🌸 Blooming With Conversations SeriesThis conversation is part of a semi-regular dialogue and teaching series that brings sensitive leaders and self-healers together to explore what we need to thrive in our sensitivity through thoughtful dialogue, real-time coaching, and personal storytelling.
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Blooming With Marina – When Sensitive People Stand Up For Themselves: How to Set Boundaries and Stay In Your Power
Have you ever left a conversation or a conflict situation wishing you’d said or did something differently?
Maybe a comment landed sideways, a request felt off, or someone crossed a definite line, and instead of standing up for what you wanted or needed in the moment – you just smiled, nodded, and moved on to keep the peace and avoid the conflict?
Realizing later, that… you didn’t actually let it go?
You feel it in your tight jaw, the tension in your shoulders, an emotional heaviness in your stomach, and thoughts on an endless loop about how you should have asserted yourself better…
Resolving Conflict Can Be…Complicated.
For many sensitive people, conflict doesn’t arrive cleanly. Often, it shows up as freezing, fawning, over-explaining, or taking on more responsibility than is actually yours to hold.
Maybe you experience both empathy and discomfort because you understand the other person deeply, and care about their point-of-view. You might also want to give them the benefit of the doubt, cause they're a fellow human, but at the same time you know something in your contract was violated, and you don’t want to excuse it.
It might even be hard for you to express anger. Like it feels like a forbidden feeling. Or perhaps, you just need more time and space to process, and you’re not sure how to advocate for yourself without seeming dramatic, unkind, or difficult.
When you’re sensitive, it’s totally normal to feel overwhelmed by the intensity of your nervous system reaction to injustice, or feel unsure about how to set a boundary in the moment. Especially when you’re not very practiced at it.
Navigating conflict can be messy and complicated, but in this conversation, we’re going to simplify it.
Anger, Boundaries, and the Work of Staying in Your Power
In this episode of the Blooming With Conversation series, Marina and Leah move through this landscape together.
We talk about people-pleasing as a way of self-soothing in the absence of self-advocacy and anger processing skills, and why standing up for yourself can feel like a full-body meltdown experience, as well as how to navigate that gracefully.
We explore how to feel and process anger not as something explosive or dangerous, but as an early, often subtle signal that something you value needs protecting. Talking about the difference between feeling anger and acting from it.
We spend time in discernment around self-advocacy:
* how to tell the difference between a real boundary crossing and an old wound being stirred,
* how fear-based reactions can soften when you sit with them long enough,
* and how learning to respond thoughtfully—rather than react aggressively—can help you stay grounded and in your dignity, honor, and power as a sensitive human.
As the conversation unfolds, we close out with a more humane, sensitive-friendly understanding of self-advocacy; one that allows for uncertainty, practice, and repair. And that doesn’t require you to harden or override your sensitivity, but instead stay connected to yourself and your values while you learn to name your needs, make requests, and protect your power.
If you’re ready, this conversation is an opportunity to learn how to stop shrinking, and stand up for yourself no matter what life throws at your nervous system.
And we’re not speaking from a pedestal here.
Marina and I have each had our own work to do around this, and have learned a lot. We just hope listening feels easy for you and that you learn something as you sit with two friends willing to slow down and make sense of it all together.
Warmly,
Leah & Marina
When Sensitive People Stand Up For Themselves: How to Set Boundaries and Stay In Your Power
In this conversation, Marina and Leah walk us through the core inner skills sensitive people often have to learn the hard way:
* Understanding why self-advocacy is so dysregulating — how standing up for yourself activates the nervous system, especially when people-pleasing once kept you safe
* Recognizing anger as an early boundary signal — learning to notice anger in its softer, subtler forms and use it for protection rather than suppression or explosion
* Discerning real boundary crossings from old threat responses — sitting with fear and anxiety long enough to tell the difference between past wounds and present-day dynamics
* Advocating for yourself without hardening — practicing responses that honor your values, dignity, and needs without becoming reactive or self-punishing
…and reflect on why learning these things in conversation and community—rather than in isolation—can help sensitive people feel safer, clearer, and more empowered as they grow.
🌱 Seeds of a Conversation
Choose a Chapter to Listen
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction to Sensitive Self-AdvocacyWhy standing up for ourselves is uniquely challenging for sensitive people.
02:48 – Boundaries, Anger, and the Nervous SystemHow boundaries, anger, and nervous system responses are deeply connected.
08:49 – The Complexity of EmotionsEmotional layering, empathy, and needing time to process.
11:42 – Real-Life Boundary CrossingsPersonal stories of conflict and self-advocacy in action.
15:04 – Growth Through ConflictHow boundary challenges become moments of transformation.
17:54 – Anger as a Tool for Self-AdvocacyReframing anger as information, not aggression.
24:06 – Communication That Protects DignityClear requests, honesty, and nonviolent communication.
34:55 – Values as the Foundation of BoundariesLetting what matters most guide your response.
40:26 – When Anger Is About Old WoundsDistinguishing present-moment boundaries from past triggers.
48:11 – Releasing Anger & Integrating SupportCreative practices, visualization, and the power of community.
We’d Love to Hear From You
After you listen, Marina and I would love to know:
* What part of this conversation moved something inside you?
* Where in my life have I stayed quiet to keep the peace, even when something in me felt unsettled or crossed?
* How do I typically respond when anger or discomfort arises—do I turn it inward, smooth it over, or avoid it altogether?
Comments, reflections, and shares are always welcome.
Join Us in Circle: Self Alchemy for Sensitive Self-Healers
This circle is a gentle, structured-but-spacious gathering designed for sensitive and neurodivergent souls who want dedicated time to tend to their inner world.
What We Work On:
* Guided grounding practices to ease into your body
* Journaling or workbook time (bring your own or use the prompts Marina offers)
* Emotional processing support in a compassionate group setting
* Energetic boundary and intuitive exercises drawn from Marina’s own toolkit
* Self-compassion practices inspired by leaders like Kristin Neff and Tara Brach
* Gentle community sharing where you can speak, listen, or simply be present
If You’re Searching For…
* dedicated time to tend your inner world
* a consistent spiritual practice
* to explore spirituality and intuition
* a sacred space where sensitivity is honored
* gentle accountability and support
* companionship on the healing path
…this bimonthly circle is for you.
Meet Marina Biggio, Founder of Cosmic Marina, LLC.
Marina is a spiritual practitioner and the founder of Cosmic Marina, LLC, where she supports sensitive, intuitive, and deep-feeling souls through spiritual healing, intuitive guidance, tarot, energy work, soul retrieval, past-life regression, and group facilitation.
Marina’s Journey into Her Purpose
Originally trained as an engineer at Smith College, Marina spent years balancing scientific rigor with a deep inner exploration of spirituality and consciousness. After entering a successful on-paper career in biomedical technology, Marina experienced a profound spiritual awakening after navigating several years of depersonalization and derealization disorder (DPDR).
Through lived experience, spiritual inquiry, and hosting her podcast Out of the Mud, Marina eventually emerged from DPDR with clarity and a renewed sense of calling. In 2022, she left engineering to devote herself fully to spiritual and healing work.
Marina brings a rare blend of grounded practicality and soulful insight to her work—bridging intellect and intuition to help others reconnect with clarity, wholeness, and inner truth.
Learn more about Marina and her work at www.cosmicmarina.com.
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