Welcome back to Radiantly Rooted, the podcast where we talk about living, leading, and making decisions from your own center, not from the noise around you. I’m Rachel Hupp, Soulful Life Coach, guide, and fellow recovering over-giver.

And today’s episode is for you if you have ever said yes to something that left you feeling drained, second-guessing your own intuition, or feeling like you’ve lost touch with what your truth actually sounds like.

Now, this is part 2 of my 4-part mini-series, Root Before You Rise, a series to help you reset, reflect, and realign without abandoning yourself. So if you missed the first episode, you can check it out here.

Today, we’re going to be diving into five ways to know when your soul says yes, so that you can stop people-pleasing, stop overcommitting, and start making nourishing, grounded decisions that actually feel like you.

Whether you’re at a crossroads, stuck in autopilot, or just ready to trust your intuition again, this conversation is here to help you come home to your inner knowing.

So let’s get into it.

You can watch on YouTube, listen on your favorite podcast platform, or keep reading below.

Introduction

I’m guessing you want to feel calm. Clear. Grounded. Right?

You want to stop second-guessing everything and start moving through your life with more confidence and peace of mind. To trust your intuition.

But instead, you might find yourself saying yes to things that drain you, overcommitting, overgiving, and ignoring that quiet voice inside that’s trying to tell you: This isn’t it.

If that is you, there’s a good chance that you’re making a mistake that so many smart, capable women make, and you probably don’t even realize it. Trust me, I have done it too.

We confuse being agreeable with being aligned.

Maybe this sounds familiar. You say yes because you don’t want to let someone down, because you’re the dependable one, the one who always comes through. You keep a full calendar because slowing down feels either scary or selfish. You tell yourself it’s just the way life is, even though deep down it doesn’t feel like you are in charge of your own life anymore.

And here’s the thing. We live in a world that rewards overgiving and praises busyness. What’s the first thing you hear when you ask someone how they’re doing? Gosh, busy. How have you been? Busy.

Especially for women, especially for those of us who’ve built success by being reliable, capable, and helpful, saying yes has become second nature. But at some point we start to notice: our body is tired, our mind is scattered, and our intuition is buried under a pile of shoulds.

The good news, my friend, there is a different way forward.

And so in today’s episode, I’m going to show you how to start recognizing a soul yes, the kind of yes that rises from within, not from pressure or performance. The kind of yes that doesn’t leave you drained or second-guessing, but instead leaves you grounded, clear, and honestly, more you.

You’ll learn how to spot the difference between a decision made from fear, guilt, or habit, and one made from trust, alignment, and inner knowing.

Because here’s the truth: you probably don’t need another productivity hack, am I right? You don’t need to prove your worth through your busyness. I know that you need to remember what your own truth feels like and learn how to trust it again.

So these five signs are going to help you begin. They’re simple, they’re gentle, and they’re deeply powerful once you start using them.

So if you are ready to feel more grounded and clear in your decisions, let’s dig into the five ways your soul says yes.

Why Your “Yes” Might Be Costing You More Than You Think

When we keep saying yes from a place of fear, guilt, or obligation, it doesn’t just fill up our calendar. It chips away at our self-trust.

Here’s how this mistake holds you back:

You Stay Overcommitted and Undernourished

You give your time and your energy to things that don’t actually matter to you, which means there’s no space left for what does.

You Second-Guess Yourself Constantly

I know I do. I used to. Because if you’re always looking outside of yourself for permission or approval, your inner voice gets quieter and it’s harder to hear.

You Move Further Away from Your Authentic Path

Your choices start being shaped by who you think you should be, instead of who you actually are.

I have lived this, and honestly, it took me way too long to even notice that it was happening. There was a time in my life when I said yes to anything that seemed like the right thing to do: the job, the events, the obligations. And while it probably looked great from the outside, it did not feel right inside. I found myself exhausted, depleted, unfulfilled.

And I’ve seen this pattern in my clients too, right? They’re exhausted. They tell me that they’re living a life that doesn’t even fit anymore, like they’ve outgrown the roles and the routines that used to fit, that they used to say yes to. Like they just lost touch with their inner compass and they don’t know their way anymore.

But when you start listening again, when you begin to notice what a true yes feels like in your body, in your soul, that my friend, that is when things begin to shift.

So let’s look at how to do that now.

What Is a Soul Yes?

So how do you actually know if something is a soul yes? This my friend, is where everything begins to shift.

When you have spent years saying yes from obligation, from habit, from fear of disappointing others, it can really be hard to tell what a true aligned yes even feels like anymore, right?

You might wonder, Is this intuition or is that just anxiety in a new outfit? Is this self-trust or am I just avoiding something hard? Is this alignment or just people-pleasing, dressed up as peacekeeping?

And so that is why I want to offer you five different ways to recognize a soul yes, so that you can start rebuilding that bridge back to yourself.

Now, this is not about following a checklist. It’s about coming back to the deep knowing that already lives within you.

A soul yes is the kind of yes that is rooted in clarity, not confusion. The kind that leaves you feeling nourished, not depleted. A soul yes lets your life start to feel like yours again.

So let’s walk through these five signs together, and as you listen, just see which ones land for you.

5 Ways to Know When Your Soul Says YES

1. It Feels Like Relief, Not Pressure

You know it’s a soul yes when something in you relaxes, even just a little. Maybe your shoulders drop. Maybe your breath deepens. Yeah, it still might stretch you. Sure. But it doesn’t tighten around your chest or leave you gasping for space. There’s a quiet steadiness underneath of it, a sense of this feels right.

And so you can ask yourself: Is there some ease under the nerves, like even just a little?

And let me give you an example from my own life. Last year I had an opportunity to speak at the Women’s Wellness Conference at James Madison University, and I knew it was an amazing opportunity for me. It also stretched my comfort zone. Public speaking is something I’m still pushing myself into. So I felt nervous, right? But beneath that nervousness, I also felt steady. I knew that I was not saying yes to prove anything or to check a box. I was saying yes because in my heart it felt aligned with my message and my personal growth.

And so yeah, that nervousness had energy behind it, but it was a steady energy, not dread. It felt like relief, not pressure.

So that’s the first sign that it is a soul yes.

2. It Expands You, It Doesn’t Deplete You

A true yes gives you something in return, even if it does take some effort. You might leave the meeting, the call, or the conversation with more energy than you started with. There’s a lightness, a lift. You feel open, not emptied out.

So how do you know if it expands you and it doesn’t deplete you? You ask yourself: Does this give me energy or does it drain my energy?

And this is something that I hear from my clients once they start noticing the difference. They’ll say, you know, I had that conversation and I actually felt better afterward. I wasn’t exhausted from holding it all together. And that’s how you know it’s coming from alignment, if it expands you and it doesn’t deplete you.

3. It Fits Your Life Right Now, Not the Version of You That You Think You Should Be

A soul yes honors your current season, your capacity, your routines, your values. It does not ask you to become somebody different first. It does not demand perfection for sure, or constant availability.

So you can ask yourself: Does this fit the me I am right now? Not the version I think that I should be.

Too often women say yes based on a version of themselves that’s just not true anymore. Maybe it’s the version they’ve always been or the one others expect them to be, or sometimes it’s an ideal future version, the one who has more time, more energy, more certainty.

But your soul’s yes meets you, the real you, here and now. You don’t have to become someone else to earn it.

You can even try this the next time something comes up. Instead of asking, “Can I fit this in?” ask: “Would this version of me, the one I am today, want to say yes to this?”

A soul yes fits your life now, not the version of you that you think you should be or you feel pressured to be.

4. Your Body Agrees Before Your Mind Does

Before you talk yourself into or out of a decision, your body already knows. It’s subtle, right? But it’s there: a shift in your breath, a sense of grounding, a quiet openness in your chest or belly.

When the answer’s no, your body will often tell you through tension, right? Or tightness, or a sense of contraction.

So you can try this: Pause before deciding. And yes, I know I talk about this all the time, the power of the pause, but honestly, just pausing for three breaths before you say yes to something, that can be life-changing. It’s not dramatic, it’s not hard. It’s just three breaths and that’s the whole practice.

So check in with yourself the next time you have a decision to make. How does your breath feel at the thought of saying yes? Are your shoulders drawn up and tight? Is your stomach calm or uneasy? What’s your body saying before your brain takes over?

And this is especially powerful for women who’ve been stuck in survival mode, because the body can remember what alignment feels like, even if our mind has been trained to override it.

So the fourth sign something might be a soul yes is that your body agrees before your mind does.

5. It Is Rooted in Self-Trust, Not People-Pleasing

All right, my friend. Let’s talk about the fifth and final sign that something is a soul yes that I want to cover with you today. And it is because it is rooted in self-trust, not people-pleasing. And this one might be the most important of all.

A soul yes isn’t about being liked. It’s certainly not about trying to manage other people’s reactions. It’s about integrity with yourself. It’s about making choices that feel right in your bones, even if they don’t make sense on paper, even if someone doesn’t get it.

Ask yourself: Would I still want this even if no one else knew about it?

When you begin to choose from self-trust instead of performance or peacekeeping, life starts to settle into a new rhythm. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for what feels true.

Now, I’m learning this firsthand right now as I’ve recently made a huge life decision that a lot of people close to me just don’t understand or think is best for me, but I know in my heart it’s right for me.

And so the fifth way that you know that something is a soul yes for you is that it is rooted in self-trust, not people-pleasing.

Every time you honor a soul yes, you strengthen that inner bridge, that inner connection, the one that connects your intuition to your actions. And that is what self-trust really is: giving yourself permission to listen and enough kindness to follow through, even when it’s messy.

How This Shows Up in My Coaching

Now, this is the heart of what I do with my one-on-one coaching clients. Together we slow down and we start listening again. We use my ALIGN framework, a gentle holistic approach that blends somatic awareness, yoga philosophy, and evidence-based mindset work to help you tune back into your own inner guidance.

You’ll learn how to:

• Recognize the difference between a pressured yes and a peaceful one
• Make decisions from clarity, not confusion
• Move through life with steadiness, energy, and self-trust

Your life begins to feel like yours again.

Each time you practice this, even imperfectly, you’re teaching your system: “Hey, we can trust ourselves now. We’re safe to choose what fits.”

It adds up. These yeses become your new normal.

What If I Don’t Know What a Soul Yes Feels Like?

Hey, if it’s not a soul yes, it’s a no. Right?

Now you might be wondering, What if I don’t know what a soul yes feels like? That makes sense for a lot of us.

It’s not that we never knew, it’s just that we stopped trusting what we knew. Right?

Think about it. You were born with that inner guidance. It’s always been there, but over the years you were taught to question it. To be polite instead of honest, to avoid rocking a boat, to listen to what others thought was best even when your body said otherwise.

So if it feels hard to tell the difference between a real yes, a soul yes, and a pressured one, that is completely understandable. You are human, and this is tender work.

That deep knowing is not gone. It’s just been quiet for a while. Trust me, it remembers, and we can get back to it one yes at a time.

Now in coaching, we create the space to listen again. We slow down, we get curious. And little by little your soul’s yes becomes easier to feel and easier to trust your intuition.

In Summary

All right, let’s wrap things up here. We have covered a lot today.

If you’ve been saying yes out of habit, guilt, or fear of what other people think, fear of letting people down, you’re not alone. You’re not the only one. We all do it. I’ve been there so many times, but you don’t have to keep living that way.

Today, you’ve learned five ways to recognize your soul’s yes:

• It feels like relief
• It expands you
• It fits your real life
• Your body agrees
• It comes from self-trust

When you start listening for that yes and honoring it, life feels lighter. You stop overthinking as much. You don’t overcommit as much, and you start living from a place that feels more true to you.

You do not need a complete life overhaul, my friend. You just need to learn to trust your intuition, that voice inside of you that says, this is right for me.

Your Next Steps

If this episode stirred something for you and you want a gentle way to explore your own soul yes, I made a free worksheet to help you out. It’s a Soul Yes Reflection Guide, and you can get it here or visit rachelhupp.com/12.

It’s a simple, powerful guide that you can keep returning to anytime you need to reconnect with what’s true for you.

Ready for Support?

So if you are feeling that pull, that quiet yes, and you are ready for some steady support as you practice this, I would love to walk with you inside my Soulful One-to-One Life Coaching.

We will work together to help you:

• Reconnect with your inner guidance
• Make aligned, nourishing decisions
• Build the kind of life that feels like yours

You can book a package or learn more here.

What’s Next?

And next week on the podcast, we’re going to keep going deeper. I’ll be sharing why Self-Trust Is the New Strategy, a gentle look at what it really means to build a life that feels calm, clear, and genuinely your own. So stay tuned for that.

Here is to more soul yeses, one at a time.

Rachel