Speaker 1 (00:00:00) - Hello and welcome to your yes filled life. If this is your first time here. I'm so excited you're listening. Thank you for listening. And if you have been listening for a while, thank you. Thank you for listening. You're being along with me on this journey means so much to me, so I'm still in my full time travel journey. I'm currently recording this episode from Boise, Idaho, which was home for me for 17 years from 2004 to 2021. So it really does feel like home, and I'm really enjoying my time here, and I can't wait to connect with those of you that are local to Boise, so be sure you reach out. So today's episode is going to share with you the signs that you might actually be an empath. And I'm going to share with you a framework called the Power Framework that I developed especially for empaths. In order for empaths to have the skills and the knowledge to turn being an empath into a superpower. And here's why you might want to. If you are highly empathic and compassionate and you take on things from other people, it may have led you into a career or a hobby or relationships where you get to exercise those skills.
Speaker 1 (00:01:17) - So that might mean that you are in health care or in education, or perhaps you're in the mental health space. Maybe you're a coach or a healer, or maybe you're just a highly compassionate, empathic person and you use that to create your art, whether that's writing or dancing, or anything like that, where there's expression involved. So I'm going to dive into what the signs you might be an empath are. I'm going to share with you the power framework. And I'm also going to provide you with some science behind all of this. So in case your structured mind is a little bit like but Brenda, is this real, you can be assured that it is. So the first thing I'd love for you just to come to this episode with is a beginner's mind. and open mind. So when we think about empaths, we sometimes group being an empath in the same category as being an intuitive. And that is not inaccurate. In fact, there's a very high correlation between your intuition and being an empath.
Speaker 1 (00:02:26) - The other thing that we sometimes group being an empath with is being highly sensitive. Now let's talk about being highly sensitive for just a minute, and I'm going to give you some more research on that too. But first, if you ever do a quick Google research on empaths, your first few Google hits will say there's no scientific evidence to suggest that being an empath is real, but that's just not accurate. Popular science, popular magazines, popular TV news haven't really latched on to the science that is there, and I'll share more about what that is in a second. But I can tell you from firsthand experience, from working with hundreds of people, from my own life experience, that being an empath is, in fact, very, very real. So before we dive into what it is to be an empath, let's unpack what it might be to be highly sensitive. And it's really important for us to make a distinguish a extinguishment that a word I guess it's a word today. to distinguish being highly sensitive from any kind of sensory processing disorder.
Speaker 1 (00:03:34) - Those are not the same things a sensory processing disorder would be when your brain does not accurately receive the signals from any of the senses. And there are different ways that this can manifest, and in most cases it revolves special or in. In most cases, a sensory processing disorder would involve other accommodations to allow the person with a sensory processing disorder to process the information that's coming in from the senses. This is not what we're talking about when we're talking about being highly sensitive. There was a research study in 1996 by a researcher named named Erin a r o n. And what this research found was up to one fifth of the population is thought to be highly sensitive. So what this means is that a highly sensitive person would tend to notice more subtle things in relationships, in personal interactions, in their environment, and they can get into a state of arousal, meaning a little bit of activation in an anxiety or stress induced way. Also, this research found that some highly sensitive people have a lower threshold to other stimuli.
Speaker 1 (00:04:59) - So if you have ever watched TV and by the end of the night, it seemed like the volume of the television creeped up and was louder, even though nothing had changed. That could be an indication that you might actually have some highly sensitive tendencies if you are very impacted by your environment, whether it's looking tidy and cleaned up or clutter, that could be an indicator that you are highly sensitive. If you have ever felt overwhelmed by emotions in big groups, that could be an indicator that you're highly sensitive. But it's really important. It's so important. I'm going to say this again when we're talking about highly sensitive characteristics. We're not talking about a sensory processing disorder or a disorder of any kind. So additional research, more recent research in 2006 by a group of researchers, and I probably am going to mispronounce this name, but Smolinski McCabe and would be in 2006, found that HSP or highly sensitive people were accounted for by three factors one being they have aesthetic sensitivity, meaning that you are very, very aware of your surroundings and that having beautiful spaces and surroundings that seem peaceful and and are aesthetically pleasing is really, really important to your being able to feel a sense of well-being.
Speaker 1 (00:06:25) - That was one factor. The second factor was a low sensory threshold, in other words, it didn't take much to overstimulate that person. Whether we're talking about sound or light, light can be a big one, or maybe even fabrics like a scratchy fabric might just send a highly sensitive person through the roof. For example, a tag in the back of a shirt of a highly sensitive person is going to drive them to distraction. And then the third factor that they found with highly sensitive people is that there can be an ease of excitation. What that means, in layman's terms, is you can get overwhelmed by internal or external demands. And the reason that this happens is because of the the additional neurotransmitters and neuro receptors in the brains. So you actually have more ways that you are receiving sensory input. If you are a highly sensitive person, why are we talking about highly sensitive people when we're talking about empaths? Well, because an additional study in 1997 by Aaron and Aaron revealed that there is a subgroup of highly sensitive people that have additional neurons, neuro receptors, neurotransmitters in their brains that lead them to have a deeper awareness of the emotions and the energetic states of people around them.
Speaker 1 (00:07:51) - So it's really, really interesting because this research study said that one of the coping mechanisms of this subgroup of highly sensitive people, the empaths, can be, Are you ready? Can be social withdrawal. And it has nothing to do with being an introvert or an extrovert. It just meant that sometimes a very a very empathic person, an empath, which is again a subset of highly sensitive people, could need to withdraw from people or isolate in order to avoid a sense of overwhelm. So it might look from the outside like you are an introvert, but maybe you're not. It's possible you are an introvert. There's actually no study that I'm aware of that's actually researched. Whether or not you're an introvert or an extrovert being highly either highly sensitive or an empath. But the research says it looks like you might be an introvert if you have some of these characteristics. I personally am an extrovert and I am highly sensitive and I am an empath. And there are times when I have been prone to social withdrawal just because of the the overwhelm.
Speaker 1 (00:09:05) - So that seems very, very true to me. Now here's something really interesting that in different research study in 2008 by Charles at all, they revealed that the negative emotionality and physical disease that can be present in this group of highly sensitive people can objectively measure disease like coronary heart disease or ulcers. And there can be, an increase in subjective somatic health complaints, for example, headaches, neck and shoulder or lower back pain. And they can't find the cause except for this ability, this highly sensitive ability. So it's pretty interesting when we start digging into the science, because it truly is there that we just we're not calling it this in pop culture. And I can quote lots and lots of more research, but the question that you probably are dying to know is, how does this affect you really? And what are the signs that you might be an empath? So I have identified six signs that you might be an empath. I'm going to run through them quickly and then I'm going to give you some examples.
Speaker 1 (00:10:26) - So number one mirroring or subconscious empathy. This is where you aren't aware that you're taking on emotional feelings, states or preferences of other people. You aren't aware that you're doing it, but you're doing it. So this happens for the empath. Wait, I was I told you I was going to dive into these in just a minute. So let me run. Let me run through these six signs that you're an empath. And then we're going to dig into each of them. And then I'll share the power framework with you. So the six signs you might be an empath are mirroring and subconscious empathy. Number two, exhaustion after certain situations or certain people are around. Number three feeling strong emotions that disappear as soon as you have some space from a person or situation. Number four physical symptoms. Physical symptoms that appear and disappear suddenly when you move in and out of spaces with people, or when people come in and out of your space. Those physical symptoms either come on very suddenly or leave very suddenly. Number five unexplained illness.
Speaker 1 (00:11:41) - I call this the somatic load. We'll talk more about that in a second. And number six, poor decisions that make you wonder. What was I thinking? Okay, so let's dive into each of these. And then I'm going to share the power framework with you that I developed especially for empaths. And it's a framework that I'm teaching at my Energetic Mastery Retreat in Beaverton, Oregon, September 24th through the 28th. And I can't wait to teach this framework because it is absolutely game changing for people. So let's dive into number one mirroring or subconscious empathy. The tricky part about this is that when you have this, you may not know it. This happens in a number of different ways. So it can happen in relationships. So if you have ever made a new friend or been out on a date or, you know, being trying to kindle a new romantic partnership, and when you're with the person, you feel completely lit up, you feel excited to be around them. You feel like, oh my gosh, this is just so good.
Speaker 1 (00:12:49) - And then you get in the car to go home and you're like, wait, I felt like I was having a really good time, but I'm not sure I actually like that person. If that's ever happened to you, you may have been, having subconscious empathy or mirroring. In other words, you're mirroring back to them. They're feeling state. So in that case, you might be feeling and sensing the attraction that they have for you. So when you're with them, you feel that for them because you're mirroring it back. But then when you get on your own, you realize, gosh, I don't think I actually feel that way about them. So this can happen in relationships. It can happen with preferences. Like let's say, for example, you're out to dinner with somebody and they order something that you typically don't like, like let's say, for example, I don't like liver really in any form. But let's say, for example, that someone that I'm with wants to order paté. If I'm not aware of my own subconscious empathy, I might try that liver paté and think, oh my gosh, this is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted.
Speaker 1 (00:14:03) - And then the next time I try it, I'm like, oh my gosh, I literally cannot stand this. And then you kind of wonder what happened. Well, that's an example of subconscious empathy where you're actually mirroring back someone's preferences to them. So let me tell you a little story that happened last week. Like this is fresh in my mind. So last week I guess it was two weeks ago. I was in Madison, Wisconsin visiting family, and then my sister and I took a road trip to Chicago because my niece had a rowing regatta. And while we were there, we were taking we were driving in from Madison to Chicago, and we were using Apple Maps. And on Apple Maps, it sometimes gives you routes that will save you a certain amount of time. Like let's say, for example, it will say save six minutes if you go this direction. Right. Well, one of those came up and so we took it because we were headed to my cousin's house and we were going to go meet them for dinner, in the Little Italy area of Chicago.
Speaker 1 (00:15:05) - And so when we put that in, it took us off of the interstate, and we started to go the back route into Chicago. And that took us through the south side of Chicago. And as we were going through the South Side of Chicago, I was noticing these little, very low to the ground looking structures that were like duplexes. And I what do you call them when they're for? I don't know what they're called when they're for, but, you know, they're for homes altogether, but they're not tall. They're really low to the ground. And they look a little they looked a little rundown in some places and other places in South Chicago. It was beautiful. So this is not a dig on South Chicago. This is I'm talking specifically about the structure that I witnessed. The other thing that I was noticing is my sister and I were having conversations about some things, and I was feeling a sense of scarcity in my body. I was feeling a little activated, honestly, and I was feeling the sense of scarcity.
Speaker 1 (00:16:02) - And I was looking at these houses that we were driving by in South Chicago. And I also had in my mind, I really need to get a reservation made for Portland next week. And I was feeling urgency, like, I gotta make a decision about this so I have a place to stay. And so as we were driving through South Chicago, I was on my phone on the Airbnb app, and I was choosing places, and I was not completely aware of what my energy was doing and what I was doing. And I found a place that looked really cute on the inside. It was like kind of, it looked well, it looked kind of Asian inspired in the sense that it was really designed to maximize a small space. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is going to be cute. And I'll get to see what it's like to live in this small space. It'll be really fun. So I ended my trip in Chicago and Madison, which by the way, was delightful. I got to see my niece and a rowing regatta, got to see my cousins and have dinner with my cousins Kurt and Ken.
Speaker 1 (00:17:06) - Thank you for hosting us, Kurt and Ken in your home. It was so lovely to be with you. And then I finished up my time with my family and flew back to Portland last Tuesday. So the first place that I stayed I had reserved while I was still in Portland before I left to go to Madison. The second place is the place that I reserved while I was driving through South Chicago, and when I pulled into the neighborhood, I felt this whole body activation like tension, digestive upset, anxiety. And I'm like, whoa, what happened? And I realized that I didn't feel very safe in the neighborhood. And I'm looking around and I'm like, oh my gosh, it just feels like I'm in the South Side of Chicago. But I wasn't. I was like in in the western side of, of the Portland area. And so I got checked in to the Airbnb and then I was really rattled because it just didn't feel good to me. And I felt not safe. And I felt like, gosh, I really screwed this up.
Speaker 1 (00:18:16) - What happened? How did I get this so wrong? I got into the place and the place itself looked very cute. It was super clean and pristine, and it had really maximized the small space with some clever design items. So I got a few things in and got Bentley in to the Airbnb. And then I went back out to the car to get the rest of our stuff. I looked at my phone on the desk and I had a thought and I should have listened, but I didn't. I had a thought to grab my phone, but I was like, I'll just leave it in here because it's so hot outside. Went outside, the door shut behind me and the door locked behind me. It was like an auto lock magnetic door. Oh my goodness. Bentley is locked into this Airbnb. Without me, I'm without my phone. I don't have the code. It was like blind panic for just a moment. Like, seriously? So I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? I don't have a phone.
Speaker 1 (00:19:10) - I can't even call for help. What am I going to do? All I have is my car keys. I guess I can drive somewhere. But then I realized, okay, calm down Brenda, calm down. So I went and knocked on a neighbor's door and asked for help and eventually everything turned out. Got back into the Airbnb, got settled. Everything ended up just fine. But then that evening I was just sitting with it and I was like, how did this happen? How did this happen? That I picked a neighborhood where the door needs to auto lock behind me as soon as I close the door. How did that happen? And it's subconscious empathy because the place that I ended up staying those last couple days in Portland looked identical to places that we drove by in Chicago. The feeling of the neighborhood was exactly the same. And it was a real lesson to me that, oh my gosh, I need to make sure that I'm squeaky clean on my energy before I'm reserving any more of these Airbnbs, because that was a really tough learning experience to realize, oh my goodness, I just created this reality that I was driving by and I was feeling scarce in my body because of the conversation that was happening, and then poof, I pulled this into my reality.
Speaker 1 (00:20:25) - So that's one way that that the subconscious or that's one way that you might know you're an empath is if you've ever found yourself doing things that reflect exactly other things, other places. The second sign that you might be an empath is exhaustion. Now how this comes up for people. How this comes up for people is if you feel drained after working with clients or students in a way that you felt fine. How this comes up for people often is you might find yourself feeling drained. How this comes up for people is they go to work, they're feeling great. They're feeling fine. They do the work, whether it's with clients or students or patients. And you notice that after each interaction, you're feeling more and more depleted. So with this happens for a lot of people who are drawn to these services, serving professions like health care, education, mental health, and even the arts because you're giving so much of yourself. This also comes up for healers and coaches. So if you have ever been drained after working with clients or working with groups, not the normal.
Speaker 1 (00:21:43) - Kind of tired like there's a difference between feeling satisfied and tired. Like oh my gosh, I gave everything. I left nothing, nothing back. I gave it all. I'm really tired, but I'm satisfied. Like that feels one way. Whereas the draining and depletion that an empath feels when they're not correctly, protecting their own energy is really different. That feels like depletion, that feels like exhaustion. And so the way that this came up in my life was I would come home from school every day for decades, and I would have to lay down for 10 to 15 minutes every day. I didn't have the capacity to do anything else. I was so exhausted and so depleted as soon as I learned to manage and run my energy differently in my own body. That stopped. And thankfully, the last several years of my teaching, I was not having to take a nap every day after school, which freed up a lot of time and gave me time to spend with my daughter and doing other things. And so this exhaustion after certain situations or certain people is a sign that you are maybe allowing too much of your energy to be taken or absorbed by others around you.
Speaker 1 (00:23:01) - And we're going to talk more about this when I share the power framework of ways that you can avoid it. The other way that it happens for people is if you're in a one on one conversation with somebody and they leave, they're like lit up and excited and enthusiastic and you feel like you need a nap and you're not even sure you can sit up for the rest of the evening. That's a big sign that you're an empath. The third sign that you might be an empath is when you feel strong emotions that disappear as soon as you take space away from that certain situation or that person. So the way that this might happen is, let's say, well, let me tell you another story. I was in Madison, Wisconsin last week and I was visiting my family. My parents live in a downtown apartment, and my sister lives in a house near the stadium near the the University of Wisconsin Stadium. So I was going back and forth between my sister's house and my parents apartment, and I spent a lot of time one day in my parent's apartment.
Speaker 1 (00:24:04) - Now, my dad has had some pretty significant health challenges for the last year, and there's a lot of emotionality around that. At one point, after I'd spent most of one whole day with my parents in their apartment, I was noticing that I felt like I needed to cry. Like not just like a tear here, but like to sob. I just felt like the only thing that that could possibly happen next is for me to burst into tears Now. I am all for feeling emotions. And so it's not that I'm trying to suppress emotions, but for me to burst into tears is not typical. And that was a big sign to me that, oh, there's something going on here that that I need to look closer at. So I had absorbed the emotions from my parents because things are things are a little bit hard right now for them. And when I took just a little bit of a break, resourced myself and then did some regenerative practices to energize myself and then to create an energetic buffer, I was doing much, much better, and I had much more capacity and resource to be supportive to my parents without taking on their emotional state.
Speaker 1 (00:25:20) - So the key to me was number one. I did something that was out of character for myself because bursting into tears is not typically how I roll. The second indicator that this wasn't mine was it eased when I took a little break. So if you've ever felt like you need to take a walk outside and take a break and then you start to feel a lot better, it's very likely that you're taking on the energy and emotion of someone else, and we'll talk more about what to do that when I talk about the framework, the power framework, which again, I cannot wait to teach you at the Energetic Mastery Retreat in Beaverton. It's going to be a game changing sign. Number four is physical symptoms that appear and disappears suddenly when you move in and out of spaces with people, or when people come and go from your space and you find that the symptoms either pop up when they are there or leave when they're not. So this is a specific kind of empath. Not everybody has physical empath abilities. Sometimes it's just emotional, but sometimes it's both, right? So for me, there were decades that if you asked me to go to the mall, I would decline because I told you I would have told you.
Speaker 1 (00:26:32) - And I did tell everybody who asked. Malls make me sick. I got a really crippling headache and nausea every time I went into a mall, and I didn't understand why I thought that it was about maybe the chemicals that were used on the clothing or something like that, but it that wasn't it. That's what I told myself. What really was is that I had no energetic buffer between me and all of the energy around me, and so I would pick up the physical sensations of other people, and it would manifest in my body as headaches and nausea. And then if I went around, if I got really close to someone specific, I might develop a limp. I'm not even making this up. I know it sounds absolutely just bizarre, but it's it's true. I could develop a limp and pain in one foot or one leg when I was by someone who had pain in their foot or leg, and then as they walked away or I walked away, the pain would ease. So this is another sign that you might have empathic abilities and, maybe, I mean, people literally are not talking about this.
Speaker 1 (00:27:40) - And so I'm going to talk about it. This is more common among empaths than you might suspect. So this can come up for the headaches and nausea that I talked about. It can also come up as masking symptoms or not masking, but actually having the symptoms of physical distress in another person that might be backaches or kidney pain or bladder pain. So if you notice when you're around a particular person that you always feel a certain way, it's probably that you are taking on the physical symptoms that they are experiencing in their bodies. And we'll talk about how you can manage that. The fifth way is unexplained illness. Now I call this a somatic load, meaning you've taken on too much in your body. This manifests for most people as digestive upset. And so this might be actual like nausea where you have to throw up or diarrhea where you get really irritable. You're short tempered. When you have a somatic load, you might have trouble sleeping, you might have muscle tension, muscle aches, pains, and strange places.
Speaker 1 (00:28:47) - You might have a feeling of overwhelm, stress, or anxiety that you just can't shake. And these are all kind of unexplained. And so if you were to go to a doctor and you would say this, this list of symptoms, the doctor might test you for something really, really scary. But if you were to just release the somatic load, you'd start to feel better immediately. And I've seen this with many of my clients, and I've also witnessed it in my own body. So there was a year where I developed psoriasis on both of my shins. Now, I don't know if you know what psoriasis is. I didn't it's like this skin irritation. It's really itchy. It's kind of painful. on your skin. I didn't develop it anywhere else in my body, just my shins. And I had it for one entire teaching year. In fact, it was my first year of teaching. Now, at this time, I was not aware of empaths or intuitive or energy healing. I wasn't aware of any of it.
Speaker 1 (00:29:47) - It was all foreign to me. I probably had never even heard of it. I didn't have any awareness that I could take on something that wasn't mine. But I do know that I had psoriasis for one year, and when I moved out of that school, I no longer had psoriasis. And I have several other examples from my teaching career where I would have these very specific, rather peculiar symptoms or illnesses that would pop up, and then they would they would leave again. And so when we have these thematic loads, it's a way for us. It's a way our body is trying to say, this is too much. I need more space, I need more time, I need more rest. And when you give your body that space time and rest, oftentimes those unexplained illnesses will go away. Now, it's really important for me to say I believe in Western medicine. I go to the doctor and I want you to also do your due diligence and make your best decisions regarding medical care. I would never advise you to only try to release a somatic load instead of taking medicine or treatment from a doctor.
Speaker 1 (00:30:59) - We want to do both, right? It's both. And in my world, we can be aware of the somatic load. We can be aware of the empathic abilities, we can be aware of all of these things. And also we can get support from Western medicine to make sure that we're not missing anything. So that leads us to number six, which is poor decisions that make you wonder what was I thinking? So oftentimes if we find ourselves making poor decisions that make us wonder what we're thinking, it's related to picking up preferences from other people. This is another flavor of that subconscious empathy or mirroring. So I made a friend when my daughter was about a junior in high school, maybe sophomore sophomore in high school, and this was a friend who was the parent of another kid that was in the cross country team with my daughter. And this parent and I were, you know, we had this new friendship, and we were trying to decide what kinds of activities would be really fun. And she wanted to go shopping.
Speaker 1 (00:32:06) - And so I thought, great, this is a great idea, let's go shopping. So I went shopping with her and we did have so much fun. We went for lunch, we went shoe shopping and clothes shopping, and while we were shopping, she found this pair of orange wedge platform sandals for me. Now, if you know my style, I do like to dress up. I do like a wedge. I don't like a platform. Like, I just. I don't like a platform. I like them on other people, but I don't like to wear them myself. But that day, I came home with a brand new pair of orange platform wedge sandals, which were not inexpensive, by the way, and they sat in my closet and I could not find anything to wear them with, ever. In fact, I ended up just selling that pair of sandals. But at the time, again, this predated my total awareness into the the amount of subconscious empathy that I am prone to. At the time I thought, what happened? And then the more I've studied empathy and what it means to be an empath, I'm realizing that I was picking things based on what made her happy, because it felt good in my system to make her happy.
Speaker 1 (00:33:28) - And so this is a real thing for empaths, where we do things because it makes other people happy. It feels good to our system, to our body when we make other people happy. And what this means for you is you might end up making decisions that aren't aligned for you. You might make decisions that are actually people pleasing kinds of decisions simply because it feels so good in your body at the time. But then as soon as you take space or time away from that person, you start to question the decision because you realize you made the decision for the wrong reason. You made the decision out of a place that wasn't aligned for you. And this is one of the most common things I hear about with empaths is, is making decisions that don't feel aligned. So if you have ever decided that you wanted to really do a new habit because you're claiming a new identity, whether it's like working out every day or eating in a different way, or spending your money in a different way, or saving more money, and then you find yourself around people and you're like, noticing that you just can't finish.
Speaker 1 (00:34:39) - You just can't pull the trigger. You just can't execute. It might be that there's something in their system that makes that feel unsafe for you, because you recognize that their system doesn't want you to do that. So setting boundaries is so, so, so important for an empath. But we have to really honor the system. We have to honor your system and what it feels like to be an empath, so that you can make these decisions in a way that they are aligned to you, they are sovereign to you, and they still honor your relationship and your love for another person. But you're not people pleasing. And that's where I came up with the power framework. So the power framework stands for presence is for the P. That is your field, your energy size. and you, I'll teach you how and why to expand and compress your energy and tell you why you might want to do both. And it has to do with the proximity of people that are around you, the amount of space you're in and the emotionality that's present.
Speaker 1 (00:35:46) - The O stands for optimize. You can optimize your space for energy richness, and you can discover. In fact, you will discover when I teach this power framework to you at the Energetic Mastery Retreat, how setting up your your environment impact your abundance, your health, your relationships, you will actually see a visible impact on your bank account, on your relationship health, and on your health. When you shift your environments in a way that really support you. The W stands for wisdom. The wisdom is the way that you can recognize when your energy needs more resourcing, so that you can harness your energy through generative practices, you're going to learn and take home energy expansion techniques, and also learn how to stop taking on energy and emotion that aren't yours. And with the wisdom piece, you'll learn how to identify when that's happening. Because here's the thing depending on how strong your empathic abilities are, this is not a one and done fix. This is not like you can check a box and there you're never going to take on energy from anybody again, as evidenced by me with just the thing with the Airbnb last week, this is something that is going to require continual awareness.
Speaker 1 (00:37:04) - So the more aware you are and the more tools you have in your toolkit to identify and then regenerate your energy, the better you're going to feel and the more sovereign you can live. The E stands for evaluate. Now when we evaluate these energy issues, we're going to be really looking at what is an energetic problem in your space and your life, and how do we best make the adjustment. Is it that you need more space? Is it that you need more resourcing? Is it that that you need scripts for boundaries? How can we create this space for you? And then the R stands for renew. And this is one of my favorites because this dives into what I love the most, which is nervous system healing. When we heal the nervous system, all of a sudden stepping into your own power, claiming your empowerment feels so much easier. In fact, it might feel safe for the first time ever. And through this renewal process where we really heal the the nervous system, you're going to discover the energetic buffer, which not only means you take on less from people, but you get to keep more of your own energy.
Speaker 1 (00:38:15) - So you get to really take on the world with renewed confidence and energy. And then because of the nature of this work, you also are going to enjoy some really, really profound healing like inner child healing. And when we talk about inner child healing, we're talking about experiences that happen to you, which maybe you remember, maybe you don't. And they happen in childhood, and most often they're done by very well-meaning caretakers. It can be something as simple as. It can be something as simple as when you were a little kid, you asked a parental impactor for attention, and they told you they couldn't help you right now because they were cooking and it hit your system as a rejection that can actually leave this little part of you. Let's say it's seven year old that feels abandonment and rejected. And if we don't meet the needs of that seven year old through a healing process with somatic healing and inner child healing, sometimes we use the term ifs internal family systems healing. If we don't meet the needs of that of that child, that child part stays stuck in time.
Speaker 1 (00:39:26) - And when that happens, when we have a trigger that feels familiar, our inner child comes online and begins to make decisions for our adult lives. So I'll give you an example. I often work with an inner eight year old for for myself, and my inner eight year old wants safety. My inner eight year old wants for there not to be any arguing. She wants there to be peace and she wants there to be abundance. If there's any conflict, my inner eight year old comes online and because I've worked with her a lot, I can most often. Not always, but most often recognize when that inner eight year old is asking for control, because I'll find myself doing things that are very out of character for for how I am now. So if you've ever found yourself doing something and you're like, I literally don't know why I'm doing this, but I can't stop doing this, there's very likely an inner child part that needs to be healed. So in my case, this child wants to be safe and once there to be peace.
Speaker 1 (00:40:33) - And so this child goes into a frenetic running pattern where there has to be like movement and action and running around. And if I don't stop and address it, I'll find myself making misaligned decisions, because my inner eight year olds making choices and my inner eight year old doesn't have the whole picture, because my 51 year old self has a lot more life experience than my inner eight year old. So when we heal these child parts of ourselves, a lot of times not only do we feel better, not only are we ending patterns that maybe we've been with for a lifetime, but we start to actually move the needle on parts of our lives that we want to move. You know, inner child healing ifs, rooted somatic healing is what I practice. And that is also what I experienced when I was going through my somatic coaching certification. And I can tell you that between the breathwork and the semantic coaching, that is why I actually am able to do the things that I'm doing now, because they would have felt way too scary if my inner children were running the show.
Speaker 1 (00:41:40) - I simply couldn't have done it. My nervous system wouldn't have allowed me. It would have felt life threatening. But because of the healing that I have been able to enjoy through these processes, I have the nervous system capacity to deal with being a little bit uncomfortable sometimes, which is why I can travel full time. It's why I was able to leave the security of teaching. In fact, my anniversary from leaving teaching comes up next month in August of 2024. It will be two years that I've run this business full time, which is kind of mind blowing. Honestly, I can still hardly believe it. But, all of that's to say, the impact of inner child somatic healing is so profound. And as an empath, you have absorbed more emotions in your system than most people. And so that makes it even more important for you to get this inner child healing. And that's part of what I offer. In fact, at the Energetic Mastery Retreat in September 24th to 28th in Beaverton, Oregon. You are going to get empowered to elevate your empathic abilities to a new level of mastery, enabling you to harness and manage your innate power so you can increase your income and your impact, and you can amplify your agency and your sovereignty so you can create the life you want without the guilt.
Speaker 1 (00:43:08) - And you'll be able to use your empathic abilities to really fuel you by supporting you in more deeply connecting to yourself, to others, and to source. Meaning you're going to feel so much alignment and sovereignty. Your relationships will improve and feel so much richer, and your empathy will become a superpower. And the key to the changes you want to make in your life. So here's what's included at the Energetic Mastery Retreat. You'll. Your lodging is included. We're staying in a beautiful Airbnb. Everyone gets their own bed that comes up for people. And so I chose this space specifically because I knew you'd want to have your own bed. Some of the rooms are double occupancy, but your lodging is included. You're going to get a 30 minute private session with me. Daily breathwork sessions each of the five days. All workshops and sessions that include hot seats. So you'll also have a hot seat in your time there. A cacao ceremony, lots of time and spaciousness to renew and recharge. All of your meals are included.
Speaker 1 (00:44:12) - That means dinner on the 24th, all meals the 25th or the 27th, and breakfast on the 28th, and even transportation from Portland International Airport, which is known as PDX, at 3:30 p.m. on the 24th of September and back to PDX at 10 a.m. on the 28th. So literally the only thing you have to do is to get yourself to Portland and I'll take care of the rest. So I hope that you check it out. You can learn more by going to Brandon winkle.com/energetic. And I'm going to link this in the show notes. This is by application only because I want to make sure that this is actually going to move the needle for you in the ways you really want it to. And if I think that it's not going to move the needle for you, I'll tell you about it. So the application isn't for the purpose of being exclusive, it's for the purpose of making sure that this really is the best way to support and serve you. So go check out the information, and then you can pick a time to have an application call.
Speaker 1 (00:45:15) - And the application calls will last about 30 minutes. And there's no obligation. But it's a great way to find out is this retreat for me? And if you're already like, I'm in, Brenda, I want to come to this retreat. DM me on Instagram at Brenda Winkle, or email me at Brenda at Brenda Winkle. Com and we'll talk more about it. And maybe we can, skip the application process if you and I are already connected or we've already worked together in some capacity, we can skip that process and get you right into the retreat. Now there's only five spots left, and so I encourage you to reach out pretty soon if you think you might like to do this, because it it is very likely to sell out because it's just it's so good. When you leave this retreat, you're going to have a whole new skill set so that you can do the work that you love without feeling drained and depleted. And not only that, but you're going to have more energy to have the alignment to create the impact that you really want to make in the world.
Speaker 1 (00:46:15) - And that's probably going to lead to more income. And you're also going to have the opportunity to really do a deep dive into how connected you are to yourself, to source to other people, so that you can increase how you feel in each of those relationships. Those relationships will feel richer and more aligned. I cannot wait to see you there. I hope you, I hope you come join us at the Energetic Mastery Retreat. I do have some more master classes coming up, where I'll be teaching some of the concepts about the power framework. If you missed last week's masterclass on energetic, let's see, what did I understand? The energy is what I called it. you can still register. I still have that link up. You'll just have to catch the replay. you can get that at by going to Brenda Winkle. Com forward slash understand energy. You can register for the masterclass. You'll watch the replay. And then you can learn a little bit more about this too. And if you have any questions I'm all ears I would love to know.
Speaker 1 (00:47:16) - Do you have a story about being an empath that you would like to share? If you do, DM me on Instagram or email me because I would love to hear it. Here's the thing there are more people just like you out there than you think. You are not a weirdo. You are not the only one who feels this way. There's a lot of people like you with these same empathic abilities, and I want you to know that you are lovable, that you are pretty normal, Even though you might feel weird sometimes, you're actually pretty normal, and that these abilities that you have naturally are what makes you so good at the career that you've chosen. Because your compassion and your empathy are what make you so finally attuned to the people's needs that you serve. And so I want to help you amplify those empathic abilities, and then also help teach you how to preserve some of your own energy. If you have any questions, I am here for you. go check out the Energetic Mastery Retreat at Brenda winkle.com/energetic and I hope to see you right here.
Speaker 1 (00:48:30) - Same time same place next week. Thank you so much for listening. Bye for now.
