[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 This is Lisa Lewis, your host. It’s so good to have you here tuning in and listening today. I want to remind all of you 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. If you have checked out my email course, please forward it to a friend or family member or another HSP. Please get the word out about how we can all help each other. Thank you. I appreciate that. Now we are in a new month already. May is here and with the restrictions of COVID now lifted, we are looking forward to things in the coming month. May brings the anticipation of summer, lots of milestones with graduations, transitions to new schools, celebrations, and with all of these activities, a highly sensitive person just being out in public again around large crowds can feel overwhelming, overstimulating and exhausting. With these activities, HSPs can easily focus on other people’s needs because of their empathy and overlook and not tend to their own needs and so their needs may go unmet. So what if you were to do something new and different for yourself? What if you were to learn a new self-care tool that will allow your needs to get met? How does that sound? Unusual, enticing, scary? Not to worry. I’m going to guide you through a visualization to validate your needs. So find a place where you can relax, where you won’t be disturbed and you’re not in a hurry and silence all your electronic devices. Please do not do this while you’re driving. You can come back to this podcast episode as many times as you want to help you guide you through this visualization. Sit back in your chair, relax, keeping your spine elongated, not collapsed. Some people like to lean back in a chair. Other people like to sit forward on the chair. Do what’s comfortable for you and just allow the chair to hold your body. You don’t have to hold yourself up and allow your legs, your bottom, just to relax into the chair, your feet on the floor and notice your breath. Where is your breath landing in your body? Is it in your throat, your chest, your belly, not changing a thing, just noticing. If you like to close your eyes, please go ahead. If you just want to have a soft gaze, not focusing on one thing, but just allowing your eyes to rest and bringing your awareness to your feet, the bottoms of your feet, and allow your feet to ground down to the center of the earth, where the hot molten lava lives. Take your time. Some people like to think of tree roots growing out the bottoms of their feet, that connect all the way to the center of the earth. Some people like to use the visualization of an anchor, like a rope attached to an anchor, looks like anchor of a ship that reaches to the sandy bottom of the ocean floor. Think of your anchor, just sinking down to the center of the earth and as it reaches to the center of the earth, allowing your tree roots, just your feet, your energy feet, just allow them to expand as much as they want, allowing the earth to breathe you and notice that mother earth wants to nourish you and support you. Relax into that love with each breath, going a little bit. So just relaxing into that great mother earth love with each breath going deeper and deeper. If thoughts come up, just notice them, not attaching to them. Just like bubbles that come up from the ocean floor, they come to the surface and then they pop and dissipate just allowing any thoughts bubble up to the surface and pop and dissipate. Allow the color of red energy of the earth to flow up into you and fill you and support you, filling your whole body. So again, allowing the color of red earth energy to flow up into you and fill you up, support you, your whole body. Allow your body to drink and absorb as much red energy as you want just as if you’re like a sponge. Take in as much as you want, soak it up. There is enough that will never run out. If thoughts are coming up about wanting to reflect or repel the red energy, what if for this moment right now, you allowed yourself to absorb this red energy? There is no right or wrong amount. There is enough. You are enough. Mother earth is here to support you and nourish you. She loves to do this. Say to yourself, I am enough. My needs are valid. It’s okay to ask, I am filled. I’m going to say this again because it’s so important. Say to yourself, I am enough. My needs are valid. It’s okay to ask, I am filled. So taking as much time as you want, notice any sensations coming up in your body, pleasant ones, unpleasant ones, not having to do a thing about it. Just being aware, being curious, as you continue to soak up the red earth energy from mother earth, allowing her to fill you up, allowing your needs to be met. When you are ready and on your own slowly disconnect the flow of energy you are receiving from great mother, knowing that you can go back at time and she is there for you at any time. Bring your awareness back into the room, wiggling your fingers and your toes, taking a deep inhale and exhale. Stretch your arms, overhead out to the side and just very slowly and gently just opening and closing your eyes until you feel present again. Thank you for taking the time to go inward, to ground, to receive you are worth it. Your needs are important. I recommend doing this at least once a day, in the morning when you wake up in the middle of the day at night before you go to bed, it’s a great way to start your day. It’s a great way to end your day. It’s not so much about the amount of time, but it’s the quality of time. Even if you did this for five minutes, a day is better. Five minutes a day, then an hour once a week. So please use this visualization to get your needs met. Your needs are important. Thank you again for tuning in today. Please let me know what you thought of the episode. Send me an email to lisaamiokpodcast.com. Remember to subscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. To find out more about highly sensitive persons, please visit my website at amiokpodcast.com. While you’re there, 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.