Highly sensitive people don’t heal by pushing harder, thinking more positively, or forcing themselves to “move on.” If you’ve done the therapy, gained the insight, and understand what happened — but your body still feels tense, on edge, or exhausted — this episode explains why.
In this episode, we talk about why traditional healing advice often fails highly sensitive people, what healing actually means for a sensitive nervous system, and how safety — not mindset — is the missing piece. You’ll learn why insight alone isn’t enough, how your body responds differently than your mind, and what real, sustainable healing looks like when you stop overriding yourself.
This episode is especially for you if you’ve ever thought, “I know better… so why do I still feel like this?”
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00:00):
Hello, queens. It's Christie. If you are a highly sensitive person like myself and you've done all the things, the therapy, the journaling, understanding, even that alone, we're good at that, aren't we? But your body still feels tense on edge. You get the visceral reactions and you get the mind spins, right? This episode is for you. Yay. So stay tuned here. Welcome to your Thursday Thrive In Five, your five minute pause from the chaos, the gaslighting, and that text you knew better than to reply to. Take a breath queen. This one's for you. But highly sensitive people, they don't get better by pushing harder. They heal by learning how to feel safe in their bodies, our bodies, because I'm one of them. And when this happens, and that's why I'm so into somatic healing, but when it happens from the body, that is when the transformations truly take place.
(01:09)
So welcome back to the podcast. If you are a follower of mine, I think I've told this story how I did acupuncture years ago. I'll tell it again, just in case. But I did acupunctures in my 20s. I am now 45, yes, as many, probably about 20 years ago, almost exactly. And I did it once. I was so excited to do it too. And I had a not great reaction.
(01:38)
I have been told since then I should have just stuck with it to move it through. But I was like, "Hell no." Because I got a fever and my mono resurfaced from the year before, who gets mono as a 20 ... Oh, I was 28 and then it came back at 29. So that's how old I was. So 28 to 29. So I was 29 and mono crept back into my life. That was just crazy. But I guess people say, "Oh, they went too fast or whatever." I don't know. I was like, "F that, never want to do it again." But I have heard so many amazing things and you know I'm such a big proponent of healing through the body and my body reacts so well. I do feel like some people are more in tune to body healing. I don't know if it's openness or, I don't know, physiology or what, but I know I react very well to yoga, to somatic healing, to breathwork, to all the energy body healings.
(02:41)
So it keeps flashing in me. You know you get nudges. So I've been getting the acupuncture nudge. Well, I got one months and months ago and I wrote to this local lady who has a good reputation and she was like, "Oh, I'm going to be out on leave, baby leave." So I was like, man, she was like, "Oh, this other person can do it. " And I was like, "Nope." Because when I get a nudge, I get specific nudges and it was toward her. I was like, "Nope, I don't want anyone else." So I just went la-da-da-da-da. And then the other day I got another nudge and was like, "Oh, I should see if she's back." And she's been back and there's also a sail and I was like, "Okay, God's going ding, ding-dong, get your needle on. " So needless to say, or needles to say, sorry, I had to, that was so bad.
(03:37)
I'm going to try acupuncture again tomorrow, pray for me. And for multiple things, there's so many things I could use it for. Just like nervous system regulation, but also my nerves will go to my stomach, so I can have very sensitive stomach, especially in high stress seasons of life. And I'm going through a remodel. So there we are. That's where we are with that one. And also TMI, but I'm an overshare. My monthly mayhem, I call it, my monthly period is pretty much torture. It's been for a very long time and we're going to give this a go and see if it helps because I can't take certain things or whatever. So I've heard it can help tremendously, so we're going to try it for a few things. And I have seasonal allergies and stuff. So if you have ever had acupuncture, I'd love you to come in the Facebook group and you can even message me in there or just post about it.
(04:42)
I'd love to hear your experience with it. All right. Now for the stuff that affects you in your life. Okay. So why does traditional healing advice fail oftentimes for highly sensitive people? First, most healing advice is very mind-based, right? Think positive, reframe the story, affirmations. Forgive. Move on. Understand your patterns. And here's the thing. Highly sensitive people are usually excellent at insight, right? You already understand what happened or you're learning it, right? A lot of times on the narcissistic podcasts and YouTube videos we're learning and light bulb clicks, you understand. You know why it affected you. You learned that. These are the first stages of after you've come through the other side of abuse and you might recognize the patterns. If understanding alone though, healed trauma, we'd all be done, right? We're like, "Oh yeah, okay, that makes sense. Now I can move on. " Wonderful.
(05:56)
Well, for especially, especially for ... I mean, it's hard enough with narcissistic situations, but especially for highly sensitive people, it doesn't usually work out that simply, right? So if you've ever thought, "Why do I still feel like this when I know better?" That is such a common thing that I have clients say to me weekly, I would say. There's one client at least a week that's like, "But I know better." Or like, "I know this in my mind, but why do I still feel it? " They're not syncing up. Nothing is wrong with you. You're not broken. Your nervous system just has not caught up to that insight, to what you know. You know it on a brain level, but your body is not there yet in catching up with that. So what does healing then actually mean for us highly sensitive people? It doesn't mean becoming numb or like bypassing or becoming detached or unaffected or drinking a whiskey.
(06:59)
Okay? I mean, you can, but it's not going to help. You're not here to get tougher or grow thicker skin. You may have people in your life in the past that have told you, "Oh, stop being so sunset of. Oh, tough it up." I got a lot to say about that. And you're not here to stop feeling deeply because it is a beautiful thing about you. So healing means this. You still heal, feel all these heels and feels you still feel, but your body no longer lives in defense mode. So you stop being overwhelmed with your own sensitivity, right? You're like learning to navigate that. You stop feeling hijacked by other people's emotions. I know you know about that life and you stop living on edge waiting for the next emotional hit.
(07:58)
Sensitivity is not the problem. Unsafety is that feeling of unsafe that can come with the sensitivity that arises, right? So what is the real block that not everybody talks about, except yours truly? Here's what I see all the time with my clients, highly sensitive women. You heal mentally long before you heal physically, right? So you might know you're safe, but you don't feel safe. You might have left the relationship, you're completely out, hopefully, but your body doesn't really embody that. It didn't get the memo clear in full yet, right? You've done therapy maybe, but you're still braced. You're still feeling the things that you're trying to get over or not feel or undo the damage, as some people say, right? Your shoulders can be tight, jaw clench, like I said, my stomach, so fun. And the nervous system as a whole is scanning for danger even in calm moments, even though you're out of maybe your daily mess that you were in.
(09:20)
I know we have to still deal with them, but often your body still is in this survival mode that it was in when it was actually in more danger and it's because your body doesn't respond to logic, it responds to safety. Until your nervous system feels safe, healing stays incomplete no matter how much insight you have, no matter how many affirmations ... And I'm a big proponent of all that stuff. I think together there's a beautiful toolbox of joy that can help us heal, right? But this somatic healing is so, so important for people like us. So how do we truly, truly heal regulation before reflection? So when the calm ... I can't talk. I didn't go to bed till like one in the morning last night, y'all. All right, let me try again. We calm the nervous system first, not after. Okay? Safety before processing.
(10:30)
So no deep emotional work while your body is feeling threatened. So that's why when I do my work with clients, you'll often hear me ask, "Where are we at today?" One client this week, I was like, "I don't think we're going to be doing the somatic work today. Let's just do some coaching." Maybe at the end we'll have a wind down, nice luxury moment, but we're not going to do that deeper work right now because of where she was mentally. So it's my job to judge that and I'm trauma informed, so I get to evaluate before proceeding with the work. So sometimes we'll talk more, sometimes we'll do more somatic healing, little mix of both. So that's really important in the process. And then gentle consistency over intensity. So either small daily practices, which are very small. I actually, one of my clients this week asked, "So should I be doing like this at home?" And I was like, "No." You can be doing little small meditations, you can do some breath work, but the somatic healing at this stage when you're first working with me, you're not able to evaluate in the way I am.
(11:56)
And it's good to have a third party there on the outside, especially when you are in those earlier phases where you're more raw. So definitely consistency, like in between sessions, gentle consistency. Not intense, not let's do this. I want to do it three times myself this week. No, ma'am, that's not going to end well. Okay? You have to be safe and permission to slow down. Healing actually accelerates when the pressure is removed. When you don't feel like, "Oh my God, I got to do this. I got to get through this. This is going too slow." I have a lot of clients coming to me. It's like, "It's so slow." And part of that is because you're putting a pressure on yourself for it to go fast. When you release that pressure, you find it will organically go faster. Oh, amazing. And you're not behind, right?
(12:52)
You're not doing it wrong and your pace is not the problem. Forcing yourself is that can actually hinder it. So we've talked about orienting. We'll do this little simple somatic practice, something you can do right now, simple, not too deep, just to have a little centering, right? If it feels okay, gently just look around the room you're in and let your eyes land on three things that feel neutral or pleasant. So I'm going to do mine. My eyes always go to the damn flamingo and I'm going to look. I see leopard print. I love leopard print and my daughter's cowboy hat that makes me laugh. So that's an example. You look at three things, no analyzing, no fixing, just noticing.
(14:00)
And as you do that, let your breath slow naturally. This is called orienting and it's very simple, right? And what it tells your nervous system is, I'm here, I'm safe, the danger is passed. So if you are in a spin out mode, this is a great thing to try to pull yourself out. I like to do this, to do this, to initiate just becoming present. And then I like to get up, get my shoes on, walk out of the house. And just even if I'm walking around just the cul-de-sac or if I can take a longer walk, getting out in nature, removing yourself, right? When you're stuck in a cycle, it's become present.
(14:55)
Do a little curtsy little, a little twirl, whatever makes you feel happy inside. But even just doing the orienting practice where you are, if you got to get back to work or something, if you work from home and you're having a moment, orient, find the three things. Don't think too hard. You're just kind of observing. Take some breaths and get back to what you need to do. So for highly sensitive people, healing happens when your body believes that message, right? The danger's passed. I'm safe. So it's almost like we're proving it by slowing things down, by looking at items, and you're looking around, right? That's part of the orienting is looking at your surroundings. It's showing there's nothing unsafe here. You can look every angle. You can whip that head around, girl. Check it out. Nothing dangerous.
(15:58)
Unless, unless you don't like leopard print, right? So your mind gets to see it. There's some proof. There's some present proof. Now, healing without overwhelm. So here's something you do need to hear. You do not have to relive everything to heal it. That is something some people, I don't want to say will go against, but some people really want to dig to every little nook and cranny. You don't have to do that to heal it. And this is proven within somatic healing. You don't have to reopen every wound. You don't have to push yourself past your capacity. It's not a race to heal.
(16:53)
And we heal better with softness, not force. So you're allowed to choose ease. It might be uncomfortable, you're not used to it. Get comfy with it. Choosing gentleness and you don't have to prove how strong you are or how far you've come. Those milestones will come, but don't force them. Okay? So healing doesn't make you less sensitive. It makes your sensitivity feel like a gift instead of a burden. Again, you are not broken, you were never broken. Your nervous system adapted brilliantly to what you live through. And now you get to teach it that life doesn't have to hurt anymore, that you are safe.
(17:48)
Okay? So if you want support, learning how to heal without overriding yourself, check the show notes for the next steps, whether it's the Boundaries Pocket Guide or working with me one-on-one. I have three different programs you can choose from and they are transformative, amazing, like I said, somatic and coaching together. And it's just my favorite thing in the world. So of course, I'm going to brag about it and tell you to sign up, woman. All right. So if this episode resonated, you're not alone. There's a bunch of us out there and join my Facebook community again so we can have some chatsies in there and yeah, try to engage in there, talk to each other. Feel free to make posts in there or post quotes. I love a good quote. Put a quote up there. I will approve it. And don't forget to follow my podcast if you're not following it.
(18:48)
So you get every single stinking podcast episode. Guys, this is not a one and done. This is ongoing, amazing work. This healing is actually ... There's just so much good in this type of somatic healing and these episodes. I give a lot of information on purpose. I know maybe not everyone can do one-on-one work, right? So following these really, really will help you. Every episode has something juicy to take home. Okay? So I will see you in the next one. Love you. Bye.
