Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women

(#86) Energy Boundaries for Empaths & Highly Sensitive People: How to Clear What’s Not Yours & Protect Your Sensitivity

• Rae The Somatic Coach • Episode 86

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If you’re a Highly Sensitive Person, empath, coach, therapist, or big feeler, this one’s for you. 🧡 In this soulful episode, Rae shares all about how to protect your energy, clear what’s not yours, and hone your intuitive gifts without losing yourself in the process.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

🌿 What a Highly Sensitive Person is
🌿 How to recognize projection
🌿 Daily energy hygiene tools
🌿 How to nurture your intuition
🌿 Your sensitivity is a gift

Questions to reflect on:
• Where am I holding onto something that isn’t mine?
• What’s one practice I can commit to this week to clear my energy?

Resource Mentioned: HSPerson.com

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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast is intended to inspire, educate, and support you on your personal journey. It does not substitute for professional mental health advice. I am not a psychologist or medical professional. If you are experiencing distress, mental health challenges, or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified professional.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here, I'm Rae, I'm a somatic coach and breathwork facilitator, and if you aren't new here, welcome back. I'm so glad that you're tuning in for today's episode. So for today's episode we are diving right in. I received another creative download while I was away in Scotland and traveling is a huge creative portal for me usually and so today's episode is all for highly sensitive folks and empaths. So we are talking about intuitive beings that feel things around them, and today's episode is for you. So this episode can also be really helpful. If you are a coach, a therapist, a healer, if you are a big feeler and you're working in an intuitive space, this episode can also be supportive for you.

Speaker 1:

So, to kick things off, what is a highly sensitive person, also known as HSP? Known as HSP? So this is a term that Elaine Aron created, and it's on a theory that HSPs are a subset of the population who have a high sensitivity in processing. So there are high levels of processing happening with emotions, with reactions to internal and external stimuli, and a very textured and complex like inner world can be happening if you are a highly sensitive person. And so they say that highly sensitive people are about 15 to 20 percent of the population and that highly high sensitivity can be linked to more creativity, can be linked to stronger personal relationships, can be linked to more joy and more awareness around, like day-to-day textures in life. So like a really strong awareness and presence around, like what is happening in day-to-day life.

Speaker 1:

I'll also link a resource in the show notes for learning more about highly sensitive people. But some of the questions that the website asks that I can share with you now is do you like deep conversations? Do other people tell you that you're good at understanding what they are feeling or thinking? Do you tend to reflect on things deeply? Do you make it a point to avoid violent movies and TV shows? And do you notice or enjoy delicate or fine scents, tastes, sounds or works of art? So these are all some questions that are listed on the website and they actually have a quiz like a self-quiz that you can take. So if highly sensitive person, if that you know resonates with you or it's something you find interesting, definitely check out that link in the show notes. And so, for today's episode, if you are a highly sensitive person or an empath or intuitive, it's likely that you have felt or taken on the weight of other people's emotions, thoughts, expectations, and so these are some tools that will be helpful for coming back to yourself anytime that you might be feeling heavy, drained or confused by things that are going on around you.

Speaker 1:

And sometimes, for highly sensitive people, intuitives and empaths. It can be challenging to differentiate what someone else is experiencing versus like what is yours to process, which is actually the first tool for today. So the question that you can ask yourself when you find yourself in these scenarios where maybe you're feeling confused, heavy drained, you're feeling like maybe what you're feeling isn't actually yours, and so the question that you can ask yourself is is this even mine? So when someone cannot handle an emotion or a feeling, sometimes it can get tossed over to someone else to deal with. So an example might be someone gets really angry and then tells the other person oh, you're just being sensitive, but in actuality, that person that got angry is actually projecting onto the other person. So, remembering that it's not actually about you, it's about the other person and their feelings, emotions and thoughts, which we have no control over.

Speaker 1:

For someone that is a highly sensitive person, they can tend to go into like a fixer mode or sometimes subconsciously, just like really picking up on someone else's discomfort. If you also have a history of people pleasing, it can be really uncomfortable for other people to be uncomfortable, so also having awareness around that. But this can show up, like when somebody else is feeling a challenging emotion and you're feeling the highly sensitive person is starting to feel it in their body. It can show up as discomfort, it can show up as your mood suddenly changing when you know previously you were fine and then now you're not fine. It can feel like being misunderstood and it can also just feel like something is off or like something's just like not fitting that was previously fitting. It's you're picking up on somebody else's stuff.

Speaker 1:

Basically, and this can be, yeah, really challenging if you are a highly sensitive person and empath or an intuitive, because sometimes you can know what someone is feeling before they actually know what they're feeling and it's not necessarily your job to do anything about it feeling and it's not necessarily your job to do anything about it. So, really knowing that you have this information but it's not something that you need to like do anything about, and so there is a layer of awareness and mindfulness that comes into play and that's usually always, the first step is really starting to notice how you're feeling in your experience and asking that question of is this even mine? And you can even rephrase that question a little bit like what's mine and what's theirs, because you can't clean up the other side of the street for somebody else and that awareness and that shift in that question will help you to release any of that fixer energy or helper energy. Which leads me right into the next point that I wanted to share with you is that it's really important, if you are a highly sensitive person, an empath or an intuitive, to really tend to and take care of your energy. You really want your energy to be clean, you want it to be clear and you want to really tend to your body and your nervous system and the energetic body. If you are, you know, a coach, a healer, a therapist and you're working with other people, it's really easy to pick up on other people's stuff because you are. If you are a highly sensitive person and an intuitive, you're going to be having another layer of awareness.

Speaker 1:

So, some things that you can do, some tools that are helpful for cleansing your energy, and I also encourage you to kind of check in with what works for you and maybe some tools that you might already have or be aware of or you've heard of, like add to this list. But the first is physically like brushing your body off, so you can physically like take your hands and kind of clear and physically touch and like rub your arms and rub your chest and brush down your legs and your shoulders and physically kind of brush your body like an energetic clearing. Another tool that you could do is taking a shower, really allowing the shower to kind of like reset your energy, clear off anything from the day, even clear off anything from the evening if you're taking a shower in the morning, so like first thing when you wake up in the morning, you can also clear in that way. Another tool that I absolutely love, of course, is breath work, so clearing your energy with your breath, really letting that exhale be something that is a release, something that is a letting go. You can take deep sighs when you're doing breath work on the exhale.

Speaker 1:

And then the fourth tool that I would share with you is anything that has to do with like a visualization. So this can look like showering yourself in a golden light. This can look like um, doing like a cord cutting, so like allowing an energy that you feel like you've picked up on, allowing, like cutting it like a cord and allowing it to release from your body. So Any of these practices I just named quite a few it's something you can kind of like see what works for you, see what feels good and checking in with your energy daily. This can help with burnout, it can help with any confusion, it can help with boundaries, it can help with your energetic happiness and lightness and really feeling like you can show up fully in the world as yourself. Being in that uh, you know seat of a healer or a therapist or coach can often. You're really tending to other people's energy a lot of the time. So these practices can bring you back to yourself and allow you to tend to your energy, which is really important as well.

Speaker 1:

And then the last thing that I will mention for highly sensitive people is that you can use your sensitivity as a strength, as a gift, and that includes really nurturing it with boundaries, being aware of it and being curious about it. So a few different ways that you can kind of like hone in on your gifts of your sensitivity, your intuition, your ability to be empathic. The first is writing and journaling getting clear on what you sense and what is true and what is coming up for you versus what might be coming up for somebody else. So sometimes when we write and express and let things out in that way just like even free writing, just really like letting it all out on the page, it can bring, it can create some space in our system. It can bring clarity, but it can also bring space, and so that is really helpful for discerning, like what's ours and what somebody else's.

Speaker 1:

And then that kind of leads into number two, which is yet practicing discernment around the energies. So it's all information, but it's not necessarily like who you are or identity or anything like that. So if you're picking up on something it's not, you know, like factual or an identifier for who you are, it could also be projection, something else that's coming up from somebody else. So practicing discernment around information that you receive. And then the third is kind of building on the last thing that I had just mentioned a few minutes ago. But if you are in that space of holding space for other people, you're using your gifts and your sensitivity and your intuition for others, but know that it's not just for others, it's also for yourself. So, continuing to come back to yourself, continuing to come back to your body, continuing to tend to your energy, and when you stay rooted in your own energy and you stay connected to your gifts and you practice the energetic discernment and you use your tools for understanding what's yours and what's theirs, you're able to really allow your sensitivity to become one of your greatest strengths, to become almost like a superpower. It's pretty cool what can happen.

Speaker 1:

So two questions that I will leave you with is where might I be holding on to something that isn't mine to be processed, and what's one practice I can commit to this week to clear and tend to my energy and my nervous system? So, if anything from today's episode resonated with you, I work often with highly intuitive, sensitive and empathic women, so I offer one-to-one somatic coaching, one-to-one somatic therapy if you are in New York, and breathwork as well. So you can check out the show notes for the link to my website. You can send me a dm if you have any questions. And, yeah, I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. I hope that you received some information that you find helpful or insightful or create some shifts in your life. And, yeah, I hope that you also have an incredible rest of your day, an incredible rest of your week, and I will talk to you soon.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for being here and tuning in to somatic healing for wellness focused women podcast. If you were moved or inspired by today's episode, please take a moment to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It truly helps the podcast grow and helps more people find me on their healing journey. Make sure to check out the show notes, to sign up for the monthly newsletter, links to more resources, opportunities to work with me and ways that we can stay connected. If we aren't already connected on social media, head over to Instagram to follow me at Ray the Somatic Coach. Send me a DM. I'd love to connect with you and I answer each note that comes in. I am so happy you're here and I cannot wait to talk with you on our next episode of the podcast.