Episode 55: Highly Sensitive: The Gifts from our Childhood as an HSP with Julie & Willow
Show Notes
During our childhood, we are much closer to our authentic selves. Even if our memories of childhood may be filled with challenge and discomfort.
We are often very clear on what is most important to us and many of the gifts we rely on today were present.
For those of us born with the trait of high sensitivity and high sensory intelligence we typically experienced the world in a particular and often profound way.
It is quite common for us to have been misunderstood and for our emotional sensitivity to be seen as a disadvantage.
Yet it is often the challenges we faced and the way we saw the world back then that shape us to specialize in a particular area of life.
The Journey of our ‘inner Hero’ undertaking a very particular transformation from adversity into revelation.
A journey that is usually encrusted with jewels and strengthened by the hardship we endured.
Reframing our childhood and reclaiming what was most important to us back then can be pivotal in understanding who we are today and the important role we were born to play in the world.
Join us this week where we share our own journey into adulthood and how they have been pivotal to the work we do today.
Here’s What We Talk About In This Episode
We talk about the often conflicted experience we had growing up as a High Sensory or “Highly sensitive” child.
What can happen when we pretend to be someone we are not just to feel accepted and fit in.
How we tend to lose the very essence of who we are whilst continuing to fuel this misalignment ourselves into adulthood.
The discussion helped us to see how the authentic version of ourselves we experienced as a child can be an important part to reclaiming ourselves as an adult.
That we can all learn to stop believing and feeding the thoughts of self-criticism and self-rejection.
That in fact, the essence of who we are is always available to us and inherently knows how to heal itself and bring ourselves back into balance.
We also touch on the tricky area of coming away from toxic relationships. Just how important it is for us as high sensory people to be in the right company.
We hear stories of how pivotal this can be to support our pathway back to claiming our true sense of self, meaning, and happiness that is our birthright.
There were some wonderful moments of insight in this episode thank you to everyone who joined us and we would love to hear from you if you are listening to the replay.
See you next week at the same time for more empowering discussions on what it means to thrive as an HSP. Join us live at https://www.sensitive-empowerment.com/
Willow's website: https://inluminance.com/
Julie's website: https://www.juliebjelland.com/
About the Hosts
Julie Bjelland is a sensitivity expert, licensed psychotherapist, and author of several books, and teaches the online course Brain Training for the Highly Sensitive Person, Techniques to Reduce Anxiety and Overwhelming Emotions, highly recommended by psychologists Tara Brach Ph.D., and Rick Hanson Ph.D. Julie’s brain training program has helped highly sensitive people (HSPs) around the world reduce their challenges, access their gifts, and discover their resiliency, inner strength, and significant value. Julie serves as the sensitivity expert for Dr. Hanson’s online program and is a member of the faculty of The Shift Network. Known for her ability to give people a sense of true support, Julie is featured on national media regularly and on a mission to empower sensitive people to live their best lives.
Highly sensitive people thrive quickly with the right tools and I have loved helping highly sensitive people (HSPs) around the world reduce anxiety and thrive to their fullest potential. The techniques I have developed come from years of working with highly sensitive people all over the world and have been extremely successful for the clients and students I work with. Our life gets a lot better and so does the life of those around us when we are thriving and your sensitive self is beautiful and valuable. We need you in the world. ~Julie
Willow McIntosh is the founder of Inluminance and leader of the High Sensory Intelligence movement. Unique circumstances during Willow’s childhood lead to the burying of his authentic self and complete misalignment to the work he was destined for. He began to carve his own path into understanding how people with sensory processing sensitivity can learn to use their genetic traits to their advantage. As an adult this lead to a lifelong enquiry and practise into learning powerful energetic alignment techniques to re-engage with the authentic self. Willow believes that all people with the trait have the ability to tap into a unique skill that draws on a deeper sensory perception. Founded in their own life experience and self development they have the capacity to facilitate great transformation and development in others. Willow is on a mission to awaken us to the responsibility we have to utilise the abilities it affords in business, governments and leadership. Having successfully facilitated the development of seven figure businesses Willow’s practise has taken him all over the world. Speaking internationally, training in a broad range of fields and facilitating others for more than twenty years. Willow now specialises in facilitating people with the trait to activate them into service in alignment with their gifts and purpose and to support them to take their own businesses to the next level towards automation and leadership.
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Resources & Links Mentioned in Episode
Take the sensitivity survey: sensitivityquiz.com
Sensitive Empowerment community: sensitive-empowerment.com
Julie’s HSP Resources: juliebjelland.com
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In this episode, Julie Bjelland and Willow McIntosh explore the pain of being misunderstood, the joy in finding belonging, and the transformative power of self-acceptance and honoring one’s true self as a sensitive and neurodivergent person.