The Healthy Sensitive's Podcast

Imposter Syndrome: Why Are So Many of Us HSP’s Prone To It?

In today's episode, I'll talk about:

The Types of Imposter Syndrome:

1. The Perfectionist: This person sets extremely high standards for themselves and feels like any mistake is a sign of failure.

2. The Expert: This individual believes they need to know everything before taking on a task and fears being exposed for not knowing something.

3. The Soloist: This type prefers to work alone, as they believe seeking help would reveal their lack of ability.

4. The Natural Genius: This person believes that their success should come naturally, and any struggle or need for effort indicates incompetence.

5. The Superhero: This type feels the need to excel in every aspect of their life, often at the expense of their own well-being.

Why HSP's are Prone to It:

1. Heightened Self-Awareness: Highly sensitive individuals tend to be more introspective and self-aware. While this can be a valuable quality, it can also lead to overthinking and analyzing their actions, which might contribute to feelings of inadequacy and doubt.

2. Intense Emotions: HSIs often experience emotions more intensely than others. This heightened emotional state can lead to a stronger response to perceived failures or mistakes, magnifying the fear of being exposed as a fraud.

3. Perfectionism: Many highly sensitive people have a strong desire for things to be perfect due to their attention to detail and sensitivity to their environment. This perfectionism can set unrealistically high standards for themselves, making it difficult to accept anything less than flawless performance.

4. Comparison and Sensitivity to Feedback: HSIs may be more attuned to how they compare to others and may take feedback, especially constructive criticism, to heart. A negative comment or even a small mistake could trigger feelings of not measuring up.

5. Empathy and Empathetic Distress: Empathy is a common trait in highly sensitive individuals. They may easily pick up on others' emotions and might internalize negative feedback or perceive criticism more intensely, leading to self-doubt.

6. Fear of Rejection: Highly sensitive people often seek harmony and avoid conflict. The fear of disappointing others or not meeting expectations could contribute to impostor syndrome as they fear being rejected for not living up to their perceived roles or responsibilities.

7. External Validation: HSIs may rely more on external validation to feel secure in their abilities. If they don't receive the praise or recognition they seek, they might doubt their competence and feel like impostors.

8. Deep Reflection: Highly sensitive individuals tend to deeply reflect on their experiences and actions. While this introspection can be insightful, it can also lead to ruminating over perceived mistakes and inadequacies.

Boundaries - What Are They REALLY And How Do We Set Them?

In this episode, we talk about:

• What boundaries are
• Types of boundaries
• Why boundaries are important to highly sensitive people in particular
• Why they are important to our health
• How to build boundaries
• How to communicate our boundaries with others (without being a jerk)

Jules De Vitto - Transpersonal Coach for HSP

Jules De Vitto, MAEd, MSc is a Certified Transpersonal Coach and Educator based in London. She helps those who identify with the traits of high sensitivity  to navigate emotional overwhelm, step into their authentic power and align with their true purpose in life. In our conversation, we talk about: 

- Jules' journey  to becoming a transpersonal coach

- Whether HSP's are born (nature) or made by way of challenging experiences (nurture)

- The strengths inherent in HSP's

- Why it is particularly important for HSP's to engage in an inquiry that engages the spirit (in other words - to develop an inquiry  about meaning and purpose) 

 

The Right Amount of Risk

In today's episode, I discuss: 

• The current risks I am taking on
• How we define risk
• Intuition vs. Impulse
• Highly Sensitive People and Risk
• HSP's and an inverted pyramid of needs
• Culture and risk
• What is worth doing even if we fail?
• Being creative with how we build our lives
• Trickster vs. Martyr 
• How to create an ecosystem that supports a healthy response to risk/failure

If ever you want support, you can reach Leah at www.thehealthysensitive.com or you can email her at leah@thehealthysensitive.com 

HSP’s and Perfectionism (Breaking the Perfectionism-Adrenal Fatigue- Depression Triangle)

Perfectionism. It seems like something we should strive for. Right? No. Perfectionism is toxic. It decreases our creative potential. It demolishes our ability to connect with other people. It also (unfortunately) is really common amongst highly  sensitive people. In today's episode, we will discuss: 

- Definition of perfectionism 

- How perfectionism is different from health striving

- Tools for curbing and managing perfectionism which includes:

• Cultivating authenticity
• Identifying your "something larger" 
• Prioritizing pleasure
• Leveraging our relationships
• Creativity 
• Nourishment
• Growth
• Exercise
• Rest

Seven Mindful Questions - Interview with Lisa Nezneski

Lisa is a pharmacist as well as a certified mindfulness teacher. She has authored two books: “Grounded in Chaos - Leaning into adversity and learning joy” and 7 Mindful Questions: Stop wasting time. Redirect your mind. Focus on what matters.” 

In our conversation, we touch on a number of things. 

We talk about her personal and professional journey. 

We discuss the value of integrating tools from western modern medicine along with traditional modalities and mindfulness practices. 

We talk about the importance of living in alignment with our values. 

We, of course, spend a good deal of time covering her newest book: Seven mindful questions.   

And more...

Lisa has GENEROUSLY offered some complimentary resources for listeners of the Healthy Sensitive Podcast. You can find the link for that, below.

https://www.lisanezneski.com/bonus-meditations-for-the-healthy-sensitive-podcast

Bonus Meditations for the Healthy Sensitive Podcast

 

You can also find Lisa at her main website: www.lisanezneski.com 

 

Interview with Andy Mort on The Gentle Rebel

in today’s episode, I had the privilege of speaking with a long-time podcaster, musician, and coach who also works with highly sensitive people.

His name is Andy Mort. He has been a host of the podcast “The Gentle Rebel” for a number of years. He has a plethora of resources dedicated to highly sensitive people…and in particular…highly sensitive creatives.

You can download his podcast (again…the Gentle Rebel) anywhere you access your podcasts. You can also find him at his website www.andymort.com .

In our conversation, we covered a number of topics.

• We talked about the challenges and celebrations of entrepreneurship (especially for HSP entrepreneurs).
• We talked about the difference of work-life balance vs. work-life integration (or disintegration…more on that in the show).
• We talk about the delicate balance that comes with marketing in a way that produces results…but ALSO is in alignment with our values.
• Creating sustainable workflows when we are our own boss.
• Self-care for highly sensitive entrepreneurs
• And a number of other topics.

Interview with Megan Murk (A Leader in the Health Coaching Space)

Megan Murk is one of those individuals who is irritatingly good at just about whatever she tries. The worst part is that she is also incredibly likable. She is both knowledgeable and wise. She's confident and humble. It's part of why she continues to be an effective leader. She has taken that energy and applied it to helping mold the field of health and wellness coaching. Her hope is to help provide more legitimacy in the coaching space and help others who are interested in becoming coaches to have a reliable standard we can all follow. Where she excels, in particular, is in the emotional health and wellness space. In our discussion, we cover:

• What coaching is
• How coaching has evolved over time
• What the difference between coaching and therapy is
• How health coaches can effectively move in the emotional health space
• How coaches can go about getting certified by bodies that differentiate them.

Taking the Leap and Building Purposeful Work as an HSP

In this episode, I had the privilege of interviewing Andrea Shoun. Andrea is a health educator, author, and network marketing team leader. She is also...quite simply...a phenomenal person. Anyone who meets her walks away feeling better than when they arrived. Anyone who has the privilege of working with her (as I do in multiple capacities) finds themselves feeling like they aren't at work, but are in the sandbox building sand castles. But like...really pretty sand castles. Andrea will share with us how she has built a professional life that allows her to balance her creative cravings, her entrepreneurial side, and the part of her that appreciates stability and routine. She shows us that you can be a sensitive person AND have rewarding work (and that we actually NEED to in order to thrive). She walks her talks, and is willing to take risks (hence the title...taking the Leap). Enjoy!

Post Traumatic Growth

Plenty of people have heard about post traumatic stress disorder. But did you know that stress is not the only possible side-effect of adversity and trauma? It turns out that some (roughly 50 - 70 percent of people, in fact) go through trauma and walk away from it stronger than before. 

There are a couple of questions I had. First...do we have to experience trauma to gleam these benefits? Could we, for example, create a deliberate exercise to help us grow and increase our capacity even if we haven't endured a horrific event? Second - let's say I have endured a traumatic event...are there TOOLS I can use to optimize my chance of growing (rather than forever being a victim of the whims of my stress)? What are those tools? 

These are the elements I cover in today's podcast.