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!.

“The Package Came C.O.D.”

by Heidi Connolly

The package came C.O.D.

The delivery guy said it was for me

I signed for it, opened it, put it on, claimed it

I owned it then; it sure owned me;

I could have thrown it down

Kicked it to the floor

I could have sent it back

And slammed the door;

I could have just said no

I could have stood my ground

I should have watched it leave

Sent it back where it belonged;

’Cause when you live your life in denial

Of who you really are

The light you hold inside you

Sounds like whispers from afar;

You learn of love and how it hurts

For reasons of remorse

It churns and gnaws inside of you

And charts a deceptive course;

When fear is allowed to lead the way

The truth is buried alive

Without a chance to breathe and grow

With no chance to survive;

When doubt grows into hatred

It traps you like a snare

The burden of a thought

That’s really not ours to bear;

If you let it, it will cut you

Your wings clipped in despair

Every minute a sad reflection

Everyday another correction;

When the package came COD

And the delivery guy said it was for me

My life went driving down the street

I lived a lie in defeat;

But now I keep only what is mine

Whatever arrives must be divine

When it’s for me it’s whole, intact

This is a promise and a pact;

I close the door on everything else

I send it back much blessed

For only in the vibration of love

Is fear ever laid to rest;

I lift the veil of denial

I lift the weight of pain

I become the one I’m meant to be

Like a desert freed by rain.

I wrote this song in 2004 and “came upon” it today as I was searching for another file. You might call it a coincidence, but I would much rather land on the side of synchronicity, if for no other reason that it feels good when I do.

Yesterday I posted a poem by Becky Hemsley. Today I found my song. Notwithstanding my lack of songwriting ability and without knowing Becky’s intention for certain, it seems to me that we are talking about similar ideas about accepting who we are. As HSPs. As Highly Sensitive People. As individuals. As humans. As creative souls who live and breathe and identify and share and grow and touch and feel and respond and love and all the rest of it…the whole messy enchilada.

What amazes me is that I wrote this in 2004, not 2012 after my husband died or 2014 when I began hearing from him. Not all these years after discovering that my HSP-ness was directly related to my psychic and mediumship abilities and being witness to my own growth as an author.

I had to ask myself: If I didn’t know then what I know now, where did the words come from? Was I already channeling, if you want to call it that, my higher self? Had I entered some kind of 5^th-dimensional reality or parallel universe? Had I time traveled?

I really don’t know.

Yet here I sit before you today (well, before my computer writing to you) and feeling every word of this song.

I have lifted the veil of denial

I have lifted the weight of pain

I am becoming the one I’m meant to be

.

The post Fear came wrapped in a package and arrived C.O.D. first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

Message from The Celestial Professor, Day 2 in LA

I’m here! Started to post yesterday, but crashed after a drive back and forth through LA traffic to the Huntington Museum to experience a myriad of gigundo oil paintings (exemplary examples of pomposity and opulence rivaling Versailles (exaggerating, maybe, but still…). Magnificent grounds with floral scents in every direction; hot sun, slow meanderings.

Is it possible for me, an HSP, to feel at home in LA?

I’m with my two BFFs from Massachusetts, “L” and “J”. We met when we were all 13, just at that incredibly awkward age where everything feels insurmountable–or did to me. I’d seen both of my friends at least a few times through the decades, but they hadn’t seen each other for over 30 years. We’re having a three-day look-at-who-and-where-we-are-now reunion. It’s like being back in college: airbeds, bathroom sharing, wine (not boxed anymore) and yummy food (not just cookies and ice cream the way we might have done back then).

The first night one of the airbeds deflated and one of us ended up on the floor. Last night, though, after a trip to one of the big box stores for a new one, we got better sleep . . . snores, sirens, and dogs notwithstanding. Living outside Seattle, in Boston, and in LA, with our various families, jobs, and lives, makes it pretty challenging to time visits, so this is a really special one.

All well and good.

I’m feeling pretty fortunate at the moment because my friend J, who navigates the world—and I mean all its countries all the time, is driving the car, negotiating and navigating the sea of cars, all the while commenting on the different makes and brands, listening to her map app, and telling stories about her life with the aplomb and comfort of a happy ant going about the business of life. I am in the backseat watching the cars and buildings and highways and byways scroll by as if it’s a movie. All I’ve really ever seen of LA before has been in the movies, as a matter of fact, apart from a few trips down I-5 on the way south, so I’m pleased with my removed movie-goer position in the backseat.

Then it all falls apart.

It doesn’t take long, before that flowing, streaming sea of cars turns into a mass of scary, angry, swarming bees. Not for my friends, who are quietly conversing and such, but for me. I stop looking out the window. I focus on the floor mat. I tell myself to breathe. All the energies of all those people doing all that crazy driving at high speeds on the biggest highway system in the universe.

Meanwhile, J and L are gabbing away. J is switching lanes with great calm and finesse. L, whose eyesight is extremely poor, is coaching J since this is L’s town. It could be J’s town, too, for all her relaxed attitude.

I can’t believe how Zen they are. I also can’t believe how, in the twinkle of an eye, I’ve morphed back into the old Heidi, the one of crippling anxiety and heart-pounding trepidation. I feel as if I’ve disappointed myself.

Time for a good old-fashioned talking-to.

I take a drink of water and close my eyes. “Heidi,” I say sternly in my head, “everything is perfect. You are not driving. J is a fantastic driver who works in the auto industry doing research into traffic patterns and such. You are in good hands. Your psychic octopus is so far out it’s reached Oregon in one direction and Mexico in the other. Don’t you think it’s time to walk the old talk, to utilize all the tools you know and love so well?”

Slowly, slowly, I concentrate on my breathing and then focus on reeling in my tentacles, one after the other. I can’t believe how good I feel after only a moment or two. It’s like I’ve remember who I really am. Not the “me” of the past who is intent on suffering and “what-if-ing” all the horrible things that might happen (and surely will because they always do, don’t they?), but the me who has internalized and integrated the necessary knowledge and tools for peace, calm, certainty, and resilience.

Gratitude for my HSP-ness

It’s hard to put in words just how grateful I felt in that moment, and how grateful I continue to feel that, while I was having this experiential flashback, I made the conscious choice to change the channel from slasher movie to one on hummingbirds.

We’re back at L’s apartment again now and I’m reliving this as I’m writing it all down for you. My point? I will never not be a bona fide HSP. But now I know how to be it and love it.

The post You’re an HSP. In Los Angeles traffic. And you’re losing it. first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

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!.

HSPs rely on their heart connection to communicate with the world

Today at the gym I was Kindling Louise Penny’s novel The Madness of Crowds when I read: “You’d be surprised how clearly the heart can see,” and was caught up in a moment of gratitude so great I almost stumbled off the elliptical.

It’s not that the statement doesn’t resonate with me, but that it does . . . profoundly. When I read such words of high frequency and high integrity in a novel that I know millions of people are also reading, I pretty much get angel-bumps up and down my arms.

It’s such a simple statement, too. Just nine words, but do they ever pack a punch.

Thinking with your heart

For a long time now I have said that I think with my heart first. Lots of people who hear that look at me as if they must have misheard me. Who thinks with their heart, right? Yet it has become crystal clear to me that my brain is only as worthy of use as my heart, and that the one supports the other.

Mind or no mind

What if we didn’t have an organ called the brain? A brain that houses our mind? I doubt humans could function too well. Or without a heart, for that matter. The important piece here that is so often missed is that regardless of the individual, their socioeconomic status, their race, creed, gender, or genetics, one’s mind will never be able to fully suppress, ignore, or repress the heart.

I mean, we might never really know what “causes” our emotional states. If we subtract the chemistry (the hormones and synapses, etc.), the component that loves, that feels all the emotions, is still a mystery. We certainly can’t know for sure that the physical heart itself is behind all those emotions. We connect them with this organ, the heart, and assign it to be the holding place of all things spiritual and emotional. I’m okay with that assignation, though, so, for our purposes, let’s go with it.

The heart place

The heart is the “place” of true understanding, not understanding that comes through the mind. It’s a place where truth resonates—or doesn’t. The mind may serve our need for logic, but because it is attached to a human being, there will never be any such thing as pure objectivity. We all know that facts can be spun, statistics can be interpreted, and falsehoods can be reasoned into being. Fortunately, we have been blessed with another facet of human nature: the heart. There is always a heart, beating away, inherently clear, inherently pure, and inherently loving. A heart that knows what it knows.

While there may always be those whose hearts have been treated so appallingly that they manage to shut themselves from own heart connection, there can never be a mind that exists without a heart. You might choose to ignore your heart’s calling, you may choose not to listen to its advice, you may decide that you’d rather hide from it than be hurt, but the heart will never shut down until you leave the physical realm this time around.

What the heart wants

The heart wants to keep beating. It wants to keep sending the signals to the mind that the mind cannot conceive of on its own. The heart has strings that tie it to the mind of which we may be completely unaware, but upon which we are completely dependent to keep us anchored in the human world in a way that makes sense.

So, when you hear, “You’d be surprised how clearly the heart can see,” give it a minute to sink in. Let it marinate. Savor it. Embrace it.

Your heart will love you for it.

The post HSPs rely on the heart connection to communicate w the world first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

In Part 1 of HSPs & The Magic Pill, I talked about the way HSP-ism interacts with and is interlaced with symptoms, labeling of those symptoms, and diagnoses of those symptoms when you are an HSP. I talked about how much I yearned for a “magic pill” that would change my life.

Again, I do not advocate for nor am I against the use of medication for any purpose prescribed by your medical professional. What I present here is simply another way to interpret some of the symptoms–psychological, chemical, mental, emotional, and physical, you may be experiencing as a high-sensitive person. Like me.

Are you living in the label you’ve been giving?

In Part 1, you read about how I began taking Prozac against my husband’s wishes and fully immersed in my own shame that I “needed it.” I don’t think that shame has ever completely gone away. Needing something implies a weakness, and being weak is bad, right? That’s what I thought.

The incredible thing was that within days I was getting out of bed in the morning for the first time in my life that I could recall with actual enthusiasm. Gone was the “Omigod, another day, groan” thing. GONE. I couldn’t believe that this tiny pill called Prozac could make such a difference in my experience. The cloud of shame under which I lived had to stay buried in order to allow this new me to shine. Because I kept the fact that I was “on an anti-depression medication” under wraps, eventually Randy stopped asking me about it; we silently agreed to not speak about it, pretend it didn’t exist. The shame didn’t go away, but I gave up trying to make it go away.

Life changes in ways you cannot possibly expect

And now it’s 2012 and Randy is dying. Over the almost two decades we’d been together, I’d been on and off meds periodically, but  mostly off. I really wanted to “make it on my own” without the help of drugs. I cannot stress how much energy it took to pretend everything was okay. Especially after Randy’s illness began taking a more severe toll and my level of anxiety ramped up and the thought most prevalent in my mind was, “I can’t deal with this. I can’t deal with this.” Over and over it ran, even though I was dealing with it, one painful day at a time.

When the worst happened, all the “what ifs” came to pass, when I was left to scrape myself together, I’m really not sure why I didn’t go back on medication. I can see where it would have helped carve out a space for me to begin to cope. It seems I’d developed a sort of stubborn sense of what was right and what was wrong and what was weak and what was strong—and that no matter how weak I felt, I could not give in.

I don’t share any of this in support of medication or to steer anyone a way from medication. And I do not share my story to whine about the past. My only purpose here is to share how I made the transition from someone who “needed drugs” to someone who doesn’t.

Label, labels, and more labels

I know that my “anxiety disorder” is just another aspect of hyper-sensitivity, but that hyper-sensitivity is just another aspect of being highly intuitive and it’s completely within my power to use that intuition without getting caught up in the energy of it. Now it doesn’t feel like anxiety; it feels like the energy of intuition, curiosity, and inspiration.

I know that my “chronic depression” is just another mislabeling—believing that my intuitive sensitivities  were wrong, bad, and a problem, and that shutting down was the only way to survive. Now I know that when/if I feel the energy, the frequency, of so-called “depression,” it’s really only an energy reminding me to listen, really listen, to whatever message might be coming in. Just because I assign a label to a feeling, an emotional feeling like “depression,” does not mean that’s what it is.

So often, in fact almost always, these kinds of feelings are not what they appear to be. If no label existed, would I still feel the way I feel? Quite possibly. And yet, what if the label were not “you are depressed,” but “you are being guided to listen to your intuition”? How might that change our perception of that energetic experience?

For me, it changed everything and continues to be the way I live my life. Things are not always what they appear to be, even by consensus. “Uncomfortable” is not necessarily bad. What looks like a duck and quacks like a duck is not always a duck.

Consider new options. Learn a new way. Give yourself a break. Think differently. Wonder. Be curious. Open to the possibilities.

You won’t regret it.

The post Are you still looking for a magic pill to change your life? first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

From Highly Sensitive Person to Heroically, Inherently Bad-Ass

I’ll tell you what . . .

I got tired of being told I was too sensitive by the time I was about 5. That’s when I began to understand that I was being told in no uncertain terms that my feelings didn’t matter as much as other people’s and that in order to “get along” I needed to stop expressing them. Not that I was able to truly comprehend the magnitude of such an understanding. Over time, it simply seeped into my brain, soul, and heart. The constant message that it was risky, dangerous even, to express what I felt, what I felt I knew, what felt right, what my “gut” was telling me. Naturally, the more time that went by, the more my happy little joyful free child self became an introverted, terrified-I’d-be-discovered self. It’s taken me years (you don’t want to know how many) to unlearn that behavior. To discover that the fearful person I was, is not the confident person I started out as when I came into the world.

I meet people every day that are . . .

• Afraid to speak out/up
• Are afraid to be who they are
• Afraid to put forth their opinion
• Afraid to be “wrong” (according to the standards of others, whoever those others are in that moment)
• Afraid to “fail” (according to the standards of others, whoever those others are in that moment)

It could be the lovely, shy person behind the counter at the gym or the gas station attendant afraid to look you in the eye. The musicians who have  a hard time communicating other than on their instruments. The alcoholic or the drug addict who’s more comfortable hiding in those places and spaces than they are expression who they are.

Birth………..Life………….Death

Birth

The beginning of life as a human is birth, at least in terms of awareness as we know it. We come into the world, out of the womb, not only with the awareness our soul had while in that womb, but now with the awareness of all our senses that engage in a whole new way.

Death

We often consider the opposite of LIFE to be DEATH. But BIRTH is actually the opposite of DEATH. It is the beginning and the ending of our physical form in the 3-D world as we know it. Birth is the entry into life and death is the exit out of life. The inhale . . . and the exhale.

Life

LIFE, on the other hand, is what happens between birth and death. It’s all the stuff in between. It’s where we spend however many years breathing in . . . and out to perpetuate the life we’ve been given.

For most of us the fear of death is seen as the fear of the ending of life, but I think it’s much more than that. I think the fear of death starts at a very early age when all the other fears begin to manifest. All those fears listed above start the trend. The very act of breathing becomes difficult when you’re afraid, and breathing is everything. The shallow breath is representative of these fears that result in the biggest fear of all: death. The Biggest Ending of All. Yet, in my way of thinking, it is really the fear of letting go that has evolved into the fear of dying. Letting go of is another way to say “able to express.”

• If I let go of the fear of speaking up, I feel good about expressing myself.
• If I let go of the fear of being who I am, I feel capable of evolving as I move through life.
• If I let go of the fear of putting forth my opinion, I can also be unafraid of listening to the opinions of others.
• If I let go of the fear of being “wrong,” according to the standards of others which have now become my own beliefs and standards and values, I am free to develop my own definitions of what feels right for me.
• If I let go of the fear of “failure,” I not only let go of the tendency to self-sabotage, self-criticize, and potentially bully others, but step into the realm of creative, inspirational thought for no other reason than to see where my thoughts, sensations, and feelings might lead.

In other words . . . Be the Bad-Ass: Let go of the fears we have been taught into the freedom of being the BAD-ASSES we truly are.

Every day is about reminding myself to remember that the “Highly Sensitive Person” I thought and felt I was is actually the Heroically Inherently Bad-Ass being that I am.

The post How to get from point A to point B when you’re an HSP first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

Leaping was easy when you were a kid. It’s time to leap into being the brilliant HSP  you were created to be!

How do you get to be a BADASS . . .  the abundantly brilliant, consciously aware, amazingly dynamic, unapologetically adept, and unambiguously sensational being you were created to be?

First, you probably need to have a “psychic opening.”

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend doing it the way I did. You know, the whole dark-night-of-the-soul experience that takes you so far down into the morass of hell that you almost forget there’s any other place that ever exited. Yeah, that place. So, no, if you don’t need to go there, don’t.

On the other hand.

Sometimes that’s what it takes to have the psychic opening you need to crack wide the tightly wrapped egg-like structure (feels hard until it breaks at the slightest touch) of the depths of you.

What happened to me: My psychic opening

There I was, stuck in British Columbia, in a place I knew nothing about, with people I’d never met, working on a book with a medium I had just met, because my dead husband had told her to contact me.

I know. I thought it was nuts, too.

Randy had only died a few months earlier and I was in no condition to travel anywhere. I could barely get out of bed in the morning, let alone think about getting in my car and driving to Canada or to an airport to fly on an actual plane with actual crowds of people. My panic attacks were worsening. I woke up to my heart pounding and went to sleep—eventually and only after sheer exhaustion—with my heart pounding. The incessant, rapid thumping in my chest was telling me, “You’re in trouble. Your life has caught up to you. You’re dying. You’ll never make it–wherever that might be. Give up.”

Honestly, if it weren’t for this woman’s phone call (“Hello, my name is ____ and Randy told me to call you to say we have to work together on a book”) I may have opted out. The discomfort of living in my own body with my own thoughts and my own emotions was so great that shutting down once and for all felt like a viable option.

The Spirit World is on your side.

Without explaining herself with any specificity, this woman I didn’t know told me I was supposed to stay with her in Canada, work with her, and help her write her book. That Randy was guiding the process. Orchestrating on my (our) behalf.

Looking back, I know it was the lifeline I needed. I felt myself moving through the murky waters of grief to renew my passport, buy a suitcase, pack my bags, purchase a laptop for traveling until one day I arrived on Vancouver Island wondering how in heck I’d gotten there. It wasn’t until a couple of years later that I fully began to realize the way the Spirit World and my “gatekeeper,” Randy, was orchestrating so brilliantly to help me live a happier life.

She told me I was having a “psychic opening.”

It took a month for me to hear anything anyone was saying to me, even while I was writing and editing. It took another month for me to hear the words “psychic opening” and understand it had anything to do with me. That everything I knew, believed I knew; felt and believed I felt; thought and believed I thought was pretty much wrong. Or at least upside-down or something other than correct. The first time I heard it I went speechless. They were words, but words that could not possibly apply to me.

What if what you feel is not what you feel?

If you’re reading this, you probably know what it’s like to live life with anxiety and fear and emotional excess. The idea that someone would tell you that it’s because “you’re having a psychic opening” is just as probably not something you’ve ever heard before. But, when I tell you it’s what turned my life around, I’m not exaggerating. I’m not using hyperbole to make a point. I’m simply stating a fact.

When I share the news with clients that this is what is happening to them, most often they look at me like I’m crazy. They’ve been told their emotional states have been “over the top” and “too much” for so long that looking at them any other way seems completely unfathomable. Ridiculous even.

As “HSPs,” It’s time to embrace the concept that YOU can be highly intuitive and phenomenally strong at the same time. . . .

Be the Brilliant HSP You Were Created To Be!

As I said in my last post, it’s time to take the leap into your “BADASS-edness”: you abundantly brilliant, consciously aware, amazingly dynamic, unapologetically adept, and unambiguously sensational–being you were created to be!

It’s about going from unhappy to happy, unempowered to empowered. Into laughing and loving and generally feeling that life is more, not less, than it was cracked up to be. 

Will you feel this way all the time? Probably not. Neither do I. But the pauses in between are getting smaller.

Or you might say that I’m living in the pauses themselves.

Yeah…no. It’s much too far from anything they know, much too off the wall from anything they’ve ever heard, to consider.

And yet, it’s the truth.

Take the leap into your BADASS-edness!

And once you step into the truth and work within its brilliantly high-frequency resolution of competency and awareness, the release is stupendous. The relief is like the biggest breath you’ve ever taken. The renewal is as powerful as the strongest adrenaline surge.

But the best thing about being a brilliant HSP?

You’re one forever.

The post You can be the Brilliant HSP You Were Created To Be! first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

Living in the world of COVID–or any traumatic situation–when you’re a high-sensitive person

You have manifested in physical form for a reason.

It’s my hope that these posts encourage you to step into who you really are—a Vacationing Angel. Spirit that has made the choice to manifest in physical form to have the human experience. How? By establishing your Unique Energetic Signature (UES), opening your heart, reeling in your psychic octopuses, and establishing a relationship with your inner guidance. Why? Because the great choices we made in Spirit form don’t always seem to translate into our experience as humans. We need connection, love, support—we need help sometimes to understand what we’re capable of as spirit in human form, to appreciate who we really are, to take advantage of life in human form with all its complexities and possibilities and opportunities.

As Gregg Braden says,

“If the particles that we’re made of can be in instantaneous communication with one another be in two places at once,
and even change the past through choices made in the present, then we can as well.”

The Law of Cause & Effect, karma, and cocreation.

One of the earliest teachings of the Buddha (2600 years ago) is known as the Law of Karma, or the Law of Cause & Effect. This universal law has existed for tens of thousands of years in the most ancient African societies, Native American & First Nation cultures, and on the Indian subcontinent. This divine principle teaches us that we are co-creators of every moment, working hand-in-hand with the Divine. Which means we are never alone, never really on our own, never succeeding in isolation, and never separate. Every moment, we are partnering with the universe to get something done, to evolve.

The “reality” of Covid.

In a recent post we talked about living life with an open heart, and what difference that makes to how we perceive “reality” and how we manifest our experiences in human form. We’ve explored how it doesn’t have to be a risk to open our hearts because what it does it create a sense of ultimate freedom and engagement with self, others, and spirit. Today we’re focusing on the real meaning of CO-VID. What’s really fascinating is that I can pretty much guarantee that the person or people who came up with that name for this virus were only thinking of its so-called scientific application, when you break it down something incredible happens. We see it for what it is.

Here’s how it works: The Sanskrit word for knowledge is vidya. The English word wisdom comes from its root—vid. The prefix “co,” from the Latin, means “together, mutually, in common.” In this case it’s easy to see how, if every moment is a co-creation, Covid is nothing more—and nothing less—than a shared wisdom, a shared knowing . .

A Shared Awakening!

Add to this the fact that the number 19—1 for beginning and 9 for endings—well, it seems the message is that this is a critical time in all our lives and it’s up to us what we do with it.

“We are pushed by pain until we are pulled by a vision.” Michael Beckwith

When the scary world of Covid turns into “a shared awakening,” nothing looks or feels the same.

The questions Highly Sensitive People need to ask ourselves right now:

• What are we learning about ourselves to promote self-awareness and self-acceptance?
• How are we growing–and in which direction?
• Are we taking the time to reflect upon our next step along the path to our greatness?
• Are we being kind in the process?
• Are we practicing in whatever ways that feel comfortable to share a greater awakening with the world at large?

Learning how to survive and thrive in a times of stress is even more important for high sensitives! To take our “anxiety” and transmute it into incredible. Transmute our “depression” into deepened awareness. And our “ailments” into ease.

It’s up to us, all the HSPs of the world, to lead the way with the gifts–the heightened sensitivities–with which we have been blessed.

***Listen to my recording of “Healing from the Symptoms of Covid” music on youtube!***

The post HSPs & Covid: How to navigate a crazy world and stay sane first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.

In the lives of highly sensitive people, there is a constant undercurrent of negative reinforcement that terrorizes and demoralizes HSPs and the cruel world, and if you want a happy life, you need to accept these truths.

“If you want a happy life you need to accept these harsh truths.”

Noooo!

I saw this header on a youtube video and my immediate reaction was, “Noooo! Don’t tell me what I’ve always been told by the world—that life is harsh and I have to suck it up to get by! That’s not what I want to hear!”

I know, harsh call, right? It’s not like I clicked on it to see what the lovely young blond in the video had to say before rushing to judgment. Still, just hearing that harsh truths are the required foundation for a happy life triggered a sad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

You might be one of those people who don’t believe that the language we use makes all that much difference. You may believe that it’s what we do that matters more. Or even that emotions and feelings (we’ll continue to explore that difference) should be subjugated to the mind’s much more reliable rational, logical thinking. If that’s so, I encourage you only to consider how happy you are in your life. If you’re good, great! Keep doing what you’re doing. But if you’re not, and you happen to be like so many of us who take it personally, keep reading.

Let’s return to the idea of “harsh truths.”

• Is it harsh to hear that you are solely responsible for your own thoughts, feelings, and actions?
• That the world is not yours to fix?
• That the one thing you can do that makes any difference in the world is to start by being as loving as you can toward yourself so that your love shines out into the world?

I know, I know. Sounds woo-woo. Fact is, I don’t care anymore. The more content I feel in my life, the less concern I have about how other people perceive my woo-woo-ness. ’Cause it makes me happy! I still get my work done every day. I have clients, responsibilities, family, friends, bills to pay, groceries and gas to buy, a house to take care of. But instead of bemoaning my fate and the fate of the world, I look at ways to be grateful—and when I find it, I feel the gratitude deep in my bones.

And, guess what? I’m still an HSP. Big time.

Really? Affirmations?

“Oh, no, is she talking about affirmations?” you say. “I hate those things. They don’t do anything.”

On some level, no, they probably don’t. Not unless you FEEL them.

Here’s an example.

Years ago when it was still hard for me to be grateful for much of anything and I could hardly get out of bed in the morning, I asked myself this: “Is there one thing you can find to feel grateful for (not simply say you’re grateful for) every day? One consistent thing?” And I found it. Every night, I was grateful for snuggling into my flannel sheets and alternative down comforter in the winter and laying my head down on the perfect pillow that fit my head and neck. The way my body relaxed after a long day of fighting my way, managing my way, through the world. Sometimes it lasted only a few seconds, sometimes a minute or two. What mattered was how good my whole being felt in those seconds and minutes. That those moments were pure in their delivery of contentment.

Textbook HSPs

Once you feel it, on any level, in any small way, you can begin to find it in other places, in other ways. As a textbook HSP, it was a slow start for me after a long haul of grief and loss, but that’s why they call it practice. When the practice no longer feels like work, it no longer feels weighty. When the weight is gone, it feels like relief.

HSPs and the “cruel” world. Pure and simple.

The post Highly Sensitive People and the Cruel, Cruel, Cruel World… first appeared on Elevate Your HSP-ness!.