“You’re so sensitive”
A few years ago, this sentence would have sent me into a blind rage.
Probably because it’s true. I am highly sensitive.
And for most of my life, the people around me made it clear that this was:
Bad
Weird
And something I needed to fix if I wanted to get anywhere in life
It’s unsurprising, then, that I spent years trying to push down my sensitive little soul, and develop the ‘thick skin’ that everyone said I needed.
It was exhausting.
It was exhausting trying to pretend that I didn’t feel things as deeply as I did, and fighting to hold back my emotions which felt like they might drown me.
It was exhausting denying myself the rest, stillness and alone time that I needed after being in highly stimulating environments.
And it was exhausting trying to act like the pain of the world around me - climate change, inequality, war - wasn’t real.
When I started exploring personal development spaces, I learned new tools and perspectives which helped me to cope with life more easily. But most of them reinforced the idea that my ‘big feelings’ were a problem and something that I could get rid of if I just “thought the right thoughts” or learned not to care so much.
It was only when I stumbled upon embodiment work that I discovered that everything I thought was wrong with me, was actually a secret blessing in disguise. And my sensitivity, far from being a problem, was actually a super power! I just needed to learn how to use it correctly - sort of like when Peter Parker had to learn how to crawl up buildings and shoot his web intentionally before he could become Spiderman.
If you’re a highly sensitive person who wants to build more self confidence, but you’re sick and tired of being told to “fake it til you make it” or “just don’t worry so much”, here are five reasons why my embodiment coaching programme could be perfect for you.
Here, your sensitivity is a gift that we hone, NOT a problem we try to get rid of.
Embodiment coaching works by helping you to become more attuned to what’s happening in your internal world so that you can understand the wisdom and guidance your body is always providing you with, and act on it to create new results in your life.
As a highly sensitive person you are already perfectly designed to do this! Your deep sensitivity makes you exquisitely attuned to small changes in emotion, sensation, energy and presence.
You find this sensitivity overwhelming in day to day life because our society is highly stimulating. But through coaching you can learn how to use your sensitivity consciously and intentionally, and it becomes your greatest asset.
We work with your emotions so that they no longer overwhelm you, but they become fuel for your transformation
Every time I see a personal development blog which talks about “taking control of your emotions” my eyes almost roll out of my head.
Clearly the person who wrote that has never experienced the emotional rollercoaster that I sometimes go through on an average Tuesday morning.
Highly sensitive people often feel our emotions so deeply that they can feel bigger than us. The idea of learning to “control” them can feel tempting, but every time we try, it feels like they get even stronger, which leaves us feeling more out of control than ever.
Embodiment coaching steps outside this “control / being controlled” paradigm altogether. Rather than fighting with the waves, we learn how to surf.
By developing the skill of using movement, breath, awareness and sound to more deeply connect to and experience our emotions, I teach you how to allow your emotions to move through you with much more ease, simplicity and grace. Rather than getting caught in an hour-long struggle with such powerful energy, you learn how to work with it, without getting derailed from who you want to be in the world and what you want to create.
You become a powerful being who still feels deeply, but no longer drowns in the depth of yourself. And this power becomes the very thing that lets you build the life you’ve been dreaming of.
We don’t try to “push through” - we calibrate the body
Anytime we want to do something new - whether that’s learn a new skill, have a new experience, show up differently in the world or relate to ourselves in a new way - it’s going to feel uncomfortable at first.
That’s a simple fact of life.
But if you were to believe a lot of the “internet bros” out there, you would think that making yourself as uncomfortable as possible on a daily basis is the only way to do something meaningful with your life.
Sorry Chad, but I don’t buy the idea that taking ice baths at 5am every morning is the only way to build a successful life.
Highly sensitive people are a bit of a paradox. From the outside it looks like we avoid making ourselves uncomfortable as much as possible. In reality, we’re often dealing with such a high level of overwhelm day in day out, that we actually have a very high tolerance for discomfort already.
It’s one thing to “feel the fear and do it anyway”. It’s another to force yourself into paralysing states of overwhelm because you think that’s the only way to approach new things (no wonder you avoid the things you really want to do if you think that’s the only way you can do them).
Through embodiment coaching we learn another way. Instead of just “pushing through” intense sensation, we start to unravel it in the body, allowing unprocessed experiences which have been frozen in our system to move through us, so that we’re no longer carrying them with us into new experiences. And we do this gently and gradually, so that the body can move at its natural pace, rather than shocking our system into a massive release, and risking harming ourselves even more.
In other words, instead of forcing yourself to make that presentation even though you’re violently shaking and throwing up beforehand, we find out what the body has been trying to tell you by sending you this experience in the first place:
Maybe the memories of public speaking at school are still alive within you, and the emotion from that time needs to be processed.
Maybe younger parts of your subconscious need to realise that you’re an adult now and able to handle this situation.
Maybe you need to connect to the part of you that has unlimited compassion and appreciation for yourself so that you can take a risk and know that you have a soft place to land.
This is a much kinder way to work with ourselves, and much more suitable for highly sensitive people than approaches which want you to “just do it” and suffer the consequences.
We centre your experience, rather than the external accomplishment
Don’t panic. I still care about you finding that relationship, buying the new house, getting the new job and publishing the book. But I also care about how you experience that along the way.
For highly sensitive people, the sensations in our body can be so intense that no matter what is going on around us, it absorbs most of our attention. I remember that I once booked myself a relaxing weekend away and spent the entire time in the grip of intense anxiety, because I was burning myself out at work and the second I stopped I felt the full impact it was having on me.
Sure, we care about what’s happening in our lives. But the feeling of peace, relaxation, contentment, safety and ease is irreplaceable.
I don’t want you to just get “the thing” you want, especially if the process of getting it leaves you feeling stressed, drained or exhausted. I want you to get the thing you want and love how you feel on the journey.
Embodiment coaching prioritises your experience as a central part of the goal we’re working towards. For people who experience life so deeply, that is an incredibly important part of a coaching container that works for you.
We trust that your body is perfectly designed for you to flourish.
The best thing about embodiment coaching is that it restores the trust you have with your own body, and that self trust transforms everything else in your life.
I can confidently say that because I’ve been through the process and come out the other side.
After I found out I have a rare heart condition and needed a pacemaker, I went through a period of time when I viscerally hated my body. I was having daily panic attacks and I felt like my body was broken in every way. Not only had I dealt with years of anxiety and OCD symptoms, not only had I found out that I had a heart that didn’t work properly, but now my body was sending me into terrifying panic attacks which left me barely able to get through the day.
A lifetime of learning that I was “just too sensitive” was coming to fruition and, frankly, I was sick and tired of this shit.
An embodiment coaching container was the first place where I started to learn how my body really works, and discovered that everything I thought was standing in my way was actually calling me into a more loving, respectful, compassionate relationship with myself. Everything that I hated was a doorway into becoming the kind of woman I had always dreamed of being.
If you’re a highly sensitive person, chances are you’ve learned to see your body as a temperamental little brat. Through working with me, you’ll discover new truths and realise that everything was working perfectly all along.
You are designed to flourish, just like the tiny acorn is perfectly designed to become the oak tree, and the caterpillar is perfectly designed to become the butterfly.
I have spaces available for 1:1 coaching clients.
If you’re a highly sensitive person and you’re ready to get support which appreciates the qualities that make you unique, my six session embodiment coaching package is just what you need.
I’ll support you to become the most confident version of yourself, by working with this wise, magical, exquisitely sensitive body of yours.
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