It’s Time to Elevate & Celebrate Your High Sensitivity with Heidi Connolly, the Celestial Professor!

**** Be among the first 10 people to join this event and you will receive a gift of a completely FREE 15-minute consultation with me, Heidi Connolly, author, intuitive coach, medium, and guided musician. ****

This is the Celestial Professor’s first HSP Summit with expert guests discussing their personal and professional experiences as Highly Sensitive People and how they’ve learned to amplify–and celebrate!–their own HSP qualities for a fulfilling and High-Frequency Life.

JOIN US SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1 PM PT @ https://youtu.be/McDwEL-ISMo

It’s time to choose the life you want by learning what you need. What do I mean by that?

Most people talking about being “highly sensitive” are focused on coping with what feels like a “problem.” But I don’t believe that’s true.

I believe that only when we really begin to understand the meaning of sensitivity–the fact that it speaks to our divinely intuitive natures, our innate abilities, and our critical powers of heart-and-mind-partnered capabilities–are we able to become truly sovereign beings that can use our so-called “sensitivities” to uplift the world.

If you want to learn how, this summit is a good first step. All these speakers are HSPs, all have gone through challenging times to understand who they are, but, best of all, they have learned to utilize who and what they are for their own benefit and the greater good.

Guests include myself, plus:

Irene Weinberg, Grief & Rebirth Podcast;
Jill Lebeau, Spiritual Sandbox Podcast;
Claudia Helt, Center for Peaceful Transitions;
Sherri Cortland, Author and Speaker;
Dana Stovern, Magic of Somatic Money Podcast;
Heidi Winkler, Winkler Leadership Academy

. . . All experts in their fields, ALL HSPs, and all dedicated to uplifting the world.

heidiconnolly.com | f-b: hspness | blog: hspness.com. Upcoming new book: Elevate Your HSP-ness: How to Live a High-Frequency Life that Amplifies Your Vibration, Celebrates Your Sensitivities, & Uplifts the World.

The post JOIN THE EXPERTS FOR THE 1ST HSP SUMMIT OF ITS KIND!!! first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

I’ve been an HSP for a long time. One might even say a very long time. So, I guess you could also say that I have a lot of experience when it comes to my HSP-ness. All those qualities that seemed to undermine me at every turn, every step of the way. Plus all the experiences I have undergone that have revealed all my sensitivities, each and every one, for what they really are: indicators of my amazing abilities to love, honor, respect–once I learned to use them, not let them abuse me.

The thing about sensitivities is that they often present in extremes. For example, if you’re hyper-sensitive to cold, you may be, as I am, hyper-sensitive to heat. If you’re hyper-sensitive to touch, you may be hyper-sensitive to the lack of it. If you’re hyper-sensitive to sound, you may be hyper-sensitive to the empty silence of quiet. Because we’re sensitive to everything. Just hang with 10 people saying nothing for a while and you’ll see what I mean.

Once again, yet another interesting conundrum for the Highly Sensitive Person. How can we rationalize the fact that we may be as uncomfortable in one set of circumstances and equally as uncomfortable in its apparent extreme opposite set of circumstances?

I can only share what I have come to realize.

On a societal level

We live in the age of soundbites and endless possibilities for distraction. Endless opportunities to fill the silence. If we don’t want to be alone with our thoughts, we almost never need to be.

On a community level:

Feeling  uncomfortable in crowds and/or social settings is typical for HSPs. Yet society teaches us that we are supposed to be good little children in the classroom and adept at navigating the world through some kind of inherent charm and know-how. If we aren’t, if we don’t or can’t or are not up to the task, we are made to feel small and inadequate. Our tendency is to seek out solitude rather than engage in frustrating attempts at socialization, even when solitude strikes a heavy chord of loss inside us.

On a familial level

Most everyone I’ve ever known suffers from the Family Syndrome: There’s nothing like being with family that could feel more comfortable, even if the circumstances are miserable; there’s something about having your expectations being fulfilled. While it might not feel like the good kind of comfortable, at least you know Uncle Joe might drink too much and Mom might tell you to get your hair cut. On the other hand, a family dinner can make you feel like running in the other direction so fast and so far that you’d never be seen or heard from again.

On a relationship level

I’ve often said that it’s important to be in relationship with someone you can be yourself with. Someone you can be with without saying anything, just being quiet and being comfortable at the same time. I still feel that way. But, more and more, *I’m realizing that it’s all about being comfortable with myself that matters. I don’t think I was ever truly comfortable anywhere, anytime, with anyone, until I became comfortable with my own being-ness, including my own HSP-ness.*

On a one-on-one level with self. See above*…Your relationship with Self is all that really matters.

QUESTION FOR THE DAY: 10 people go quiet at a party. Suddenly, things get really uncomfortable fast. What do you do?

• Do you rush to fill the silence?
• Do you pour another glass of wine?
• Do you make an inappropriate joke?
• Do you squirm in your seat and wish you were somewhere else?
• Do you make an excuse to leave the room?

There are different versions of quiet and different versions of noise. But there is only one version of you that matters.

The one that is in alignment.

It’s time to stop hiding and start Elevating Your HSP-ness!

Soon to be available at https://www.heidiconnolly.com

The post Is there such as thing as too much quiet when you’re a Highly Sensitive Person? first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

(Or . . . Why can’t I just let go and be in the flow like everyone says I should be?)

When I was growing up, everything bothered me. Everything upset me. Everything made me cry. Everything scared me. Everything was hard.

Now, the word of the day is “trigger.”

“It’s such a trigger for me,” we say. “You’re triggering me.” “You know that triggers me.” “If you know that’s a trigger for me, why don’t you stop doing it/saying it?”

What’s the one thing all these ways we express ourselves have in common? Well, I hate to say it, but it’s that all of them are putting the reason (the blame) for our being triggered on the person, place, or thing that’s getting in the way of our comfort.

• “The scent in here drives me crazy; I hate scented candles.”
• “He knows I hate to be yelled at, so why can’t he learn to lower his voice?”
• “I can’t stand green pepper, so why would they put it in the food?”

  

All of these statements have something else in common, too: They all express significantly low-vibration language, use of which, frankly, probably won’t catapult you into a *high-frequency life.*

Please understand that I’m not complaining about other people’s complaining about their triggers–as such. I’m not saying that we all don’t have valid reasons for having developed our triggers. Things like poor parenting, growing up with abuse, feeling ignored, unloved, unappreciated. We could go on and on. Most of us have at least one or two, if not dozens, of things that draw us in like a spider to a fly. “Come on in, you’ll love it in here.” And then . . . ZAP! You’re caught in the middle of something from which not only does it appear there is no escape but that sends you spiraling into the HSP’s Land of the Lost.

What really matters, though, is that at some point in our lives, we start to look at our triggers as something we have at some point decided we are willing to react to instead of something happening to us that we cannot control.

No, we can’t control someone who decides to yell or put green pepper in our dinner. But we certainly have a say about our reaction to it.

I’ve learned the following:

1. Going around all day talking about the things that trigger me only triggers me more.
2. Using language that has a low frequency like “I hate it when you…” “Why is this happening to me?” “It’s not fair…” “They should know it hurts me…” are all downers. Say them out loud or hear someone else say them and immediately the energy in the room goes south. If and when YOU say it, your own vibration has just crashed.
3. Talking about what triggers me triggers me into finding reasons I’m triggered that justify my reaction.
4. Talking to others about the fact that I was triggered by someone or something feels satisfyingly reassuring.
5. I like being reassured because it feels like someone is responding to my need for understanding or love or support or whatever else I want

If I turn my low-frequency HSP language into high-frequency language, the Land of the Lost turns into the Land of the Found.

Let’s start with the triggering episode.

Trigger: My friend is upset and has been talking to me in a louder-than-usual voice.

Response: I’m immediately back in my childhood being yelled at by my father. I can’t hear anything my friend is saying because all I want to do is run and hide and cry and scream. In the corner.

Reaction: I yell at my friend, “You know that I can’t hear you if you raise your voice to me! You know my father used to yell at me and I hate that. Why are you yelling at me?”

What’s really going on: Deflection, Victimization, Defensiveness, Justification, Avoidance, Blame, and Self-righteousness–not that there’s not a whole lot of hurt in there, too.

What I do differently

Trigger: My friend is upset and has been talking to me in a louder-than-usual voice.

Response: I’m immediately back in my childhood being yelled at by my father. I can’t hear anything my friend is saying because all I want to do is run and hide and cry and scream. In the corner.

Realization: Wow. I’m really out of alignment here. I know what brought it on and I don’t particularly enjoy it, but even if it feels uncomfortable, it’s a huge opportunity to work on pulling in my psychic octopus tentacles and practice my newfound awareness that I have the wherewithal to reflect on what I’m feeling even as I’m feeling it. Even a moment of objectivity in that kind of situation can switch off the “I’m freaking out” and switch on the “Oh, how interesting” switch.

One step back = a giant leap forward.

TIP OF THE DAY:

1. Write a list of 10 things that trigger you.
2. Put a checkmark next to all the ones that feel justified based on your life experience.
3. Now erase them.

The post Why Does Everything In the World Seem To Trigger Me So Much? first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

I’m not being so emo on purpose—it’s just the way I am!

Yesterday I wrote about not being a victim by stepping into a new way of thinking. After further conversation with myself this morning during a meditation, I was reminded how resistant I myself was to this idea. I mean, who wants to admit that what happens to them might be due to something they are doing or thinking or being rather than charge it to someone else?

It’s like using someone else’s credit card. Sure, you’ve purchased the item, so now it’s yours, but who really did the deed?

Here’s what happened when my husband—many, many years ago (yes, while he was still in physical form, i.e., alive)—and I were having a—well, I’ll call it a discussion to be polite—knock-down-drag-out miserable-with-crying moment.

There’s a lot to unwrap here, so stay with me.

The whole thing started with Randy sharing something going on, something I’d apparently done, that was making him upset. At first I was sympathetic. I didn’t like seeing him upset or unhappy, and, being the empathetic, caring, HSP that I am, I expressed support and love and kindness.

At least that’s how I like to think it went. I guess Randy didn’t see it that way.

His take on it was that, after about a minute of “I’m sorry you feel that way,” I’d immediately launched into the “but” thing. You know.

• “I’m sorry you feel that way, but….”
• “But…it really wasn’t that big a deal….”
• “…I really didn’t mean it that way so you shouldn’t take it that way….”
• “…I can’t hear you when you raise your voice to me….” and
• “I don’t really care about how you feel because what really matters is that I defend myself against whatever accusations you’re making so that I turn the whole conversation around until you feel sorry for me.”

The defensive mode

My husband went on to say that playing the victim was not a viable option. That being in a relationship meant if one of the partners had an issue, the other one was to listen appropriately without jumping in to defend.

It was the first time in my life that I realized how that was exactly what I’d been doing. As soon as someone was triggered by something I’d said or done and told me about it, the only option I saw was to jump into defensive mode. To defend why I’d said it or done it or felt it or could excuse it.

He was right. And, honestly, it was mortifying.

There I was, crying my heart out, believing with all my heart, based on all the psychological baggage I’d brought with me into the marriage, that if my husband was unhappy it was all my fault, that I’d never fix it, and that he’d probably end up leaving me.

Um…yeah. So of course I’d get all defensive. What other choice was there?

The upshot

What happened? I got really, really quiet for a while. I realized I really didn’t know how to listen to “criticism” or “feedback” or whatever you want to call it without defending myself from what I thought the words meant or implied. They’d meant bad things were going to happen when I was a kid, so why wouldn’t bad things happen now?

From then on, my first question to myself when something came between us to work on was, “Am I listening or busy thinking of all the ways I’ll defend myself?” And I have never looked at potentially challenging conversations the same way again.

Before I end, I don’t want to leave you thinking that my husband’s insistence that something I did had “triggered him” was altogether in the clear relative to victimization either. Neither of us understood at the time that how we react and respond is our responsibility and no one else’s. While maliciousness is never excusable, if something occurs with good intention, isn’t it better to reflect on one’s own role first rather than leap into blaming the other?

In conclusion, whether we’re HSP, highly sensitive, or not, only we are responsible for ourselves, our triggers, and our responses.

The post I’m not being so emo on purpose—it’s just the way I am! first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

By far the most common questions I get from HSPs are, “Why can’t I be normal like everyone else?” “Why do I have to be so sensitive?” And “Why can’t other people understand and make it easier for me?”

My answers are simple:

1.  There is no normal.
2.  You are yourself and that’s as normal as it gets.
3.  Once you see your sensitivities as abilities meant to be celebrated, not something to bemoan, you’ll never see life the same way again.

I know, I know. Easier said than done. But not really. Not once you make a small shift in your way of thinking and have a few basic tools.

Let’s look at these beliefs in more detail.

As soon as we start believing that we, as HSPs, are different in a way that makes us vulnerable, we are viewing ourselves as victims. We say we want to be “normal,” but normal is nothing more than deciding we’d be better off not being who we are. We’d be better off being like “other people.” Neither of which is true. The reality is that being highly sensitive can mean a truly wonderful existence. But only if and when we are ready to stop believing that it’s up to other people to be different and do things differently for us. To make us feel better. To make us happier. To make things easier.

We’d all like to live in a world that is willing to accommodate us so we feel comfortable.

As soon as something happens to “make us” uncomfortable, we immediately feel the need—the compulsion—to make the world shift itself around in order for us to remain or revert to our comfortable spot. Feeling

• put out
• unlike yourself
• like a fish out of water
• like something is off…

. . . All these sensations cause such discomfort that we will do just about anything to change how we feel. There’s overindulging, avoiding, distracting, blaming…the list of potential ways to deny the discomfort is endless.

The bottom line

The bottom line, however unfortunate it seems, is this: Our sensitivity may be heightened, but we can never really expect the world to accommodate us.

I have come to realize that it is up to me to learn to be in my own alignment so the world does not “trigger me.” Saying that someone or something “triggers us” is like admitting that we have absolutely no power. That we are at the mercy of other people, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, and the greater environment.

For years I asked myself, “Do I really want to live like this? I am such a victim of everything and everyone. There has to be a way to change the way I am—without sacrificing my sensitivity. Because my sensitivity is what makes me extra loving, extra generous and kind, extra compassionate, extra creative, extra empathetic, and extraordinary. Basically, just plain extra.”

The answer was NO! Which is why somehow, I had to tap into what would invite me to use all those wonderful traits without being constantly at risk for falling apart.

Yes, the world might feel threatened by the high sensitive’s ability to love and care, but only because, without realizing it, they are feeling the powerful vibration of our love energy. And when people feel threatened, they tend to go into flight or fight mode.

But on my part, there is another possibility for how I respond. I learned that I do not need to protect myself from these people. I don’t need to push against, hope for, change circumstances, wish things were different or people were different. All I have to do is learn to be in alignment with my highest self and love being there. Every day, in every way, over and over and over.

I learned that you don’t need to conquer fear and anxiety, but rather exist in your own state of natural harmony. You don’t need to avoid triggers, but rather not feel triggered in the first place. No matter what has happened in our past.

I have spent years developing tools to help others do the very same thing and without exception, it changes everything. [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.]

“Why can’t people understand that I’m sensitive and that I can’t help it?” Because it’s up to us as HSPs to develop our own sense of what’s normal–and love it.

I’ll say it again. I know it sounds simplistic.

But if I can do it, so can you.

The post Why can’t people understand that I’m sensitive and that I can’t help it? first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

Getting shots has never been my idea of fun.

The past

When I was a little kid, my mother took us to a pediatrician named Dr. Glazer. Dr. Glazer was a brusque, no-nonsense kind of man. I assume he liked kids, being a kid doctor and all, but I was always sort of nervous around him. Sure, I only saw him for things like vaccines or when I was sick, but I never felt a bunch of warm fuzzies from the good doctor. Like I said, he was all business.

Case in point.

By the time came for the shot in the arm, I was already crying. Dr. Glazer and my mom muttered a few “Come on, now, it’s not that bad” and “It’ll be over before you know it” to placate me, but then things took a turn. Dr. Glazer, with a needle that seemed as long as his arm and raised above his head, would wheel his way from the counter to the examining table.  When he reached my side and took hold of my arm, my heart beat so fast I’d feel faint. And this is when he’d say, “I’m going to give you a little jab now, but you tell me when to stop, okay?”

A couple of seconds later, my eyes closed, I’d be crying, “Stop…stop, please stop” to see he had already removed the needle and was readying my arm to receive a Barbie Band-Aid and a lollipop. (It’s not like he was a dentist or anything. Although now, looking back on it, I sort of think doctors and dentists might be in cahoots like that.)

Anyway, the point is that there were several seconds—very, very long seconds—where I was sure that needle was still in my arm and panicking. Talk about trauma.

I’m willing to concede that Dr. Glazer probably used this little trick on all his small patients. And maybe it worked wonder with some of us with a fear of needles, though I don’t see how. I also understand how reverse psychology can work the same kind of wonder with some behavior trends. Again, though, not so much with me.

Why?

• Fear of the unknown.
• Fear of the known.
• Fear of the pain.
• Fear there might be pain.
• Fear that something that is sure to be painful will last a lot longer than you’ll be able to handle.

Need I go on?

The present

Today, being of a certain age, and having received quite a few shots in my time, I was not especially looking forward to the two vaccines I needed. In fact, as soon as I sat down in the chair and the technician started preparing her paraphernalia (I don’t even like saying the word “needle”), I closed my eyes and thought, Sometimes I wish I weren’t so darn sensitive.

The event

But then . . .

Guess what happened? I kind of Zenned out. I pulled in my little Psychic Octopus and told myself it would be over in seconds and I’d forget all about it. That I was grateful for the ability to receive the shot. That whatever it was in the shot would keep me healthy and that I was accepting it willingly and with loving intention.

And by the time I’d completed my little ritual of gratitude and self-awareness, the ordeal–the shot–really was over and the technician was placing a bright red Band-Aid on my arm. (No, no Barbie Band-Aids this time—which is fine because I’d never played with Barbie dolls anyway. I did note the box of min-Tootsie Roll Pops in the corner, but stifled my feeling of deservedness post-shot.)

What my HSP-ness has taught me to do

As an HSP, over time, and with the tools I’ve developed, I’ve learned to “unanticipate” certain events. Instead of spending my time and energy wishing I didn’t have to do something, anticipating how difficult or horrible or challenging or disturbing or sad or uncomfortable or painful an event might be, I think about other things. I remind myself that “this time tomorrow it’ll all be over” and “I’d rather be thinking about other things I like to think about.”

I don’t really know for sure whether the energies I’d pick up in the past were from other people in the environment, like doctors, nurses, other patients, my mother, etc., or were of my own projection, but being inside my own energy is such a relief.

My prescription? The HSP Prescription: Take One Dose of the HSP Toolbox Daily

Take one capsule of Psychic Octopus, one capsule of Being in Your Own Unique Alignment, and one capsule of Self-Love daily for symptoms—and celebration– of your HSP-ness.

The post The HSP Prescription: Take One Dose of the HSP Toolbox Daily first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

In times of transition….

Transitions. Don’t ya just hate ’em?

It’s not really about the actual getting where you’re going, or even the getting there and then being there, or even about thinking about going, about how you’ll get there, and how it’ll all pan out when you need to leave that can make you nuts. I mean, once you learn you have such great HSP tools at your disposal, and how so many of your triggers are of your own making, once you are where you are, you’re good.

It’s the transitions that are the toughest.

J, one of the friends with whom I’ve just spent the last few days—the awesome highway navigator—left today for her LA conference downtown. Before she left, the three of us were talking about her phenomenal ability to make her way through the world. To travel from country to country and never forget her passport or boarding pass or toiletries. (There was the one time she went to the Netherlands to give a presentation and forgot her skirt, but even then she made do with a couple of scarves wrapped around her waist and a long blazer. Talk about resilient.)

Anyway, J looks at us and says, “You have no idea how hard it is for me to actually get going and do the things I do.”

Skepticism reigns.

Naturally, we are skeptical. “There’s no way,” we argue. “Look at what you do and how you do it. You practically beam from one country to another, never with more than one carryon suitcase, no matter how long you’re staying or how much country-hopping you’re doing.”

“But it’s true,” she says. “It’s the transitioning. I sit in my bathrobe at home thinking, “I really don’t to go. I like it here with my mug of coffee. I love being all those places and even the actual traveling and getting there, but when I think about it—about actually getting up and starting the process??—there’s nothing less appealing. It’s like moving through Jello, wading through this sticky slow-motion world.”

What????

Talk about speechless. We’ve known each other forever and never knew this about her. In supermarkets, this is the woman with the right app to get her discounts, the right number of bags to get her groceries home, and the wherewithal to stock her cart in the order of how they will have to leave the cart in order to be bagged appropriately (by food category and where it will go when it gets put away).

“It’s true,” she insists again. “Just because I’ve got great organizational skills and have spent a lot of time and effort to offset the fact that I’m neuro-divergent, it doesn’t mean that I don’t go through those same ‘I wish I didn’t have to do this’ thing.”

L and I are really staggering from this new knowledge. We are all HSPs, of course, in our own ways, but L and I tend to require a whole lot less outside-world influence to feel happy, competent, and sane. You might say the introvert-extrovert analogy would work here, but honestly, it’s much more than that, because being sensitive to the transitions can cause a much different level of necessary coping strategies.

Yet, once again, as much as I don’t want to bang the HSP Toolbox, or the other tools I use, I can’t help it. When you’re aware, and I mean consciously aware, that you’re about to be in a transitional state, that it’s a definite (not made-up) shift of energy created by the physical world that affects your inner world, things change. You may not need help bagging groceries or remembering your passport, but what do you do when you do need help?

Use the handy tools in your toolbox, starting with your Psychic Octopus to stay in your own alignment. Then, as your activities have you interacting with the world, use your Unique Energetic Signature as a reminder to stay there.

Whatever tools you use, the premise remains: Transitions can be appreciated on their own merits, for the opportunities they bring, and the invitation they offer us to celebrate our journeys as HSPs.

The opportunity to take a sidestep.

A big one. Through the Jello.

For the better.

The post The Toughness of Transition When You’re an HSP first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

I thought that writing on one topic every day would be a really tough call. What could I possibly have to say each day that would matter to me and all of you? I asked myself this question for the last couple of months . . . until today. Because I realized, suddenly, that the subject of high sensitivity is a never-ending fruit ripe for the picking.

Every day is a whopper-tunity!

Every day my life as an HSP offers me whopper-tunities to practice the tools I teach. To reach into my knowingness and my ever-evolving awareness and come up with some way of being in the world that doesn’t feel like a struggle, and instead feels like a cool puzzle I’m putting together. One minute it’s a relationship puzzle, the next it’s a dealing-with-negativity puzzle or a being-in-a-crowded-place puzzle. I may look like your average person going about her business, but inside? I’m doing everything I suggest to you.

1. I’m asking myself if my psychic octopus is out.
2. I’m asking myself if I’m soaking up someone else’s energy/emotions/thoughts like a psychic sponge.
3. I’m reflecting on whether I’m feeling aligned or like a twizzle stick on steroids.
4. If I recognize I’m not in alignment, I ask myself what’s affecting me, why I’m reacting, what I’m reacting to, and then deciding to get back into alignment.
5. Once I decide to get back into alignment, I pull out my trusty psychic octopus and get started.

It happened again today.

I was in the car with someone who was talking about all sorts of things that were wrong in the world. And, while I could not possibly disagree with her opinions on climate change and other important worldly events, I also felt myself shutting down so I wouldn’t take in that energy of “I hate this . . .” and “I hate when . . .” and “I hate when people . . .”. I felt my jaw tense as I clamped my mouth shut. I felt my breathing move high up in my chest. I didn’t respond because I could not even nod my head without feeling that I would be indicating I was good with how they were expressing what they were thinking…the frequency of the words alone was distressing.

You see, while I might agree that the world is going through a tough time, I believe there is a certain perfection in all of it, even in my own HSP-ness, and even in my friend’s need to express her discouraged outlook. So, I don’t want to nod along as if to say, “Yes, I feel that way, too.” If I do that, I will be vibrating in that same energy of discouragement and distress, which I know very well from experience, will only invite me to spiral down into a place I really do not want to be.

I am a committed self-guided HSP with an HSP-ness toolbox that rocks!

I love this person with whom I was traveling. I love my time with them. What I need to love more, however, is my alignment within myself. Because, as an HSP committed to celebrating my sensitivities and uplifting the world, I need to address that first before I can shine my own light.

And we all know you need a toolbox full of great tools to do that.

Let me know how you feel about this topic.

Because it matters.

Watch my short video on HSP-ness here!

****

Private coaching sessions are also available here. Many more musical recordings are available here. My new novel The Gateway Café can be purchased here.

Keep an eye out for my new book, soon to be published: Elevating Your HSP-ness: How To Live a High-Frequency Life by Amplifying Your Vibration, Celebrating Your Sensitivities, & Uplifting the World

Thank you for shining your light into the world!

The post The HSP High-Sensitivity Everyday Toolbox (Heidi’s Playbook) first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

Ugh.  Traveling. It’s one of those love-hate things. You really want to be there, but you really don’t want to have to go through everything it takes to get there. Oh, if only we could beam up like Captain Kirk.

I’ve been in Los Angeles once and by it several times, but it’s never been my destination until now. Suddenly, thinking about how a week from today I’ll be there, in the city of cars and smog and heat and rabid attention to all things superficial, is giving me agita. Like, major agita.  It’s very clear that I am being offered another perfect whopper-tunity to step into conscious awareness. Thanks a lot.

I’m exaggerating to make a point here, of course, but not by much. Traveling and HSPs go together like oil and water: They swim around each other a lot, but try to avoid, and hardly ever manage, to fully engage.

I’ve travelled quite a bit in my life. Short trips from NY to Boston and back on the bus for flute lessons when I was in college. Long, intense flights by air to places like Bali and Europe. Regular jaunts across the country to see family and friends. Yet every single time, my very first reaction to the plan is, “Ugh. Please don’t make me go.”

It’s such an odd feeling, to want to see people and be with them because you love them and miss them, and yet, more than anything else, want to stay cocooned in your own home, your own space, your own comfort zone. I’ve literally gone so outside my comfort zone so many times that there’s a part of me that simply wants to say, “Okay. Been there. Done that. I’m finished.” And this, while the world spins around me with people getting on and off planes coming and going to far-off places with relative ease and grace. Or at least with the attitude that whatever incongruities they might suffer, it’s all worth it.

So, still, the only thing that keeps me going, traveling to places I’ve never been or old haunts of the past, is knowing that I have my HSP tools to save me.

I start by using my IGS. My Intuitive Guidance System firmly in place ensures I make my plans only when it feels right, no matter how/when/if it appears that way to others. Reeling in my psychic octopus ensures I take my own energy with me wherever I go.

Staying in my UES, my Unique Energetic Signature, ensures I don’t need to freak out while thinking about making plans in the future, actually making the plans—the whole online thing, etc.—packing (the what-am-I-going-to-wear thing), transportation, house plans, and so on.

Knowing how to pull in my psychic octopus and zipping myself up inside it as soon as I lock my door and hit the road is the pièce de resistance. It’s what, in the final analysis, makes it all okay. Instead of taking in everything around me and losing my sense of self, I focus as much as possible on my octopus, on my intuitive guidance, and on staying in my own energy.

Yes, it does take focus. But no, it’s not the kind that is a struggle. Because when you stay wrapped in your innate comfort zone you get to take it with you everywhere you go—which is the opposite of difficult. Not only that, it’s what keeps you sane.

If you are an HSP with travel concerns, take it from me. There’s a way to move through the world with a grace you could never have imagined. And, though might not able be to beam up quite yet, we can all learn how to beam in to our higher selves’ to get where we’re going smoothly, easy, and in perfect alignment.

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Ask The Celestial Professor: Write me with your questions and comments about being an HSP so we can share our exploration and growth and celebration with the world!

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Private coaching sessions are also available here. Many more musical recordings are available here. Keep an eye out for my new book, soon to be published: Elevating Your HSP-ness: How To Live a High-Frequency Life by Amplifying Your Vibration, Celebrating Your Sensitivities, & Uplifting the World

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 HSPs and the Travelin’ Blues of the Psychic Octopus 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.

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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!.