Episode 14 - Sensitivity as a Superpower: Thriving in a World that Feels to Much

Sensitivity isn't a weakness but a superpower when we understand how to harness its potential and navigate different energy frequencies around us. Today we explore the transformative nature of embracing our sensitivity instead of trying to suppress it.

• Different ways people experience energy - some through physical sensations (kinesthetic/empathic)
• How to recognize when you're picking up energy that isn't yours
• Simple energy techniques for grounding and centering yourself
• The "Wayne Cook" posture for reorganizing scrambled energy
• How to do a "hookup" to balance your meridians
• Learning to discern between your emotions and others'
• Recognizing the connection between posture, focus and emotional state
• Importance of honoring your sensitivity rather than dismissing it
• How grounding techniques work like electrical grounding wires
• Ways to shift your energy state in minutes
• The freedom that comes with observing energy rather than absorbing it
• Practical techniques for empaths and sensitive people

Ways to balance and shift your energy in the moment and beyond:

Wayne Cook Exercise to cross your energy over and balance your energy so as not to take on other's emotions or energy:
https://youtu.be/uxrvLibJyOI

Hook-up: To Center yourself so you do not take on other people's energy.  https://youtu.be/h4M7n1DrTLw

Relieving Anxiety: Yours or mine.
https://youtu.be/1CPr4dP6-K4

Take time to breathe and enjoy all the subtle pieces of information that come into your body, into your eyesight, into your ears. If you've enjoyed the conversation, be sure to hit the follow button on your favorite podcast platform to stay connected.

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With Infinite Love & Gratitude

Kelly

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Transcript

Welcome to Gifts in Strange Wrapping Paper

Kelly Goetz 0:02

Welcome to Gifts in Strange Wrapping Paper , a podcast where we explore the transformative power of life's unexpected challenges . I'm your host , Kelly Goetz , an intuitive educator and leadership coach . My journey into holistic practices began after our stillbirth of our second son in 2007 , a profoundly devastating experience that I now lovingly refer to as a gift in strange wrapping paper . This pivotal moment revealed my life's purpose to teach and empower others to heal with grace , love and gratitude , and to live their best lives . Now Join me as we delve into the stories of resilience , healing and personal growth , uncovering the hidden gifts within life's most challenging times .

Kelly Goetz 0:57

Welcome back to Gifts and Strange Wrapping Paper . Today is another opportunity to learn and grow together , and I want to share, gosh, there's so many things I want to talk about , but today let's talk about being sensitive and what that means . And so every single person has different ways that they experience the world . Some people are empathic or kinesthetic , where they feel energy coming through their body . They have to tune within to really kind of make out the information of what they're hearing , what they're sensing , and it takes them a moment . They need to slow down . They need to really feel , feel the energy , tune into their own bodies . What is their body telling them about this information that they're experiencing , that they're receiving in this moment

Understanding Sensitivity and Energy

Kelly Goetz 1:56

in time ? I want to talk about the kinesthetic because yesterday I had an experience where I came .

Kelly Goetz 2:04

I was in a quiet space and yet I wanted to have a nice lunch with my husband , and we've been having a hard time lining our calendars up , especially during the day . It seems to be a little trying . We both work out of the house and one would think , oh yeah , piece of cake . You guys can definitely spend a lot of quality time having lunch every day , sitting down , chatting in the middle of the day a little kumbaya , but the truth of the matter is we're both typically working in our jobs . I'm seeing clients or I'm on Zoom with clients , and if you're hearing that rustling of leaves , it's because I'm walking in the forest, seeing clients or I'm on Zoom with clients , and if you're hearing that rustling of leaves , it's because I'm navigating all the water that came up yesterday in the rain , and so aligning our schedules during a workday it just doesn't always seem to work , and yesterday it did .

Kelly Goetz 3:04

And what I had an opportunity to experience yesterday is I was in a really calm state . I was actually feeling very self-reflective . I was tuning in and learning and processing some information about myself that I was becoming aware of . I was reflecting . So I was in a really quiet space . And my husband came in and his energy was very different . He was in a really excited place and I could feel , I started to feel , how my body and my energy were shifting internally . I was actually feeling the vibration of this excitement . Only I was in a really quiet , still relaxed , peaceful state , and he had this very high energy , excited space , and so , as I'm sitting there in front of the beautiful salads he made , which were really healthy and good, I started feeling my inner body . It felt like anxiousness . Now I wasn't feeling anxious about anything , but it really gave me an opportunity to go, wow , our frequencies right now in this moment in time , are not in alignment . We're not a match . Now that doesn't mean we're not a match as a couple . It just meant we were in two different spaces .

Kelly Goetz 4:46

And because I have one of my many ways that I connect to energy , feel energy is this level of sensitivity where I can feel in my body

My Experience with Different Energies

Kelly Goetz 5:01

the energy perhaps of the room of other people and I was picking up that information . If you can imagine , if you're not somebody that's sensitive , if you can imagine like there's maybe a rod going into the earth and it's standing up straight and energy hits it and it kind of creates this vibration against the rod and the rod starts absorbing all of that energy . In fact , recently we discovered our power . Our big electrical panel had no grounding to it outside , and why grounding is so important to the electricity in your house is that if there is a tornado and a really peak electrical field around your home , where that energy is first going to go , if it's near your home or if you're in that path , it's going to go to the electrical panel and that electrical panel , if it has a grounding wire , that electrical panel's grounding wire will take that energy from outside your home . It'll come into the panel , but then it'll instantly go out , and then , if the panel itself is actually grounded with a rod that goes into the earth , it'll send that energy down into the earth , where the earth knows exactly what to do with it .

Kelly Goetz 6:37

Well , today or yesterday , when I was sitting at lunch , when I was sitting at lunch , on some level my body wasn't completely grounded to the earth and I'm in a really peaceful vibration . And then , when my husband's excited energy came in I don't know if he was grounded or not , I can't speak to that right now when his energy came in , I started feeling it in my body . It was like this wow , that was a lot of energy to feel . And so , as I paused , I just took a nice deep breath and I put my hand on my forehead and I want you to think about have you ever walked into a room and you have noticed or felt like something's different about the room ? You start to feel the room in a different way . Or you go into a crowd and maybe it's not a happy crowd and you start feeling all the anxiousness of the crowd . Or you watch the news and you're feeling it from the news and even if you're not listening to the words , you're like , wow , what am I picking up ?

Kelly Goetz 7:51

Well , on some level , you might be kinesthetic , you might be empathic , and if you are , and if you've grown up that way , which so many of us have , you've often gotten the message of , oh , you're too sensitive , you're too sensitive . And the interesting thing about that is I bought into it . I personally bought into it , and I've met so many different students and clients that have also gotten that same message about being too sensitive . And I'm like what does that really mean ? Too sensitive ? Can you really be too sensitive to the environment , to the world around you ?

Kelly Goetz 8:38

To me , feeling the energy in your body or being aware of the different pieces of information that you pick up through observation , whether physically , emotionally , spiritually , mentally observation is so critical , and learning to discern what that sensitive oh , there's my coyote again what that sensitivity is is an opportunity to make it a superpower . So , if you are somebody that's sensitive , rather than letting that energy that is coming from other people around you or coming from a space or a room . Rather than being at effect of that energy , just notice it for what it is , observe it . Where are you feeling it in your body ? Just like when that energy comes in through the electrical current to your house and it goes back out . You want to feel it , you want to notice it , you want to see what it's all about , and then you want to send it out . Send it on its way . It doesn't need to reside . It's just there to give you information . It's letting your nervous system and your body discern . Is that something to be alarmed by , or is it something to be just assessed ? Or is it giving you information about another person or situation that perhaps you can support , you can give insight to ,

Energy Techniques for Self-Regulation

Kelly Goetz 10:26

perhaps you can support , you can give insight to Whatever it is . I think we're all energy and everything is energy . So when we allow the energy to move through us , feel it , see it , hear it and then transform it into something else Beautiful information that you can teach from , educate from , or perhaps just stand and observe and share what you see or what you're feeling with the person that's standing before you . It's a huge opportunity . That's standing before you . It's a huge opportunity . It's a huge gift that can be useful if channeled in the right direction .

Kelly Goetz 11:17

As I was sitting with my husband , I found myself . I was like you know . I said wow , I'm in a peaceful state and you seem really excited . And his question to me was well , what's wrong with that ? Isn't it okay to be excited ? And I'm in a peaceful state and you seem really excited and his question to me was well , what's wrong with that ? Isn't it okay to be excited ? And I'm like absolutely , I want you to be excited . That's a good thing , and right now my body is feeling it in a different way . So one of the things you can do is , first and foremost , I crossed my feet . The reason I crossed my feet is that it helps your body create crossover energy within your own system .

Kelly Goetz 12:01

If there's energy that's different or maybe it's scrambled . When energy around you is scrambled or different than yours , when you cross your feet and you cross your hands and you fold your hands to your chest , you're doing a modified version of the Wayne Cook . Now Wayne Cook noticed he had different clients and patients that were having a hard time learning , growing , and what he discovered is that when he had them cross their hands and their feet in different patterns . What he discovered was the ability for their energy to settle down . It made it easier for them to read , to learn , so people that might have dyslexia it made it easier for them . And then Donna Eden learning that exercise . What she discovered was that it's like because energy can move at different paces and if there is some sort of scrambled energy and I'm going to even say different energy , because in this case I don't know if my husband was scrambled or not what I know was I felt it in a different vibration or frequency than I was in . So for me it felt like intense energy or scrambled energy .

Kelly Goetz 13:39

Whether or not it was scrambled is beyond the point . The point was I wanted to get in alignment and I wanted to move with that energy in a different way . So I crossed my ankles , I crossed my arms . So if you're in a place of listening and you're not driving , you can simply hold your arms straight out and take one hand over the other hand and then just loop your fingers together and fold your arms in . And if you are driving , I'm not going to have you do that right now . The other thing you could do is you can just cross your ankles and then just breathe into it .

Kelly Goetz 14:25

And so , taking some deep breaths and holding this crossover pattern with my arms and my legs in the Wayne Cook and you can find the Wayne Cook exercise on my YouTube channel and we'll link it here what it did was it centered my own body . It got my own energies crossing over . So , who knows , maybe I was scrambled , I'm not sure I know . There must have been a part of me not grounded like that grounding rod that we just put in for our electrical box . And so in that moment it gave me the space to just ground , cross my energies over . And as my husband watched me doing an energy exercise , he started doing it with me . I didn't even know he was doing it because I had closed my eyes , and so now he's crossing his energy over .

Kelly Goetz 15:22

And then what we decided to do is I did something called a hookup . How the hookup goes is you simply take your middle finger and you put your middle finger on your belly button and you literally hook it . You kind of pull up on it ever so gently , and then you take your other middle finger and you put it right between your eyebrows just a little bit above where we talk about the third eye being , and you just push up a little while you're pulling up on your belly button and you hold those two points while you're breathing deeply , and what this does is it brings the central meridian up your body .

Is It Mine or Theirs?

Kelly Goetz 16:08

At the same time , it helps bring the governing meridian up the backside of your body , and those two meridians they're like your microcosmic orbic field and they hold you together and they help all the energies receive beautiful figure eights out into your field , out into your aura , into your chakras , into your meridians , your radiant circuits , all these beautiful energies . And it helps this part of you that is responsible and governs the fight flight , I also think , the freeze response , that part of you that can go into protection .

Kelly Goetz 16:56

And so , just crossing my ankles and my arms and folding them in and then doing a nice little hookup and breathing and focusing on my breath , I started getting quieter and I started noticing my nervous system was having a chance to digest the information that was surrounding me , surrounding this body that I didn't realize was so physically sensitive growing up . And as I sat there calmly and then I thought , huh , what he's doing ? He's got his hand on his forehead , so I thought , well , I might as well , put my hand on my forehead , connect to the neurovascular points on my forehead , bring some blood flow back to my head , and as I did that , it was easier to think . I noticed my nervous system calming down , no longer in what's called the sympathetic nervous system and just slipping into the parasympathetic nervous system , where my body could relax and digest and absorb the information from a place of grounding energy crossing over energy contained and beautiful figure eights falling out or going out into my world , and there was such peace in that moment .

Kelly Goetz 18:32

And the beauty of observing your energy , observing when that , if you're kinesthetic or empathic where you pick up energy around you . The beauty of doing those three simple things , which took probably two or three minutes max , if that we didn't spend a lot of time on it . The biggest thing we did was check in with ourselves , tuning into ourselves and feeling what was going on in our bodies , and then we started working with it . And the number one , most important thing you can do for yourself and others is to love yourself enough to tune in and observe what's going on with your body , because your body is going to give you signals at all times , and I want you to think about how often do you just push through , muscle through ? Maybe you have a long agenda , a long list , and you're feeling some anxious energy building up , or you're feeling rushed . Even me just saying those words . Are you noticing how your body is , is responding to the words ? Rushed to the words , a long list to do .

Kelly Goetz 19:53

Maybe you've slipped into that people-pleasing mode where you don't really speak up , you don't really say you know , I wasn't really planning on traveling today , or I wasn't really planning on doing anything more than reading this afternoon and enjoying my time . And now somebody wants you to go socialize and you're like it's not really what I wanted to do , but somehow you say yes and in the very yes you're feeling that internal tension with inside Because on some level , pleasing the other person was more important than trusting yourself that you could just be still and you could just read your book and that it was okay to say no . I don't know about you , but if you have weak boundaries and I have when you say no to somebody and they know that you can be persuaded , they get really persistent . And when you say yes , they might be happy , but internally you might be like , oh , what have I done ? Why did I say yes . I really wanted to say no . I wanted to sit back and read my book , but they were so eager and enticing and I said yes , and now I have to figure out what I'm wearing and I don't even want to go in the first place . You don't want to be with that person . It's just not the right moment or time that you don't want to be with that person . It's just not the right moment or time .

Kelly Goetz 21:32

How many times do you give up your quiet time , your low time , your me time to solve somebody else's problem , whether it's your kid or a friend or your spouse , your partner ? Raise your hand . We all do it On some level . We all do it . Raise your hand , we all do it on some level . We all do it . And just learning to check in with your body , noticing is that a true yes or is that a true no ? And if you are kinesthetic and empathic , where you have to feel into your body , you actually need to take a little time . To take a little time to go . Oh , what signals is my body giving me ? You really need to feel into it , to take a pause rather than being rushed and giving a quick answer . You actually need to take a little space . You might even have to say I need to step off the phone for a minute to think about that or to check my schedule , or I might need to just can you just give me a moment , separate from the other person's energy , if you have to ? They're being really persuasive and really feel into it . Is it a true yes or is it possibly a no ? Or a third option might be hey , that's a yes for me , but I need to do it a different day . You don't have to tell them why , you just have to honor it .

Kelly Goetz 23:11

Growing up sensitive meant I was constantly picking up not only my own emotions , but I was picking up stuff around me and didn't know it was happening . So if there's something going on in my house and they're not addressing those feelings , thoughts , emotions , maybe they're pushing through or pushing those emotions down . That's all energy that oozes out of our own individual bodies . It has to go somewhere . Bodies , it has to go somewhere . And so learning to discern is that mine or is it somebody else's ? Because our job is not to process everybody else's energy or everybody else's emotions .

Honoring Your Sensitivity

Kelly Goetz 24:11

The job is to notice and observe what information is coming through , to feel it , to check it out , to ask questions , is it mine , is it yours ? And let it pass through .

Kelly Goetz 24:29

So what I do is when I'm feeling whether it's an emotion for example , maybe all of a sudden I'm having a great day and I'm feeling a sense of sadness or maybe I'm experiencing when I'm slowing down enough and discerning , I can pick up all sorts of subtle pieces of information through observation in my body and around me . And if I'm slowing down enough , I can notice the subtle shifts in energy of sadness or overwhelm or anxiety . And if I was already having a great day where everything my third eye , in the center of my forehead , and I just imagine this picture of a thumb and I'll just simply say is that mine ? And if the thumb goes up , then I know it's something in my body that's been triggered . Now , in both cases something's being triggered . It's just one you're going to process differently than the other . So if I notice the thumb up , I'm like , okay , that sadness is mine , and then I'll pause and look around and go was there a thought ? Was there a thought or was I focusing on something ? Or am I holding my body posture in a certain way ?

Kelly Goetz 26:13

Sometimes our bodies have memories of an emotion and the way we hold our body . So if we're holding our body in that same pattern that we've experienced sadness before like typically it might be rounded , shoulders forward , a little bit , collapsed I may have just triggered an old anchor , an anchor being a body position where I'm holding some old energy . So if I get the thumbs up and I've got my shoulders curled down and my posture's not great , thumbs up and I've got my shoulders curled down and my posture's not great , I go , okay , maybe I need to just straighten that out , see if it shifts . That's one way . Now , if I've noticed , it's a yes and I've straightened my posture out and I'm now standing tall . So just play with that .

Kelly Goetz 27:07

Take your shoulders and just if I were to say what is the emotion of sadness or depression , notice what you do . Are you standing tall or are you collapsing your energy ? Are you curling your shoulders forward ? Are you getting smaller ? Notice your breathing . What happens when you're connecting to sadness , depression . It doesn't take much A simple suggestion of the emotion and to show me what that feels like . People tend to go in similar postures . So let's go ahead and shake that off and just pull your shoulders back and stand up tall , take a nice deep breath and you might start to notice it already feels different .

Kelly Goetz 27:58

The second way , if I've got the thumbs up and I find that that emotion or that physical energy is mine the second way to observe is it some sort of trigger I'm experiencing is to notice what I'm focusing on oh , there's a little rabbit over there , how nice . And to notice what am I focusing on in this moment in time . Am I focusing on something or someone ? Maybe they look sad and that's reminding me of another person or another situation in my own life . Am I focusing on something good ?

Kelly Goetz 28:41

And usually , if you're feeling a low vibration emotion like sadness or depression or grief , usually think about where you're looking . Are you looking far into the distance , into the future , into possibilities ? Are you looking at ? Oh , wow , something feels smaller . Usually , if we're in a lower vibration emotion , there's no wrong or right . It's just you have to feel to heal . But usually our focus isn't looking out , looking far out , or looking who we can serve and help . Usually we're looking closer in . Our gaze isn't as far . We might be looking at our own life , things that maybe aren't working well today .

Kelly Goetz 29:38

So notice where your focus goes , because anytime you focus on , energy's going to go where your focus is . So , again , if you're focusing near , it's going to bring the energy closer to you . It's going to shrink things a bit . The next thing you want to pay attention to is wow , those thoughts . Maybe you're communicating with somebody out loud , or maybe you're just internally thinking about something and just notice , was there a thought that kind of strayed through your brain unconsciously that you weren't aware of that ? You didn't notice , and just notice .

Kelly Goetz 30:27

Often we ask ourselves questions repeatedly throughout the day . We don't even know we're asking it , but it's sort of how we're processing the world and our actions . Now , in all three of these cases it's called a triad and actually there's a lot of different ways I've learned about my physiology or my focus or the meaning , but I do like the concept of the triad and Tony Robbins has taken that information and he's really simplified that whole reaction process by describing the triad , how we physically feel it , how we focus and what meaning we give it . And there's other ways that I've learned that I'll share with you on another date . So now , my thumb's up , I know it's mine . I've looked at how I'm physically standing . I've shifted what I'm focusing on Instead of looking so close , I'm starting to get my chin up and I'm looking farther out .

Kelly Goetz 31:32

I'm looking well , who can I serve , who can I help ? And I'm giving the situation whatever it is that I'm looking well , who can I serve , who can I help ? And I'm giving the situation whatever it is that I'm quietly thinking about that I'm not really totally aware of . Now I'm starting to notice oh , I'm having some thoughts that aren't so great , and then I'm just slightly shifting things with different words . Oh , this is just a moment . It's not forever , it's just a moment

Trusting Your Body's Wisdom

Kelly Goetz 31:58

. This too shall pass , whatever it is that lifts your energy .

Kelly Goetz 32:07

If , on the other hand , you have picked up some energy and you're feeling it and you get that thumbs down in your mind and I'm not saying you have to use my images that I use to discern if it's mine or somebody else's Make up your own . You might have . I don't know right now I'm seeing you know if it's a swing , I'm seeing a girl swinging and maybe one of you is connecting to a swing . That's a no Happy state . Maybe somebody else is . You know , the opposite of that might be a still swing , an empty swing .

Kelly Goetz 32:52

So , whatever image you plant , if you keep using that to discern with a simple question is it mine , is it yours ? It's sort of a form of energy testing . Only it's pretty simple . You can do it anywhere , anytime . So if it's not yours , what do you do now when you're feeling it it's not yours ? What do you do now when you're feeling it ?

Kelly Goetz 33:18

Well , my experience is , as soon as I ask the question is it mine ? And I get that thumbs down , what I notice is it starts to dissipate , it starts to just kind of go away , because my job is to be aware of it and let it just pass through me . I don't get wigged out by stealing energy from other people or situations . I really don't put my focus there . I believe everything is energy and it's just meant to move through , give you information . It's just an experience , it's just a vibration .

Kelly Goetz 33:54

So if I get the thumbs down , which is the simple one that I've used , I just usually find that it starts to almost evaporate and if it doesn't , I can simply say all right , for the highest good of all , just let this move through me and to whoever needs to receive it and process it , and then it slowly shifts and I can come back to center . I can even ground again if I'd like . I can just imagine the energy of my body going all the way down , seeing that energy come from the top of my head , moving all the way down my body , moving all the way down my body , down my thighs , down my calves , into my feet and just plugging into the ground . And I can even just send any of that energy that's not mine into the ground . And even if it is yours and it's something you need to process , you can do the same thing . We get to treat it the same way . One just takes a little bit less time than the other . If it's not yours , it'll pass through quicker . If it is yours , it's going to hang out until you deal with it , until you allow yourself to feel it , observe it , connect with it , be grateful for it .

Kelly Goetz 35:16

Because when we're grateful for all these experiences and when we choose to have something different show up , we get the opportunity to experience something different , just like a little toddler . When you see little toddlers , they feel one emotion , they have a reaction . It quickly changes less than 60 seconds , well , unless you're having a little meltdown , but oftentimes it's pretty quick . It moves them quick and they go from sadness to joy to all these emotions . They don't hang out with anyone for too too long unless they're really stubborn or really want to get their way or really hurting about something . But typically it moves through quick . So just observe all the different emotions moving through those little toddlers as they're learning to move in the world and as you're doing that , you can remember . Well , that's what it's meant to be like , where things come through quickly , energy and move out .

Kelly Goetz 36:27

And the more that we tune in and we observe what we're feeling , what we're focusing on , what we're thinking , what meaning we're giving things , and the more we make a conscious choice to do something different , to change our thoughts , raise our thoughts , change our focus , change our posture , move our bodies . Add that conversation , that difficult conversation that we're avoiding that's now causing tension . The more we do that , the more opportunity we have to be in a state of grounded peace , joy , love , hope . So I invite you , as you're moving through your day , just check in with yourself . Notice what you're feeling in your body , Notice if you feel any constriction , notice what you're thinking about . And when you notice that thought , notice what emotion does that have you feeling ?

Kelly Goetz 37:43

Ask yourself what's my intention , what is it I really want to create in this moment in time , what would I choose ? And then take one step , one little baby step . It doesn't have to be a leap , one little step . If there's conversation you're avoiding , maybe you journal about it , you get connected to it . What is it that you want to say and what do you really want with that person ? Or if you're hibernating in your home , avoiding people because you think they might not understand , you might discover that they're hiding too , and a little phone call would do their hearts some real joy , some real opportunity . Wherever you're at , observing and appreciating whether you're kinesthetic or empathic or not , just taking the time to be sensitive , to observe yourself and others is going to strengthen you in ways that you can never imagine , and so I hope for you that you take the time to breathe and enjoy all the subtle pieces of information that come into your body , into your eyesight , into your ears , and have a great day with infinite love and gratitude .

Kelly Goetz 39:19

Thanks for tuning in to today's episode . If you've enjoyed the conversation and want to keep up with our latest content , be sure to hit the follow button on your favorite podcast platform . It's the easiest way to stay in the loop and never miss an episode . Plus , it helps us grow and bring you even more great stories and insight , so go ahead , tap , follow and we'll see you next time .