[LISA LEWIS] The Am I Ok? Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Faith Fringes, the Holistic Counseling Podcast, and Beta Male Revolution, go to the website, www.practiceofthepractice.com/network. Welcome to the Am I Ok? Podcast, where you will discover that being highly sensitive is something to embrace and it’s actually a gift you bring to the world. We will learn together how to take ownership of your high sensitivity, so you can make positive changes in your life, in the lives of others, and it’s totally okay to feel this way. I’m your host, Lisa Lewis. I’m so glad you’re here for the journey. Hi, I’m Lisa Lewis. I’m the host of Am I Okay? This is a podcast about highly sensitive people and deep thinkers and this is my first episode of my podcast so I’m a little bit nervous. In this episode, I’m just going to tell you about why I created this podcast. So about 10 years ago, I realized that I was giving away too much of my energy into things that I was feeling a void within me. I was doing a lot of volunteering at my children’s school, which I enjoyed very much. I was the room parent, I was the parent that drove on field trips, I was the parent that taught the kids how to make a pumpkin pie every year at Thanksgiving. I was the parents arranged for my daughter’s class to hatch ducklings and I was the parent who made lockers at my son’s class at Hanukkah and I was the parent that helped every week at my children’s garden at their school. So you name it, I did it. And don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed every minute of it. I loved volunteering. It was definitely fulfilling to me and I loved being with the children. I loved socializing with the other parents and just being part of the school community. However, it all changed for me one autumn day when I was at the children’s garden, prepping the garden, getting ready for my son’s class to arrive, to plant some seeds there. And I remember I was like the only one at the garden and I was holding a shovel and I just stopped and I just kind of like looked up towards the sky and across the street from the garden is a hospital and there’s windows that look down at the garden on the street. I just remember looking up and I just felt like, “Oh, there must be people looking at me going what is this person doing?” And I just realized, then it kind of just dawned on me like a light bulb. And I remember it just like it was yesterday and I had a realization, like I just asked myself, like, “Why am I doing this? Am I doing this for me or am I doing this for other people?” And I just had an awakening moment right then and I just realized that why am I giving all of my time and energy away to others? I’m not giving to myself. And I realized then that it was a time for me to do something different for myself. It was time for me to stop volunteering for other people and other things and start putting time into something that was just for me, just like starting this podcast. So I knew that I wanted to go back to work once my children were at least in elementary school, which they all were. I have three children, two in college now, and one in high school. Before I had children, I worked in broadcast journalism, which I love very much and I knew that I didn’t want to go back into that field. I wanted to do something different. It had been 11 years since I left my job in television news. And I also knew that I wanted to do something that would make a difference in the world. So it was time for me to do something for myself and I just really had a strong compulsion to take action. So what I did, and I had been starting my own individual therapy prior to this time and I really started taking some classes and I just realized that I loved working with people and hearing their stories. So I thought I’m going to look into going back to school, getting my masters in marriage and family therapy. So it took me that three short months to research different programs and see which one I felt was the best fit for me and my situation where I could still be a mom, a parent, a partner, that was going to be the easiest for all of us. So I found a program nearby where I live. I started that in 2012, January, 2012, and also being a person with integrity, I didn’t want to give up my volunteering activities until they were completed. So I would just never get up and walk away from something I agreed to do. I think integrity is like really everything to me. I’m going to say what I do and do what I say. So I completed the task and commitment of volunteering at my children’s school garden for the remainder of the school year, which is about another six months while I was attending graduate school. Graduate school lasted three years and then there was also, after graduation, putting time in at least 3000 hours of internship experience. So it was a long haul. It wasn’t that easy at times, not for me or for my family too, because we both had to give up some time for ourselves, but it was also very rewarding for me as an individual. So people around me were shocked that I did this. I didn’t ask for advice or other people’s opinions and it was new for me not to ask. I’m not sure if I remember asking my partner if it was okay if I did this. I remember telling him how much it meant to me. It was important to me and I wanted to do it and so I was going to do it and looking back that doesn’t sound or it makes me feel bad that I didn’t ask or have more conversation about it. However, I did explain to my partner, my children, that things are going to be different around the house since I was going back to school and I was going to still be their mom and partner and do all the things that mom and partners do, like cooking and cleaning, taking them to school and taking them to their extra curricular activities. So this was the time I really put myself first for the first time, in at least 10 years before I had children and let alone, the first time in my life did I really truly recognize inside me that I was consciously making a choice to do something for myself that would put other people in my life, maybe not, or above me, and maybe there are going to be, I love them wholeheartedly, maybe they’re going to be second in life. And I feel that I had not really paid my dues, but I really earned my time and that commitment as a mom and a partner and it was time for me to do something different in my life. So as a listener, maybe you’re in the garden still, you’re outside and rooted, but is that comfort keeping you from focusing on yourself? Are you making time for your thoughts? Thank you for listening today at Am I Okay? Podcast. If you are loving the show, please rate, review and subscribe to it on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you’d like to learn how to manage situations as a highly sensitive person, discover your unique gift as a highly sensitive person, and learn how to be comfortable in your own skin, I offer a free eight-week email course called Highly Sensitive People. Just go to amiokpodcast.com to sign up. In addition, I love hearing from my listeners, drop me an email to let me know what is on your mind. You can reach me at lisa@amiokpodcast.com. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher or the guests are rendering legal accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.