Welcome to the Resources for Empaths & Sensitives Series introductory post.
As is the case with much of my writing and mentor-coaching, this series grew out of my own personal experience, as well as what I saw and learned over many years while consulting on the more prickly communication issues (and thus ‘difficult people‘).
So if you’re an empathic sensitive who feels deeply and is wired to pick up on subtle (and not so subtle) thoughts, feelings, and energies — and thus attracts some of the less savory difficult personality types; or if you’re keen on interpersonal communication dynamics for one reason or another, you’ll find this series a handy addition to your repertoire.
Diving In – Unveiling the Toxic Normal.
One of the key facets of waking up is becoming aware of unhealthy or ‘normalized toxic‘ patterns that were ingrained early in life between us and those closest to us.
This is relevant to any of us, but particularly important for those of us who are empathic and highly sensitive individuals, because the pattern-tracking and shifting is key to consciously reclaiming the gifts of the Empathic-Sensitive’s essence and Nature (needed now more than ever!).
Since these patterns are part of our earliest conditioning, they become normal even though they may be dysfunctional, and so they play out again and again throughout our lives … until we shine the spotlight on them and transform them.
When we’re able to recognize these patterns for what they are, name them, and see how the dynamics work and how we’ve unwittingly participated out of conditioned or habitual response, we begin a path of liberation and more conscious choices.
This unveiling and reclamation is vital now for empathic and sensitive individuals, and those waking into their Feminine nature and Wisdom path.
It’s not about wallowing in victim-identity or pointing the finger of blame, but rather to disentangle and liberate — and draw back our energy — from those very dynamics that suck down power and energy like it’s lemonade on a hot Summer day.
It’s simple, even while it may challenge us to our very core:
In order to reclaim our very essence and nature, and develop and share those gifts in this time of transformation, we very often have to plod through the false conditioning and patterns of outright rejection … not to mention generations (and thus ancestral-cellular memory) of outright violent suppression of the empathic, oracular, intuitive, creative mystica-Feminina (right brain, heart-and-body-wisdom centered) ways of being and knowing.
For me, this ‘unveiling’ of toxic patterns, disentangling from them, and reclaiming this Hero’s Journey Grail gift, unfolded in the several years leading up to my Chiron Return (which Chiron in Pisces folks have or will be experiencing now).
Over the same period of time, I was significantly expanding and deepening my energy medicine and ‘shamanic’ or ancestral-wisdom training; and definitely tapped what I’d learned during two decades of communication consulting (focusing on particularly prickly issues and personality types!). Both of these no doubt helped to facilitate this process. Even so, it challenged me to the bones.
And during the Chiron Return time itself (which was extended over two years thanks to two retrograde periods!), that unveiling spiraled back to the very core or taproot of these patterns that got planted very early in my life. Intense and challenge? You bet. Liberating? Yes.
In the Chiron mythology and archetype, this would be known as the original wound that must be uncovered so that the patterns set into place then — and the gifts that were abandoned as a result, albeit unwittingly — can be identified and lost authenticity, energy, and power can be called back or reclaimed.
For those of us who are naturally wired as empathic individuals, and are sensitive to subtle energies and others’ thoughts and feelings — a.k.a. The Unseen as well as the Seen — conditioned patterns that became toxic normal often include experiencing psycho-energetic dynamics including:
• scapegoating,
• offloading,
• energy or psychic vamping,
• leveling,
… and other things I’ve since come to see as ‘occupational hazards’ for empaths and sensitives, at least in the dominant culture.
In this Resources for Empaths & Sensitives series of posts, I’ll summarize each of these core toxic-normal patterns that I came to recognize during my own experience, as well as what I learned along the way from my work with clients and the journeys of fellow empathic-sensitives and Via Feminina initiates.
The next post in the series includes additional insight as well as a summary of the toxic-normal pattern of offloading (see if you recognize this one!). You’ll find it here.
I’ll also highlight several key self-care issues, because as difficult as it is to drop the Rose-Colored Glasses Story many of us empathic sensitives adopted as a survival mechanism early on, it’s truly beneficial to recognize these patterns at work, make different choices in the moment, and learn how to deal with or navigate these very dynamics when they come up.
The requisite disclaimer:
As you’ll see, the information I share in this series, as with other Sophia’s Children posts and my client work as well, comes directly from my own experience, the energy/intuitive medicine and ancestral-wisdom-traditions training I’ve been fortunate to undertake, and lots of related research; as well as what I’ve learned through my client work over the years. This series isn’t nor is it meant to be any sort of psychotherapy-based prescriptive, though we do learn a lot about these things along the way.
You’ll find the current roster of posts for this Sophia’s Children ‘Resources for Empaths & Sensitives’ Series here.
Big Love, and Be Well.
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