The Sensitive and Neurodivergent Podcast with Julie Bjelland , LMFT

I share some tools that can help you reduce your stress in the moment and also long-term. I also share my own story about how I moved out of survival mode into thriving.

What makes some people take steps towards positive change and others get stuck? We explore what several HSPs had to say about their first steps of sensitive empowerment. Let’s get inspired together!

What is self-care? How is self-care different for HSPs?  How does it need to be different during a global pandemic? Willow and I share what helps us stay resilient so we can stay balanced, take care of ourselves, our families, and stay productive in our work helping others. Visit HSPpodcast.com to read show notes, leave us a voice message, and get links to our websites to learn about all the tools we offer HSPs.

I share what I find hard and what I’m hearing is hard for HSPs. I also share the results of a poll I did on what self-care HSP therapists are doing that helps. Visit HSPpodcast.com to leave comments about what is hard and what’s helping.

In this week's episode we look at the challenge that anxiety often poses for people born with the trait of sensory processing sensitivity. The ability to process deeply can often be turned against us when we focus on worst outcomes. Through the relationship we have with trust we can learn to manage difficult thought processes and the habitual tendency to believe our minds. Through practise, and self inquiry using past experience we can learn to shift our belief system to trust that we have the ability to handle whatever may arise.

We will be discussing:

What trust really means in this context

Why learning to develop trust in ourselves is so important

The importance of regularly recalling evidence of our ability to look after ourselves

How trusting in ourselves is a route to accessing authenticity and empowerment

The irony in the habit of trusting anxious thoughts over truth

How to develop the muscle of trusting in ourselves

The importance of inner trust and our role in the world

We also share tools that we use that help us!

It’s common for highly sensitive people to have a busy mind and have a hard time turning it off to relax. I hope this meditation helps you relax and find peace as you visualize a beautiful stream in the forest during this meditation.

This is one of the questions I’m asked the most. We will discuss some of the challenges you have named and the benefits of talking about the trait.

HSPs have named the following on why it might be hard to tell people:

Don’t know how to describe it

Shame about being highly sensitive

Don’t think people are interested in it

Worry people think you are asking for special treatment

Don’t want people to think you are different

Talking about the trait and telling others has the following benefits:

Normalizes and validates the trait

Spreads awareness and education about our gifts

Helps others understand you

Your needs need to be known to be met

Educating others helps you express your needs too, which improves your relationships

You can help and connect to other HSPs

Leads to self-advocacy  &  advocacy about the trait

Your mental health/medical professionals care can benefit you and all the HSPs that come after you

It grows self-acceptance that improves everything

We love hearing from you about what you found helpful. Please share this episode with others to help spread awareness and education of the trait.

Are You Blooming or Wilting?

HSPs who are wilting (and not blooming) often experience:

Feeling stuck, overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, or having a hard time coping with the state of intense stress in your life and the world

Having difficulty being productive

Low energy and motivation

Feeling tired, depleted or difficulty sleeping

Feeling emotionally unstable, out of control or reactionary

Low self-compassion and negative self-talk

Problems in friendships or relationship

Health issues or chronic conditions worsening

Trouble accessing inner strength and resiliency

Challenges from sensitivity heightened

Low self-worth and self-confidence

Low self-love

Knocked down by life’s stressors

A life that isn’t feeling meaningful or fulfilling

VS

BLOOMING HSPS

You feel strong and resilient which helps you stay balanced and healthy.

You have the energy to be productive and accomplish your goals.

You sleep well and wake up rested and restored each day.

You are able to pause, reflect, and respond.

You are compassionate and have loving, supportive self-talk.

You create and access tools that help you whenever you need it.

You are the person you want to be in the world.

You feel focused and have full access to your creativity.

You know how to set healthy boundaries and have healthy friendships and relationships.

You are loving, patient, and kind to yourself.

You know what your needs are and can advocate for them to be met.

You feel meaning and fulfillment.

You walk in the world liking who you are which creates a higher vibration, attracting positive, supportive people who also love who you are.

You access your gifts and share them with the world, helping you to make a positive change in the world.

You can be yourself and feel empowered to live the life you want.

LEARN TO BLOOM! Visit SensitiveConnection.com to learn more about my HSP Courses! Transform your life starting today!

I discovered a beautiful stream on a hike and created a meditation with the sounds of the steam and birds in the distance so you can have a beautiful sensory experience listening and imagining you are there next to this stream as you drift off to sleep peacefully ❤️

Enjoy and let me know if it helped you sleep! ❤️

One of the most effective paths to peace and meaning is honesty. An active inquiry to reveal the truth of who we are. As an HSP this can sometimes feel like a lonely path if we feel misunderstood, causing us to want to hide and protect who we really are. Each of us are born with an authentic heart, a unique way of seeing the world, a wish to bring change and to do good. Yet when we are living from a place of dishonesty about who we really are, the conflict we feel inside becomes the conflict we experience outside. Join us this week as we explore the intention of ownership and how it can lead to a profound sense of knowing, peace and meaning.

Discussions in this episode:

What it means to begin a path of ownership from a place of uncertainty

Learning to trust and anchor our awareness in the heart

Embracing the reality of feeling ‘different’ from a place of ownership

Why community and kindred souls are so important for this process

Ownership as the ultimate tool for meaning and purpose alignment

Why ownership is critical to effective empathic leadership of self and others