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I’ve sat down several times over the past week to write this article about managing anxiety while running a business. And each time I try to put my thoughts down, nothing has come out until now. The irony of that is, anxiety was the very cause of my writer’s block.

Have you ever been out, enjoying a beautiful sunny day, when suddenly out of nowhere dark clouds roll in and it starts to rain?

Anxiety is my dark cloud.

As I’ve been working on this app and entering into a new space that I know nothing about, that dark cloud has decided to follow me more often. At any given moment, my hands start to feel heavy on the keyboard. That pit in my stomach is back. And the thoughts start spiraling: “You can't afford this. You don't know what you're doing. Who are you to think you can build a tech company?”

If you have anxiety, then you know this feeling all too well.

I’ve been managing anxiety and depression for years now. And honestly, it doesn’t just show up in my personal life; it runs through every corner of my business too. My pricing decisions. My marketing. Whether or not I hit ‘publish’ on something I’ve been working on for weeks. All the way down to deciding on something as simple as my brand colors. 🥴

But here’s what I’ve thankfully learned over the years: sometimes that dark cloud is just anxiety trying to protect me from imagined danger. But there are some times when it’s my intuition trying to tell me something that I have probably been ignoring.

The problem is, both anxiety and your intuition often feel exactly the same in your body.

So how do you know the difference? And more importantly, how do you know when to listen and when to redirect?

For years, I thought I was just an anxious person. That the pit in my stomach, the dread before client calls, the tightness in my chest. I thought that was just anxiety trying to hold me back from “leveling up.”

In my coaching business, I kept telling myself: “You’re just scared. Push through. This is what growth feels like.”

But looking back? My body was saying, “You betta run girl!”

I didn’t want to show up for calls. I resented the work I used to love. And every time I had to market my coaching services, I felt this heavy weight in my chest. And I kept telling myself, “It’s just anxiety. It’s just fear. You’re being dramatic.”

But it wasn’t anxiety. It was my intuition screaming: “This isn’t it anymore. You’ve outgrown this. It’s time to pivot.”

If I had actually listened to those signs instead of labeling them as “just anxiety,” I would have left sooner. And I would have saved myself years of forcing something that no longer fit.

The same thing happened in my marriage.

I kept telling myself I was overthinking. That anxiety was making me see problems that weren’t there. That I was overreacting for no reason.

But my nervous system knew. My body was picking up on the fact that something wasn’t right, something my brain wasn’t ready to admit yet.

And I wish I had trusted it sooner.

So when I started building DEW and that familiar anxiety showed up, I had to ask myself: Is this the same thing? Is my body trying to tell me to stop? Or is this different?

Building DEW scares me. Every single day.

I’m stepping into an industry I know nothing about. I’m building a tech product with no tech background. I’m investing time, energy, and money into something that might not work.

And my nervous system is going crazy!

The same pit in my stomach. The same spiraling thoughts. The same physical heaviness.

But this time, I’m noticing the difference.

This time, when I ask myself “Is this real?” the answer is: Sort of.

Yes, building an app is hard. Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, I could fail.

But when I dig deeper and ask myself, “What’s the reality?” I realize that I not only really want to build this company. But that i’m also I’m excited about it and I believe in it. I’m not dreading the work. I’m just scared of the outcome.

That’s anxiety. Not intuition.

Anxiety is protecting me from the assumption of future failure. It’s responding to discomfort, not danger.

My intuition isn’t telling me to stop. It’s just asking me to be smart. To plan. To move carefully. But to keep moving.

So when you’re in the moment, how do you tell the difference between what anxiety is trying to make you believe and what your intuition is trying to get you to notice??

Don’t just spiral. Stop and call it what it is. “I’m feeling anxious right now.”

Naming it takes some of the power away. It gives you distance from the feeling so that you can look at it realistically.

Ask yourself:

Where do I feel this in my body? (Chest? Stomach? Throat?)
What thoughts are looping in my head?
What story is anxiety trying to make me believe?

Anxiety lives in the future and is always asking “what if?”

What if this fails?
What if I run out of money?
What if people think I’m crazy?

Intuition lives in the present. It’s telling you something about right now.

This doesn’t feel right.
I don’t want to do this anymore.
Something is off here.

If your fear is about something that hasn’t happened yet and might never happen, that’s anxiety.

If your discomfort is about something happening right now that you’re trying to ignore, that’s intuition.

Intuition is consistent. If the same feeling keeps showing up in the same situation over weeks or months, pay attention.

In my coaching business, I felt dread before every single client call for months. That wasn’t a one-time anxiety spike. That was a pattern.

In my marriage, I felt that knot in my stomach during specific interactions, over and over again. That was my body giving me information.

Anxiety can be consistent too, but it jumps around. One day it’s about money. The next day it’s about marketing. The next it’s about whether people like you.

If the source of your anxiety keeps changing but the feeling stays the same? That’s anxiety. If the source stays the same and the feeling keeps showing up? That’s intuition.

Anxiety says: “I want to do this, but I’m scared.”

Intuition says: “I don’t actually want to do this. I just think I should want to.”

With coaching, I wanted to want to keep doing it. I thought I should because it made money and people knew me as “Alisha the business coach.” But deep down? I was over it.

With DEW? I want to build this company. Yes, I’m terrified, but I still want it.

That’s the difference.

Anxiety deals in stories. It catastrophizes every little moment. It assumes the worst and fills in blanks with fear.

Intuition deals in facts. It points to specific things that are actually happening.

When I was anxious about building the app, my brain would tell me, “You’re going to run out of money and fail and you will have just wasted your time.”

But when I looked at the evidence, none of that was true.

That was just my anxiety making up a story.

In my marriage, my intuition said: “You’re not being treated the way you want to be treated.”

And when I looked at the evidence? That was true. The specific behaviors and patterns was the evidence that I was missing.

That was intuition pointing to reality.

Ask yourself:

What is actually happening right now?
What is the evidence?
Am I reacting to a story in my head or to something real?

Anxiety hates discomfort. It will try to protect you from anything unfamiliar, uncertain, or outside your comfort zone, even if it’s good for you.

Intuition doesn’t mind discomfort. It just wants you to be safe and aligned.

Building DEW is uncomfortable. I’ve never done this before and I really don’t know what I am doing. But I know that discomfort is growth.

Staying in my coaching business was uncomfortable too, but that discomfort was misalignment. I knew, because of the evidence, that it was time for me to move on.

Ask yourself:

Is this uncomfortable because it’s new? Or because it’s wrong?
Am I scared because I’m growing? Or because I’m ignoring something?

Sometimes you can’t tell the difference in the moment. And that’s okay. If you’re spiraling and you can’t figure out if it’s anxiety or intuition, give yourself permission to not decide right now.

Take a walk. Sleep on it. Journal. Talk to someone you trust.

Anxiety wants you to decide NOW. It’s urgent, frantic, and pushy.

But intuition is patient. It will wait and it will keep showing up until you listen. It’s like a small, consistent nudge.

If the feeling is still there in a week, a month, six months and it’s pointing to the same thing, that’s probably intuition.

If it changes or fades once you get some distance, that was anxiety.

If your nervous system is going haywire right now in your business, your relationships, or some part of your life, I want you to pause and ask yourself:

Is this anxiety protecting me from discomfort? Or is this intuition trying to tell me something I don’t want to hear?

You don’t have to have the answer right now, but start paying attention. Your body is always talking to you but you have to be intentional about listening to it.

Have you ever ignored your intuition and called it anxiety? What happened?

Issue #114: Anxiety or Intuition? How to Tell the Difference (And Why It Matters)

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