My friend Helen shared a technique she uses with me years ago. At the time, I had no idea what she was talking about.

Maybe you’ll feel like that right now. But it’s okay. Because the more you learn about what it means to be a Highly Sensitive Person who appreciates your sensitivities and celebrates your sensitivities, the easier it will be to live inside them.

When you live inside your sensitivities comfortably instead of spending your life attempting to hide from them–or hide them from the world–things like fear and anxiety naturally recede.

The easiest technique you’ll ever use

Helen told me that whenever she felt out of sorts, overwhelmed, or generally “beside herself,” she would close her eyes and repeat the following:

“Helen. Only Helen. In Helen’s body; Helen. Only Helen. In Helen’s body.”

I could see what it did for her. Instantly, I could feel a difference in her energy–even though at the time I didn’t know what’s what I was feeling and I wouldn’t have called it that. Still, something had changed in that moment. She seemed less scattered. More focused. Sort of pulled together in a way she hadn’t been moments before.

Helen said it was a way to ground herself in her own body. To remind herself that, although she was one with everything on a spiritual level, when it came to being human, she had to keep her energetic body to herself. When she didn’t, she ended up feeling what others around her were feeling and responding unconsciously to all their stuff. In other words, she was picking up what they were putting down and letting it lead her by the nose. Even if she had no idea that was happening.

To my way of thinking now, “Helen. Only Helen. In Helen’s body” was a way to remind herself to pull in her Psychic Octopus, to align with her Unique Energetic Signature, and to feel more at peace.

Using it whenever you need it

I use this technique as a quick, easy way to jump back into alignment when I’m in traffic or in a long line or on hold on the phone and feeling impatient. When I’m talking with someone who’s unloading on me and I feel like I can’t simply make a speedy exit. If and when I can actually feel my SELF ebbing away due to the powerfully, often unconscious, determined nature of the other individual.

You see, there are lots of people who have very little compunction about forcing their energy on others. This can come in the form of a strong opinion or a loud voice. Maybe standing inside your personal space to the point where you’re squirming and need to step back. I’m not saying these people are necessarily doing it on purpose. They may even be aware they’re doing something that makes people uncomfortable, but don’t know how not to do it.

Believe it or not, often these people are HSPs, too (Link here to find out if this is you). They might not seem like it. In fact, they may appear to be the opposite–forcefully forcing themselves, their opinions, and their needs on others. More often than not, however, this is because at some point early on they learned that this kind of behavior was a brilliantly successful defense mechanism. Sadly, while it certainly can help protect them from other people by pushing them away, it also . . . well . . . pushes them away. It rejects people before people can ever have the chance of rejecting them.

The post How High Sensitives Can Get Into Instant Alignment first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

Uh-oh. Something feels wrong…REALLY WRONG.

One of the things that guided my life for more years than I’d care to admit is all the fears I carried around. So many of them I can hardly begin to name them here. You’ve got your basic environmental fears, like fear of bugs that fly, fear of bugs that crawl, fear of deep water, fear of falling, and fear of not being able to fall asleep. Then you’ve got the fears that actually have a basis in reality, like the time you almost drown or the time you woke up and a giant spider was on your face. Then you’ve got the emotional/psychological fears and phobias, the kind that you’ve developed over time based on how you grew up, what you were taught to think, believe, and be. And, finally, you’ve got the last kind: fears that have no real basis for being there (except past lifetime stuff). Like one of mine: Fear of the woods.

In overnight camp I did everything from feigning illness to begging to get out of camping in the woods. As a young married woman, I braved camping in the woods because my husband was such an enthusiast. I hated it. The next day I was bitten all over and I felt like I’d slept on a bed of rocks. Which I had.

For many years I’ve lived by the ocean, or at least near the water. Now I live where there’s plenty of water, but also lots and lots of forest. Like woods. Trees. Very tall trees. Very big forests.

I have hiked in the woods plenty of times, but each time takes me far outside my comfort zone. Usually the whole way there I’m regretting have agreed to go in the first place.

A few days ago, I had another such experience.

My sister is called the Tree Whisperer. She has studied trees, planted trees, loved trees, and even married a tree to prove her commitment to its health and wellbeing. She knows a heck of a  lot about tree communication, behavior, and why trees are so important to humanity. I love her love of trees.

Thing is, she’s always asking—and hoping—I’ll be willing to go along with her for a “short, easy walk in the woods.” Sometimes, because I’ve learned so much about being in alignment with my own energy, I say yes. Because the freaking out that used to start before I’d even left the house and that ramped up to a boiling point by the time I got to this “short, easy walk in the woods,” has become less and less severe over time. I have even been known to enjoy myself.

How can you feel lost when you’re on the path?

Still, I always want to know where I am and what the trail looks like and how simple it will be to find our way back. It’s easy to be reassured by my sister (or whomever I’m with) that “It’s only a loop. See here? It just goes around in a circle. No chance of getting lost.”

Yeah, right. Seems like once you’re in the woods, there are always, ALWAYS, chances to get lost. Forks in the path. Ways to go that weren’t on the map and aren’t clearly marked. Even if you have a phone with a compass app, it does no good. Why? Because you don’t know where you are. Hence, I have felt lost many times over in the woods. With my sister and with experienced hikers alike.

In the woods

That’s what happened the other day. I said I’d go to Quinault Rain Forest, one of my sister’s favorite places. The map at the trail head is easy to read. There don’t seem to be any possible ways to go off-path. Looks just like a loop. I’m good to go.

So, Julie and I start on the path. We’re counting bridges to make sure we’re going in the right direction. Still, at one point, like always, there’s a divergence in the path—and no sign. I look at Julie. She looks at me. It’s this way, she says. Sure, I say, and how do you know that? She really doesn’t want me to be afraid. Because I know, she says. But you should use your IGS, anyway, just in case. Your intuition is pretty much spot on.

What? Use my IGS?

But, see, here’s the other thing. When I’m in the woods, I’m so far outside my comfort zone that I feel like my Intuitive Guidance System has blown a fuse. Pretty hard to trust from that place, believe me.

But Julie whipped out her phone and started to video me. A really a smart move, I agree. I went from “I’m so uncomfortable at the thought of going the wrong direction” to “Oh, you’re videoing me? I guess I’d better get into alignment.” Talk about the metaphorical journey of life, right?

Because when your Intuitive Guidance System feels more like a demented compass on speed, it’s time to regroup, reframe, and reassess.

And so I did.

We took the right path, ended up where we belonged, had a nice lunch, and congratulated ourselves all the way home. The video, however, only about 15 seconds long, did not survive as well as I did. Still, it cracks me up every time!

The post HSPs: Outside the Comfort Zone of Being Who We Are first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

It’s taken years to even begin to get accustomed to knowing the difference between acting on my thoughts and following guidance. What I now call my Intuitive Guidance System, or IGS. So when I ask a deliberate question and get—you guessed it—a whole lot of nuttin’, well, it feels like something’s gone awry. Like in a really big way.

This is what happened last night. I’d traveled to the Oregon Coast to do one of my metaphysical Afterlife Meetups, which had begun several years ago in the tiny coastal town where I lived with my husband and after he made his transition to the Great Beyond. After moving to Washington State a few months ago, it felt like it was time to head back, to see as many as I could in my beloved community, and maybe even put a little bit of a period at the end of that decade’s sentence. I asked my team in the Up There to support me in whatever way was in the best interest of everyone: me, all the participants, the friend with whom I was staying, Source, the drivers on the road…you get the picture. I also asked for some suggestions—a good solid download would be nice—on what to talk about. I mean, I assumed I’d be doing some mediumship because that was always in the cards (so to speak), but what would I talk about? What did I have to say that might be inspirational, that might get minds, bodies, and souls up and doing a little jig or maybe a two-step?

I asked the week before. Then every day up through my landing at my friend’s house the night before go time. At that point, only the tiniest of little red flags was only beginning to show up on the horizon. Yet, as I unpacked my suitcase, I wondered why a room full of people would show up (sans masks for the first gathering of its kind in over two years, I might add) if I had nothing to say?

Are you telling me I’m supposed to trust my gut? Me???

I was sharing that fact with my friend and expressing that I was still waiting—patiently, I thought, IMHO.  She only laughed and said, “It’ll come to you. It always does. You just have to trust it.”

Duh. Maybe it was a good time to send up a little white flag instead?

Cut to the next night. Library. Afterlife Meetup night. 5 PM. Turns out the person who was supposed to post my flyers in town had been busy with other things and forgotten. It occurred to me that maybe that’s why I had a basket so overflowing with nothing—because no one was going to show up. But then one person strolled in. And another…and another. Until every one of the 50 chairs was filled.

Suddenly, I knew exactly what I wanted to say. Because all I needed to do was be there and reflect and express gratitude for all the love that was being generated in that room. To talk about how, in the midst of nothing, everything gets a chance to surface. How validation that you’ve been listening to your IGS shows up when you least expect it, when you’ve reached the point where you’re pretty darn sure you’ve used up your allotted supply and your Intuitive Guidance ATM account tells you its pockets are empty.

The HSPs Intuitive Guidance System

It’s like the old Gerry Seinfeld series: the show about, you guessed it, nothing. How does a show about nothing end up running for a gazillion or so season end up to be one of the greatest shows ever? You guessed it. Because in the very nothingness there is also the everything.

It’s where you have “nothing” to talk about until the last minute and it reveals exactly what’s been on your mind and in your heart and in your soul.

It’s where your ego/shadow side decides to rear its snide little self and scream (or whine, as the case may be), “I’m not good enough. What am I doing here? And here I thought I had something worthwhile to share?”…and demands you take a good hard look at what’s driving you.

It’s when you realize, just as you do during meditation, that there’s more in the “nothingness” than you could ever have imagined.

Maybe it’s even where, if you settle in, your mind takes a break and your spirit gets to shine. Where, if you’re willing, you can find and trust—your true, highest, Self.

And where, if your IGS is invited to steer the car for you, you can actually relish the ride.

The post Is Nothing Really Nothing or is your gut telling you something? first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.