Sensitive Souls

 

Art credit: borrowed from https://mamaowlsjourney.com/

Much of our western culture can be a bit overwhelming to those of us who are "sensitive".   But did you know that within the "ailment", lies a "cure"?  

As an incredibly sensitive human myself, I've been studying this concept in adults and children and from many different lenses, and I've come to love and honor the deep awareness and ACCESS we have to our inner world, thanks to our sensitivity. 

If you would call yourself or a child of yours "sensitive" - or any other term that resonates - you may also be diagnosed from the medical model with anxiety or adhd.  Maybe trauma heightened your nervous system responses. You might consider yourself a "vata" person - high in the wind energy in Ayurveda.  Maybe you are an HSP (highly sensitive person).  Or an empath.  Or an intuitive.  Or an introvert.  

There are so many "lenses" with which to view anything.  None of them is the "right" way - there are just different ways to categorize and describe, and they each offer a different angle of understanding and a different set of tools.  

I originally found my first yoga class 20(!) years ago in college.  I had been given medications to calm my anxiety and panic attacks, and they sort of worked, sometimes.  The teacher led us through a class and then guided us into relaxation in savasana.  Not all teachers do this, and I am forever grateful for this teacher who showed me the door to my own inner world.  I don't even remember exactly the words she used, but I relaxed, breathed, shifted my energy body using my attention and was gifted the deepest feeling of peace and calm and "ok-ness" I had ever felt.  The medications never did that. 

I was hooked and have been on this journey ever since.  Through yoga, meditation, mindfulness, craniosacral therapy, possibility management, intuitive energy training and many teachers and books I dig deeper into the innate ability we all have to sit in the driver's seat of our lives.  There is an entire world of sensations, thoughts, beliefs, feelings and energy that we have mostly learned to numb.  Many guideposts exist in our world, including the ancient, holistic practice of yoga, that offers us guidance for sensing all of this once again so we do not stumble through our lives, victim to our thoughts and feelings.  

And those of us who are "sensitive"?  Along with more easily feeling bombarded by life, I believe we are also gifted at shifting our relationship with these energies and directing our lives with more consciousness.   It is our great sensitivity that allows us easier access to our inner world.  If we can practice being courageous and patient enough to listen and feel within; to slowly release our tight grip on those numbing strategies, we can feel and acknowledge and BE WITH all that is.  This on it's own often allows a huge shift in how we feel.  We can also move our bodies to clear our channels, breathe to move prana (a sanskrit word meaning life force energy) and practice mindfulness to see all components of ourselves more clearly as we move through the day.  

I've seen and felt miraculous things in my life.  Joy exists in each moment - it's just not where we think it is.  ;)