Do you feel overwhelmed at work? Are you taking care of your high sensitivity needs in the office space? How do you honor your high sensitivity in business?
In this podcast episode, Lisa Lewis explains how you can know if you are a highly sensitive business owner.
IN THIS PODCAST:
- Ask yourself these questions to discern your sensitivity
- The sensitivity trait
- How to honor your high sensitivity in business
Ask yourself these questions to discern your sensitivity
1 – Do you feel the leftover energy from your clients in your therapy room and find yourself wanting to do something about it after a session?
2 – Do you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders and that you have to do something about it?
3 – Can you walk into a room and know exactly what just happened: whether it was an argument, a serious talk, or some conflict?
4 – Do you need time alone to recharge?
5 – Do you feel your life purpose is to do something creative, innovative, and make the world a better place?
6 – Are you sensitive to noises, smells, touch, and tastes?
7 – Are you sensitive to other people’s feelings?
8 – Are you sensitive to people looking or thinking about you?
9 – Are you sensitive to people being disrespected or other people being disrespectful towards you?
10 – Do you feel you have to hide your sensitivities from others?
If you answered “yes” to any of these 10 questions, then it is likely that you are a highly sensitive business owner and a highly sensitive person.
Lisa Lewis
The sensitivity trait
Being highly sensitive is normal and a natural trait within the world.
HSPs, for short, [make up] about 20% of the population and it is a natural feature. It is something that we are born with and it is inherited. An HSPs brain is wired differently to most where they pick up subtleties in the world and their environment.
Lisa Lewis
Highly sensitive people are deep thinkers, they care deeply, and notice small details. The high sensitivity trait is not a mental health issue. It is normal and is an important feature for human survival.
How to honor your high sensitivity in business
- Notice and thank your high sensitivity trait when it comes up and flags something important to you.
- Use your self-care methods and tools to keep yourself regulated and well-functioning so that you can take care of yourself and your business by making choices from a calmer and more regulated space.
- Put the information out to colleagues and put clauses into the job description so that you can feel comfortable while you work.
- Provide information about your high sensitivity needs to your fellow employees and your boss.
The more we recognize what type of business owner we are, the more successful we will feel about ourselves and the service that we are providing to others in the world.
Lisa Lewis
RESOURCES MENTIONED AND USEFUL LINKS
Honoring Your Perfectionism as a Highly Sensitive Person | Ep 40
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CONNECT WITH ME
Email me: lisa@amiokpodcast.com
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ABOUT THE AM I OK? PODCAST
So you’ve been told that you’re “too sensitive” and perhaps you replay situations in your head. Wondering if you said something wrong? You’re like a sponge, taking in every word, reading all situations. Internalizing different energies, but you’re not sure what to do with all of this information. You’re also not the only one asking yourself, “am I ok?” Lisa Lewis is here to tell you, “It’s totally ok to feel this way.”
Join Lisa, a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, as she hosts her, Am I Ok? Podcast. With over 20 years of education, training, and life experience, she specializes in helping individuals with issues related to being an empath and a highly sensitive person.
Society, and possibly your own experiences, may have turned your thinking of yourself as being a highly sensitive person into something negative. Yet, in reality, it is something that you can – and should – take ownership of. It’s the sixth sense to fully embrace, which you can harness to make positive changes in your life and in the lives of others.
This may all sound somewhat abstract, but on the Am I Ok? Podcast, Lisa shares practical tips and advice you can easily apply to your own life. Lisa has worked with adults from various backgrounds and different kinds of empaths, and she’s excited to help you better connect with yourself. Are you ready to start your journey?
[LISA LEWIS] The Am I Ok? Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Faith Fringes, the Holistic Counseling Podcast, and Beta Male Revolution, go to the website, www.practiceofthepractice.com/network. Welcome to the Am I Ok? Podcast, where you will discover that being highly sensitive is something to embrace and it’s actually a gift you bring to the world. We will learn together how to take ownership of your high sensitivity, so you can make positive changes in your life, in the lives of others, and it’s totally okay to feel this way. I’m your host, Lisa Lewis. I’m so glad you’re here for the journey. Welcome to today’s episode of the Am I Ok? Podcast. I’m your host, Lisa Lewis. Thank you so much for tuning in. I would like to remind my listeners that I offer a free eight-week email course titled Highly Sensitive People. My email course provides weekly tools that help you feel more whole in a world isn’t exactly made for us and I show you how your sensitivity can be seen as a unique gift and how many others are just like you. To find out more about my email course, please go to my website, amiokpodcast.com. The month of March, I am focusing on spring and new awakenings to new opportunities. And in order to have new opportunities, we need to do some spring cleaning. We can spring clean our homes, our minds, our offices. What about spring cleaning your business? So in the quest of spring cleaning for the month of March, let’s take a look at how do I know if I’m a highly sensitive business owner. I’ve known that I’m a highly sensitive person for the last 15 years. I specialize in working with highly sensitive people in my private practice as a licensed marriage and family therapist and licensed professional clinical counselor. Within the past year, it has come to my understanding of my myself and an understanding of myself as a sole proprietor in my business that I’m also a highly sensitive business owner. So how do I know if I’m a highly sensitive business owner? Ask yourself these questions. First question, do you feel the energy of your clients in your therapy room and need to do something about it right after your client leaves? This can be online or in person. Second question, do you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders most of the time and feel you have to do something about it? Question three, can you walk into a room and know exactly what just happened whether it be an argument, a joke, a serious conversation? Question four, do you need time alone to recharge? Question five, do you feel like your life purpose is to do something creative, innovative, make the world a better place? Question six. Are you sensitive to light, smells, noises, touch and or taste? Question seven, are you sensitive to other people’s feelings? Question eight, are you sensitive to people looking or thinking about you? Question nine, are you sensitive to others being disrespected or disrespectful toward you? Question 10, do you feel you have to hide your sensitivities from others? If you answered yes to any of these 10 question, then most likely you are a highly sensitive business owner and a highly sensitive person or what is known as sensory processing sensitivity. HSPs, for short is in about 20% of the population and it’s a natural feature. It’s something that we are born with and it’s inherited. An HSP’s brain is wired a little differently than most where they pick up on more subtleties in the world and in their environment like depth of processing and emotional regulation. HSPs are deep thinkers, feel deeply and care deeply. It is not a mental health disorder. In fact, the trait is normal. There are many more attributes that define a highly sensitive business owner. These are only a few highlighted traits. I made a realization that I’m a highly sensitive business owner in the last year when I decided to sublease my office to another therapist to cut down on my rent. I use the same therapy technique on myself as I do with my clients when I want to figure out something about myself. I became the fly on the wall and watched myself nonjudgmentally like I’m watching my own movie about myself. When I began to watch myself, I saw myself become highly sensitive to having another therapist use my physical office space. Having another therapist use the items in my office space, like the chair, my couch, my table, the cushions on the couch and the effects of the energy dynamics that will be created in my office space. Just being highly sensitive, just like when you walk into a room, even if it’s empty, it’s going, “Oh, what happened in here? I can feel the energy. Maybe it was an argument or it feels really good.” You can pick up on that. So I was worried about having someone use my space and then having the effects of that. So I would need to do some clearing or saging of the room. Highly sensitive people along with people who are intuitive, empathetic, perfectionists, have a high sensitivity to personal items and types of emotional and mental energy as well as sensitivity to physical space. This is due to the fact that they pick up and take on others’ emotions and feelings. They are perceptive at reading a room by as simply as walking into a room and knowing whether or not there was an argument, laughter or silence like I said before. Dr. Elaine Aaron, who is an expert on the highly sensitive person, summarizes the traits of high sensitivity as depth of processing, over stimulation, emotional responsivity, or empathy and sensitivity to subtleties. It’s the Ackerman does. Now the other therapist that I’m talking about, she is a lovely person, and it’s not about that person. It’s about how to take care of my high sensitivity as a highly sensitive business owner. I don’t want my high sensitivity to make insensible decisions, like not wanting to share my office space because I feel uncomfortable with another person using my space to get in the way of making sensible business decisions. Share my office space to lower my business expenses. That’s a really good sensible decision. So how do I get out of this bind of honoring my high sensitivity and honoring my decision to make and want good business choices. First, I have to honor my high sensitivity, then use my self-care tools to take care of myself and my business. And I do that by making sure I put in the sub lease agreement, everything I need to help me feel comfortable with another person subletting my office. It’s as simple as putting a clause in the agreement for the other therapist to bring their own pillows for the, couch cleanse the office space energetically by saying a cleansing ritual, burning Sage or using a cleansing room spray. Next I sublease for a short period of time, like three to four months to start as a trial to see if I will like it or not. Then provide education to the subleaser about my high sensitivity needs in a professional manner, just letting them know that I’m sensitive to things and I want my things to be taken care of and put back in the same place that they found them. And the more that we can recognize what type of business owner we are, the more successful we will feel about ourselves and the service that we are providing to others and the world. Wow, doesn’t that sound really good? I feel good just saying it and it feels really good inside to say it because I want to be able to feel good in my space and when I share it with my space with another professional. And I want the people that come into my space to feel good as well. Thank you for tuning in today. Please let me know what you thought of the episode. Send me an email to lisa@amiokpodcast.com. Remember to subscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcast. To find out more about highly sensitive persons, please visit my website at www.amiokpodcast.com and subscribe to my free eight week email course to help you navigate your own sensitivities and to show you that it’s okay not to take on everyone else’s problems. This is Lisa Lewis reminding each and every one of you that you are okay. Until next time be well. Thank you for listening today at Am I Ok? Podcast. If you are loving the show, please rate, review and subscribe to it on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you’d like to learn how to manage situations as a highly sensitive person, discover your unique gift as a highly sensitive person, and learn how to be comfortable in your own skin, I offer a free eight-week email course called Highly Sensitive People. Just go to amiokpodcast.com to sign up. In addition, I love hearing from my listeners, drop me an email to let me know what is on your mind. You can reach me at lisa@amiokpodcast.com. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want to professional, you should find one.