There was a giant sign at the end of a major thoroughfare in Boston where I grew up, that said, “If you lived here, you’d be home now.” The sign was advertising a high-rise building of expensive condominiums. As one writer (“Chad”) opined online, “These signs were placed strategically, almost sadistically, on Storrow Drive where they were seen every day by the thousands of motorists trapped in rush hour gridlock.” It’s true. You’d just spent however much time crawling inch by inch just in time to think, Wow. If I lived here . . . “

Still, I loved that sign. For some reason, I always felt as if it held some great meaning, some message for me, even though I never knew exactly what that was.

Then, as I came out of my meditation this morning, just a few moments ago, and found myself thinking about what I might talk about in today’s post, I heard, “When you’re here, you’re home.”

Which happens to be exactly the way I truly feel about so many aspects of being—and knowing—that I’m an HSP, a highly sensitive person.

Here’s the way I see it after a lifetime of HSP-ness. In other words, the progression of how my awareness around my own high sensitivity has grown, and how I have grown because of it, through the years.

1. Over time, I learned to recognize the trait in myself and others.
2. I learned that the more we understand the trait of HSP-ness, the more likely we are to celebrate it, as opposed to berating ourselves for it, especially when we can tie it to our best qualities, like creativity and spirituality.
3. I learned that the more open we are to embracing the trait of our own HSP-ness, the more we recognize that looking for support from like-hearted people is necessary, valuable the community it provides to sustain us and help us gain perspective if/when we feel we might be faltering.
4. I also learned that the more consciously aware we become about who we really are, the more in alignment we feel, the more at home we feel in our bodies, minds, and spirits.

When we truly feel “at home” in ourselves, whatever happens out in the world takes second place. That’s not to say it doesn’t matter, in the sense that we want and need a certain level and amount of connection and interaction to survive and thrive in the world. But being solidly at home in your own energetic field of vibration, in your own Unique Energetic Signature, offers you a self-perpetuating model for moving through life. No matter where you are or what you are doing.

• I’m at my desk: I’m home.
• I’m at the local café having coffee with a friend: I’m home.
• I’m on the phone with my mother: I’m home.
• I’m working with a client: I’m home.
• I’m hearing from a loved one on the Other Side: I’m home.

When you’re home versus when part of you has flown the coop

1. You may find yourself speaking more slowly, consciously, and conscientiously when you’re “home.”
2. You may find yourself listening longer, with a greater interest, curiosity, and less judgment when you’re “home.”
3. You may find yourself less emotionally and physically tired or stressed after your experiences, whatever they are, when you’re “home.”

Home: It’s where the mind-body-spirit connection is tied up with a bow and where you live, breathe, create, and thrive.

The post HSPs in Alignment: “When You’re Here, You’re Home Now.” first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

How about we cut all the BS and get to the real point. Some of us see things differently. Some of us hear things differently, or sense things other people don’t. We come in all different colors, shapes, and sizes . . . and still we’re all human and we all share commonalities.

But, call it what you will, when we’re talking about HSPs, or those who are highly sensitive, intuitive, empathetic, telepathic, and so on . . . When did it become such a shameful thing to call IT for what IT is?

I had a brilliant convo today with a colleague with whom I passionately agreed that since time immemorial—or at least since there have been human beings—there have been people who have such gifts and have been branded in less than desirable ways. In derogatory ways that I choose not to even put on paper. We have reached a point where just about any label is better than “psychic.”

• To some it means charlatan.
• To others, it means you can read their minds.
• And to others still, it means you are plain crazy.

Labels, Schmabels

Well, I’m here to say that I don’t need to couch what I am or what I do in terminology that might make it more palatable for others. Making sure other people are comfortable is a long-time MO of mine, as it is for so many HSPs. (Not that it ever really worked in the long run because people still have to deal with their own you-know-what eventually.)

My recent article on Psychic vs. Sensitive struck a chord with lots of people. The chord got louder when my colleague reminded me about a book she’s reading on HSPs and empathy. The book’s focus (apparently) discusses the similarities and differences between being highly sensitive and being empathetic. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t answer to how valid the author’s point is, especially since the author is a talented researcher and writer. My only purpose here is to pose the question: Why is it important to distinguish between the two? If empathetic means “showing an ability to understand and share the feelings of another,” and psychic means “relating to the soul or mind,” should I apologize for being a psychic or a medium? Would it be easier to swallow if I called myself an empath—which I most assuredly am?

Does different matter?

I’ve already discussed the difference between psychic and mediumship, that the first is perceiving information from other humans and the second is receiving information from the Spirit World (Source/your Higher Self/God, etc.). This is a difference that means something to me because I avoid using my “psychic octopus” to glob about in other people’s minds, hearts, or spirits. If I get a message, I’d rather it be straight from the source, so to speak. But, in the end, the labels only matter as much as we give them credit for mattering. I use the label Highly Sensitive to invite those of us who are any or all of these things to the table where we can honor each other and the greater discussion about who we are, our purpose, and our potential.

* * *

Private coaching sessions with me are available here,  plus multiple healing musical recordings here.

Keep an eye out for my new book, soon to be published: Elevating Your HSP-ness

Check out my posts on the Psychic Octopus (globbing onto other people’s energy); your UES (how to identify and stay in your Unique Energetic Signature); and your IGS (how to confidently and consistently tap into your Intuitive Guidance System.

Thank you for shining your light into the world!

The post HSP: Sensitive, Empathetic, Psychic, or just plain messed up? first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

Sensitive, Schmensative.

When you’re an HSP, you’re sensitive. We’ve pretty much figured that one out. But what we want to do is open up to life, not shut it out.

I have a friend who is also an HSP. For my friend, whom I shall call Stella for our purposes here today, indicators of high sensitivity include all the usual ones like anxiety, depression, and phobias. In purely physical terms, there are allergies (to everything from bug bites to the scent of flowers), massive chemical sensitivities (from dryer sheets to cologne to anything and everything with any kind of smell), and social sensitivities (from crowd aversion to simply needing to spend most of her time alone).

Does Stella sound like anyone you know? Does it sound like you?

Everything is an indicator, but an indicator of what???

For Stella, life has become very small. She has to choose avoid all the things in the world that make her miserable or deal with the resultant misery. Most of the time she stays home because going anywhere has become a challenge. Friend’s shampoo? NO! Window cleaner? NO! The laundry aisle of the supermarket? HOLD YOUR BREATH OR ORDER ONLINE! Stand behind someone in line who wears perfume? HEAD FOR THE NEAREST EXIT!

Because no one understands better than I do how shutting out all the things that offend us feels like the only option, I have lots and lots of compassion for my friend. Who, it has to be said, has lots and lots of compassion for me when I go off. (Like just the other day when the smell of a friend’s Irish Spring soap had me sneezing and sneezing…and sneezing.) It’s never a one-way street. Yet I would like to feel that my ability to tune into the true purpose of the manifested indicator is developing over time. How does that happen?

Through conscious awareness.

For example, here’s how I would have reacted in the past to this one of my personal common indicators.

“That’s the third sneeze in a row. Am I feeling okay? I’m not sure. Now I can’t stop sneezing. Now I’m sneezing uncontrollably. Where’s the darn Kleenex box?  I could be getting a cold. I could even have Covid. Do I have any Covid tests lying around? Who did I see lately who could have given it to me? What if I gave it to someone else? Omigod, what if I’m really, really sick? What would I do if I got sick and had to go in the hospital? Who would take care of my house? What about all my clients, all my work?”

People have lots of names and commentary for this kind of thinking. As Eckhart Tolle says in The Power of Now, “As long as I am my mind, I am those cravings, those needs, wants, attachments, and aversions, and apart from them there is no ‘I’ except as a mere possibility, an unfulfilled potential, a seed that has not yet sprouted.”

My own mind used to go around in so many circles that I rarely, if ever, felt capable of making a right decision. Not only that, but once I’d made the decision, I was always sure it was the wrong one. In the instance of my sneezing indicator, when it shows up, I immediately cop to the fact that it’s associated with having been “out in public,” in the airport, maybe, on a plane, or on a first date. While it wouldn’t be accurate to say I am miserably uncomfortable in those circumstances since I’ve gotten so used to reeling in my good ol’ psychic octopus, it’s usually after the fact, once I get home, that the sneezing begins. What is my sneezing an indicator of? The fact that I am processing whatever leftover resistance I was experiencing during whatever it was I was experiencing!

I was on the plane without an issue. I got all the way to baggage claim before the sneezing kicked in. Relief, once again, at feeling I was back on my home turf.

The date was uncomfortable. I felt in alignment during the date, but relieved to leave, I immediately began to sneeze.

These episodes used to last days, if not longer, and be neatly, conveniently categorized, as “some kind of bug that requires attention…medicine…a doctor…concern…worry…etc. Now? Rarely longer than a few hours at most.

If you were in my head, here’s what you’d be hearing. “Oh. I’m shifting. I’m having one of my shifts. Isn’t this interesting? I don’t particularly like this one because my nose gets so sore, but I know it’ll be over soon because all I’m doing is reacting to the effort I made to handle my recent experience. I know that as it gets easier and easier to be in alignment, with my octopus tentacles snuggled in close, this kind of thing is happening less and less often. I’m really looking forward to the time when it stops happening altogether. Yay for me!”

(In the meantime, where’s that Kleenex?)

The post HSPs and the “Real” World: Is it really what you think it is first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.