This month there have been an abundance of “windows of opportunity,” as my wise colleague Sherri Cortland calls them. As I like to say, whopper-tunities. Not only because there have been so many of them, and not only because they’ve been seismic, but because so many of them have shown up in my energetic field of LEUs: Love Energy Units.

I moved to a new house in a new location last year. Since then I have had plenty of opportunity to repair, paint, and so on, and then, more recently, replace a bathroom, a water heater, and just this week, a furnace. So, yeah, you might say, lots of windows of opportunity for taking a good look at my feelings, responses, and beliefs around money and whether I am walking my talk.

Moolah. Buckeroos. Benjamins. Bacon. Chalupa. Cheddar. Clams. Dinero. Dough. You know, dollars and cents. All words that describes that almost intangible, yet profoundly tangible, element of life. Calling this element Love Energy Units is my way of purposefully, with the utmost conscious awareness, reminding myself that I don’t have to buy into (literally and figuratively) the collective’s perspective. Because when money is involved, if I get caught up in the drama of the world’s collective view that there is never enough, it’s too easy to go off the rails. When that happens, the picture of a draining bank account colors everything. Suddenly all you see are depleting resources…of your own and of the world, from the environment to democracy.

How interesting that when we think about having an abundance of something it always sounds good. An abundance of love. An abundance of wealth. An abundance of food in the refrigerator. And yet, when we have an abundance of financial whopper-tunities, um, not so much.

• The bathroom came first. I told myself it needed to be done anyway, sooner than later, so why not now?
• The water heater was next, a leak discovered under the house only because the pest people showed up to do their thing. Oh, well….
• Then came the furnace. No wonder I’d been freezing last winter after I’d just moved in. It seems the furnace had finally given up the ghost and had been pumping out only cold air no matter what temperature I set it to.

You might say the universe has been altogether too willing to supply me with lots of amazing whopper-tunities. With prices about three times what they might have been a couple of years ago? I’d say the whopper-tunity factor has been easily tripled as well.

When I started calling money Love Energy, I got a lot of pushback from people.

What could be further from the “reality” of life? We might want to believe that money can’t buy love à la the Beatles, but in the world we live in, the message is all too clear: “If you give me what I want, I will love you” and “I need lots (unspecified amounts) of money to be happy.” This kind of convoluted message further separates us from the more holistic concept of abundance. Of having “enough” to go around. Of viewing monetary resources as a means to spread, share, and receive love.

I think this is where it gets confusing. How can money be love energy, on the one hand, if I’m also saying that money cannot buy love or equate to it? The key is in its un-conditionality factor. When we remove the conditionality of what we expect the money to do for us on an emotional level, we lose the connection to what it really means on a spiritual level—the level where true acceptance that there is always more than enough takes place.

When I am paying my bills, if I find myself looking at the balances and groaning, I immediately laugh. That’s right, laugh. Oh, yay, more Love Energy that I’m sharing with the world!!! I remind myself that I simply cannot be abundant in other areas of my life if I feel depleted in this one area, and vice versa.

I’d wanted to replace the moldy shower anyway down the road, so why not when it had become necessary? I was so lucky that the pest people noticed the leak under my house before it had become a  much worse problem—what’s a new water heater compared to that likelihood? And the furnace? That’s an easy one. Replacing the old system with a new, energy efficient, one means I’m waking up to a warm house that automatically cools off at night because I set it to do that! No more down vests 24/7 as I work at my computer, taking them off only when it’s time to make a video and look like all is well in my world. How magnificent is that!?

My gratitude for all these whopper-tunities is the really amazing thing.

My potential for love knows no bounds, so why should my potential for love energy to flow in and out of my energetic bank account be any different?

***

Read about how HSPs can shift their level of abundance in

Elevating Your HSP-ness: How To Live a High-Frequency Life by Amplifying Your Vibration, Celebrating Your Sensitivities, & Uplifting the World!

The post Love Energy Units–LEUs–are the true currency of the world first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

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.

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.

Heidi Connolly, the Celestial Professor, invites special guests, Jill Labeau, Claudia Helt, Dana Stovern, Heidi Winkler, Sherri Cortland, and Irene Weinberg to share their insights on HSP-ness.

The post Highly Sensitive Person Expert Summit: Living & Loving Your HSP-ness first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up As An HSP?

When I was about five or six, I decided I wanted to play the flute. From that age to about 30 it was my dream to be a great flautist.

From the time things went all kablooey and sideways with that dream until about 40, all I wanted to do was figure out what I wanted to do that I wouldn’t hate doing.

For the next seven or so years the best thing about work was leaving at the end of the day.

From the day that job ended and I began writing and editing and publishing books, I felt I’d found something I was not only good at, but creatively fulfilling. Still, I can’t say I felt as if I were me, completely doing me.

That’s why, when the other day a friend told me, “You’re just so Heidi,” and my response was, “And getting

every day,” I knew something big had happened.

Which reminded me of all the times over my lifetime that people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. No one, not even my parents, who supported me through flute and piano and theory lessons, were particularly enamored when their friends asked the question and I said, “I’m going to be a musician.” I mean, you could see their eyes roll. “Oh, that’s nice,” they said. Meaning, “Your poor parents.”

I decided to ask myself this long-honored traditional question again today. And no, we won’t get into the fact that I’ve of a certain age that might preclude that kind of question. Fageddaboudit.) Anyway, I closed my eyes and posed the question: Heidi, do you know what YOU want to BE when you grow up?

And do you know what the answer was? You coulda smacked me upside the head with a V8. Because what came out of my mouth was, “YES! Absolutely! I want to be more of me!”

I was so excited by my own spontaneous response that I did a little jig. It hasn’t been this way in the past, which is why it’s so important now. The thing is, that if you don’t really know who you are, how can you possibly want to be more of it?

How can you possibly go around thinking, “Well, this is so groovy. I think I’ll just go on being more of me and diggin’ it?” You can’t. And, while I’m absolutely positively no Pollyanna, I’ll take a moment here to give you just a taste of how much my life has changed.

What does “more of me” mean now? I love that I can say this. That I have the words to express what “more of me” means because I know it’s true—I FEEL it’s true. MORE OF ME means more capacity for love, ease, generosity, freedom, abundance, creativity, inspiration, joy, and the sheer doggedness to live a life of alignment.

So, if I were to ask you, my lovely HSPs, “What do YOU want to be when you grow up?” what do you think your answer would be?

That’s all for today, folks. Join me next time on the Celestial Professor channel when we’ll dig a little deeper into what makes us high sensitives tick.

And DON’T FORGET to join us for the very first Expert HSP Summit of its kind on Saturday, October 15 @ 1 PM PT

at https://youtu.be/McDwEL-ISMo

Heidiconnolly.com / hspness.com / f-b elevatingyourhspness

The post What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up As An HSP? first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

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!.

Welcome, my ever-evolving, amplifying high sensitives, to today’s bit of down-to-earth spirituality with me, Heidi Connolly, the Celestial Professor. If you feel moved by what you read here today, please share the information so other HSPs like you and me can shift into high gear to uplift the world together!!!

Today, our focus is something I call The Great Paradox.

The Great Paradox of being human is that the more you evolve spiritually, the easier being human becomes.

It might not sound like such a big deal, but just think about it.

You gotta love it. That the way to becoming a happier camper as a human being is to develop the side of you that’s beyond human. Beyond things. Beyond therapy. Beyond thought. How trippy is that?

You really gotta appreciate that the only way to get to a spiritually inclined place inside yourself, you need to get into that zone of silence where you enter thoughtless awareness. It’s like Maxwell Smart’s “Cone of Silence.” I know I’m dating myself, but Get Smart –the TV show?—was a thing in those days and watching that stupid glass “cone of silence” come down to protect confidentiality seemed pretty funny.

Going Beyond Thought

Anyway, the point is that, if you’ve gone beyond thought, when you return to the “real world” you feel it’s actually a little easier to be the human that you are.

At least, that’s the way it feels to me.

I call it The Great Paradox.

See, it’s like this. Every time I meditate, before I get anywhere near or close to that place without thought, what I have to do to get there is to focus, not on what I’m thinking, but what my body is feeling. I take steps to focus my mind on the things I’m feeling—physically, in other words, somatically in my body—to get there.

• I feel my jaw relax.
• I feel my eye lids sink inward.
• I feel my neck and shoulders settle.

I FEEL.

…And then my mind starts jabbering away, usually a running commentary about whatever it is I’m noticing that my body is feeling. And then, judgmental commentary on the fact that I’ve entered into commentary. Today is a perfect example.

There I am “trying” to meditate, and all I can think about is that I’m trying to meditate and that I don’t have that much time this morning to meditate before I need to start doing the things I need to do. It’s crazy, right?

What do I do? In my mind, I tell myself to focus on my body. (Which, again, feels like a paradox, since I’m trying to get away from all that supposed worldly stuff.) Anyway, that works for a second or two and then I start thinking about how tight my neck feels. Pretty soon, I’m dying to shift my position and give my neck a good crack. I fight the feeling for a while. Pretty soon, it’s all I can think about. So, eventually, and thinking about how much time I’ve “wasted,” I give in and shift around and crack my neck.

AAAHHH. Now I feel better. Now I can get back to meditating.

Right? And so it goes.

What does all this have to do with the The Great Paradox? It’s like this.

1. The one thing I want is to feel happier as a human.
2. The thing I’ve learned is that the only way to feel happier as a human is to connect with my higher self…source…God?…the infinite…the quiet…. The spiritual side of me. Or, should I say, the REAL being that is me?
3. The thing that has changed over time is that even on days like today when getting beyond thought seems impossible, I end up appreciating how good it feels to be on the path of conscious awareness.

I guess you’d have to say that The Great Paradox of being human—that is, spirit in a biodegradable human suit—is really made up of many paradoxes.

All of which are opportunities, or as I like to say, “whopper-tunities,” for my own evolution. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s that the more I evolve, the more the planet evolves.

Which makes me happy!

So…that does it for today’s installment of down-to-earth spirituality. If you’re interested in purchasing any of my books or in private intuitive mediumship sessions with me, visit me at heidiconnolly.com. And remember, “psychic” or “medium” or simply tapped into your intuition…it all gets us to the same happy place.

And don’t forget to comment, so we can share our awesome awakening to uplifting the planet by being the brilliant HSPs we are!

Thanks!. See you again here soon.

The post THE HSP’S GUIDE TO NAVIGATING THE GREAT PARADOX OF LIFE first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

In this video, I talk about what it means to live as a Vacationing Angel: Spirit choosing to live yet another lifetime in the biodegradable human suit we call human form.

And remember, it’s not whether you can PROVE something is REAL or TRUE, it’s how you feel whatever you feel when you see it, hear it, sense it, smell it, taste it, or touch it. The fact is…

Reality and truth exist only in the mind, heart, body, and spirit of the beholder.

Life as an HSP is often feels like you’re in the middle of a downpour every single minute of the day. Like you’re carrying around your own little raincloud everywhere you go. It doesn’t always feel “bad,” in the sense that an ice-cold rain in winter might feel, but it doesn’t necessarily feel good either, mostly because of its constancy. It’s always raining. It’s always there. It’s a never-ending deluge.

What’s the analogy?

Being highly sensitive means that you do not interact with the world purposefully, but that the world is forever “out there” having its way with you. Affecting you; often bombarding you–and, often, without your knowing it.

To change that paradigm, we need to change our thinking.

1. It’s not about changing the “out there” (the world).
2. It’s not about changing the way people respond to us.
3. It’s not about praying we’ll change because if we don’t we’ll never survive.

What it IS about:

1. Loving being human IN SPITE OF all the things that make being human seem like “too much.”
2. Understanding that all those things that seem to be “too much” are simply signs that there is more to life, and to us, than meets the eye (and ear and nose, etc.).
3. Joyfully accepting that evolving as a human is what evolves us spiritually
4. Appreciating that being responsible for our own sense of self is the key.

I’m fond of saying that I only know what I know. Which really means that my way of seeing things and doing things and living life is my own. There are no answers that “work” for everyone. When people market their products and services touting they are the “one sure way to achieve success” or “it worked for me so it’ll work for you, so all you have to do is do it right,” well, for me that’s a sure sign that whatever they’re selling is not something I’m interested in buying.

The thing I do know that seems to start everyone I work with off in the right direction is the idea that being an HSP is not only okay, and not only not too bad, and maybe even okay, but it’s actually the thing that can make life infinitely worth living.

*** Please leave your comments below to share how you are evolving as an HSP using the HSP Toolbox tools in these articles. ***

Heidi Connolly, The Celestial Professor, heidiconnolly.com | hspness.com

The post Tired of being a too-human HSP? – Life as a Vacationing Angel first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

The cure to the HSP’s psychic sponge syndrome: Laugh!!!!!

I’m back today with another bit of down-to-earth spirituality. Today’s topic? Spiritual irreverence.

Can you handle the fallout if you’ve forgotten how to laugh?

It’s not every day that you find yourself doing something that causes an uproar of divergent opinions—and resultant advice. Well, at least it hasn’t been that way for me.

I mean, it’s true that “coming out” as a medium caused quite a stir. There I was, Harvard Girl, the writer, editor, book designing, publishing consultant of Harvard Girl Word Services, suddenly saying I was talking to dead people. So, I guess you could say that I know something about strong reactions. And we won’t even get into family. Telling your mother you’re hearing from good ol’ Dad? Mmm, turns out, not the best convo starter ever….

Anyway….

When I started writing books (with my dear departed husband) and talking about us all being Vacationing Angels, I learned pretty fast how to spot the dedicated, true-blue skeptics from the “well, I might be willing to hear more” type. I also learned, really really fast that it didn’t matter. That the only thing that mattered was being true to myself.

• Which brings me to today’s down-to-earth spiritual subject matter [slide of CP animation]
• When you’re true to yourself, you attract other people who are true to themselves.
• When you’re true to yourself, it doesn’t matter if other people agree with you or not.
• When you’re true to yourself, most of the people you attract are willing to listen to what you have to say, even if they end up disagreeing with it.
• When you’re true to yourself, you feel good.

Which…leads me to the title of my new book, Elevating Your HSP-ness….

I can hear you….

Go ahead. Say it out loud. Reading the words just doesn’t do it. When I spoke the title aloud for the first time, I couldn’t stop giggling. Naturally, I discounted its use. I mean, right? Who’d willingly, knowingly, use a word for a spiritual book about being a high sensitive that sounds like penis?  Not me!

After that, the title went through months of iterations. “The HSP’s Owners Manual.” “The HSP’s Roadmap to Greatness.” “Embracing your High Sensitivity.” The problem was that no matter how much these titles described what I was trying to convey, none of them made me FEEL GOOD. None of them resonated, vibrated with the frequency of YES!!! THIS MAKES ME WANT TO GIGGLE AND LAUGH AND FEEL JOYFUL!!!

My psychic sponge was picking up everyone’s opinion but my own.

I didn’t know what to do. I kept going back and forth, back and forth, buying domain after domain and reworking my potential book covers. What to do?

Ultimately? I did exactly what I talk about doing in this book: I let it go. I worked on other things—the writing, the blogs, the vlogs, all that stuff. And then, one day, I was talking to a friend and colleague (who just happens to be in my video Summit linked below), Jill Lebeau. When I mentioned all my potential names, she thought they were “fine.” Which we all know is code for BORING. Then, I said, “I wanted to name it Elevating Your HSP-ness, but you know, that would just be crazy. Too irreverent. What would people think?”

The reality is that my psychic sponge was too darn overloaded to check in with my own guidance–that Intuitive Guidance System we all have!

There was a moment of silence. Then Jill got it—and cracked up. She laughed and laughed and kept on laughing. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. But, finally, when she got herself under control, she said, “There’s nothing irreverent about bliss and joy in spirituality! We need to laugh to raise our frequency. And that’s what you’re talking about—living a high-frequency life! I think it’s perfect.”

It took me a while, but I couldn’t ignore the high vibration of what she said—and what I felt. So, yes. The name of my book is ELEVATING YOUR HSP-NESS. After all, I’m talking about “down-to-earth spirituality” here. And that means applying spirituality to everyday life as an Angel on Vacation. Celebrating those qualities of you that are the absolute highest frequency. Because we can’t spend our time “way up in the clouds” and live “down here” without some kind of mechanism that invites us to stay present. To use all our “up in the clouds”-ness for the express purpose of enjoying the earthly aspects of our being.

So I say go for it. I’ll be right there, laughing along with you in loving irreverence.

The post The cure to the HSP’s Psychic Sponge Syndrome: Laugh!!!!!! first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

Life After Death

I know what miracles are. I know because I see them happen every day—and because some of them happen to me. I guess you could say that I’m proof, or my life is proof, or, for that matter, my very existence, is proof. There have been so many miracles in my life that choosing just one to write about and calling it the “biggest” would be like loving one of my children more than the other.

I loved my husband, Randy Michael Connolly, until death did us part. So much so that it felt as if I’d died with him. By the time December 2013 rolled around, I’d been praying for my own death for a little over a year, although I still hadn’t conjured the nerve to take my own life, and realized I might never find that nerve, no matter how devastated I was. The only thing that could possibly keep me going, I determined, was a miracle.

I wanted, I needed, some kind of concrete, measurable evidence that he was still with me, just as he’d promised he’d be as he was dying.

Night after night of crying myself to sleep had mitigated neither my desperation nor my depression. Nor had knowing that there were people around me who were hearing Randy, in spirit form, clearly and irrefutably. Sure, I appreciated their loving messages, as indirect as they were. But what about me? I was his wife, dammit. Didn’t I deserve to hear those messages straight from the source?

Then, one night, a night like all the rest where I’d passed out after hours of tossing and turning and abject anguish (I don’t profess to be one of the stoic ones), I was awakened at 3 am by a loud—booming—voice that said, “Get out your pen and get writing. We’re going to write a book.”

I can’t tell you why and I can’t tell you how, but I knew in every cell of my being that this disembodied vocalization belonged to my husband (and not only because I was alone in the house). What I did not realize was that the result of this mandate, and the ensuing half hour of notebook scribblings, would be the basis for our first “ghostwritten” book together, Crossing the Rubicon: Love Poems Past the Point of No Return.

You might think I’m going to say the miracle was that Randy, in spirit form, woke me up and downloaded a book of poems, along with an almost instant comprehension and precisely worded description about how to form a new relationship with your loved one after death, and how to write about it so others would understand and benefit.

You might think it was that since that night I’ve been able to communicate with Randy, and the dead brother of manicurist, and the dead wife of my father’s best friend, and many other spirit beings who so much want to communicate with their own loved ones.

Either way, you’d be right.

But, honestly? The most profound and shocking miracle is that without the gift of Randy’s dying, I would never have discovered, or perhaps I should say uncovered, the brilliant conscious creation practice that has become my way of life.

A celestial life.

Is it possible to recognize a miracle—a blessing, even—while you feel you’re being ripped to shreds? When your soul can’t see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel even if it were wrapped in the glow of every star in the sky? When your heart is gasping for breath in order to survive one more minute, one more hour, one more day?

My answer?

• BRD–Before Randy’s Death: Absolutely not.
• ARD–After Randy’s Death: Absolutely. Even if you’re in the throes of agony. Because once your anguish has been imbued with conscious awareness, the frequency of unconditional love, the vibration of truth, and the resonance of wisdom, nothing is ever the same again.

For me, on that night, even as I wrote in the dark, sobbing over the pages of an old lined notebook, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, fear, grief, and the sense that I had been abandoned to fend for myself in a world I could no longer make sense of, I was concomitantly aware that I was feeling something I’d never felt before.

Even in that state of complete overwhelm, I knew I was experiencing something so enormous, so rock-me-to-the-core powerful, that while I couldn’t name it at the time, I could feel it blooming inside me, as evidential as the scar on the inside of my thigh, the one I’d gotten in a motorcycle mishap in high school. It seemed as if I’d always had this thing that was burgeoning—always known it, always felt it—but would never again fail to recognize it and cherish it.

The wave of unconditional love that flowed through me arrived in the form of complete phrases and rhymes and prose: an unabridged conversation. It arose in the vibration of truth, through the voice of my dead husband. It emerged in the resonance of wisdom, as a new kind of knowledge I was being invited to believe in, accept, and share. It emanated with the awareness that, even as I wept and the lead in my pencil dwindled to a stub, I would never be the same again.

Turns out, it’s true.

Because nothing has been the same since that night.

I no longer have any need to pretend that I have it all under control, or that life makes sense. I don’t and it doesn’t. Which is precisely what makes miracles so…miraculous.

I now understand that all our attempts to control, fix, cajole, maneuver, manipulate, push, and pray are nothing more than miracle-blockers. When viewed through the lens of retrospection, miracles are the fruit of faith, not force.

When I met Randy after my first 40 years on the planet, I knew that was a miracle. The circumstances were too bizarre, too completely without precedent. We agreed that we were two of the truly fortunate ones. We’d prayed for a miracle. We’d gotten it. End of story.

Then he died.

Which compelled to ask, What does that say about our supposed miracle? Was I wrong? Were we wrong? Was this some kind of a joke, a faux miracle? Had I been deceived? If God wanted me to be happy, why take away the one person who made me happy?

Could something that once looked like a miracle of light and love turn into something so sinister and dark, something so obviously not miraculous?

I did not know the answer then. But these questions are what goaded me on, deep into realms that I’d never previously tapped. I explored karma, life after “death,” past lives, meditation, and conscious creation. I acquiesced into what has been so aptly called the dark night of the soul. I allowed myself to be held by those who’d had similar experiences and encouraged me to believe that I would come out the other side…whole again.

I eventually learned that my sensitivity was simply code for being an HSP, a Highly Sensitive Person, and medium for the spirit world, and that tapping into that ability would prepare me for becoming a facilitator for other HSPs.

Finally, ultimately, I learned that miracles are in the eye of the beholder, like these:

1. I contracted with Randy and agreed to be his partner in this lifetime to help him learn that someone (me) could and would love him unconditionally—a lesson that allowed him to cross over knowing he’d achieved his spiritual goal.
2. Randy is now helping me learn, from across the veil, that having trust and faith in what you can’t see is the means by which we can influence the energetic force that determines our ongoing lives.
3. Questioning every core belief you once held deepens your understanding that the spirit world is always communicating with us, and that it’s simply up to us to learn how to listen. For me, this has meant having the ability to share such insights with others.

The biggest miracle of all, you ask?

That’s easy.

There is life after death. On both sides of the veil.

* * * *

MY SPECIAL OFFER THIS MONTH

Purchase a copy of Crossing the Rubicon and receive the complete audiobook version, read by Heidi

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The post Death and Grief and the Highly Sensitive Person first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

Just because someone is high-functioning doesn’t mean they’re not highly sensitive. All it really means, at least if they’re in a healthy state of mind, body, and soul, is that they’ve somehow learned to direct their sensitivities and kick them up a notch or two.

Anderson Cooper is a journalist, and a great one. But he’s also, apparently, an emotional and loving father. You have to imagine he’s pretty adept at organizing his life, and was probably a darn good student as well. All great qualities, but nothing to do with the qualities of being an HSP.

Could Anderson Cooper be one of US? Could he be an HSP?

I think he might be. How do I know? Because—though I’m the first to admit that I’m no Anderson Cooper in a zillion different ways!—I am, and have been, high-functioning for a large percentage of my life.

But the real point I’m trying to make is that being an HSP does not preclude being deliberately, determinedly, and successfully high-functioning.

On the other hand, just because you’re high-functioning does not necessarily mean you’re happy or even content. It certainly doesn’t mean self-satisfied, self-reliant, or full of self-worth.

All it means is that you have the skills to do whatever it is you want or have chosen or sometimes have been coerced to do well enough to get the job done. You could be a dishwasher or you could be a museum curator. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re convinced you’re good at it or feel good doing it. It’s even possible you suffer from Imposter Syndrome, where, no matter how good you are at what you do, you still feel inadequate.

Ever wonder why actors tend toward screwed up personal lives?

We usually attribute their “problems” to too much fame and fortune. And, certainly, without those things they wouldn’t be in the situation they’re in.

But there’s more to it than that. There’s also the obvious fact that so many of them are highly sensitive people.

Can you imagine being an HSP who knows you take on other people’s energy, but don’t know what to do about it? Can you imagine being on a movie set with hundreds of movie people all milling about doing their jobs—many of them interacting with you—for hours and hours every single day? Can you imagine what it’s like to feel the feelings of the character you’re acting without feeling some kind of aftermath of leftover energy trails?

I can’t.

Sure, I’ve worked as a musician in orchestras; a human resource trainer in corporate America; a counselor for teenagers. But at no point did I recognize that the tremendous weight I carried around was due to all the energy of others flooding my being.

Sadly, even once I had an inkling that was what was going on, I still had no idea what to do about it.

Sometimes people seem to figure it out on their own.

Anderson Cooper seems to have figured it out on his own. Not that we have any idea what it’s like being Gloria Vanderbilt’s son, born and bred in his unusually eccentric circumstances. Maybe he’s had years of therapy, right? I mean, who can say? We surely don’t know how much of what we see is an act, being that he’s a TV personality and all.

But when I heard him talk about the loss of his brother to suicide and the recent death of his mother and how he wants nothing more than to pass on to his children who these people were to him “without it being cloaked in sadness,” I felt his willingness to dip into the pain of the loss and rise out again through love for his children.

We are not all Anderson Coopers.

We are not all super smart or super rich or super talented.

Yet, as HSPs, we are ALL fully capable of bringing out the best in ourselves by elevating the sensitivities we have so they serve us and all of humanity.

The post High-Functioning versus High-Sensitive: Are they mutually exclusive? 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!

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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!.