Episode 140: Learn to Trust Your Intuition and Tap Into Your Personal Power with Martina Barnes

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From Martina: "One of the biggest challenges of being an HSP is finding it hard to identify and listen to your inner GPS system, your intuitive guidance. These messages are overshadowed by your natural empathy and ability to feel what someone else feels. Additionally, society giving you false messages, telling you how you ‘should’ be. In order to truly understand and be able to stand in your strengths, you have to develop the courage to trust yourself."

Martina is an experienced licensed psychotherapist, coach and master intuitive for high-achievers who are introverts and/or HSP’s. She has over 30 years of experience in helping others transform their lives by learning to listen to their inner guidance, embrace their gifts and get comfortable with being seen. She helps clients achieve Reliable Personal Power in every area of their lives. www.thebraveintrovert.com


Transcript

Transcription by Kristin Cole [www.kristin-cole.com]

Julie: Welcome everyone to our live event in the Sensitive Empowerment Community. Today’s topic isLearn to Trust Your Intuition and Tap Into Your Personal Power’ with Martina Barnes. Martina understands the challenges of being highly sensitive as an HSP Master Intuitive, Empowerment Coach and Experienced Licensed Therapist. She finds great joy in helping high achieving achievers who are HSPs and introverts go from hiding to thriving. So welcome Martina!

Martina: Thank you Julie. Thank you for having me on today. I’m so excited to be here with the HSP community and just really honored and love this topic. 

Julie: Yes, I’m super excited to talk about it and I love that we’ve got the Sensitive Empowerment Community here live with us. Welcome everybody who’s joining us live. Martina, I love what you said - I’m going to read what you said when you were writing out your information because I really love it and I completely agree with you. “There’s no such thing as being too sensitive. It’s a myth.” And I agree with that. “Your sensitivity is both your beauty and power. It’s a matter of coming to terms with it, embracing it and learning how to thrive in the world shining your own unique light on your own terms.” I love that. Tell me more about that. Tell us more about that.

Martina: Yay. Well one thing I imagine the Highly Sensitive Community is used to as individuals is being told as a child by other people in the family and socially or with teachers that there’s something wrong with them because they’re too sensitive. And we should just let something roll off our backs - like a duck with water. And I would always say, “Well, I’m not a duck.” It’s not my choice. It’s not my choice to be this sensitive. I was born this way. 

It wasn’t until I was in my late 30’s, almost 40, when Elaine Aron’s book came out and I thought “Oh thank goodness I’m not the only person in this world with this trait because I really felt like a freak.” What I’ve come to understand over the years is that other people around us are often very uncomfortable with the fact that we can sense other peoples’ emotions, that we’re like lie detectors, that we can see into another person. That can make others uncomfortable and cause them to make insensitive comments like “You’re too sensitive” and so when we start to come to terms with our sensitivity and we truly develop self-compassion, then we get to show up in life on our own terms. Right? Shining our light.

Julie: And the light is so bright too! That dims our light to be told that there’s something wrong with us that we’re too sensitive and I think that message is huge to share with the world. Your sensitivity is beautiful actually and it’s just that we have to do things that support our sensitive nervous system because the world’s not set up for sensitivity. So changing that message “Nothing’s wrong with you” – I think that’s so beautiful. I love it. So lead us into today and why is this important to you? 

Martina: Well, I find that as the world keeps getting louder and louder with all of our electronics and multimedia avenues, that it becomes harder and harder to hear our own wisdom and to hear our own inner voice. Then if you put on top of that being highly sensitive and empathic, how do you even know “What am I feeling? Or what is Julie feeling? What is Shane feeling?” It’s very very confusing at first and I came from a medical family. There was no spirituality, there was no religion. If we had any religion, it was scientific method and so I had a very analytical mind but a very emotional heart. I learned in a way to pull away from my heart because everybody around me, they were stuck in their heads. 

When I turned 20, I think, is when I started having some profound intuitive experiences and I think because I came from a medical family and I have a really dense brain – I’m thickheaded I would say – is that the Universe really had to hit me over the head with a sledgehammer. One of the most beautiful events that happened that really saved my life and helped me understand that I wasn’t crazy is that my roommate my senior year in college - my roommate went to answer an ad to do house cleaning and she had a 2-year-old daughter named Alexis and Alexis kept coming up to my friend Diana, saying “Tina,” tapping her knee. “Tina.” And nobody called me Tina except people really close to me, my friends and family. And that little girl got me to the first place, The Berkeley Psychic Institute, where I learned how to calm down everybody else’s energies that I was picking up on. 

Because I had these series of events, I really became a believer in our answers lying within us and our answers coming from our heart. As you know in Western Society, we really think about mind over heart. What I love about Eastern Medicine, Chinese Medicine, is that the mind is supposed to rest in the heart. It’s supposed to serve the heart so the power that we have is in the heart and the mind working together. It’s a huge passion of mine to help highly sensitive people in particular learn how to regulate their nervous system and their emotional systems so that they can slow down and start to hear the heart. 

Julie: Wow, I love that you’re doing that kind of work. It’s so important. I’m just thinking about all the times so many of us have gotten messages that what we’re picking up on isn’t right. I know Catherine’s talking about that with medical professionals feeling dismissed or different experiences in our life where we feel we have a knowing and we were dismissed so early on that it’s like this incredibly magical gift that’s within us. It’s really that that light is going dim. The concept of being able to brighten that and encourage people to trust that and to listen to it. 

I had the same experience and I think you’re making some important points too about that need to balance the sensitive nervous system, the emotional experiences. Otherwise we’re in survival mode and it’s difficult to listen to those whispers that we talk about. I had to do the same thing. I was really amazed at how much intuition gave me answers to everything that I needed, really. It’s guided everything now. But I didn’t use to have that trust with it because I didn’t learn that until a little later. So I love that you’re doing this. 

Martina: Oh, thank you and thank you for all the beautiful words that you shared there. As long as I’ve been doing this, it surprises me sometimes when I ignore my intuition. I have a puppy that’s 14 weeks old and last Thursday afternoon I was walking her in from the yard and she had what looked like a brown clot, a big clot of dirt in her mouth. My intuition said “Take that out of her mouth, that’s dangerous” and I’m thinking, it’s just a clot of dirt. And I heard the voice again “Take that out, it’s dangerous.” I said ‘It’s fine.” I did an override on my intuition. It’s fine. I didn’t want to run late to an appointment. And don’t you know that sweet little baby had swallowed a poisonous mushroom and that involved the emergency room and the poison center and trying to identify the mushroom. I just stopped and I said “Ok, why did I ignore my intuition?” and it was something very simple. It was that I felt rushed so I wasn’t going take the time to check it a little bit further. 

One thing I’m thinking of also is when we’re given this message as children that is counter to how we feel or what our heart and intuition tells us, that’s when we really start to distrust our intuitive system, and then what happens if you are in a relationship with somebody, whether it’s a romantic relationship, parents, friends, siblings, and you’re lied to and then you question your intuition but what you’re seeing is correct. Because we are so often lied to - and everyone tells white lies - but some lies are very harmful and hurtful. And that’s one of the ways we actually get on our path is through this process of understanding “Oh wait a second, I was right. My intuition was right about that. My inner wisdom was right about that.” And then we go “Ok, I need to trust that more.” And that’s one of the ways - and there’s lots of different ways. Does that make sense?

Julie: Yes! I hope your puppy is doing ok now by the way. 

Martina: She’s great! Oh I forgot to finish the story, she’s doing great!

Julie: Good good. I have a puppy too so I understand that. But that’s a good example. There’s so many different areas. I’ve developed this thing where - and anyone who’s followed me knows I talk about my baths - but it’s the place I feel really soothed and calm in the water. It’s my go-to place to check in with my intuition, in fact. I’m slowing down, I’m meditating. It’s like I start to think about what my question is and I feel the feeling in my body. I feel it if I’m making a choice that doesn’t feel right. It feels icky and if I’m making the choice that feels right, it feels good. And if feels really clear to me now - and I definitely had to develop that. I think it’s so important for us to be talking about this and spending time together so that we are validating these experiences.

Martina: Oh, absolutely! There are many times in our life that are heart and our intuition may be telling us something different than a person in authority or position in power. And it’s so important to develop that trust in a way that it becomes very reliable. I believe that our biggest source of our power is within our heart. I think another reason that we ignore our intuition is because we get hijacked. We all have different parts on our ‘Spiritual Life Bus’ I call it - and if we get an intuition that another part of us doesn’t agree with or doesn’t want to be true, then that part can hijack us and then we’re bypassing or we’re ignoring that intuition. Does that make sense? 

Julie: Yes, it’s actually making me think about Shan’s question because I think it’s actually related to this and a lot of HSPs are going to relate to this question. “How do we stop ignoring our intuition due to a strong people pleasing habit?” because we’re actually ignoring our intuition to please other which definitely leads to an icky feeling. The more you’re paying attention to that feeling, it’s quite strong. What do you say about that? 

Martina: Oh I love this question! Thank you so much for asking this question because HSPs so often have people pleaser parts and the first thing we have to do is we have to build a relationship from our truest self to that part. We have to come in relationship to that people pleaser and most of us created these parts or these coping strategies when we were young, very unconsciously. As we get older, we may find “Uh oh, this people pleaser is causing some trouble. Maybe causing me to be burned out, to not have enough energy for self care.” 

What I like to suggest is start with something that’s not high stakes. So for example, if it’s your habit when your partner says “Where do you want to go eat tonight?” you’re like “Oh, I don’t care, you go ahead.” Then I say start to express your preferences because that’s probably not going to start a fight. It might if the partner’s not sincere about giving you a choice. But start with things that are not high stakes. Start to challenge that people pleaser so that the people pleaser can get out of the drivers seat and see that you’re taking care of things, nothing horrific has to happen because the people pleaser sits back and relaxes. 

Now, sometimes we are in relationships with people or circumstances where they really like us because we’re a people pleaser so that could change some relationships. It could stir the pot a little bit and it’s really worth it. It’s really worth it. 

Julie: I really like that you added that part ‘It’s really worth it.” It is, and it’s difficult. It’s so interesting Martina that you used that as an example because that’s where I started. I remember really trying because I was that people pleaser and it felt terrifying because I had not built my sense of self. I had not built that relationship with myself yet. I had not built that self-compassion. 

I remember being terrified, so much so that my body was physically shaking, to try to step out and say something that wasn’t about people pleasing. Like to be able to say “No I don’t want to go to that restaurant. I want to go to this restaurant” or whatever it is. My brain was interpreting that I was actually in danger and it was sending out alarm signals. And it took time to practice that. I just want to validate that, that it’s difficult to start to shift that but it’s definitely worth it because this is our core. If we’re ignoring our needs all the time, I can guarantee you are not happy and you are not fulfilled and your light is not bright. I can guarantee that because I lived that for a long time and I’ve seen a lot of HSPs do that. So I really love that you said that piece that “it is really worth it.” 

Martina: Yes, it takes a lot of courage and I cannot think of any circumstance across my life in which I chose courage and I was sorry for it. There was loss sometimes, sometimes there was grieving but it does require bravery and it requires as you said, getting those messages from the brain or the nervous system that's fight or flight like ‘danger danger danger’ we have to get comfortable with what’s uncomfortable so that we can find out if there is true danger here or not. And we want our danger system to work properly. 

Sometimes people ask me “What’s the difference between instinct and intuition?” I think that instincts tell us when there is danger, like don’t walk down that alley, or don’t speak to that man over there who’s trying to catch your attention, or what have you. It’s more on a survival level. But as we learn to get comfortable with what is uncomfortable, then we can start to drop into the heart. And in order to drop into the heart - I know you know this, Julie - we have to slow down. We have to slow down. That can be really scary for a lot of parts of us and it can feel especially hard if you’re a high-achiever. “I don’t want to slow down, I won’t get things done.” But what quality of life are you having if you’re driving yourself into the ground? 

Julie: Absolutely, and very true for a lot of sensitive people wanting to be really productive and go, go, go and our society teaches us that slowing down is somehow wrong or lazy. Yet it’s the most important thing for us as sensitive people to be able to do that. And to identify that if you’re somebody that hasn’t slowed down and you’ve just been go, go, go and you slow down and have a lot anxiety coming up because you slowed down - it’s great to work with a therapist, a healer to support that. It’s really just a lot of unprocessed stuff coming up that needs to be processed. 

Martina: That’s so true. I’m so glad you said that! I was thinking about how when I started to come into my body and be more embodied what I found was anxiety waiting for me and the feelings that were there were very intense. Sometimes I had panic attacks and I had a giant reservoir of unprocessed emotions and feelings and thoughts. So when you slow down, if it starts to feel scary, you can know you’re on the right track - and I absolutely agree with you, Julie - get support. Get support from a therapist or a healer so that you can help release that anxiety. 

There’s lot of things that you can do also at home to help yourself whether that’s journaling out all of those scary feelings or speaking with a friend who really knows you and loves you and doesn't judge you in any way. And find ways to relax. I love that you take baths. That’s one of my favorite things to do. I also love to meditate. Meditation isn’t for everybody. Some people are a little too physically ramped up to meditate in a traditional way but you can meditate walking, you can meditate in the garden, you can meditate with your eyes open to a candle. There’s so much that’s available to us today that we weren’t even aware of in the past. 

Julie: Absolutely. And we were talking before we started recording about the power of nature. To spend time in nature, I think that’s something we should be doing every day, especially those of us high on that sensitivity scale. It’s really crucial. A lot of people have nature deficits. 

Martina: Oh yes, oh yes. I was out on a long bike ride in the country with my partner George, and we stopped to take some water and have a break and I looked around and I’m in these very very lush mountains and for miles and miles and miles, there’s no city around us. I paused and I thought about the people living in San Francisco or Chicago or New York or New Jersey and the density of people. I just said a prayer of gratitude and I sent light out to those in the cities because their nervous systems are revved up all the time in a place of survival. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a city gal, I was raised in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and yet the mountains is where I came to to be able to slow down. Nature doesn’t ask anything from us. It just balances us when we get out there. 

Julie: Yeah, it’s powerful. So how did you start trusting your intuition and also use it in a way that helps your business?

Martina: Great question, thank you. So as I said, I was slow to trust my intuition. I would say that I had so many negative experiences from not trusting my intuition. I felt really lost and what happened for me is when I started to slow down through progressive muscle relaxation when I was 20, 21, then I was led into meditation and then through meditation, it’s when I really started to hear my voice. It was a very quiet voice compared to the other voices in my head and so I started looking for the subtle messages. 

I realized that our heart, our wisdom, spirit communicates to us in whispers and if there’s lots going in your head and you hear one quiet little voice, start to follow that quiet little voice because that quiet little voice may be the one that’s going to lead you to your answer. Then I started practicing using it for very mundane things. For example, I would use it in the grocery store to figure out which line’s going to move the fastest. Or, when I lived in the San Francisco area, I’d tune in – we didn’t have GPS and cell phones back then – so who knows which of the five highways should I take to get to my next appointment, right? So I would tune in and then I would start to pick up on “Oh, go this way” or “Oh, go that way.” I asked my intuition for everything. “What should I eat?” “How much sleep do I need?” “Should I take this job or not?” 

I started to just ask questions and was willing to listen even though certain parts of me or some parts of my mind didn’t want that as an answer. Again, I started taking lots of tiny little baby steps to open my heart. One of the most beautiful ways that we can open our heart is through one of the meditations through the HeartMath Institute - are you familiar with them Julie? They’ve done a lot of research on the heart having sensory neurons that pick up information that is different than our brain picks up. 

It’s a very simple meditation. Essentially you close your eyes and you go within and imagine that you’re breathing in and out from your heart center and then you think of someone you love like your little puppy or your partner or your child or a great memory from your mother or your grandmother and then, that’s opening your heart, getting you out of the analytical mind, opening you up to your heart. Then, you could start to ask questions from there. 

So, doing any kind of heart opening meditations and then when you feel the intuition and you think that somebody inside of you is hijacking you, stop and say “Hey, what part of me would be hesitant to follow this intuition?” I remember following my intuition once to break up with somebody because I knew he was having a relationship with somebody else for a year. I kept believing his lie because I loved him and I wanted things to work out. Finally I said “I’m making myself sick, I have to leave.” Eventually they told me that they had been lying to me. It took about nine months for them to fess up. My point is that I think not only do we need to open our heart and ask these questions, we also have to ask ourself the questions of “What parts of us might be blocking our wisdom and intuition?” because those parts don’t want to believe something is true. Does that make sense? 

Julie: Yes, I really like that you talk about that sometimes that voice can be really quiet at first. That’s an important distinction and I think even thinking about depending how we were raised, for example, perhaps being that people pleaser was part of how we survived our childhood. And to not be hard on ourselves about those things because that’s the experience of many of us. Instead of taking that energy and being hard on ourselves, let’s show some self-compassion because we can start to filter through some of this now, at this stage - no matter what age you are. You’re never too late to discover these things about yourself and it definitely is a process. 

I know for myself, I went through a process – I kind of called it a ‘filtering process’ – I’d filter through something and think “Is this mine or is the voice of one of my parents?” Or something like that to help me try to understand “Do I really feel this and believe this? Or was this taught to me? Am I picking up on somebody else’s stuff right now and going back into that people pleasing mode to try to smooth things out?” It’s sort of a process because I know I remember, it’s not like one day you do it all perfectly and now you’ve got it. You actually do go through a process. 

I can remember those moments of knowing I was going against my intuition and how awful I felt afterwards. Then, I would start to think “This just feels horrible. Do I want to keep feeling this way?” Getting a good support system around you is so huge. Part of why I think this community that we have is so important because we really normalize and validate our experiences so that we’re not alone. There’s a lot of strength in that when you’re talking to people that also have some of these same experiences. 

Martina: I agree, and I love that you talk about the filtering process. I believe all of us have to go through that filtering process and sometimes it’s a bit like process of elimination. As much as I’ve used my intuition, I still have experiences where I’m feeling something that isn’t mine and I have to ask that question “Is this mine or not?” so I love that you talked about that filtering process. Another way to ask the question about whatever your heart is telling you is “Is this true for me? Is this true for me?” because our truth does live in our heart and truth feels very light. Truth is light, right? Even the energy of it is light. It’s a wave and a particle. It’s light. When we go against our intuition, it feels heavy. It feels heavy, it doesn’t feel good. And what you were just saying Julie, as I’m reflecting back on my process of “Oh yeah, I got really got tired of not feeling good.” So I think we wrap back around to that piece of courage and being brave because your intuition, your truest self, your truest messages are not going to put you in danger. They’re going to lead you to where it is that you need to go. 

When I’m working with others as a coach – and I used to be a therapist, I did trauma recovery which taught me a lot about working with people sorting our their emotions and their nervous system and that type of thing – When I’m working with people now, it’s about that slowing down process, helping them track sensations in their body, helping them name emotions, helping them learn the great tools that are out there now for nervous system regulation. 

I also take the client through this journey of getting to know all their passengers on the bus so that they’re not getting hijacked. I think of it as going from this dingy beat up school bus that probably shouldn’t even be on the road anymore to something beautiful and grand like a rock n’ roll star would be traveling around in. It’s a beautiful process of discovery and sometimes we just need somebody who’s not inside our system who can hold a beautiful level of self and love and acceptance as we’re on our journey to loving and accepting ourselves. I think sensitive people seem to be even harder on themselves than the average person. We just have high standards.

Julie: That is very true. We have high standards of ourselves. That’s so true. I love so many things you just said. I wrote down some of them. This sense of “Is this true for me?” I really like that question to get practice with that. “Is this true for me?” and sitting in a quiet place while you’re asking yourself that. And that light. Truth does feel light. I totally agree with you on that. Also, to think about when we’re people pleasing and going against what feels right to us - going against that intuitive part – we are feeding anxiety and depression. Would you agree with that? 

Martina: Oh, absolutely! Thank you for pointing that out as well. We really do feed the anxiety if we’re going against our intuition because we know what the truth is. Our body knows what the truth is. As we go against that and keep our light hidden we can feel very disempowered and feel very disconnected from our heart. Then we’re often in a place of depression and we feel that more than ever, something is wrong with us. If it’s a clinical depression, we’re feeling guilt or low self-esteem or low confidence or what have you. 

When you start to challenge people around you by simply owning your truth, the anxieties and feelings of depression naturally fall away.  They just naturally begin to fall away because there’s no place within them for that. I just want your community to know that all the HSPs I’ve worked with over the years, I have not met anyone who hasn’t experienced anxiety from being highly sensitive or gone into a clinical depression. This is very very common. I also haven’t met anybody yet who hasn’t gone though a burnout professionally in some way if they’re a helper. So if you haven’t gone through a burnout, keep it that way! 

Julie: I agree with you. I often say that people with anxiety should be screened for this trait. Often it’s sensory overload that’s the issue. Then there’s that we have to get the balance just right because if we’re too isolating because we’re trying not to be overloaded, then we might get depressed because we’re not stimulated enough. So there’s a sense of trying to find that right balance. It’s very true what you’re saying and I completely agree with you.

Oh my goodness, this is such good stuff. What else is important to you today to share about this subject?

Martina: Well I just saw a message come up. I have a hard time multi-tasking but I think Tania maybe put that comment up that depression can also be chemical. I just want to validate that and say “Absolutely!” Again, of the HSPs I‘ve worked with over the decades, the majority of them have also had chemical imbalances. Whether that’s genetic (whether we’re born with that) or if it’s the life we’re leading, or both, I happen to think – this is my own theory that’s never been tested scientifically – is that because we’re highly sensitive and we pick up on so much and we’re experiencing multi realities and dimensions at once within any given environment, I think this puts a tremendous load on our neurotransmitters. My theory is that is just depletes our neurotransmitters and then it’s become chemical even if you didn’t inherit that genetically. I also have met many many people who self-medicate who are highly sensitive, who self-medicate through drugs or alcohol. Partly I think they’re trying to regulate and they don’t know how to be with their sensitivity. So I just wanted to validate you on that one, Tania. 

Julie: Yeah, I would love to see some research around this because I’ve seen and talked to many people who work in addiction that have stated that they think at least 90% of their clients struggling with addiction have this trait. I would agree with that. I think it’s something we need to look at - this sense of needing to numb the overwhelm, for example. If you’re being raised thinking there’s something’s wrong with you and you’re told that you’re too sensitive, if you’re a people pleaser, if you have all these pieces attached to it. 

We know based on the research too that one of the reasons this isn’t a disorder - this trait - because if children are raised with the right type of support, they actually thrive and have less anxiety and depression than the people without this trait. That’s a huge piece to understand and to have discussions about how we can support a whole brand new generation. Can you even imagine, Martina, a whole generation of sensitive children raised with the kinds of support that they need - what that could mean for the world? 

Martina: Honestly, honestly, I have so many stories from so many HPS’s and my own stories from childhood where we felt so different and even if we had loving parents, they didn’t know how to support us, they didn’t know the right ways to support us. I think this is way a lot of us grow up and conclude that “something is wrong with me.” If there’s one message I want people to take away from here is that there is nothing wrong with you! There were things wrong with your environment and there may be things wrong with your environment presently as well that need to change. 

In the 33 years that I’ve been in the helping profession – and I’m guessing this is the same for you, Julie – nobody once has sat across from me and gone “Martina, you are so annoying. You are too sensitive. You know, your sensitivity and your empathy, it’s just so annoying.” Nobody ever said that to me who was a client of mine. They were all just like “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” So I think it’s important if you can, have a friend who’s highly sensitive who understands. Make a friend in the community - this community - that’s highly sensitive. If you have a partner who isn’t highly sensitive – and most of us don’t have highly sensitive partners – if they’re not highly sensitive, educate them, help them understand what’s happening. 

It was lovely because I would say maybe six months into dating my partner George, I told him that - it was early one morning, it was 5am and I thought “I don’t need to have the dog on leash because it’s 5am, nobody else is awake.” Except for my next-door neighbor who has twins! And their dog is very aggressive and my dog’s out there and their dog comes running after my dog. There’s this big thing that happens between the dogs. My heart’s racing and I’m jangled and my day hasn’t even started! George said to me “What a very hard way for your nervous system to start its morning.” And I thought “Oh my God, I love this man!” That he could understand. He doesn’t have the high sensitivity but he could understand and I’m so grateful for that. 

Julie: That’s beautiful. Martina, why don’t you share how people can find you? 

Martina: So, you can find me at the Brave Introvert. Which also on the www.thebraveintrovert.com website, you’ll see a section in there for the highly sensitive person. If you would like to learn my take on setting boundaries as a highly sensitive person, then leave your email address and the automated Gods of the Internet will magically send you my ebook on boundaries. I just love to hear from people. If you want to shoot me an email through my website and say “hey,” I would love that. 

Julie: Wonderful. I would recommend people go check that out. Martina, you're a gift to this world and the work that you’re doing is so incredibly important. I know that you’re changing lives through the work that you’re doing and we just love having you part of the community too. Is there anything you would like to share? 

Martina: No. Is there anybody who wants to ask a question? We may be out of time but I’m happy. 

Julie: Oh we’ve got lots of thank you’s coming through. You’re beautiful Martina. Lots of thank you’s. Great name for a website. Lots of people saying it’s very helpful. And we’re going to post this in the community too. Martina’s in our community to answer any follow-up questions that might have been missed in the chat. We’ll also post the chat. Thank you Sensitive Empowerment Community for joining us live. You’re such a beautiful group of people. I love spending time with you. For anyone that wants to join our community, you can go to www.sensitiveconnection.com and come join us and check out how cool it is to be together and how awesome it is to be together. 

So Martina, thank you for sharing your gifts, your knowledge and your heart with us. We really appreciate that.

Martina: Oh, thank you Julie, and thank you for the beautiful work you’re doing and for creating this beautiful community for all of us. I so appreciate you.

Julie: Wonderful. Love you all! You take good care of your beautiful sensitive selves out there and know that you are valuable and you are important and we’re here for you. Take care everybody. Bye!


Julie Bjelland is a Psychotherapist specializing in high sensitivity, host of The HSP Podcast, and Founder of the Sensitive Empowerment Community, whose mission is to create a paradigm shift where sensitivity is embraced, valued, and honored. Julie offers multiple essential resources for educating, inspiring, and empowering HSPs. Register for her free Masterclasses, take the Sensitivity Quiz, and profoundly transform your life in her courses and community. Her HSPs in Business Group is designed to support and empower sensitive people to grow heart-centered businesses, share their voices, and be part of the change the world needs. JulieBjelland.com❤️🌈❤️ (she/her)


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