Indigo Is the Empath’s New Black: Sport a Light Bubble to Maintain Your Vibe

“How can I protect myself from other people’s energies?” I’m often asked in sessions with Highly Sensitive People and empaths.

The answer is that you don’t need to protect yourself; energy is energy. It’s neither good nor bad, positive nor negative, light nor dark or heavy. Labeling it as such gives it power over you.

Energy vibrates at varying frequencies: the energy flowing through each of us can move more slowly or quickly depending on our beliefs, thoughts, and feelings. No particular frequency is right or wrong, better or worse. We each get to choose which to experience. (To read more about the vibration and frequency of emotions, read Be the Joy You Wish to See in the World.)

When you’re in the presence, though, of someone or a group of people whose energy vibrates much more slowly than yours, you may feel it—and yes, you may not enjoy the sensation. And that’s OK; it’s as normal as preferring a temperature of 75 degrees versus 95 Fahrenheit.

So step inside your own emotional-climate-controlled light bubble.

Harnessing the tremendous power of your mind, visualize an indigo-colored light bubble around you. Take your time and see it all around you, extending above and below and to your sides. Look out beyond it and notice that you’re perceiving the world as though through a colored lens. Notice your energy and the way that you feel and set the intention to maintain your vibe.

Make this as real for yourself as you can with all five of your senses and refresh it again later in the day, if necessary.

Take long, slow, deep breaths, imagining that each time you inhale you draw on qi, chi, or the Source of all life. You become bigger and brighter; each time you exhale you breathe that Source energy out into your environment. Feel that power and coming into and leaving your body; you are the conduit.

You are setting the energy temperature of the room rather than being a victim of it.

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In a future post, I’ll offer tools for how to deal with people who unknowingly try to suck energy from you rather than source it themselves.

— Allison Brunner, LCSW, Body Talks Therapy

A New Way to Love: Put Yourself First and Allow Others Their Journey

— Allison Brunner, LCSW, RM, Body Talks Therapy

Connect to the “Now”-Moment to Soothe Your Nervous System

What happens when you simply notice a sound or two as far away from you as possible? Or if you’re in a room filled with noise, connect instead to the sound inside of yourself. Try it now for just a few seconds. Then notice your breath, and deepen your inhale and exhale if you’d like.

Come home to yourself, to your body, in this moment. Allow everything to be as it is. There is no tomorrow, no yesterday; sit with “now.”

What just happened to your nervous system? Did you notice a shift?

Photo by Amber Johnston Photography

For the 15 to 20 percent of the population deemed Highly Sensitive People (or HSPs), some type of mindfulness practice (including the simple one I’ve just described) can increase the likelihood that our sensory processing sensitivity trait feels more like an asset than an annoyance.

HSPs are much more aware of our surroundings than our peers. We’re more easily stimulated and expend more energy processing what we perceive—thus increasing the release of stress hormones (including cortisol and adrenaline) into our bodies. While this can serve us in many ways, we also need to relax and recharge in order to maintain overall balance.

Another of our tendencies  is to wander off in thought, coloring with our rich imaginations all sorts of scenarios. On one hand, we’re more creative as a result and can foresee and address problems before they arise. On the other, we risk becoming anxious or paralyzed with inaction. It all depends on whether we’re able to return to center.

“With the act of breathing in mindfully, you go inside. Your body is breathing; and your body is your home. In each breath, you can come home to yourself.” —Thich Nhat Hanh

Among the services Body Talks Therapy offers to support your nervous system is Mid-Day Mindfulness, a 20-minute practice in which we can participate together, Tuesdays at 12:30pm, either in-person or online via Facebook Live (in the closed Body Talks Therapy: HSP Community group). If you’re busy at that time, you can watch the videos later.

Unlike formal sitting meditation, in this practice you’ll be guided on where to focus your attention (whether on physical sensations, body parts, watching your breath, connecting to your five senses, or witnessing thoughts and emotions). From time to time, I may also suggest we tune into images or consider ideas to address some of the psychospiritual or emotional issues we’re facing as a collective. (Watch or follow along with the video below for an example.)

You’re welcome in advance of each session to cue me in on a topic you’d like me to include in our sessions.

To join me in person at 237 N. Prince Street, Suite 303, RSVP here. Otherwise, I’ll sit with you all in cyberspace. 🙏🏻

—Allison Brunner, LCSW, Body Talks Therapy

Highly Sensitive Mystics’ New Moon Meetup Starts Next Week

“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul,” wrote Clarissa Pinkola Estés, poet, Jungian psychoanalyst, and author of Women Who Run With the Wolves, in her Letter to a Young Activist During Troubled Times. “Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.”

You, members of the Body Talks community, are beacons of light. Some of you have been seeking opportunities to join forces with like-minded folks to beam more brightly in what a few of you have described “a tough time to be highly sensitive.”

Join me to do just that, during the moon’s darkest phase of the cycle, at the Highly Sensitive Mystics first New Moon meetup, Friday, January 27, 7:15pm to 8:30pm. There are four spaces remaining for those who want to meet in person at 237 N. Prince St., Suite 303, Lancaster (above the Lancaster Trophy House). Ten additional, from San Francisco to Philadelphia, may participate live online.

photo by Amber Johnston

We’ll start the evening by introducing ourselves, then open sacred space in the manner taught to me by one of my teachers, a shaman and practitioner of the sacred energy medicine ways of the Q’ero and the Machi and the female shamans of the Chilean Mapuche. We’ll read poetry (bring your own or a song if you’d like), bless the Earth, and engage in meditation similar to Tonglen to benefit those special to us and to beings worldwide. We’ll hold space for each other and set intentions and burn them in fire, close the circle, and sample a little food and drink.

This will be a smaller, more intimate gathering. As our community grows, we’ll move into a larger space. Until then, please be sure to R.S.V.P. here whether you’re joining us in-person or via Google Hangouts; your payment of $5 reserves your spot. (If you’re a part of my Meetup.com group, I’ve already received your R.S.V.P.). You may also contact me to place you on a waiting list should one participant cancel in advance.

Reach out to me by Wednesday with any technical questions regarding Google Hangouts (make sure you have a Gmail address, and then meet us here a few minutes prior to the start of the event).

In the mean time, I leave you with more from Estés: “I urge you, ask you, gentle you, to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is — we were made for these times.”

That includes each one of you.

—Allison Brunner, LCSW, Body Talks Therapy