Do you feel afraid to openly be your authentic self? Does impostor syndrome keep you from striving for your highest goals? Can you flip negative emotions into positive experiences?
In this podcast episode, Lisa Lewis speaks about how to overcome imposter syndrome as a highly sensitive person with Sheryl Anjanette.
MEET SHERYL ANJANETTE
Sheryl Anjanette is a best-selling author, international speaker, thought leader, founder of Anjanette Wellness Academy, and a senior associate with the Gender Intelligence Group.
She has more than 30 years’ experience in the business arena and holds certifications across multiple disciplines that are essential to individual and organizational health. These trainings include advanced certifications in cognitive behavioral neuroscience, clinical, cognitive behavioral and Eriksonian hypnotherapy, Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), and a clinical certification in stress, anxiety, and self-regulation.
As founder and CEO of Anjanette Wellness Academy and AWI Media, Sheryl shows individuals and teams globally how to overcome imposter syndrome and banish burnout. She offers online learning, one-to-one programs, on-site training, and speaking engagements on the topics of imposter syndrome, burnout and peak performance.
Despite evidence to the contrary, people who experience impostor syndrome seem to feel unworthy or not good enough to pursue their dreams and goals, or what they want in life.
It is cognitive dissonance, a disconnect, where reality does not match up to how a person feels about themselves.
Does “faking it until you make it” work?
While some people may feel uncomfortable “pretending”, the fake-it-until-you-make-it option is a worthwhile strategy.
This strategy is not about being a fake, but instead about practicing confidence in doing the task until you naturally feel more comfortable doing it.
You can practice and play with this strategy to help you to become familiar with the things you are trying to learn how to do, or the person you want to become until the familiarity becomes real, the confidence joins you, and you can integrate it.
Where do your beliefs come from?
Go back into the layers of your mind. Where do your actions come from? They come from your thoughts. Where do your thoughts come from? They come from your beliefs. Where do your beliefs come from? They come from experiences.
What did you experience, at any stage in your life, that you believed to be true, even if it wasn’t?
The meaning that you discern from an experience is the root of your beliefs and what you come to believe about yourself. When you realize this, you can literally change your whole mind.
Once you believe something, your mind will try to prove it to you. It will seek out information that fits this belief to make it real.
Feel the fear, and do it anyway
Moving through fear and doing the thing that you want to do is a positive strategy.
Fear is an emotion, like love or anger. It is a strong emotion because it tries to keep you safe, but ultimately, you can do things despite feeling nervous about the change it may bring.
Most people who experience impostor syndrome are highly accomplished. They have felt their fear before, and they have done it anyway, but they are still experiencing self-doubt.
There is no one cure for impostor syndrome because overcoming it requires a holistic approach of looking at many aspects of yourself and how you interact with life and making an integrated shift in the way that you treat, speak to, and believe in yourself.
Sheryl’s healthy zone
Your uncertainty and fear are important. It notifies you when you are growing, making changes, when something could potentially be genuinely difficult, or when you need to ask for help.
These emotions do not need to be expelled. What you can do instead is to learn how to work with them.
Your healthy zone is when you can interact with negative or difficult emotions constructively. Learn to work with them as helpful guides for where you can make healthy changes in your life instead of shunning them.
So you’ve been told that you’re “too sensitive” and perhaps you replay situations in your head. Wondering if you said something wrong? You’re like a sponge, taking in every word, reading all situations. Internalizing different energies, but you’re not sure what to do with all of this information. You’re also not the only one asking yourself, “am I ok?” Lisa Lewis is here to tell you, “It’s totally ok to feel this way.”
Join Lisa, a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, as she hosts her, Am I Ok? Podcast. With over 20 years of education, training, and life experience, she specializes in helping individuals with issues related to being an empath and a highly sensitive person.
Society, and possibly your own experiences, may have turned your thinking of yourself as being a highly sensitive person into something negative. Yet, in reality, it is something that you can – and should – take ownership of. It’s the sixth sense to fully embrace, which you can harness to make positive changes in your life and in the lives of others.
This may all sound somewhat abstract, but on the Am I Ok? Podcast, Lisa shares practical tips and advice you can easily apply to your own life. Lisa has worked with adults from various backgrounds and different kinds of empaths, and she’s excited to help you better connect with yourself. Are you ready to start your journey?
Podcast Transcription
[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 today’s episode of the Am I Ok? Podcast. This is Lisa Lewis, your host. Thank you so much for tuning in. I would like to remind my listeners that I offer a free eight-week email course titled Highly Sensitive People. My email course provides weekly tools that help you feel more whole in a world isn’t exactly made for us and I show you how your sensitivity can be seen as a unique gift and how many others are just like you. To find out more about my email course, please go to my website, amiokpodcast.com.
So have you ever felt like an imposter at work, at your job, or just in life? Well, today’s guest is going to talk to us about silencing your inner critic, and taming your fear to be your awesome self. Sheryl Anjanette is a best-selling author, thought leader, founder of Anjanette Wellness Academy, and a senior associate with the Gender Intelligence Group. Sheryl has more than 30 years’ experience in the business arena and holds certifications across multiple disciplines that are essential to individual and organizational health. These trainings include advanced certifications and cognitive behavioral neuroscience, clinical, cognitive behavioral, and Eriksonian hypnotherapy, neurolinguistic programming, and the clinical certification and stress, anxiety and self-regulation. As founder and CEO of Anjanette Wellness Academy and AWI Media, Sheryl shows individuals and teams globally how to overcome imposter syndrome and banish burnout. She offers online learning one-to-one programs, onsite training and speaking engagements on the topics of imposter syndrome, burnout, and peak performance. Welcome to the show, Sheryl.
[SHERYL ANJANETTE]
Oh, thank you, Lisa. I’m so happy to be here with you.
[LISA]
Oh, it’s so great to have you here and just reading your bio and hearing it out loud, I was like, ooh, this is so impressive, and I can’t wait to hear what you’re going to share with us.
[SHERYL]
Oh, well, I’m looking forward to the conversation. Absolutely, and especially with an audience that deals with what I’ve dealt with so much in my life. Being a highly-sensitive person, I just feel like I’m coming home.
[LISA]
Ah huh, well, welcome home. So glad to have you home. Do you consider yourself a highly sensitive person?
[SHERYL]
Yes. It’s interesting because I didn’t always have a name for it, but as I came to understand what this is, I would absolutely self-identify as a highly-sensitive person. I’m just a peacemaker. I really don’t like to have violence around me. I’m very aware of tension in the room and have learned to just dispel that tension. I always thought of myself more as a natural diplomat and just a gentle person, but I realize that so many of the things that highly-sensitive people deal with are really me?
[LISA]
And just that peaceful, that peacemaker, that diplomat, HSPs make wonderful leaders.
[SHERYL]
Yes. Well then, yes, I mean, I think that’s really a beautiful thing because so often when we’re feeling that we feel like we need to go away and be in our own place, in our own corner almost. The truth is, the world needs us. The world really needs us
[LISA]
It sure does. It does need us and HSPs make up about 20% to 30% of the population. It’s not like a tremendous amount, but that can be one of our things we have trouble with is finding other HSPs to be able to connect people that really get us and understand us.
[SHERYL]
Right, right. I think this is wonderful that you have this podcast and that you’re bringing people together and giving them a home, giving them a place where it can grow, understand and connect. So thank you for that
[LISA]
Yes, you’re welcome. Let’s switch over to about what you do. I’m just going to just put it right out there. What is imposter syndrome?
[SHERYL]
Well, imposter syndrome is actually a psychological pattern where someone feels like they’re not good enough in spite of their accomplishments. So it’s actually, despite evidence to the contrary, it’s like a cognitive dissonance, a disconnect where reality doesn’t match our own self-perception. Somebody that is experiencing, and by the way, I always say experience, I never say struggle or suffer. That might be the HSP in me, but I also just, I believe that our subconscious mind is always listening. It’s not that it may very well feel like a struggle, and at times we may very well feel like we’re suffering but for anyone that’s really interested in changing the dynamic, doesn’t it feel easier to change an experience than something you’re struggling with or something you’re suffering from?
So I do use my words very carefully and so somebody that is experiencing imposter syndrome might feel like they’re going to be exposed at any moment for not being as good as other people think they are. It’s like they’re putting on a mask and they’re putting on their confidence suit, and they’re going out, they’re in the world and saying the things they need to say and showing up the way they need to show up to do the things we need to do, provide for our families, have a career, be somewhat in the social “norm,” which we know there are no real norms. We do that, and then we feel like at any moment’s going to us and find out that we’re not good enough or worthy or deserving. But it’s a misperception. That’s why the book is called The Imposter Lies Within. It lies within, and it lies within.
[LISA]
I’ve often heard imposter, like, if you feel like an imposter, how to work through it is fake it until you make it, until it feels like it’s real.
[SHERYL]
Yes. Well, some people have really strong emotional responses to that. Some people really love it and it’s really helped them. Others just feel like, well, wait a minute, I’ll not fake it. I don’t believe in fake until you make it. What I see it as is a short-term strategy. It’s almost like trying it on a new mother. Let’s take being a new mother. You’re a new mother. It’s natural. People always say that’s natural, but a lot of women feel like they’re failing because they think this doesn’t feel so natural. The baby isn’t latch on. I’m nervous, I don’t know what to do. Why does it seem like everybody else just gets this? So we do the things, we act as if, until it starts to feel comfortable, until it’s practiced enough that we’re starting to feel like that mother or that doctor or that lawyer or that teacher or whoever it is. Wherever you are in your life.
We start to act as if, in the other part of acting as if, or faking it until you make it, is it allows us to be that person, start to align our emotions, our feelings, and our thoughts and our self-talk with the actual behavior. So we go out and we act as if until we realize not really acting anymore. I’m a mother. I am a teacher, I’m teaching, I am a doctor, I am an attorney. I am advocating for others or doing whatever I do in my field. That should go away. It shouldn’t stay. It shouldn’t be that we feel once we become really accomplished, it’s something that we’re still faking.
[LISA]
So are you saying it’s okay to tell yourself that it’s okay to fake it until you make it, until you feel comfortable and more like yourself?
[SHERYL]
Yes, I think its, but mindfully. It’s where we align our thoughts, well, our beliefs, first and foremost, our beliefs with our thoughts and our self-talk. I talk about something called the mind stack in my book, and I look at the mind of, the mind is very complex, but I look, I go back into the layers of the mind and how they interact. We go all the way back down to our beliefs and really below our beliefs. Where did ours, well, below the beliefs, our experiences and we have an experience. It’s not so much the experience, but it’s the meaning or the interpretation we have at that stage and two people, we know this, two, even young children, even twins, can have the exact same experience, can attach different meaning, have a different interpretation, and give it a different weight.
As a highly sensitive person, we know this, it’s come with our personalities and we’re taking things in and we’re a little more emotional. We tend to be more stimulated by things. So we might give something more weight, or it might have a stronger trigger for us and it starts these experiences and the meaning we give them begin to form our beliefs, not our religious beliefs, but our beliefs about ourselves in the world. So we get these beliefs and these beliefs then am I good enough or not? Am I worthy or not? Am I deserving or not? Does my voice matter or not? Do I matter or not? Then our mind looks for evidence to make us right that’s the way our mind is wired. So something else happens and we say, oh, see, not good enough. Okay, it layers on and it layers on.
Maybe something comes up and we say, I’m good enough, but if the I’m not good enough is a stronger trigger and it’s weightier in our mind, if it’s more layer that’s going to win. Our subconscious mind is going to pay attention to the loudest voice, the bigger message. Then we start to create this belief, oh, I’m not good enough. That becomes a belief and an emotional identity, not the mental model, the emotional model we have. Then that starts to inform our thoughts and our self-talk. So when we’re saying, is it okay to fake it? Yes, act as if, but aligned with the beliefs, the self-talk, the thoughts, because the belief begins, I’m good enough to be this person. I’m good enough to be that teacher. I’m good enough, I can figure it out to learn how to be a good mother or whatever it is even if I didn’t have good mothering, good parenting. Or even if it was good but there were mistakes because all parents make mistakes. We’re imperfect, we’re imperfect beings. So we have to align that with our thought, because eventually we wake up one day and it feels really comfortable and someone says, well, what do you do? Well, I’m a mom and I’m a teacher, and this is how I describe myself. It feels very, very comfortable.
[LISA]
I just loved how you said that and you brought it back, I feel like you brought it back around to just feeling good about yourself within myself.
[SHERYL]
Yes, absolutely. It’s so interesting because I just finished recording a guided meditation that I call good enough. So my mind is, and my heart, my soul, are really grounded right now in this idea that we are good enough, you’re worthy, you’re deserving, you’ve actually always been good enough. Sometimes we just need to be reminded. We’ve forgotten through these experiences and these false beliefs or limiting beliefs that became so layered.
[LISA]
Yes, yes, for sure. I love how you brought it all the way back to those core beliefs that we pick up, we learned, that are with us early on in our lives and how they like to stick around until we take notice of them. That’s like, I don’t know if that’s really serving me anymore. Maybe I need to have a different way of being in the world or thinking about myself in the world.
[SHERYL]
Yes. And that thought right there, that begins with awareness, the awareness that this doesn’t feel so good. I’m not sure it’s healthy. I could stay here. I’ve survived this long feeling this way, but maybe there’s a better way. Maybe there’s a way for me to feel really good to let go of the rumination, to let go of the anxiety and actually be at peace and flow. It seems like other people have been able to do it. If they can, maybe I can. That’s an awareness piece, but it’s also a choice. Now, maybe you don’t yet know how to do it, but I’ll tell you what. The how to is the easier part. If we ask the right question, the answers are there. If we choose a thought, a thought of, I’m going to get healthy, I’m going to do the inner work, I’m going to figure this out, the how to, the path will manifest
[LISA]
Will it reveal itself?
[SHERYL]
Yes, it will reveal itself. It will, as long as you’re paying attention. Got to put yourself out there. It takes, it doesn’t take a lot of action. It doesn’t take a lot of activity, but it takes some. We need to be in motion with this. We need to tune into this podcast, connect to other people, look for, make the intention that you’re going to find a guide, a coach, a therapist, somebody that really is going to help you. And maybe just in doing that, you’re already on the path. You’re not really looking for the path. You’re already at the beginning of the path because you’ve already made that decision but now the path needs to unfold. There’s a belief there. The belief is in the unknown. It’s not known to me yet, but I know it’s there. I know it’ll unfold and I choose to believe that because we can choose beliefs, we can choose our thoughts, we can choose our self-talk. We get to choose.
[LISA]
We sure do. Working as a therapist myself when that word, I want to say word or words that come up of the unknown or uncertainty, people get really scared of like, what’s going to happen? It goes to like, the worst thing or the worst thing’s going to happen. Or how do I trust myself? How can I trust anything if life hasn’t been going that well for me?
[SHERYL]
Right. Well, you’ve just used a really important word and that’s trust. How can I trust myself? How can I trust myself and what does that lead to? What if we connect the dots backward? Where did we lose that trust? Do we always start with not having that trust? Something may have happened along the way, and could it be linked to expectations, ours or others? Could it be linked to trying things and it didn’t go as well as we wanted it to go? So now we think what fails, which is another fallacy, there’s no such thing as failure, it’s just feedback. We’re meant to try and iterate and practice. I would say iterate to greater mistakes or just mistakes. So where do we lose that trust along the way and what are the bullies in our brain? Well, who are we listening to? Who are we listening to? Are we listening to, I could have named the bullies. I could call them the sabotage bullies, but I named one of them experience Ethel, because Ethel’s always there to tell you why you shouldn’t do something. You don’t have enough experience. Or look, you already tried that. You failed. Don’t even go there. It’s like, okay, she’s a bully. She’s a bully in the brain.
[LISA]
Oh, ouch. That hurts. Is that the inner critic talking when you feel bullied by your own thoughts?
[SHERYL]
I think the inner critic is where we are self-critical. We’re so, so hard on ourselves. But there are other voices in our mind besides the self-critic. There are just these voices that really don’t even have to sound critical, but they can still sabotage us, like fear, I call fearing Freddy, or doubtful deity or experience Ethel. She could be very loving. She could be saying, oh sweetie, don’t do that again. She doesn’t sound critical. She’s just like, you tried that. Just stay safe. Stay in your little place. You’re better off. You’re too emotional, you’re too emotional. Don’t go there, stay safe. It may be that as we talked about, your genius is there. We need you, we need your brilliance, we need your voice, we need your leadership.
So sometimes it’s just learning to live with our own within, within our own sensitive realm, to be able to talk ourselves out of personalized things, to talk ourselves out of rumination and just only allow thoughts in our head that are going to be productive. Because this is what rumination is. I know you know this, but rumination is unproductive thinking. It’s where we allow a thought to sort of loop and loop in our mind. That isn’t going anywhere. It’s the hamster reel. Productive thoughts, the thought has to, we say to the thought, listen, you get productive or you need to go. Thank you very much, but I’ve listened to you but unless you can be productive, I’m going to have to let you go.
[LISA]
I love that. Is the saying, feel your fear and do it anyway, is that helpful or is that not helpful?
[SHERYL]
In my book Lisa, I have a whole section on myths. These are pervasive myths that I think can be very damaging and that’s one of them. That’s actually my number one, is feel your fear and do it anyway, is the cure for imposter syndrome. So let’s make the distinction, feel your fear and do it anyway. Moving through your fears, walking through that door and doing the thing that get nervous about, that’s a really positive strategy. That’s a good thing. We want to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s how we grow. But that being said, it’s not a cure. It’s not a cure for imposter syndrome, simply because most of the people that experience imposter syndrome are highly accomplished. They’ve done that. They’ve felt their fear and they’ve done it anyway and they’re still on the other side being really accomplished.
Like think Albert Einstein or Maya Angelou, or Tina Faye or Sandberg, Oprah, they’ve done this. They felt their fear. They do it anyway and they’re still feel like they’re going to be found out for not being as good as others think they are for that fraud or phony. I don’t relate to those words, fraud and phony by the way but I do relate to this idea of being exposed. I used to feel that in pains until I got myself past imposter syndrome. So it’s really important that we make this distinction that just because something is a good strategy and something we want to work with, it doesn’t necessarily make it a cure. There’s no silver bullet. This is a holistic, I believe there needs to be a holistic approach to getting past imposter syndrome.
[LISA]
Do you feel that underneath that being exposed, being a phony or fraud, being called out, that there’s shame underneath that?
[SHERYL]
For most people there is some shame associated, shame and guilt, blame. But the reason is that shame and guilt and blame, and this is my take, Lisa, I don’t know if you have a different feeling about this, but I think of our emotions as sort of this whole symphony of emotions that are neither good nor bad. Some are more contracted emotions, and they’re uncomfortable emotions like shame and guilt and blame and fear and anger or frustration. And others are lighter. They have a higher frequency like joy and happiness, and even just this neutral place, this peace and love, of course love, there are higher frequency. But I don’t really put a judgment on feelings or emotions, I should say. Emotions, I don’t put a judgment. I don’t say that they’re good or bad. I think they just are. We have to realize they’re part of the human experience.
Something like shame, it’s very inward. We feel, when we are feeling shame, we feel like it’s embarrassing. It’s like we’re the only ones and we don’t want to share that with anyone. So we hide it, we push it down, we suppress it. In expressing these emotions, these are usually part of the imposter syndrome. They’re part of that repertoire, the uncomfortable emotions that we’ve suppressed because they don’t feel good. We don’t want other people to see them because we might be judged that’s not being good enough. But we’re already judging ourselves that way. We’re already judging ourselves that way.
[LISA]
Do you feel that we are ourselves, our harshest critic?
[SHERYL]
Yes, in most cases. In most cases. I never like to say always or never, because I’m just not a big believer in superlatives. I try to stay away from them, which isn’t always easy. I have to catch myself. Well, in most cases, we’re our harshest critic. We can be really hard on ourselves and you know a lens will distort. No lens is perfectly clear. So we get our belief lens on things, and especially when that belief is really distorted where we don’t feel good enough in spite of evidence to the contrary. When that belief lens is distorted, our perception of ourself is distorted. We can be really, really harsh on ourselves. As I overcame imposter syndrome, it’s so interesting, I started to reconnect with people from my childhood, in my most awkward years, junior high in high school. I realized they didn’t think I was awkward. They didn’t think I didn’t belong. They didn’t think what I thought of myself. The way they saw me was so different than the way I saw myself and it was really eye opening. It’s something I encourage everyone to do. Ask three people that really like you, that have your back, people that are going to give you the truth, but they really care about you. Ask them to tell you about you, just open ended. Tell me about me. What do you see? What’s your perception? Just listen. It’s like unbelievable, amazing, an amazing experience. Very healing.
[LISA]
Was that part of your own healing journey?
[SHERYL]
Yes. It was not by design, although I do help others with it now by design. But I tripped over it. I actually remember a friend saying to me, I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. I’ll tell you what, I had to chew on that for really, maybe a couple of years. I mean, I remember being stunned by that statement when she said it and I remember the intensity of my thinking about that in the days after and the weeks after. But it stuck with me for years. I say often to people who aren’t feeling good enough and I said it often to my son because in my first marriage, I married a man who has, he wasn’t diagnosed as narcissistic as far as I know so I don’t want to say it’s a diagnosis. I think we mis-diagnose all the time but he definitely had narcissistic traits and characters and unfortunately, I had my, he’s the father of my son. I’m so blessed to have my son but because of that, my son did have a lot of the feelings of not good enough because he was never good enough in his dad’s eyes. As much as his dad loved him, it was a lot of mixed messages. So it’s very confusing. I would say all the time, I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. I mean, what did we, talk about highly sensitive, by the way. Oh, my son is more sensitive than I am.
[LISA]
Wow. Thank you for sharing that story with us. That’s really sweet and powerful. I feel that, I can only speak for myself, but I feel so honored when I’m sitting with a client and just holding that space for them and seeing their true self, their essential self. They may not see it just yet, but holding that space, because I feel like I know that they are going to see it and that’s what we’re headed towards and that’s why they’re coming. So maybe they might not believe it right then right there. However, that’s where we’re going. That’s the direction we’re headed and it’s such an honor to witness that.
[SHERYL]
As you’re speaking, I mean literally, I have the hair is standing up. My heart is so happy because that is the end goal. That’s the magic, that’s the beauty, is when people really do find that, that’s what makes me just keep getting up every day motivated and excited to do the work I do, really like you. So that’s really wonderful. If we keep doing this and we help people really remember, it’s like, remember who you are. You always were good enough. You always were worthy and deserving. You’ve just somehow forgotten that.
[LISA]
Yes. Can you share with us what the healthy zone is?
[SHERYL]
Yes. I came across this idea as I was looking at imposter syndrome. By the way, I’m very stubborn. So once I decide I want to figure something out, I’ll keep going until I figure it out even if it takes years even if it takes decades. When it came across imposter syndrome, what I kept hearing was it’s something that’s probably going to keep popping its head up. You can’t really get past it or most people don’t and you’ll get better. Just keep doing these things. You’ll get marginally better or even dramatically better but it may most likely will keep popping its head back up. I thought, I need to reject that. I just don’t believe that. It always begins first with that belief. Because if we accept that as our belief, our belief becomes our reality and we’ve already limited ourselves.
So I said, no, no, no, no, no. I need to figure another way out. This is not right. First of all, I future-pace myself. I said, ok, what does it mean to be past imposter syndrome? I looked at the behaviors and I looked at the emotions. I said, does it mean having no fear? Well, it couldn’t possibly mean that you don’t have fear because fear is wired into us. we’re meant to have fear. It’s our great protector. If we didn’t have fear, if you don’t have fear, then what would you do? You jump off that cliff. So I said, no, no, we have fear, we still have fear. That’s normal. That’s natural. But it should be adaptive. We could actually use our fear. We create this great rush of adrenaline. Couldn’t we use that adrenaline to launch us, to launch our rockets rather than have us spiraling downward?
Then I thought about doubt and I said, well, doubt is it, does it mean no doubt? I thought, well, no, no, no. I mean we need doubt. We need doubt. Doubts are great discernment muscle. We need to have some doubt. It just needs to be healthy, adaptive. We need to use that doubt, listen to it, does it make sense? How does it weigh out against risk, reward, all the above and then move on close loop, not crippling us. So it needs to be adaptive. Then I looked at comparison. I said, okay, do you just stop? You hear that all the time, stop comparing yourself to everyone else. I thought, well that’s not really true because we’re going to compare ourselves and that’s a good thing. How do we know who we are if we don’t know who we’re?
But do we need to compare up? Find ourselves like we’re at the bottom of the totem pole and everyone’s better than us. Or do we need to compare down? The flip side of that, the pendulums, we’re looking at others who are doing as well as we are and we feel good about that. That didn’t seem right. But there’s an adaptive zone. Where we can use comparison as a positive thing? It can push us forward. We know who we are and we can look at people that are doing better than we are and say, what am I doing right that I’m attracting these amazing people to me. I must be doing something right and just be grateful for those models of people doing things longer or sometimes not as long but differently or better and say, ok, this is here to teach me.
So I looked at this and I said, when you get past imposter syndrome, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have a lot of these behaviors like perfectionism or pleasing, caring about other people, wanting to please others, be a good person or savior. Not the savior complex, but being able to give other people a hand up. Or you have fear, you have doubt, you have comparison, but they’re in a very adaptive place. So if you think about it, think about a circle, a large circle and a pendulum swinging over that circle, just rocking gently because we’re dynamic beings and things are changing and moving. It’s rocking gently and it’s staying in circle and sometimes something hit us out of left field and we’ll be triggered. Or if there’s something new and there’s great uncertainty or there’s a great loss a person or a job or a relationship, and we start to swing outside of that healthy zone.
But we feel good inside. We know we’re good, we know we’re worthy, we know that we’re deserving. If a moment does those feelings come back but now, we have the strategies to kick ourselves back in. So we kick ourselves back into the healthy zone. That’s what getting past imposter syndrome means. You have this healthy zone. Most of us when are experiencing this are, we’re kind in these maladaptive behaviors. We’re way out on the fringes and that pendulum tends to swing really wide rather than rocking gently in the center. So that’s really this concept of the healthy zone and why it’s so pivotal to understanding that yes, it’s true. You can get past imposter.
[LISA]
Oh I love that. I was picturing in my mind just the pendulum swinging and it could swing to both ends of the swing. That to me is like the extreme and then when it rocks very gently, it’s more in the middle and it’s just that rhythm going back and forth.
[SHERYL]
Yes. Rocking is a great thing by the way. As I was listening to your voice, because you have a very soothing voice and I’m listening to your voice and I found myself, first I was really gently rocking back and forth like, you’re in a rocking chair. That’s a very calming thing to do for yourself. It’s a way of self-soothing. That’s why babies and children, we put them in rockers and that’s why people get older they go into rockers, they are rocking. Then I found myself swaying back and forth as you were just speaking, these are really gentle ways that we can self-sooth and except this new possibility.
[LISA]
Sheryl, what would you like listeners to take away from our conversation today?
[SHERYL]
You are good enough. You’re more than good enough. You are a diamond. You’re brilliant and you always were. It’s just time to remember that you’re worthy, you are deserving, your voice matters. You matter. You’re loving and your lovable and the world is your oyster.
[LISA]
Beautiful. Do you have a free gift that you would like to share with my audience?
[SHERYL]
Yes. If you are interested the easiest way to do this, by the way, if you’re on Instagram, otherwise you can go to my website, but both of them are Sheryl Anjanette. So website sherylanjanette.com or Instagram in my bio. I do have a free eBook called Unlock the Secret Code to your Subconscious Mind. It’s really a way to understand your subconscious mind, which is 90% of our consciousness, 90% of our reality. So important when we understand the language so that we can speak to it in the right way, so we can understand the influences, so we don’t feel like the puppet with the puppeteer below the surface pulling the strings. So I have that gift and I also have a, if somebody would like to take it, if you’re curious what, how, if, and how imposter syndrome is showing up for you, I do have a quiz which can also be found at my website or my Instagram. It’s an imposter syndrome quiz and you can get your score and it’s not a score like pass or fail or A, B, C, D. It’s really just a starting point. It’s a way for you to understand if and how it may be showing up for you so you have a place to go with it.
[LISA]
Well, thank you for providing that to my listeners. I appreciate that. It sounds very interesting
[SHERYL]
Yes.
[LISA]
Are there any other ways that listeners can get in touch with you? I know you mentioned your website and Instagram.
[SHERYL]
Absolutely. As long as you know how to spell my name, Sheryl, with an S and Anjanette is [Anjanette], you can write to me, hello@sherylanjanette com. My website, my social medias are all at my name. I think my LinkedIn has a hyphen and really easy to connect. I do have a discovery call, so if someone’s just curious about hypnotherapy or about self-sabotage or imposter syndrome or burnout, any of the above, you can certainly use that link and just book a 20-minute call.
[LISA]
Ah, sounds great. All of this information will be in the show notes.
[SHERYL]
Oh, beautiful. Thank you.
[LISA]
Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Sheryl. It’s been a pleasure to have you on.
[SHERYL]
Thank you, Lisa. What a wonderful, wonderful conversation. And I just, I really can’t wait to connect with everyone and have a good life.
[LISA]
Thank you. Thank you, my audience for listening. Please let me know what you thought of the episode. Send me an email to lisa@amiokpodcast.com. Remember to subscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcast. To find out more about Highly Sensitive Persons, please visit my website at amiokpodcast.com. While you’re there, subscribe to my free eight-week email course to help you navigate your own sensitivities and to show you that it’s okay not to take on everyone else’s problems. This is Lisa Lewis reminding each and every one of you that you are okay. Until next time, be well.
Thank you for listening today at Am I Ok? 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.
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