then for some reason, you're just like, and I'm not feeling it for no apparent reason, right? That's your intuition. But that's different than when fear is driving.
00:40:06 Jeromy Johnson: That makes sense. Yeah.
00:40:07 Nanette Foster: But when we start the beginning, parts of rewiring our brain, allowing ourselves, giving ourselves permission to just explore, you don't have to change from one belief system to another. You certainly don't have to do it instantly, but just leaning forward or even sitting with something uncomfortable.
00:40:28 Jeromy Johnson: Like even just giving yourself permission to ask a question that you have been afraid to ask or you've been told to fear. For me, that was a lot of when it started where I started to think about, you know, maybe the beliefs or the theology that I was given. And I would ask a question like, is hell real? Would a loving God create this, but a loving God send. And your gut just feels no. And then it leads to. Well, were we ever separated? Gosh, I don't think so. Like, it's like a sweater that starts to unravel a little bit. So people that are listening just know, like that's going to be a possibility that as you go down one road, like Nanette, you were talking about, there's just different layers that just keep unpeeling and unpeeling. And so just know that if you.
00:41:17 Nanette Foster: And sometimes you can't make it when that happens.
00:41:20 Jeromy Johnson: And so if they go down this road.
00:41:21 Nanette Foster: Loses the layer of its skin and it's like real sensitive under there.
00:41:25 Jeromy Johnson: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, oh, but that, that's Tingley.
00:41:28 Nanette Foster: But that is part of the process. That feeling doesn't last forever. In fact, there's a lot of freedom. And even just allowing yourself to lean into the process.
00:41:41 Jeromy Johnson: Now, what about people who. So we kind of talked about like, maybe they're, they're already past this, this point. I think you talked a little bit about just the beginning steps to just giving yourself permission to ask a question, to lean, start to lean into a direction. What about those that are on the other side of it that have they've already asked the questions. They're learning to trust their intuition, but now they just need to be healed. Yeah, I don't know. You're told you're you're wicked and vile from a very young age. Like there's some healing that needs to take place. So what about those people? They learn to trust it, but they need to be healed from some stuff.
00:42:16 Nanette Foster: Yeah. That man, what I found is this that having a lifestyle that pursues having a healed heart. And either whether you want to say, renewed mind or rewiring your brain. I mean the same thing by both of those. Okay. Um, there is a process, and sometimes it can be shocking that we go through one of those two things pretty thoroughly. Sometimes we focus on one for a season, right? I remember going through a season of healing. At other times. I've gone through seasons of really shifting my mindset and it doesn't always happen together. Actually, there, of course, are intertwined, but it doesn't always happen together. So there are times that we can really change the way that we think. And then we find out, oh my gosh, my nervous system has not gotten the memo.
00:43:16 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah, it needs to catch up here. Yeah.
00:43:19 Nanette Foster: Yeah. So I think more than anything, I think it's really underestimated How just knowing you're not alone.
00:43:28 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah.
00:43:29 Nanette Foster: Is a huge part of the journey of coming back to the core of who you are. And that includes the healing piece. I would encourage anybody who is noticing that you really have some areas that need to be healed. There are so many different modalities and it's not a one size fits all. It's not even a one size fits all for the season. You know, I've, I've popped around and done a few different things like, uh, a few different modalities, some that are more inner healing, some like I'm, I'm getting ready to start some therapy right now and it's whatever is coming up for you right now. There's probably a reason for that.
00:44:11 Jeromy Johnson: So what I hear you saying is it's not, um, it's not just one moment of healing. Like you're gonna unpeel something, you might discover something and then you realize, oh, there's some healing that is also with this piece. Or maybe there's not healing with this seat piece just by naming this thing. It has really helped bring healing. Or maybe you need some therapy to come alongside. So it's not just I'm now healed and now I can just move forward a little more nuance. I know it's.
00:44:38 Nanette Foster: Frustrating. It can be really frustrating because it's like, you, you think you're past something and then a trigger that you don't know is coming totally happens. And all of a sudden you're like discouraged and frustrated. And I want to encourage the listeners that if that has happened to you, a, it is a normal part of the growth experience from all of these different angles. You know, whether it is learning to love yourself, whether it is learning to be yourself and, you know, unwinding from and discarding what does not serve you anymore. It is a layered, ongoing process. So it's really being okay with what it means to be a person who is on a personal and spiritual growth track, and that it's not one and done with any of this stuff. And that's, that's part of the necessity of, of having a good relationship with your intuition.
00:45:32 Jeromy Johnson: Because you said it's a, it's a journey forward. It's a process. It's a journey towards who you're supposed to be. So it's, it's not one and done. It's one step after another, after another, after another.
00:45:42 Nanette Foster: And here's the wild thing that most people don't anticipate. If you are somebody who has operated in the prophetic, you're used to hearing from God. You get words. You know, when you start reconnecting with your intuition, that will sometimes actually happen less. And I'll explain why that is.
00:46:07 Jeromy Johnson: Okay. Go ahead.
00:46:08 Nanette Foster: Because, um, you know how there are scriptures that talk about staying in step with Holy Spirit and there are scriptures that talk about not quenching Holy Spirit.
00:46:19 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah, not grieving the Holy Spirit, not.
00:46:21 Nanette Foster: Grieving the Holy Spirit and all of that stuff. Well, one of the primary places that the Holy Spirit is designed to be is our intuition. This is where Holy Spirit prefers to operate. And how do we know that? Because actually in John seven, when Jesus is introducing the coming Holy Spirit, what he actually starts with is, hey, if you come to me, I'm going to give you living water. But guess where that living water is going to come from? It's going to well up from within your deepest self.
00:46:50 Jeromy Johnson: What? Yeah. That's wild right? Because we, we've read that and we've heard that, but we think it's not from ourself. Yeah. But there it is. There's it's gonna come up from inside you. Yes. Not from outside you.
00:47:02 Nanette Foster: Yeah. Exactly. And then and then it and then it goes on to say and he was talking about the coming Holy Spirit.
00:47:09 Jeromy Johnson: Um.
00:47:09 Nanette Foster: So when we disconnect from and devalue our intuition, what we're actually doing is quieting a primary way that the Holy Spirit is constantly generating guidance. You know, the attributes of the Holy Spirit are guide, helper, teacher, right? Um, even guiding us into remembrance of things. And this is the primary vehicle through which Holy Spirit actually does this. Even though there are other functions like bringing scripture to life and things like that, this is the primary way. So when we shut down our Holy Spirit, our intuition, we are actually shutting down the primary way the Holy Spirit likes to guide us. So then when we reconnect with our intuition, we're still hearing from the Holy Spirit. It's just less through the other senses. Often when you're somebody who has operated in the prophetic, you learn to hear in the sense of actually, um, hearing words or writing in your journal, um, or looking at things through your imagination. And I'm not saying that that's no longer accessible to you. All of that is still accessible, but your minute to minute, day to day, especially if you are a highly intuitive person, you actually are engaging with Holy Spirit in these, this river of your intuition. It's not less, it's more, but it's more subtle.
00:48:40 Jeromy Johnson: I just got this picture of like those endless rivers or like you're just floating on the inner tube and just floating around and around lazy rivers. Love it. Where you can just be in touch with everything. Let's say Jesus showed up today.
00:48:56 Speaker 4: Mhm.
00:48:57 Jeromy Johnson: Hey, we wouldn't recognize him. It would probably kill him. So we'll just say that. And Jesus offered, uh, people one piece of advice about intuition and spiritual life. What do you think he would say? That we've misunderstood the most?
00:49:14 Nanette Foster: I would say that the kingdom of heaven is within.
00:49:17 Jeromy Johnson: Mhm.
00:49:18 Nanette Foster: And that is probably one of the least quoted scriptures in all of the New Testament, by the way.
00:49:25 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah. And it said multiple times in many different ways. Yes. So the Kingdom of God is within.
00:49:32 Speaker 4: Mhm. Yeah.
00:49:33 Jeromy Johnson: And that's kind of what you're talking about here.
00:49:35 Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:37 Nanette Foster: Gosh, it's so scary for people to start doing this. And it seems like there's just this big black hole of the unknown. There are tools. There are practical ways of engaging with your intuition, practical ways of learning to navigate with your intuition. But it is very customized because everybody is so individual. So that's why I really like to work with my clients on their intuition blueprint. In other words, just understanding how their intuition works and then really developing their relationship and understanding of their intuition. Testing us, Um, practicing, right. Like it's okay to practice. It's okay to mess up.
00:50:22 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah.
00:50:22 Nanette Foster: For every time. Yeah. For every time you're like, oh, I screwed that up. You've got probably ninety nine other decisions you made that you did not screw up. But you remember the one, right?
00:50:35 Jeromy Johnson: Yeah. When we mess up, we just go. See, this is why I don't trust myself, is why I don't trust my intuition. Yeah. And then they just. They give up. But you're saying just keep going. Keep moving forward. And how do people connect with you if they're thinking, I really want to get in tune more with my intuition, I want to give myself permission. But maybe they need some help right now.
00:50:56 Nanette Foster: I mean, you can go, you can go to my website, which is Nanette foster dot com. Um, there are a couple of different pages on there that have, uh, a place where you can book what I call an alignment call with me and we can just explore the possibilities of working together. I have a few different ways that I work one on one with people. If you want to hear more from me. You can also get one of my free resources on that website, and you will be on my email list as well. And right now I'm doing some Substack articles like one at least once a week. And that's where you're going to hear more about this. You can also order in my book Intuitive by Design.
00:51:41 Jeromy Johnson: I do want to give you the opportunity, if you were to share kind of one last thing just to our audience.
00:51:50 Nanette Foster: Yeah. My parting words would be this. Remember that you are a child of God. Not an adult, not a performer. That perfectionism has nothing to do with any of this. It's not an expectation. Getting things right is not an expectation except in your own mind. Right? So giving yourself permission is the greatest gift that you can do. There's nobody standing around waiting to give you a permission slip. Not even me. Okay. I might hand you the permission slip pad, but you got to right yourself. Give yourself permission to get to know who you really were created to be, and to develop a new relationship with your intuition that is really going to guide you through life in a way that man, it's going to feel like so much restored order and oneness and freedom.
00:52:55 Speaker 4: MM.
00:52:58 Jeromy Johnson: That's beautiful. We've been told so much through our life, like we need permission to ask certain questions or we need permission to think certain things. It's a hard rewiring. So, Nanette, thank you for having this conversation with us. I think this is, like I said in the very beginning, this is super, super important. Annette. Thank you.
00:53:19 Nanette Foster: Appreciate it. Jeremy.
For so many of us, faith became disconnected from ourselves.
We learned to look outside ourselves for every answer. Outside ourselves for permission. Outside ourselves for truth. And eventually, outside ourselves for God.
But over and over again, Jesus pointed inward.
“The kingdom of God is within you.”
Not someday. Not somewhere else. Within.
Maybe healing starts there. Not in having everything figured out, but in slowly learning to trust that there is goodness, wisdom, and guidance already alive within you.
Even if it feels unfamiliar. Even if it takes time.
Thank you for listening. Remember to walk in grace, and, if you can, share that grace.