This audio is part of a conversation between Julie Bjelland, LMFT, and host Bevin Niemann at the 2022 Empaths, Sensitives & Intuitives Summit.
From notes by Julie Bjelland for the original webinar:
“I’ll discuss the three steps to conscious wellness for Highly Sensitive People and Empaths. Learn about high sensitivity, understand brain differences making you more susceptible to anxiety, and how to regulate your sensitive nervous system.
“Live consciously, guided by your body cues and intuition, doing what’s right for you, and self-care the HSP way.”
Julie Bjelland, LMFT, is a psychotherapist specializing in high sensitivity, host of The HSP Podcast and the Sensitive Empowerment Community, author of books, online courses, articles, and free webinars.
To listen to the original, full length Shift Network audio, see Episode 160: Lower Anxiety, Improve Wellness and Discover Your Sensitive Gifts of The HSP Podcast.
Follow link to Julie Bjelland’s Sensitive Empowerment site to find many more of her articles, books, courses, Sensitive Community and other resources.
Related Creative Mind Audio episode: How Can Highly Sensitive People Manage Anxiety?
[The image above for this episode is “Silence the Sun – Faceless” by Mario S. Nevado on his Facebook page.]
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Transcript
Narrator 0:00
Julie bjelland is a psychotherapist, author and founder of the online community sensitive empowerment with resources for highly sensitive people.
This interview was part of a conversation with Bevan Nieman at the empaths, sensitives. And intuitive Summit.
Julie Bjelland 0:16
I started to see a lot of sensitive clients come to me. And the work that we were doing together was just so transformative. And we came up with lots of tools that could support and balance our sensitive nervous system.
And it just was such a joy to be able to witness that to, because I really believe that we have so many gifts that are often kind of covered up by our overwhelm, and our you know, our sensory overload and a lot of the differences and we’ll talk more about that I’m sure today, but if we can lift off some of the layers of those challenges, we really can access these incredible gifts and, and the real reason that we’re even here and have this trait.
Bevin Niemann 0:59
Yeah, absolutely. I also resonate as an HSP and Empath have experienced sensory overload many times in my life. I love for you just to take us into that, you know, why is it such a common challenge for people whose nervous systems are more responsive to the environment around us?
Julie Bjelland 1:18
Yeah, you know, a lot of us don’t realize how much we’re impacted by sensory overload. And it’s really an overload of how much the brain can keep up processing – we take in so much information and data. And that’s part of our gifts of having this trait.
So if you imagine taking in, you know, 100 cups of data, versus maybe just a few cups of data for those that don’t have this trait, there’s a real overload experience of all the senses just by going out in the modern world, especially those of us that live in urban environments.
That’s when we’re going to experience a lot of sensory overload in crowds. And, you know, being around bright lights, loud sounds – the world’s not created for our high levels of sensitivity.
So sensory overload can cause a lot of our symptoms, it can cause feelings of anxiety issues with sleep, which is a real problem for our wellness, and even irritability. Maybe when we’re feeling really overwhelmed or feeling emotionally overloaded, reactionary, things like that can actually be from sensory overload.
Bevin Niemann 2:23
Yeah, I know that you even actually created a brain training course, which allows people to understand how to sort of rewrite those neural pathways, I’d love to hear more about that, and how that’s applicable to helping HSPs manage this overwhelm, and the anxiety and some of the other symptoms that come from that.
Julie Bjelland 2:44
Oh, the brain training course has been such a beautiful experience to get to witness HSPs from all over the world, just improving and feeling better and more balanced.
One of the things that’s my favorite thing to think about is that we can actually prevent the release of adrenaline and stress hormones, were by doing quite simple things that this is all natural without medication, that often causes a lot of side effects for us.
And I got really interested in the neuroscience of this, that you can actually train the brain by being able to catch things before they happen, being able to even just do things like certain breath techniques can, it’s almost like sending a message to the brain that we’re not in danger, I don’t want you to send this rush of adrenaline and stress hormones, because when that happens, then you start to feel your heart racing.
Now your body is set up to fight or flee, or some for some people, it’s freeze, because we actually have more activation in the amygdala, those of us that have this trait, which causes that high stress.
And, you know, we can be more prone to anxiety, things like that.
So the ability to kind of bypass that. And that was something that was really exciting to me to even learn that you can activate calming centers in the brain that automatically deactivate stress centers, because they can’t be activated at the same time.
And that’s one of my absolute favorite, like personal tools and as well as being able to teach other HSPs these tools because it’s it’s incredible being able to do that.
Bevin Niemann 4:20
I love what you’re saying here. And, you know, what strikes me is the word hyper vigilance. Right? So if you have a nervous system that’s always on, always picking up information, especially if you are an HSP and an empath. So you do not only sense all the the external stimulus, but also the energies. hyper vigilance is something that someone could kind of get stuck in that that mode, right?
Julie Bjelland 4:44
Oh, absolutely. And I used to be before I understood about this trait, before I had these kinds of tools. I was definitely hyper vigilant. I felt really anxious. I felt very stressed out.
I was just like, When can I get to my room and close the door and shut off the world? because it just seemed too hard. And that can cause especially long term that’s causing a lot of chronic health conditions and sensitive people, and that it’s so important to be able to learn about this trait.
And to understand how we are different we, we have a different nervous system, we have brain differences that make us experience the world differently.
And we also have gifts that, that most of the population doesn’t. So, you know, I’ve heard, like, for example, brain training can really help people stop having panic attacks, for example, which is huge for a lot of sensitive people who are feeling that in the world and, and improve their wellness.
Bevin Niemann 5:40
I know those can be really challenging. I’ve had a few friends that have experienced that. And, you know, I think what I wanted to explore was this idea of safety. I hear you talking about this, and like the brain somehow feels because of all of this information coming in, and we’re having to process it all.
And you know, of course, there are probably many HSPs, who have experienced some sort of trauma. Most humans have experienced some sort of trauma, so then it sort of exacerbates that right? But what you’re saying is that we can, we can help ourselves understand that we’re actually safe in that moment if we are safe. And that is a life changer, right?
Julie Bjelland 6:21
Yes, absolutely. Because the brain can’t tell the difference between a real threat and a perceived threat. So it reacts and you know, we can be stressed out in, in traffic, for example, and, and it can send a signal to the brain that we’re at, like a lion is about to attack us.
And it’ll, it’ll shift the way our body uses oxygen, it’ll send us into our muscles, which is why when we’re stressed, we actually end up with back pain or get injured more easily, things like that.
And we also do short, shallow breathing when we’re stressed. So being able to take those long, slow exhales are part of we do like a four to seven breath technique that I really recommend.
And that can be done for anybody, even children can learn this, which is really great. So you’re breathing in for the count of four, you’re holding for the count of two, and you’re exhaling for the count of seven.
And that long, slow exhale is what is sending a message to the brain: I’m not about to be attacked by a lion, I don’t need you to set my body up for that.
And it’s incredible to be able to walk around in the world feeling like you have tools that make you be able to accomplish the things you want in life, to be the kind of parent you want to be, the kind of partner or friend, to be able to do all the things that you want to be able to accomplish in the world.
And HSPs like to be productive and we would like to be able to help others and, you know, being able to have tools or something that really help us be able to do that and to live in the modern chaotic living that life is is at right now. And especially over the last few years so many of us have experienced trauma and you know, incredibly stressful situations.
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Douglas Eby (M.A./Psychology) is author of the The Creative Mind series of sites which provide “Information and inspiration to help creative people thrive.”
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