HIGHLY SENSITIVE PERSONALITY

Personality - woman thinking

Highly Sensitive Persons (HSP) are born with a nervous system that is more sensitive than the average and a brain that processes everything on a deeper level than other people. They notice much more than others. Therefore, they often get overwhelmed or stressed and sometimes accused of being too sensitive or overdramatic.

In this month's newsletter we talk to Malin Johansson, Life Alignment Practitioner and Stress-Coach from Sweden, who found out in adulthood that she was highly sensitive.

Maggie: What does it really mean to be highly sensitive, Malin?

For me it is both a great gift and a challenge. Before I found out that I am highly sensitive, I often did more than I had energy for, because everyone else could do so much too. I sometimes thought there must be something wrong with me. For example it is not easy for me to shield myself from noises or the emotional atmosphere in a room. For other HSP it might be visual impressions or a struggle to adjust to surprising events.
Finding out that I am a HSP was such a relief and I was finally able to stop pushing myself and start listening to my needs. What it really means is that HSP are born with a nervous system that is more sensitive than the average population, which makes us more receptive to emotional and physical impressions. This and the deep processing of impressions is the most basic quality of HSP.

For some people maybe astonishing is the fact that approximately 20% of the population is highly sensitive, equally divided between men and women. This also applies to most animal species. Enough to be considered normal but not enough for the environment to always understand. Many HSP are thus misunderstood and misjudged, which can make them feel “strange” or “abnormal”. 

Maggie: Deeply processing impressions, this sounds more like a gift than a strange limitation?

In fact, hypersensitivity is a kind of evolutionary strategy for survival – HSP evaluate any risks before taking action and tend to conserve their energy, unlike the majority of people who act quickly because they want to catch up first and then think. If HSP are in balance then they are empathetic, compassionate, intuitive, creative, and profound. For example I can really be delighted and enjoy a piece of dark chocolate or the scent of a flower, so I am rather easy to please with things that others may not even notice. Being highly sensitive is indeed a personality trait that is a great asset if you learn to handle it. It is neither a disability nor an obstacle to a normal life. However, in this extroverted world it often takes time until a HSP understands how to live life on their own terms and to take better care of themselves. Therefore many may appear withdrawn or shy. But shyness is a learned behaviour, which is about fear of negative judgments, and not an innate trait.

When I started to unwire my “learned patterns” I got introduced to Life Alignment. In my case, I was never shy as I am an extrovert HSP. Life Alignment helped me to unpack the gift of my unique way of high sensitivity, for example uitising my empathy in a healthy way. 

Maggie: I am not a HSP. Life Alignment rather supports me to get more sensitive with myself and the world. It's interesting for me to see how it works both ways.

Being highly sensitive and not accepting this can lead to adapting to the rest of the world to an extent of non-existence and exhaustion. When out of balance a HSP might feel lonely, anxious and skinless. In this stage they are mostly not empathic at all and can be aggressive and even insensitive. Those patterns are not really helpful and can have different consequences. Life Alignment is not used to change high sensitivity but to deal with it in a better way and change your old patterns to protect yourself.

I just had to believe myself
Willow Rising

Life Alignment is a soft, intuitive and very effective approach to look at sensitivity and the feelings and blockages which manifested when we have learned to be “too sensitive”. It helped me to listen to myself and that’s one of the most important things when you are highly sensitive. The Life Alignment process guides you to be aligned with yourself and your talents. Throughout my life I tried a lot of therapies and healing approaches. A lot of these treatments have been simply too much for my nervous system. Too loud, too intense, too busy, too direct, too standardised. Life Alignment instead calms the overworking nervous system and directs you in your personal pace and deepness through your journey of self-discovery.

Maggie: I must admit the more we speak about HSP the more people coming to mind where this personality description fits in.

This is for a lot of people like this. Sometimes clients come and say “Hi, help me I am a HSP ” but more often it’s about how they feel. I have a client who came to me saying initially “I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I just want to be happy again”. We first started to explore what she actually felt and on how to acknowledge those feelings. This is so important for HSP and Life Alignment is the most amazing tool to get in touch with your desires. When she was connected to her needs, the next step was verbalising this to other people. That needed a lot of courage and a lot of sessions :). She now is able to say NO to people and she made the experience that this is appreciated by others. She even made the Body Spin Course of Life Alignment herself. This is something I highly recommend to HSP clients especially. It’s a relatively quick process to learn and provides great tools to give yourself “emergency-treatments” when you need to re-boost your energy-level. We have it in all countries and nearly all languages.

Maggie: Do you have some tips for HSP and for their loved ones?

Yes, there are very easy ways for all involved to make High Sensitivity a blessing and not a curse.

  • Put on “mono-tasking”
  • Always plan time in between events. Use breaks for new strength and energy.
  • If you feel overwhelmed, you can always go out of the room or even to the bathroom for a break. Shut your eyes and breathe deeply
  • Practice to say no and to have boundaries – you DON´T have to explain yourself. It’s ok to simply say “it doesn’t work for me”
  • Learn to meditate
  • Get to know other HSP, you are not alone
  • For the non HSP: You may not understand but please accept and believe what the HSP person says. It’s for real! A flap in the shirt or a humming fan can make the nervous system scream.

These are basic practices. Life Alignment will help you to make those yours.

I can give you an example on how I adjusted my lifestyle since acknowledging that I am highly sensitive: Travelling is really challenging for me. You get so many impressions, sounds, sight, adapting to different environments. The journey alone makes me feel like I need vacation. When I go with my friends for a weekend away, I just give myself time to rest while the girls go straight after the Check-in out for shopping and then eating and clubbing. I set boundaries for myself and meet them later at the restaurant with enough energy to enjoy. When I stopped doing everything others do, I’ve seen I am capable and can have a good time with my friends. When you accept yourself then others accept you as well.

A quick Body Spin session on myself to recharge and center myself also works miracles. The Vortex technology is brilliant for HSP people who are more sensitive to other people’s energy and electromagnetic/ geopathic stress. I always wear the “Personal Protector Card” and then depending on what I need I choose from the variety of the cards.

Maggie: Thank you Malin, it became indeed much clearer for me what a great gift it is to be highly sensitive, having such a rich world inside oneselves. I am looking forward to looking out for these traits in people to see what I can implement and take into account when being involved.

THE SCIENCE OF MANY REALITIES HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME

The current pandemic is dramatically changing the way our world works. Many of us are facing challenges that can overwhelming and cause strong emotions. This invasive change affects not only the way we communicate and consume but also the way we feel about our approach to life. Life Alignment is using the potential of the energy of these turbulent times to move to the next level of global transformation. Right now it is time for us to activate our power and together create the world we desire.

Quantum physics works with the idea that we have the capacity to live in parallel universes with different realities occurring at the same time. We face a challenge as to how, in moments of deep stress, remember that there are many levels of reality and that we have the choice to move between the levels.

Merle Levin has shared some of her experience with Covid and hopes that by sharing it, she will be of help to others going through a similar process.
One Reality: Plans

My husband Jeff has an upcoming, 77th milestone event. Our plan was to rent a lovely farm and celebrate our Grampa, Dad and hubby of 53 years, who has been a rock of inspiration and wisdom, not only to our family, but to a global family of “Life Alignment” students in the field of natural health and energy medicine. The birthday boy felt healthy, athletic, fit, in love with life at the top of his game. This tangible, first level of reality, felt perfect in every way, shape and form.

Another Reality: The Medicine in the Poison

Even from the vantage of paradise, there is a full view of the state of a world in chaos and uncertainty. The Buddhists say we breathe with one breath, that we are in a connected oneness with everything. I knew this intellectually. Now I know it in the pit of my gut. We breathe with one breath.

Covid crept into our isolated sanctuary like a tiny terrorist and Jeff and I both became infected. It was a bit of a shock. Suddenly the news of Covid variants and spikes have taken on a new flavour; we are members of the club of Statistic.

I recovered from Covid with mild symptoms. Jeff has developed Covid Pneumonia. He is in the local hospital, on oxygen, fighting a battle of breath.

Suddenly I feel connected to the wider world at a new level. Suddenly I am in the war and we are breathing together with millions of struggling others. As I find a way to navigate my way through this, I trust that I am in some way assisting others as well.

I am trying to find the medicine in the poison. Some years ago, I asked Ouma Anna, an elderly San Bushman woman an important question as she dug for healing plants in the Kalahari Desert.

“Why are there poisonous plants?”

“Hai!” she replied. “Poison is medicine to keep you awake.”

I feel I am being called to find some kind of medicine in the poison. I know that I am not alone. I know I have a tangible field of support around me. This is what the physicists call the Quantum Field; what the Indigenous people call Ancestors; which others might call Angels or Guides. I know I can call upon this force for help and I do. And when I do, I get an inner guidance to try to turn from fear towards gratitude.

Grateful Reality: The Realm of Support

I have to search into the crevices of my panic over Jeff’s condition to find the gratitude. Breathing helps; connecting to my teachers helps; meditation helps; praying helps. I spent one entire night walking around my dining room table, trying to settle the extreme angst I was feeling. Walking helped. It became a walking meditation.

Then it arrived, the gratitude, like an invited guest. My hardened, shocked heart softened and I was able to sob at last with tears of the soul. Tears of gratitude for the tremendous level of support flowing towards us by so many around the world.

Jeff’s global “Life Alignment” family of students and teachers are rising to the occasion with such courage and deep synchronised work together. Different communities we have been connected with over the years are praying and sending light to Jeff. Messages are pouring into WhatsApp.

What a miracle this internet connection is! It reinforces the message that we are truly one body, breathing together with one breath.

The well of gratefulness has no bottom and no top. The water keeps welling up – for all of it, and for life itself.

Challenge Reality: Pushing through Fear.

On one of the days when I felt extremely low energy, I flicked on the TV to see what the Tokyo Olympics menu had on offer. I was hoping for gymnastics or synchronised swimming, BMX or horse jumping – something artistic and uplifting…uplifting? “How about high jump?” I asked myself, a sport I had never really watched or been interested in.

So,I settled into the couch with a blanket over my legs and settled in for an afternoon of watching 12 spaghetti-like, tight-tummied, hawked-eyed women, eye a beam that had been set at 1.09 meters above ground.
I readied myself for an afternoon of eagle-eyed boredom. As the bar was raised, some of the lithe ladies were forced out of the competition, a cruel but crucial part of the process of competition. I was not sure what the formula for success was, they were all equally talented athletes. The commentary seemed to focus on their level of mental ability, to stay above fear. This is what felt so inspiring to me. That after all the training to the body, it still comes down to how the whole system works together. With each high jump attempt I found myself meeting my own fear. I began to feel a softness for myself, for my own vulnerability.

I was fascinated at how the camera lens could hone into their eyes before each athlete took to a run before the jump. The zoom was such high resolution I could watch their pupils shift and change as they honed in with their entire body, mind and spirit on that bar in the distance. Pure focus; looking fear straight on; letting every cell and muscle and fibre of their being focus on one thing: “To meet this glorious challenge with all my might.”

F.E.A.R – Face Everything And Rise.
Which bar can you set higher – physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually?

Because in truth, the bar is rising. Time is tight for us all, and this Covid challenge is one of the cornucopia of challenges facing us as humans. A toned athlete, with discipline and dedication, shows me how I in my small corner of a living room at the tip of Africa can do it:
Find your team. Ask for help – draw on their support. Meet the challenge with a glint in your eye and let your spirit lift you over that bar. Sometimes it’s light, other times it’s heavy and the bar crashes down around you. Then, take up a pen or whatever artistic tool works for you, and let your heart and soul guide you through the process.

Covid right now is an Olympic event and each challenge is a lifting of the bar. The athletes were focused on the gold medal, for me the focus is somewhat different. For me, in this place, at this time, it seems to be about my visible and invisible team of support and how I can learn to draw on it in new and creative ways.

Jeff assures me, difficult though it is, that he is deeply thankful for this journey. He is connecting deeply to his field of spiritual support. His body is struggling while his spirit is soaring. It is as if his chariot has the wheels falling off but the driver sits strongly in his seat. I am inspired by his strength.

Thank you Merle for your wonderful insights. It is inspiring to remember that each and every situation in our life is there for us to activate more power of creation. When I read your full articles on your blog, I was touched to tears. You are an inspiring, strong and transforming woman.

Intuition

We all know that feeling in your gut when you instinctively know that something you are doing is right or wrong. Or that moment when you sense kindness, or fear, in another’s face. You don’t know why you feel that way; it’s just a hunch. But what is it?
We will look at this question in this month’s interview with Dr. Jeff Levin (DNM). Jeff developed the techniques and methodology of the Life Alignment system over years and “downloaded” the relevant knowledge intuitively.

 

Maggie: Jeff, what is intuition for you?

 
Jeff: You like to begin with big questions, right? 🙂
I see intuition mostly as connectedness. So the ability to connect to a source of information and inspiration. This can have many ways and mechanisms and work differently for everyone. For example you can have the well-known “gut feeling”, which is a connectedness you feel through the solar plexus chakra. Then there is that guiding feeling of the heart’s desire which you sense through the heart chakra. There is also intuition felt through the brow chakra and the crown chakra where you receive pure information from divine, universal intelligence. Ultimately intuition is just a knowing through the body, not something out there. It’s a recognition, a remembering, a hearing which everyone experiences in a different way. But what’s the same for everyone, is that you have to get beyond your rational mind in order to experience the power of your own intuition. 
I love to refer to Albert Einstein’s quote in this context: 

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift” 

So we were gifted with intuition as the master and the mind as the servant. However, we’ve made the mind the master and the intuition the servant. We’ve just got it the wrong way around. 

Maggie: Why is that the wrong way around? It's not that we haven't got far with this “misunderstanding”. What is the disadvantage with mainly using the mind?

Jeff: When information is coming through the channel of the mind it’s a very strong filter that sieves the facts based on your individual knowledge and experience. It has to go beyond this, the mind has to get out of the way for that pure, neutral intelligence to come through. 

Let me give you an example: There is intuition that happens spontaneously when you train the mind to step aside. You don’t even know where it comes from, you are not aware of it at that moment. That happened to me many times. You can not try to intune it, because then the mind is already active and in the way. You allow your body to act to its instincts in an instantaneous response.
So when we first arrived in Cape Town I was living in Fresnaye. We bought a small studio-flat for the few months in a year we would stay in South Africa. It was a massive building with about 170 different flats. One morning on my way to a workshop – already running late – I rushed down to my car and another car parked there blocking me. I didn’t know how on earth I would get out of that. But my body all of a sudden ran upstairs to the second floor, down the corridor and knocked on a random door and the occupant opened with a shocked expression in his face, asking “Oh my word, am I blocking you, do you want me to move?”. So I had no idea where I was going. I could not have intuited that. Had I tried to develop it with my mind like “let’s intuit now to solve the situation …where do I go?” it would have never worked out. I just acted on the spur of the moment and afterwards I realised how have I known this? If nothing is blocking you, intuition can come as a spontaneous action – you are literally led. A big part of intuition is an inner guidance and a total surrender to something that is coming which is beyond your mind.

Maggie: That sounds amazing and easier said than done! You mentioned “training the mind to step aside”. Does this mean we can train intuition like we can train a muscle?

Jeff: Yes absolutely!
Meditation is very important to still the mind and let intuition come through louder. Through meditation you train to access that higher part of yourself and we witness weekly how beautifully it works during the guided meditation in the open Zoom-Chat with Jeff. You surrender your mind and that works even better in groups.

On an even deeper level Life Alignment is a modality which is created to guide and transform you beyond your mind to your heart’s purpose.

There are many ways to train intuition, but let’s put it this way. There are people that spend their lives praying to God asking to help their trouble and nothing ever happens, because they stay in a victim state and not taking responsibility for themselves. The universe doesn’t step in when the person doesn’t step in themselves. When you take responsibility in whatever form you do that to come into your center and to be present and this not just for yourself but for the whole, the universe pours tons of support, energy, intuition and knowledge over you. If we show up to discover our souls true purpose, beyond our ego, and be of service to humanity then the magic of the universe switches on. Showing up is enough. 

“There s no intuition if there is no trust. When you show up the universe pours tons of support over you” 

You may not trust this in the beginning, but as long as you go with whatever comes up, tenderable evidence will show up in order to manifest your faith. You can only develop trust if you know the cause and effect. It’s not an intellectual concept. Trust comes because of a big “Ah Ha effect”.

 
Maggie: I like that you speak of proof when it comes to trust. That it is enough to show up and have basic faith, however that we don't have to trust blindly but can count on evidence. Does this mean if we trust enough we can jump out of an airplane without a parashooter? :-)

Jeff: It is very important to be aware if the look out for evidence comes from an ego place. Evidence has got to do with the right moment and comes often when you least expect it. It has got to do with grace. The universe decearns and says “trust me first and then I give you evidence”. That’s the principle of trust. It doesn’t give you what your ego needs, but it responds to the current of trust that is already existing. Many people have given many signs but the mind hasn’t been able to see it.

Maggie: That makes sense, thank you for clarifying Jeff. You mentioned that Life Alignment sessions help to come into contact with our intuition. Can you tell us more? When is the moment we access space beyond the mind?

Jeff: When you go to receive a Life Alignment session your mind often takes you there. For example “I have back pain” or “I am stuck in my career”. However you allow yourself to be surprised and not attached to the intention, as very often the priority which comes up in the sessions seems to be completely unrelated. As you trust the emotions and body points which come up for you they reveal something to you that your mind would have never conceived. Receiving and giving Life Alignment sessions is your most powerful practice, because in that state of being you are detached to your mind/ ego. The Life Alignment team comes to support and we are literally directed to be neutral and connected. You are guided to a space which is aligned with all aspects of your unique purpose and therefore intuition opens up to you. This blissful space is the zone beyond your mind and from this place we achieve a better connection to our truth. As a result we have a more harmonious connection to the outside world, the nature and the circumstances we are surrounded with. At the same time we nurture the relationship to our Higher Intelligence and our supporting team, which surrounds and guides us all the time. The universe always supports us, but we are not always mindful of that. 

“Life Alignment is a spiritual practice which is designed to open the channel and build the muscle of your own intuition”
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Maggie: Is it not unfamiliar to nurture a relationship to something we cannot see and touch? How can we develop and strengthen our relationship to our Higher Self and Life Alignment team? How do I maintain that beautiful space I am in during a Life Alignment balance”?

Jeff: For me, I have them constantly in my mind and in my heart. And there are times when I communicate with them when necessary. The more you interact with your team through thinking, feeling, speaking the more your channel of perception develops. As a result you connect quicker and clearer to the guidance which is always in your highest interest and connected to unconditional love of the source. It’s a consistent presence where you gain an ability to stay connected.

Maggie: If I go to a Life Alignment session for self-development, why does universal guidance kick in to support. How is this "of benefit for the whole"?

Jeff: The reason why we have a team of guides to support us is to become a better version of ourselves for the better version of the whole. The closer we merge to our truth the closer the planet merges to truth. In other words, the guidance which works through the practitioner uses the opportunity of the client’s issue and transmits the transformation into the collective consciousness. Every time we work on something it has a ripple effect. This is the big thing about Life Alignment. Because in our work we are guided, we are healing not only horizontally with the collective consciousness, but also vertically. On a human level and a soul level. Physical and non physical. 

Maggie: Thank you Jeff, that was very insightful and yet practical. I can say from my own experience that there is a life before and after Life Alignment. It is very difficult to despair when you always know that there is a tool you can use to get connected, neutral, empowered and inspired. I trust in this lifestyle. There is of course still duality in me. But I see how little by little the trust in my inner voice during a session merges with the trust in myself and my intuition during the day.