Highly Sensitive Humans Podcast
The Highly Sensitive Humans Podcast offers insight into the world of the Highly Sensitive Person, and helps those who identify with the traits of high sensitivity to feel more empowered and resilient without denying their authentic gifts.
Highly Sensitive Humans Podcast
Finding the Light Within for Highly Sensitive Children & Parents
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In this episode, 'Finding the Light Within' for Highly Sensitive Children & Parents I speak to Alethea Kehas.
Alethea Kehas is an author, mother, EMYoga instructor and reiki master. As the owner of Inner Truth Healing & Yoga, she helps people of all ages live mindful, balanced lives aligned with their inner truth.
Alethea has an MFA in creative writing, holds degrees in biology and English, and is a third-degree initiate and graduate of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness. Alethea is the author of a memoir, A Girl Named Truth, and The Labyrinth, book one in the Warriors of Light middle-grade visionary fiction series. She blogs regularly about ancient lands, mindfulness, writing, and yoga at The Light Behind the Story.
Alethea’s esoteric studies, healing journey, and mindfulness/yoga training have shaped her writing and work. She knows that magic does not come out of a wand, but from exploring the beautiful, complicated labyrinth of the self where joy exists at its center.
Alethea shares how, as HSP, there is a benefit to tuning into the energy around us, finding that balance and finding the joy that threads through all life - being able to enter into the flow of life and surrendering to our experience.
Stay in Touch with Alethea via her website >>
Buy her book Labyrinth: Warriors of Light on Amazon >>
About Jules De Vitto, MAEd, MSc Certified Transpersonal Coach and Educator
Jules De Vitto has a BSc in Psychology, MA in Education and MSc in Transpersonal Psychology, Consciousness and Spirituality.
She is an accredited and certified Transpersonal Coach, Authentic-Self-Empowerment Facilitator, as well as an experienced teacher and educator. She works as a Transpersonal Coach trainer and tutor as part of the 1-year certificate in Transpersonal Coaching Psychology through Alef Trust.
She is the founder of Highly Sensitive Humans - an online community that offers courses, coaching, articles and a podcast for Highly Sensitive People. She helps those who identify with the traits of high sensitivity to navigate emotional overwhelm, step into their authentic power and align with their true purpose in life.
She is a published author who wrote 'Resilience: Navigating Loss in a Time of Crisis' which provides practical resources to cultivate greater resilience and find greater meaning and purpose through times of crisis. She has published her research in the peer-reviewed journal Consciousness, Spirituality & Transpersonal Psychology.
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The Highly Sensitive Human Academy™ - join our 3-month professional training: coaching Highly Sensitive People
About the Host: Jules De Vitto is a transpersonal coach, trainer and experienced educator for Highly Sensitive People. She helps those who identify with the traits of high sensitivity to navigate emotional overwhelm, step into their authentic power and align with their true purpose in life. She is a published author and wrote one of a series of books on Resilience, Navigating Loss in a time of Crisis. Her research has also been published in the Transpersonal Coaching Psychology Journal and Journal of Consciousness, Spirituality, and Transpersonal Psychology.
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The Highly Sensitive Human Academy™ - join our 3-month professional training: coaching Highly Sensitive People
Welcome, I'm your host, Jules DeVito, and you're listening to the Highly Sensitive Human Podcast, the show that offers an insight into the world of the highly sensitive person and helps those who identify with the traits of high sensitivity to feel more empowered and resilient without denying their authentic gifts. So, welcome to today's podcast. And before I introduce today's guest speaker, I'm excited to let you know that applications are now open for our online three-month professional training on how to coach and mentor highly sensitive people. So this course is for those who are already coaching, mentoring, or working with highly sensitive people, or for those who might want to embark on a new career in coaching. And this course is unique because it offers a transpersonal and integrative approach, which provides you with the fundamental skills needed to deepen your skills as a coach, leader, or mentor for highly sensitive people. We draw on psychological, spiritual, and scientific perspectives. So you'll receive a certificate at the end of the course which shows professional development on how to coach highly sensitive people. It's accredited by the International Association of Coaches, Therapists and Mentors. And you'll also get a badge to put on your website showing you've undergone 40 hours of professional training. We're so excited about this course because it offers practical techniques and a unique and proven framework to help you coach highly sensitive people. There are limited spaces. So to find out more about the course and to sign up today, then click on the link in the show notes or visit us at academy.com. So in today's episode, I'm talking to Alethea, who is an author, mother, yoga instructor, and Reiki master. As the owner of Intuitive Truth Healing and Yoga, she helps people of all ages live mindful, balanced lives aligned with their inner truth. Alethea has an MFA in creative writing, holds degrees in biology and English, and is a third degree initiate and graduate of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness. Alethea is the author of a memoir, A Girl Named Truth and the Labyrinth, Book One in the Warriors of Light Middle Grade Visionary Fiction series. She blogs regularly about ancient lands, mindfulness, writing, and yoga at the light behind the story. Alethea's esoteric studies, healing journey, and mindfulness training have shaped her writing and work. She knows that magic does not come out of a wand, but from exploring the beautiful, complicated labyrinth of the self where joy exists at its center. So welcome, Alithia, and thank you so much for being on the episode today.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Joel, so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this conversation. So obviously, this podcast is all about being highly sensitive and a highly sensitive person. So I just want to ask you to begin with what's your story in relation to being a highly sensitive person and in which areas of your life have you found the traits showing up for you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think I was born highly sensitive. My earliest memory was uh one of witnessing something from afar and feeling the emotions of my parents and the trauma. Um, so I definitely grew up with being an HSP and having to cope with the world as an HSP in a lot of different ways. Uh, I think primarily having to learn how to differentiate my emotions from those of my environment, other people, even the land, uh places where I have been or have lived. Um, so that's been a you know constant uh not so much struggle. It was struggle in the earlier years, but now it's more of an awareness. Um, and then having children who are have HSP traits, especially my son, um, I think has has brought that um you know back in a in a cyclical way that's uh mirrors you know the challenges to back to you. And and um it's just been an experience trying to raise an HSP having lived it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you mentioned from an early age being able to sense or pick up the emotions of others, and in what ways in the past did you find that challenging? I mean, what kind of struggles did you come across? Or what struggles do you see in your HSP plan as well? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right. Yeah, um, so he and I both have a sound sensitivity. Um, and so that was a huge challenge as a child for me, especially the sounds my stepfather would make. And so my son has exactly the same challenge. And it's it's been interesting to see that come up um in him and try to cope with it and integrate it into our lives in a way that we didn't when I was a child. When I was a child, I was just told I was too sensitive all the time. Um, and I had to just internalize you know those emotions and and hence I had a lot of stomach issues and um other other physical ailments because of that. Um, but with my son, it's been hopefully different, although he still chat has it as a challenge. But you know, we've we brought into the awareness in our family, we've tried to integrate the challenge into our lifestyle style in a way that he can cope with it, but we can also exist as a family. So we don't always eat at the same time, stuff like that. Um, you know, we make it work in the way we can.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, fantastic. And on the other side of the coin, you know, uh part of the work I do and my message is really that highly sensitive people, those of us who are highly sensitive, we have many gifts and strengths and things to share with the world. So what do you see as the gifts of being highly sensitive?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that um probably two of the main gifts that HSPs can bring into the world is their empathy and compassion. Because you know, HSPs are so in tune with the world around them and other people that they can tap into, you know, the empathy within them and and be able to relate to what is happening around them. I think that those are perhaps the highest strengths that we can use with those those traits. That's that's you know, I think that's how we're gonna change the world, right? With that kind of uh connection.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely. And I feel at the moment those traits of empathy and compassion are really needed and you know, something for us to really cultivate in in children as well. I think um, you know, as highly sensitive children, we naturally have those gifts of empathy and compassion, but it can be really challenging um to yeah, learn to have boundaries um and and have resilience in the world whilst also holding space for those traits as well. Um, I don't know if that's something you've experienced or something you see in your son as well. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01I think that's one of the reasons why I delved into energy work and ways to cope, right? You know, ways to ways to cope and shield ourselves, shield, you know, us as individuals and you know, as groups to um and ground ourselves. So, yeah, all those techniques that we can do um through mindfulness and and practices and yoga, and you know, you can get a little deeper into spirituality and metaphysics as well. But um, there's certainly easy ways that we can we can use, easy techniques we can use, but we don't always think of them, and it's not always a topic that we we can easily talk to youth about, I think, because it's still not mainstream, you know. I'm sure you're aware of that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And I want to ask you a bit more about the work you do, actually. You've mentioned uh, you know, yoga and mindfulness and energy work. I know that you do many different things, that you're an author, uh yoga teacher, uh, you do energy healing as well. So, yeah, would would you mind sharing a bit more about um the work that you do and how it relates to supporting or being able to help those of us who are highly sensitive?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I do all of those things you mentioned, and I used to work a little bit more closely with with kids through yoga. Um, with the pandemic, I've I've um don't do as much work with kids one-on-one right now, but I have done work one-on-one with children uh in terms of highly sensitive children, giving them techniques, working with them. You know, I love that the one-on-one um work, but also the group work is can be really empowering as well. And even just yoga, um, like I said, it's it's there are techniques you can integrate um into a yoga practice that that are used for everyday life, you know, your everyday life, like breathing techniques, imagining, you know, grounding techniques, imagining energy shields, um, and all of that, certainly in having a child and knowing people who are HSPs and being an HSP myself led me to create the book series that um I'm in the process of writing. The first book is Out the Labyrinth. And it's really is a visionary fiction kind of metaphysical journey to having a more deeply awareness of the self. Um, so it's a fun fantasy book, but it actually the goal is to help empower people, especially HSPs, understand the world, understand themselves better. So that's that's my big passion is that that book, and using that as a tool for to help, to help youth, especially.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, brilliant. And I was really excited when I found out about the labyrinth in your book series, because this is also something I feel very passionate about in terms of I know that the series is written for uh middle school and older children, um, and the it feels like there's something really important here about bringing this awareness to getter children and how we can empower, as you said, empower children to really embrace their gifts of sensitivity. So, yeah, would you mind talking a bit more about the series and um you know what kind of what what what it covers?
SPEAKER_01So the series has six primary characters, they're all 13. I use that number for a reason because it's that age of transitioning between childhood and adult. Um, and the characters have different ethnicities, backgrounds, they all live though near each other. So I used uh my home as a base, you know. I live, I live in New Hampshire, so they're all from they all live in New Hampshire. Um, but they're connected through this magical sort of place that is the labyrinth. And the labyrinth is is really a symbol and it's real. So it the labyrinth appears to them in their dreams and then in real life, and it's a network of light that they discover is within them and without of them. So it's it's the network of light that connects all of us. And the six warriors of light uh is what they're called, or tasked with a mission to repair the light. And first they have to repair the light inside of them. So they they go into a journey, they they discover more about themselves, they engage with their spirit animals and are even able to shape shift into their spirit animals. So there's a fun aspect there uh as well. And um they really learn about the darkness inside of them and how to transform that into light, and also how to bring that light into the world to help heal the world. Um, and each child, I think, has a you know, I can is a relatable connection. They're all a little bit different. There's six of them, and I've had readers who, you know, have a particular character that they relate to and they get really excited about that. Um, and they and they find empowerment through that. So that's that's what I've that's my mission, that's my goal. So when I hear that, it makes me feel like I've I've done what I've accomplished with through the book. The first book's out, there'll be several um to follow. Um working on a a mini set of the next book. So it's not just one book, it's sort of vignettes that spread out through uh they use the symbol of the labyrinth, so they go on different paths without giving too too much of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's beautiful, and I love um that what you just said about repairing the light within inside of themselves, um, and just how important that is on their journey. And um I wanted to ask you because you know, I work as a transpersonal coach for highly sensitive people, so yeah, I bring in a lot of spiritual concepts and talking, you know, about our soul purpose for being highly sensitive and talking about the dimension of our being, which I find is often um neglected in mainstream psychology or even mainstream approaches to our healing and transformation. So, you know, that the book series obviously uh has uh this spiritual perspective. You're talking about uh spirit animals and uh the labyrinth as a symbol. Um, and from your perspective, why why is it so important that we're talking about these spiritual ideas and concepts?
SPEAKER_01I think it's actually essential that we um reconnect to that aspect of ourselves. I think we've spent so many centuries really um living on the surface, living through our egos, living through the outer world without bringing us, you know, that back to the inner world. And we need to do both. Um so yeah, it's just I think it's essential. I think kids are searching for that connection. I know that my kids were when they were little, I know that I was. I see it, I see it in so many children and adults as well. I mean, adults actually have enjoyed the book as well because they can relate to it as well. But yeah, I just think it's a vital component of our of ourselves that we're missing that connection to our souls, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's interesting because just earlier today I was actually reflecting on my journey and I was reflecting back to my childhood and how ever since I was a young child, I have felt this soul calling or this sense of trying to connect with something more than my ego. So, yeah, searching for this spiritual connection. But from a young age, I couldn't really make sense of it. Right. And um yeah, I was reflecting earlier on how then, you know, in my 20s and early 30s, I I struggled a lot with um, you know, my mental health. And when I sought out help, um I didn't have the experience of people really understanding that yeah, the spiritual side of it or the soul dimension of what I was going through. So to go back to my childhood, yeah, I would have really appreciated and valued, you know, being offered that perspective, you know, the spiritual and right uh soul connection that I was really looking for.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I think that's that's a common story for so many of us, whether we even know it or not, you know, which is not, I think it can be accessible through, you know, some people, you know, turn to you know more conventional religions, practice religious practices, but I think that there's even you know that aspect missing of, you know, there's a hierarchy there without getting too much into it. So yeah, I I agree. I think that um, yeah, what you experienced is is unfortunate but not uncommon. But I think that's shifting, right? That's shifting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's you know, people like yourself who are writing the books that you're writing and doing the work that you're doing, which are really helping to inspire and educate, um, like you said, adults and children. Um and so with that being said, what what would you say inspires you to do the work you do in terms of the writing and being an author? What how did that all start for you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, like yourself, I knew from an early age that there was this deeper connection and purpose that I needed to do. Um, and yeah, like you said, it's it wasn't easy to define, but I also knew I was a writer too, that I came here to write. Um but I didn't interestingly, I didn't really allow myself to write a lot. Um, when I was a child, I was so worried about censorship. I think because I was so censored as a child. Um and I think you know, HSPs feel that censorship so deeply, you know, when you're told that you're you're you're different, you're you know, what you do is is not acceptable or something like the way you think. So um, so that all of that to say influenced me to finally start writing. And I finally started doing that when um my children were little, and I I needed to heal basically. Um, all those tracked emotions came out through physical ailments, and I decided to go back to school, get my MFA at Goddard, which is a very spiritual place, and that just sort of opened all sorts of doors. And yeah, I've been writing ever since.
SPEAKER_00So yeah. And I know that you've written a memoir, a girl named Truth. Right, yes. Yeah, was that one of the first books you wrote?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so that was my first complete book. I wrote that at well, I wrote the the first draft of that at Goddard um as my thesis. And um, yeah, that was my healing journey. So, you know, my journey to truth and finding my voice um as someone who had been silenced. Uh yeah, and so that yeah, from that I've moved towards towards more of the the uh fiction middle grade work, but um, I do write a lot of nonfiction on my blog as well. So um it all kind of ties in. It all it all basically ties into finding your truth and connecting with your truth. That's sort of my overarching, you know, theme and mission.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, and just to let listeners know, I will uh put the links to your website and the books, which I know are on Amazon, uh, for people to check out. So they'll be available for everyone. So would you mind telling us a bit more about the yoga teaching you do and the energy work? Yeah, so yoga I've been doing for maybe teaching for maybe eight years.
SPEAKER_01I've been practicing yoga most of my life. Um, and I sort of had that little voice, the inner voice, urging me to become a yoga teacher. I was walking the hills of Ojai, California um several years ago, and that voice came through, and I followed it and went into yoga teacher training. And then actually, as I was teaching yoga, I was searching for a way to connect the energy work to the yoga because I also do Reiki and energy. And so interestingly enough, I Googled and searched and came across Lauren Walker, who integrates um Donna Eden's teachings. I don't know if you're aware of Donna Eden, but she's sort of um the creator of energy medicine. She calls it Eden Energy Medicine, and now I do a combination of yoga and energy work through EM yoga. It's called energy medicine yoga, which I really love because it's spiritual, you know, like we've talked about, it brings that spiritual element even more to the yoga practice, which we've sort of westernized a lot over here. So um so I love working with people, allowing them to open to that joy within, even if they don't know they're that's they're you know, that's what they're doing. Um it's just that dance with life's energy that I love. Um, so it's that physical. Way of making that connection which yoga offers, as opposed to you know, reading a book which is more passive. I mean, there's just so many ways, right, to find that connection. So it's a nice balance, I find, for my life and hopefully for other people's as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, brilliant. And I'm also a Reiki practitioner, and okay, that's been quite a big part of my journey as well. Uh, it's actually what I wrote my dissertation on when I was when I studied my MSE in transpersonal psychology. Oh wow, yeah. So I'm I know just how powerful and significant connecting with life force energy and doing their energy healing work has been in my life. And I'm just wondering, um, and also, yeah, I have found that highly sensitive people are can connect with energies much more easily. You know, it's like what you said in the beginning, you know, picking up on the emotions and energies of other people. As soon as we walk into a room, we can sense energies, we can sense what's going on for people. So um, yeah, I'm just wondering from your experience, have you found uh a lot of sensitive people uh coming to you for the for the yoga, the yoga energy work? Uh what did you call it? Yoga medicine. Yeah, energy medicine yoga.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that's the one, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um it's it's interesting because, like you said, yeah, I mean they do. They they they I think some people are more aware of of their awareness than others, you know. So um it's interesting to I teach at different places. I teach at studios and gym, I actually teach at a gym, which is you know not a place where you think that people would have want to make that connection, but it has been interesting to see that you know, people do. There, there's not as many, you know, more of those people go to yoga studios, so they're already kind of HSPs or you know, open to that connection. But I think that we all have that right inside of us, and it's it's it's fun to watch that develop as people open themselves up to that, and they'll come to me after and say, Oh wow, I had this experience, you know, this is really cool. What do you think of it? What does it mean? I love those conversations. I'm sure you've had them as well through your you know energy work.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, and part of my research that I carried out was looking at how, as practitioners, we go through a psycho-spiritual journey of healing and transformation. So it's actually in the act of healing and helping other people that we um heal and transform ourselves. So absolutely, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it's I think it's I've always found it interesting that the people who come to us for healing, they mirror our what we need to heal inside, right? Or what we're working on in that moment, even if we don't know it. That often that often comes comes through for me.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, yeah. I do find that as well. Yeah. And so just to shift back to your your books and your writing, um, you know, it's similar, really. I find that I imagine, well, you've already said it, through doing the writing, writing your books, you're healing your own wounds and and struggles as well. And then of course, helping others to through the story that you're telling and the stories that you're writing. So it's similar in the writing as well, isn't there? And the storytelling. Yes. Yeah, and do you have um, I asked this to all my guests on the podcast. Do you have a favorite quote or something you'd like to share from from one of your books or another book that has inspired you on your journey?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was looking for one this morning and I came across this one that um, yeah, I'll read to you and then explain why I chose it. So this is from The Labyrinth, so the book one in the Warriors of Life series, and it's um about one of the characters, Ari, who has Eagle as his totem spirit animal. And the quote is some days Ari was so acutely aware of the chaotic symphony of life, the only thing that saved him was to melt into it. And I chose that because I think that's sort of what we all have to figure out as HSPs, is not necessarily to shut the world out all the time, but to melt into it. And when as we do that, as we tune into that energy around us, finding that balance, finding the joy. So, you know, although we'll feel the pain as well, we'll feel the suffering, but if we can tune into that frequency of joy that threads through all life, and that's I think how we we learn how to thrive in the world.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's really beautiful, and I really love um the idea of melting, melt melting into it because I know that a lot of highly sensitive people I work with have a sense of, oh, the world is too much, or I'm too in tune with energies and everything that's going on around me that I need to actually disconnect or put up a strong wall or boundary in between myself and other people. So I think, yeah, to reframe it into this sense of melting, surrendering into it is actually really significant. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I don't, you know, as you said, I don't think it's always easy to do. I think I sort of as as hard as my childhood was in so many ways, I think that when I was young, I I did find, you know, it was probably saved my life, that ability. Um, and and it's it was as simple as I I can remember um being in school, being in an elementary school, and just you know, because we'd all eat our snacks together or our lunches together, you know. When I remember in this classroom, we were eating our snacks and just noticing that a classmate was really, really enjoying her snack, and that I instead of tuning into the dissonance of right chewing or you know, those things that that try to tend to irritate H S S HSPs, I I somehow tuned into the joy aspect of her enjoying that that food she was eating. And that I think was a switch for me that just that enabled me to tune into it. But it's so hard to do, I agree. I mean, I've tried to teach it to my son, and I think he's just like, uh, I need to tune it out, you know. So we just all have to find that uh in our own way, you know, that melting into it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely not easy. And I think those survival mechanisms we develop, as you've said, at times can yeah really save our lives or really help us to navigate those traumatic or difficult experiences. But there's something here about um yeah, being able to enter that flow of life, isn't it? Really? That sense of that flow that exists um in between everything. And when you can enter into that flow, that's really yeah, where the joy exists, and that sense of, yeah, for me, it's like taking a deep breath and just surrendering into our experience.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, and I wanted to clarify too. I mean, yeah, it doesn't always have to be you're turning into the frequency of joy, too, because you're right, like it's it's it's the surrendering. I, you know, some of the deepest connections I've had have been traveling to ancient lands and feeling feeling everything. So feeling, you know, I'd be I'll be sobbing and feeling the heartache, but also feeling that connection. And so um that makes the heartache bearable, you know. I think when we can tune into the flow, you know, um, and really, really connect. And one of the best ways I think we can do that really is to step outside and and you know become in tune with the land.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah. Yeah, and I also for me that is the gift of being highly sensitive. That yeah, we don't just tune into the positive emotions, we do tune into the grief and the sorrow and the challenges that come with being human and living on this planet. But there's something really beautiful about being able to connect with that sorrow as well, because from my experience, it's that what which can also enable us to um go on this journey of uh, you know, we you call it finding your truth. You know, there's something about uh being propelled onto that path of seeking out truth. And I think we have to connect with the the darker side of things to be able to even be inspired to do that.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. We have to understand both, you know, we have to understand and embrace them, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, one of the the missions of of writing these books is um I also very intentionally am writing books that do not have graphic violence or you know, sex or anything like that. And then because I think this is a bigger topic that I think needs more awareness in the world, right? When we we there's a shift, I think, that needs to happen so that we can we can heal collectively and start to evolve towards a more unified consciousness and and uh you know love-based way of living, um, because there's just so much violence and extreme, you know, negative, uh, the negative side of our humanity that is that is perpetuated in books and the media, you know, in the news. And so making a conscious shift to not put that in my books. I mean, you'll see, you'll see some of the suffering of earth and individuals, but I don't have there's no wars, there's no violence, there's no unnecessary, you know, graphic um aspects of of the book. Um, and it's hard to find. So I just wanted to put that out there because I it's even hard to find in middle grade books, which is sad.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, that you know, that's really significant because I agree with you that, well, it's just apparent, isn't it? There's so much violence on TV, social media, and the books we're reading. And so I think to have but to give children access to books which don't have that is really important. What values would you say you're trying to cultivate in in the books you're writing?
SPEAKER_01The purpose of my books are not, you know, to they're not sensational, so I'm not trying to to um follow formula or to you know to heighten that popularity that we've what we've talked about. It's it's really about finding yourself, finding your path, and you know, finding that softer connection. So um and making it fun as well. I I think that's possible. I think that books were used used to be um written more like that. So bringing that back to to kids now um and also making them think. I find that when I read middle grade books, there's um they're either really simplistic or they do tend towards the you know the sensational. Um so I think that you know it's okay for kids to be able to to think a little bit when they read. Um you know, and to enjoy that as well. Um, hopefully, hopefully um more readers will agree with me, but I think it's important to not dumb down things for kids too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely. I mean, I find from my experience the children I work with these days are so very aware and very um very intelligent, and so yeah, being able to allow them to embrace that awareness that they have and yeah, not not dumb it down. I think that's really important. So, thank you so much for joining on the episode today. I've really enjoyed this conversation and I feel really inspired by it. I definitely want to go out and um read the series. Uh, like you said, I think even as an adult we can gain so much from um what you were talking about in and in the storylines. Obviously, you haven't given too much away, but um, it's it's really inspiring what you shared. So thank you for that. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed our conversation as well. Is there anywhere specific listeners can go to find out more about your work and resources that we've mentioned here today?
SPEAKER_01So the easiest place to find me is my website, which is alethiakia.com. And then, of course, my as you mentioned, the books are on Amazon. So from my website, you can link to my social media and my blog.
SPEAKER_00So thank you again for joining today. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining me this week on Highly Sensitive Humans. Make sure to visit my website, highly sensitivehumans.com, where you can subscribe to the show and find out more about my upcoming workshops, my online eight-week course, and where I also offer one-to-one coaching for highly sensitive people. And if you found value in the show today, I'd really appreciate a rating. Or if you'd simply share this episode with your friends or other highly sensitive people that would help support this podcast.