Why is high sensitivity and showing emotion seen as a weakness? Being labeled as fragile or unhappy is commonplace for us as HSPs. We worry about what others will think of us and about being misunderstood. But Just because we don’t move at the same emotional speed as everyone else, we’re conditioned to feel ashamed and embarrassed for it.
Yes, being highly sensitive can make us feel like we’re on a never ending rollercoaster of high octane emotion and sensory overload, yes it’s draining and overwhelming but it also means we possess awareness.
Do we fear being judged for our sensitivity? Are we worried that others might see us as weak if we take compassionate action to help?
And how do we start to overcome these feelings?
More Info Here: https://linktr.ee/highly.sensitive.healing
Transcript
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::Why is high sensitivity and showing emotion seen
as a weakness? Being labeled as fragile or unhappy
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::is commonplace for us as hsps and we often worry
about what others will think of us and about being
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::misunderstood. But just because we don't move
at the same emotional speed as everyone else
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::we're conditioned to feel ashamed and
embarrassed for it. This way of thinking
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::is really self-destructive and it causes many of
us to withdraw more and more from different kinds
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::of relationships and situations that make
us feel overwhelmed and even uncomfortable.
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::BKS Iyengar who was considered one of the
foremost yoga teachers in the world says in
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::his work Light on Life "sensitivity
is not a weakness or a vulnerability,
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::it is a clarity of perception and allows judicious
and precise action." I'm Tonya your host and today
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::we're chatting about high sensitivity and
the perception of weakness versus strength.
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::Welcome to the highly sensitive healing podcast
where we meet the joys and challenges of our
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::sensitivity with open minds and hearts to
awaken our best highly sensitive selves.
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::Hello my friends and wherever you are
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::I invite you to just pause for a moment
and take a couple of nice deep breaths
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::relax your shoulders and maybe set
an intention for what you'd like to
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::receive out of our time together today. Maybe
it's as simple as learning something new or
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::an affirmation of an emotion or a feeling
you're experiencing now in this moment.
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::And maybe think about why you chose this
particular episode at this time what's going on in
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::your life that drew you to talk about this today.
So a quick story about how this episode came about,
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::recently here in the pacific northwest
we experienced a record heat wave and it
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::topped out I think at around 106 degrees
and like so many people here in this area
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::in our home we have no air conditioning so it
really was a stressful few days to say the least.
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::But aside from the stress of living
in a house that was 96 degrees
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::I spent most of my time over these four-ish days
trying to care for the wildlife that visits us
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::and lives with us on our small piece of property.
And so we have rabbits and deer that come through
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::you know lots and lots of birds and some frogs
and I spent a lot of my time just rotating
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::out dishes of water and walking around
the area looking for birds in distress.
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::And on the second day I was doing this my husband
started shaking his head and kind of chuckling at
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::me rolling his eyes and he said something like you
can't save them all and it's great that you care
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::so much but i wish you cared about just one or two
things instead of caring so much about everything!
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::He said you're so emotional and you worry too much
about things that you just can't do anything about
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::and I just replied I said I know I know but I
can't help it and I just kind of went on my way
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::doing my thing with the water dishes. Now he wasn't
trying at all to be cruel to me that wasn't his
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::intention at all he's a good person it's just
after our almost 13 years together he still
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::doesn't get it he just simply doesn't get it
because he's not anything close to being an hsp.
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::And a little later I started thinking you
know how we do as hsps analyzing and replaying
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::conversations over and over in our head and
I had a little epiphany and iI was thinking
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::what actually is wrong with
caring about everything
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::and how and why is this scene as such a bad thing
and am I weak because I'm spending time and energy
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::caring and helping and is my husband
strong because he can so easily
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::dismiss what was going on and what I saw
as the suffering of other living things?
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::and I invite you to just imagine for a moment
what a world we would live in what kind of world
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::it would be if every person cared about every
bird every tree every ocean and neighbor and
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::what kind of world might be living in right now
if everyone actually cared more instead of less
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::and this feeling of kind of irritation and
frustration from that conversation that we had
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::is what brought me back to this quote from
Iyengar that sensitivity is not a weakness or
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::a vulnerability it's a clarity of perception
and allows us judicious and precise action.
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::So I started thinking you know
what does this mean for us as hsps
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::and yes we can pretty much all agree I'm sure
that being highly sensitive can make us feel
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::like we're on a never-ending roller coaster of
high octane emotion and sensory overload and
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::yes it's draining and it's overwhelming
but it also means that we possess awareness
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::a genuine awareness and
understanding and appreciation
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::for the suffering and needs of the animals and
plants and people around us. And we're more in
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::tune with our environment and we're more skilled
and capable of recognizing difficult situations
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::and this is our clarity of perception as Iyengar
said we can naturally put ourselves into the shoes
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::of an animal or a tree or a suffering child and
yes it's painful for us it's often extremely
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::painful for us because we have a natural
conscience a natural contempt for neglect and abuse
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::but it also drives us it drives us to stand
up for what we intuitively feel is right and
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::instead of dismissing these feelings or running
away from them like a non-hsp person might.
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::Our innate abilities allow us to
take judicious and precise action
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::you know our sensitivity really I believe is a
highly developed skill and it allows us a deep
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::understanding to see clearly what is happening
around us and most importantly what needs to
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::happen in order to be of service to someone else
in need so what helped me to feel better during
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::the heatwave taking action that one small
act to set out water for animals in need
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::and making the conscious decision to look past my
husband's judgment that what I was doing was an
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::action of weakness and I tell you truthfully
it took me a long while to get to the point
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::where I can now usually follow my sensitive
instincts without letting someone else's opinion
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::make me second-guess it. And do we
fear being judged for our sensitivity
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::sure. And are we worried that others might
see us as weak if we take compassionate
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::action to help at times? Most definitely. So
how do we start to overcome these feelings
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::this fear of being judged of being misunderstood
in my experience it's all about taking action
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::and when we feel compelled to do something helpful
and kind I genuinely I genuinely believe that this
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::is no accident and when we can start to look
past the misunderstanding that others have of us
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::because I believe and I promise you this to the
depth of my soul that highly sensitive people
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::we are the true north we are the consciousness of
humanity. The human race whether most believe it or
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::not needs us. We need highly sensitive people for
the survival of all living things on our planet
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::and just because we have an empathetic and gentle
nature does not mean that we're weak it actually
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::means the opposite that we're brave enough to
take on challenges when they're presented to us
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::but yet we hold back. The more action we take
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::when we allow our sensitivity to guide us the
more confident and resilient we become over time
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::and what's the result of us sharing
our full sensitive potential?
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::A world that is more loving more kind and
more compassionate so even a small action
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::like placing small dishes of water outside
in a heat wave which by the way many animals
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::visit us over that weekend and they all
visited the water dishes that I put out.
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::So even these small actions they push us forward
they push us to embrace our sensitivity instead
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::of hiding in a way and I promise you
the more you allow your highly sensitive
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::nature into the world the better you will feel
emotionally energetically and even physically.
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::And I'd love to hear from you can you think
of a time where you were maybe compelled to
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::take an action despite what someone else
thought were you able to take that action
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::or were you held back by fear of judgment and the
next time you're in a situation do you think you
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::might do something differently? I'd love to hear
your thoughts and stories if you'd like to share
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::your highly sensitive experience and I'll end
today's episode by sharing an affirmation with
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::you that I use when I feel myself holding back
from being my complete highly sensitive self:
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::Love is my guiding truth and I follow it
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::Love is my guiding truth and I follow it. And for
me it really doesn't get more simple than that
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::thank you so much for spending time with me
here on the highly sensitive healing podcast
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::new episodes are released every wednesday
and if you ever have a question or a comment
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::or even an idea for a future episode please feel
free anytime to send an email or an instagram
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::message all the links you'll need are in the
show notes and if you found value in this episode
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::please share it with a fellow hsp or someone
who cares about them and wants to learn more
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::about what it's like to live as a highly
sensitive person i'll see you next time
