316. What Following Your Inner Knowing Actually Looks Like
What does following your inner knowing actually look like — not in theory, but in real life, with a mortgage, three kids, and twenty years inside an institution?
In this solo episode, Jessie walks through more of her story: from a 20-year career as a Kaiser pediatrician to leading 38 retreats, coaching hundreds of physicians, building Pause & Presence with her husband, Mark, moving to Nicasio Creek Farm, and stepping onto the TEDx stage.
Every turn was an act of trust. None of it was a plan.
This is not a story about leaving medicine. It is a story about what becomes possible when we stop overriding our inner knowing — and what changes for the people we love most when we do.
Pearls of Wisdom
Every turn we take toward our inner knowing is an act of trust. Trust grows when we trust ourselves.
What we model is far more powerful than what we say.
The biggest gift of change is often the ripple effect on the people we love most.
You cannot know the how until you get there.
Your best ideas come in a parasympathetic state.
Without the pause, we react.
Working backward from how we want to feel is one of the most underused tools in medicine and coaching.
Suffering is not required to make meaningful change.
Reflection Questions
Where are you choosing fine over alive?
How do you want to feel most days — and how do you feel now?
What is one small act of trust you could take this week?
What are you modeling for the people you love, whether you mean to or not?
Where might support help you learn to trust your own inner knowing more?
FAQs
What is this episode about? This episode is Jessie's long-form story of how she transitioned from being a Kaiser pediatrician of 20 years to building Pause & Presence — and the principles that guided every turn.
Is this episode only for physicians thinking about leaving medicine? No. Many of the physicians Jessie coaches stay where they are and shift their mindset and approach. The same principles apply whether we change jobs or change how we show up.
What is "inner knowing"? It is the embodied wisdom we access when we slow down enough to feel — heart, gut, or belly knowing. Medicine often trains physicians not to trust it. This episode is about how to grow it back.
What is the connection between coaching, retreats, and inner knowing? Support — through coaching, retreats, and community — is one of the essential ingredients in trusting ourselves. Jessie shares why she did not do any of this alone.
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