[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. Welcome to the Am I Ok? Podcast with me Lisa Lewis. This is episode two. This is a podcast for highly sensitive people and deep thinkers. To find out more about highly sensitive people in deep thinkers, visit my website at www.amiokpodcast.com. So today we’re going to talk about what it feels like to be a highly sensitive person and moving into the uncertainty of it. I want to share about my own sensitivity and also as a licensed marriage and family therapist and licensed professional clinical counselor, I want to share too, just from what I’ve noticed, working with people that are highly sensitive and also just knowing other highly sensitive people. So it can really feel like you don’t have skin that covers your body. I can feel porous, I just soak everything in, I absorb other people’s energies, kind of like a sponge. Like I feel wide open kind of prickly, sensitive to words, noises, can be sensitive to touch, smell, taste, to sight. I can be sensitive to other people’s body language and that can be really very, very, very subtle. I can read the room, walking into a room, not knowing what happened, but have a really felt sense of what happens. Like there’s been an argument and just asking, like, what’s just happened here and just knowing like, okay, I can read the room and how do I want to respond? What do I need to do for myself? With other sensitive people, maybe you’ve noticed this for yourself is that you can have like an unspoken conversation without saying any words at all. And it can just be, especially if in a room with other sensitive people, very intuitive and just have this conversation going around with actually not even talking at all, but really knowing how everyone else is feeling or thinking. And that’s always something fun to check out with other sensitive people and just to see if that’s really true or not for yourself. Sensitivity can be what I see as really deep thinkers and really deep listeners. I can take a thought and think it through from micro to macro. So like, what am I feeling? Why am I feeling like this? Why am I feeling sad to like, what is the purpose of life? We can ask a lot of questions from other people and never really feel satisfied. We can also be made to feel wrong just by our sensitivity or something is wrong with me. Like people don’t understand me or get me. What I heard throughout my life is, “You are so sensitive.” I heard that phrase very often and I just remember being at work and my boss saying you are so sensitive and just kind of catching me by surprise and thinking, oh wow, like there’s something wrong with me. So I just learned to really shut down my feelings and that shutting down my feelings made me like go numb inside, go frozen, not say a thing. And just felt like shame and embarrassment by those words of being sensitive. So like, I kind of phrased it, like I learned to hide and take it all inside, like take all emotions and feelings inside and store them inside and not feel maybe safe enough or secure enough to share it or be myself. So when this happens, I compare myself to other people, compare myself to other people my own age, my own gender, my own profession, and even my own race. Highly sensitive people, I find including myself, tend to feel so much emotionally. And I asked myself, how do I turn off that channel of tears? How do I feel less? If I feel less, does it mean I care less? Is this sensitivity serving a purpose? Does it mean that I care more than others? Am I too serious? Am I okay? No matter what is going on. And am I going to get through this? And I keep looking out at the bigger society world, am I just a little piece of the puzzle in this great scheme? And what does this all mean? What does life mean and what is life’s purpose? Is it even going to matter and am I going to matter? Sensitive people are sensitive to other people. Especially people who are bullied can be sensitive to racism, global warming, or like the collective deaths from COVID. And we need sensitive people in the world. So sensitive people care about the rule and they take care of it; not to say that other people that are not sensitive don’t do that too. And there are animals that are sensitive as well. About 15% to 20% of the world’s population is highly sensitive. The higher animals species like cats, dogs, mice, monkeys, horses, and humans are sensitive. And we need some of those animals to be sensitive, to kind of look out for any signs of danger. Like who’s going to take care of the younger, the sick, and where are they going to get food? So it’s very important to have sensitive beings in the world. And how did I discover my sensitivity? Well, I discovered it when I started my own individual therapy back in 2006, so about 15 years ago. And it was through this therapy that I learned my sensitivity was actually a gift and that really took me by surprise because I had not been, or I didn’t feel like a gift throughout my life. And this gift is a gift I bring to others and the world. And I had to understand the wounding from being sensitive to how it affected me throughout my life. I had to look at my own shame and my embarrassment about being sensitive, which was no easy task, but I knew I had to get through it or walk, get through the pain, to get to the other side, which just really to embrace it and really step into owning it, sensitivity. And my sensitivity is really about having compassion and empathy, intuition, being really concerned for others and being that deep listener and deep thinker. So it’s taken me many years to embrace it, to understand it, to feel it, to know how to take care of it. And now I want to share it with all of you, because I don’t want other people to go through the same thing that I did. I want your sensitivity. I want you to be able to feel it with ease instead of like a dis-ease with it. And sensitivity can lead to a feeling of uncertainty about yourself. And when you notice that uncertainty, just allow it to be there. It could be like a signal that catches your attention. And I like to think of it like a beacon of light from a lighthouse that is guiding you home, maybe a home to safety or security or to this place inside you that is a knowing of knowing who you are, who you want to be and how you want to live your life. So that uncertainty, maybe a place of uncomfortableness. So just take a moment to like swim around in it, just like you are swimming in a pool or lake or even the ocean. Because when we swim, we can actually float too, we are not going to drown or sink, and just allow yourself to move around in it and just ask yourself, how often are we not quiet enough to wait for signals? And are you taking on other people’s energy? If you liked the show, please rate, review and subscribe to my podcast at www.amiokpodcast.com. 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 to professional, you should find one.