High Sensitivity and Handling Overwhelm

If you’re highly sensitive, chances are you are no stranger to feeling overwhelmed. If so, listen to this episode of the Awaken Your Wise Woman podcast as host Elizabeth Cush offers tips for dealing with big emotions. 

“I want to talk about holding space for when you're feeling overwhelmed, because as highly sensitive beings, we do get overwhelmed.” — Biz Cush

Do bright lights make you cringe a little? Do you shrink from loud music or other noise? Do events or memories trigger powerful feelings? If so, how does your system react? In this episode of the Awaken Your Wise Woman podcast, host Biz Cush, LCPC, a licensed professional therapist, founder of Progression Counseling in Maryland and Delaware, and soul support for highly sensitive women, talks about the kinds of situations that can feel overwhelming, shares insights based on her own personal experiences, and offers several strategies for feeling big feelings without becoming emotionally overloaded. 

Find the full show notes and resources here.

Transcript

Episode 15 season 6

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Highly sensitive women, sacred sensitivity, emotional overwhelm, managing feelings, past traumas, healing, compassion, community support, self-care, sensory overload, coping mechanisms, personal growth, podcast episode, Elizabeth Cush, therapy.

SPEAKERS

Elizabeth Cush

Elizabeth Cush  00:00

Hi and welcome back to the Awaken Your wise woman podcast. I'm your host, Biz Cush, and I'm super happy that you're here, grateful that you are a part of this ever growing community of highly sensitive women. And speaking of highly sensitive women, the circle of sacred sensitivity is growing. The membership is growing, and the women who are meeting there with me once a month are lovely humans, and I would love for you to join us if you're interested. It's amazing to me how quickly the time goes that we spend together, because we it just seems to flow so easily. I don't typically pick a topic to talk about, and we always find things to talk about. Always, if you're interested in joining us, you can reach out to me through my website. ElizabethCushcoaching.com  or through this podcast episode, there's always links to how to find me through Instagram, LinkedIn, my website, all the places so reach out and I can send you more information about it. This week on the podcast, I want to talk about holding space for when you're feeling overwhelmed, because as highly sensitive beings, we do get overwhelmed, and we can get overwhelmed easily when lights are too bright or music is too loud when we process a lot of incoming information, when we're feeling emotional overload, those are there are so many ways that we our systems can become easily overloaded and overwhelmed. And there are parts of me that wish that my sensitive nature never left me feeling overwhelmed, as if I could figure out how to fix my sensitivities. Parts that wish I was always grounded enough or always aligned enough so that I didn't get rattled or overwhelmed. And I'm sure we have all heard the messages around making sure our feelings are under control. And as much as I like to say, I don't buy into that, I know there are times when I continue to try to push past my big feelings, and that's a hard admission to make as a therapist who tells her clients to feel the feelings even when they're difficult, but a couple of events over the last month got me thinking and feeling big feelings. My husband and I recently attended a memorial for an old acquaintance, and although I didn't know them that well, seeing the photos, hearing the stories, recognizing people from the past who also attended the celebration of life. It brought up a lot a lot of memories, a lot of feelings that I hadn't expected. And I think some of my 20 year old parts were unprepared for the feelings that arose. I had some sadness, some regret, some parts feeling what it felt like back then, when I was feeling a bit lost. And I have this sense that there were parts that wanted to be memorable, but were feeling kind of invisible. And to top it all off, the restaurant and bar where the memorial was being held was really, really really loud. People were talking loud. The music was loud, just the space of energy was really loud, and it was crowded. All my senses were being activated, and I got overloaded pretty quickly. And all that to say is that I got overwhelmed and fell back on old patterns for managing the overwhelm. I distance myself emotionally. I like distance myself from myself emotionally. I avoided my feelings, I numbed my feelings, and that's a hard place for me to go, because I can disconnect pretty easily, but then I feel as if I kind of pay for it later. And I would love to say that once we heal, we're done healing, that everything. Is okay that we're past with a we're done with the past traumas, that past ways of being are in the past. But the reality is, life happens in ways we don't expect, and people and places trigger old memories, and we can't control that. We can't control that. But the work around managing feelings, managing overwhelm is meeting yourself there when old stuff surfaces, when you get overwhelmed, when you're grieving, when parts of you pop up unexpectedly. I don't think there's a magic potion or a spell that can help us through. But when you can allow yourself, when I allowed myself, to feel the feelings as they arose, and also later, when I was processing them after the event that helped me meet myself and my parts with compassion instead of shame and criticism. It also helps to share aloud when we struggle, to share with others, to share here, because we're all imperfect, right? We're all imperfect human beings, and I want to honor that for each and every one of us. And I'm not always, or you're not always going to get it right in the moment, but if we can reflect on what if it also helps to share the struggle aloud. Share it with others. Share it here, because we're all imperfect human beings, and I want to honor that for each of us. I'm not always going to get it right in the moment, but if I can reflect on what came up and how I was feeling, that's a really good place to start feeling overwhelmed. Can be that signal, can be that clue to help you turn toward yourself with care and kindness and compassion, when we can make space for that and notice how your body is responding. What sensations Do you feel? Focusing there can bring insight and new awareness, also placing a hand on your heart, taking a deep breath that helps ease the DIS ease, allowing yourself just to be and Meeting yourself there, holding those feelings with love, with compassion, you'll find another new level of healing. Well, I hope you'll take care of yourself, around your feelings, around being overwhelmed, around your sensitivities, because our sensitivities are important and we need to nourish ourself when things feel hard, and if you're feeling called to join us in the sacred circle of sensitivity, I would love to have You there. It is a beautiful group of women with beautiful energy and a community that really gets you, that can hold space for you and whatever it is you're feeling. I hope you'll join me there. If not, I will connect with you here next time on the podcast.